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As I write this, the 14 funds in our CEF Insider portfolio yield a tidy 6.7%, on average. And while that’s down from the 7.5% average (and above) we’ve seen in the past, there’s a good reason: big price gains! (Because prices and yields move in opposite directions, of course.)

And recently, we’ve locked in some of those big returns with timely sales. In our June 2021 CEF Insider issue, for example, we sold the PGIM High Yield Bond Fund (ISD), which we bought in late 2019 (a lifetime ago!) when it was trading at a 10.3% discount to net asset value (NAV).… Read more

Collecting dividends is fun. Doubling our money is even better.

From time to time, Mr. and Ms. Market will present us with a deal that includes payouts plus price upside. I’m talking about 50% to 100% returns from secure dividend payers.

These “dividend doubles” require a catalyst. Some event that, if it unfolds, would launch profits—and the firm’s stock price!

Higher interest rates are a compelling “catalyst bet” today. The 10-year Treasury yield tripled between August and April. We noted a few months back that the rate move was due for a breather, and that’s exactly what has unfolded with the benchmark rate briefly edging below 1.3% last week:

Time to “Buy the Dip” in Interest Rates?… Read more

Let’s give ourselves a double shot of dividend and share-price growth by diving into a group of stocks I guarantee your friends are missing out on.

I’m talking about financial firms—particularly those that buy back their shares. We want to get into these stocks now because Fed Chair Jay Powell just took the shackles off lenders when it comes to buybacks and dividends, after the nation’s 23 biggest banks aced their “stress tests.” (Prior to June 30, the amount a bank could put toward dividends and buybacks couldn’t be more than the average of its last four quarters of earnings.)

Repurchasers Roar Back

This means we’re lined up for a surge in bank-stock buybacks—and we love repurchases because they cut the number of shares outstanding, juicing earnings per share (EPS).… Read more

Let’s break out of today’s zero-rate wasteland and help ourselves to huge, safe payouts yielding all the way up to 8.3%. And these massive payouts are tax-free too!

And, no, we won’t be hiring a team of CPAs to pull this off—nothing so expensive and impractical. Instead, we’re going to set ourselves up with a closed-end fund (CEF) that holds municipal bonds, or “munis.” And thanks to their tax-free nature, if you’re in the top tax bracket, a muni bond paying, say, a 4% dividend could be worth 7% or more to you.

I’ll give you a specific CEF that’s worth putting on your list now in a second (its 5% stated yield could be worth an outsized 8.3% to you, if you’re in the top tax bracket).… Read more

Believe it or not, in today’s “no yield” world, there are still 845 stocks that boast dividend yields of 3%. And 34 that pay more than 10%!

You Still Have Options

Note: U.S.-listed companies and funds with market capitalizations or AUM greater than $300 million. Source: Standard & Poor’s

Big yields can make a big difference. A 3% payout on a million-dollar portfolio is $30,000 per year in dividends. That’s nice, but we can “supersize” it to $100,000 annually with the 10% payers.

If any of these yields are safe, of course.

In the world of high yield, security is tricky.… Read more

Imagine two closed-end funds (CEFs) that both yield upwards of 7%. Sounds great, right? Buy a bit of both and get $58.33 per month for every $10,000 you invest. Put in $500K and you’ve got a middle-class income dropping into your account without you having to do a thing.

While that’s a great way to achieve financial independence, we CEF investors know it’s not as easy as searching out a couple of 7% yielders and buying them. We need to go deeper.

While there are over a hundred CEFs yielding 7% or more right now, their quality varies widely. Some are yield traps that will drain your capital with lousy price performance over time, more than offsetting any dividend cash they pay you.… Read more

We individual investors have many edges on the Wall Street suits. Betting on the next government handout, however, is not one of them.

Megatrends, on the other hand, are our wheelhouse. Professionals excel at “looking ahead” three to six months. Fortunately for us, their eyes glaze over beyond a year! This is where you and I can regain our advantage when it comes to infrastructure income investing.

While Wall Street weighs the trees, we will consider dividends from the broader megatrend forest. Let’s highlight some aspects of the potential American Jobs Plan that also happen to be infrastructure trends already in motion.… Read more

The retirement-income battle never ends! Last summer, we watched cautiously for the next dividend cut. This summer, we’re tracking inflation.

No matter the worry, we can apply my “2-step retirement income plan.” It’s designed to keep inflation, another virus wave or pretty well any other calamity from impacting our dividend streams.

Inflation Sideswipes Retirees

First, though, we can “thank” Jay Powell and his runaway money printer for our sleepless nights. You can’t tell me that goosing the money supply by 30% in a little more than a year doesn’t have something to do with rising prices:

Powell Drains Retirees’ Buying Power

And retirees—the folks with the least amount of wiggle room in their monthly income—are taking the brunt.… Read more

Imagine getting $100 per month in passive income for every $10,000 you invest. That amounts to a $35,000 annual dividend stream with less than $300,000 saved.

It’s not impossible. In fact, investors do it all the time with my favorite high-yield investments—closed-end funds (CEFs). While the average yield on CEFs is currently 6.2%, a third of these funds yield upwards of 7%, and 17 boast payouts of 10% and higher.

Source: CEF Insider

CEFs’ payouts are particularly impressive considering the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY), an index fund tracking the S&P 500, yields a paltry 1.3% today—the lowest yield for the stock market in 20 years.… Read more

For the past few weeks, I’ve been drawing up a roadmap of how income investors like us can fend off inflation’s impending march.

Utility stocks. Small banks. Heck, small businesses.

But they all center around one central theme you can find in just about any corner of the market: dividend growth. Show me a payout that is heading higher, and I’ll point you to a stock price that is likely to follow.

We’ve got a big summer ahead, with 48 dividend raises on the way! Here’s why these stocks are must-watches for the months ahead.

Why We All Need Bigger Dividends Over Time

It’s simple math.… Read more