We’re not even two weeks into 2026, and vanilla investors have already lost the plot. Their blindness has tossed 3 cheap—and growing—dividends into our laps.

More on this trio below. First, let’s look at 4 things the crowd has totally blown it on:

• The AI boom.
• A revolution in US manufacturing.
• The power of politics to shape markets, and …
• The Venezuela situation.

Let’s start with politics (I promise I won’t linger here for long!) because this year, everything will flow from it.

And, quite frankly, the fix is in here.

Truth is, we’re entering a period of “administered growth”: The administration has made clear that it wants cheaper borrowing costs, lower mortgage rates and less regulation for American businesses.… Read more

Let me start the new year by laying out a proven investment fact:

If you want to find the coming year’s biggest losers, start by looking at the previous year’s biggest winners.

So let’s do that.

On the closed-end fund (CEF) side of things, last year’s top performer was a fund called ASA Gold & Precious Metals Limited (ASA), with a near-200% return.

ASA Romped in 2025 

But don’t let that return, or the fund’s “cheap” 9.6% discount to net asset value (NAV)—more on that in a moment—pull you in. Because I see ASA flipping from 2025’s best CEF to 2026’s worst.… Read more

The Dow Jones Industrial Average itself yields modestly, but the Dogs of the Dow 2026 pack more dividend bite. The index’s top payers dish up to 6.8%. Collectively, they provide 3X more yield than the miserly S&P!

We’ll review every one of the Dow’s 10 Dogs (and their dividends) in a moment. First, a refresher on how the “Dogs of the Dow” strategy works:

1. After the final close of 2025, we identify the 10 highest-yielding stocks in the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
2. The strategy buys all 10 stocks in equal amounts and holds them for the full calendar year.
3. At the end of the year, the stocks are sold.

The run that AI poster child NVIDIA (NVDA) has been on these last few years is truly incredible. That’s not news, of course. But what matters now is whether investors are overpaying for that growth—in both NVIDIA and AI as a whole.

NVIDIA’s Monstrous Run

Once a chipmaker known for appealing mainly to gamers, NVIDIA started to climb in 2023, thanks to a new technology only a few people really understood at the time: generative AI.

Then, as AI spread in 2024, hopes—and NVIDIA’s stock—soared. That was followed by more fears of a bubble in AI. As with NVIDIA’s share price, a chart is the best way to do these worries justice:

The Bubble in Worries About an AI Bubble 

There’s so much discussion of an AI bubble now that we seem to be in a bubble of talking about bubbles!… Read more

Wall Street is treating Venezuela like the next “black gold” rush.

Nah—I don’t think so. Let me explain why and share my favorite US-based energy dividends up to 8.4%.

Vanilla investors are piling into the majors like Exxon Mobil (XOM) and Chevron (CVX), betting that regime change is a “buy” signal for anyone with a drill bit near Venezuela’s flush Orinoco Belt. But we careful contrarians know better. Energy infrastructure does not simply bounce back overnight. (Fictional TV “landman” Tommy Norris is not taking a plane south to instantly fix production with a few phone calls, hard lines and Michelob Ultras!)… Read more

Ignore the doom-and-gloom “predictions” about 2026. There are plenty of gains—and growing dividends—to be had for us this year.

And if we do see a short-term pullback—possible, as we discussed a few weeks ago—the “smart money” is already setting up for a rebound. We’re going to join them by targeting three “depressed” corners of the market. We’ll get into those (and three tickers) below.

DC Stacks the Deck

Why am I so optimistic? Because, to be frank, the fix is in.

We are entering a year of “administered growth.” The Trump team has made its wishes clear: It wants lower mortgage rates, cheaper borrowing costs and a laissez-faire backdrop for American businesses.… Read more

When it comes to high-yielding closed-end funds (CEFs), there’s one thing we always need to keep in mind:

Buying “new” CEFs can lock you into a big discount that never disappears.

That’s because, as we’ll see below, in the small world of CEFs, the market’s view of a new fund’s assets is often much less than what management thinks these assets are worth.

When that disconnect happens, big discounts are inevitable. But unlike, say, an established CEF that finds itself temporarily out of favor, the discounts on these new funds are far from being buying opportunities.

That’s because they can take a long time to close—if they ever do.… Read more

Most vanilla investors limit their retirement income ideas to the exchange-traded funds (ETFs) advertised on TV.

Don’t do it!

These lame mainstream ETFs tend to yield 1% or 2%. That is only enough income for retirement if we are talking about a $10 million nest egg.

There are better buys beneath the popular surface. And they will fund retirements on far more reasonable savings figures. For example, we’ll discuss funds today that dish dividends of 9%, 10%, even 11%.

This is $55,000 in annual income on a $500k investment. Now we’re talking.

And these funds feature active management. Ironically, they often boast better caretakers than the large ETFs, which are highly automated and contain more marketing sizzle than alpha.… Read more

There’s a simple blunder out there that pretty well every income investor makes at one time or another.

It’s costly, both in terms of lost income and missed gains. And it starts in perhaps the most innocent place of all: the free stock screeners you likely use every day—Google Finance and Yahoo Finance chief among them.

This slip-up affects all high-yielding stocks. In fact, the higher the yield, the more it can steer you wrong! So for those of us who invest in closed-end funds (CEFs), what we’re going to discuss today can cause a real mess.

The good news?… Read more

If you are a serious dividend investor, then you know the answer to this question:

How much dividend income are you going to make in 2026?

In other words, what are your projected dividends next year?

If you don’t know, then you’re not as dedicated to dividends as you thought. Disappointing, but fixable with Income Calendar.

And please, don’t tell me I’m being hard on you. If that’s the way you feel, then this is the tough love that you need. Your wakeup call for 2026.

It’s time to treat your dividend investing like a business. Because it is.… Read more