It’s no secret why most people buy closed-end funds (CEFs): big dividends!

The 500 or so CEFs out there yield a game-changing 7%, on average. And with CEFs coming from all corners of the economy, you can easily build a nice, diversified CEF portfolio paying enough dividend cash to let you retire on $500,000 (or less!).

If you’re a reader of my CEF Insider service, none of this will surprise you. The service’s portfolio boasts funds yielding all the way up to 12.9%.

CEF Investors an Emotional Group

But there is one thing you should know about the CEF market: investors who buy CEFs are a bit twitchy, meaning they can sometimes oversell in a crisis.… Read more

Almost One-Third of NYC Restaurants Missed June Rent, Survey Finds

Scan the business headlines (and let’s be honest, who actually reads anymore?) and we’ll see ominous headlines like this. Makes us wonder who would want to be a landlord in this economy?

It’s not just NYC. Here in California, most restaurants are, once again, not allowed to offer indoor dining. Epidemiology arguments aside, our beat here is money, and how many restaurants are supposed to make money right now I do not know.

If they’re not making money, who knows if they’re paying the rent. Taking that a step further, we might also question who wants to own any real estate investment trusts (REITs)?… Read more

In normal times, real estate investment trusts (REITs) are a great way to cut your portfolio’s volatility—and double the income you’d get from regular stocks.

Of course there’s nothing typical about 2020, but this “new normal” actually presents an especially excellent opportunity to buy select REITs on the cheap. I’m talking about cash cows with rent flows that were not disrupted by shutdowns.

Cheap stocks with higher-than-usual yields and bulletproof cash flows? Read on and we’ll sign up for this deal together.

REITs, remember, are “no drama” pass-through investments: they collect the rent on their properties, take out enough to keep their buildings in good working order, then pass (almost all of) the remaining cash to you as dividends.… Read more

Let’s be honest: there are a ton of ways to collect passive income out there. But there’s only one that’s easy to get into (no matter how much money you have!), generates yearly cash payouts of 8% or more and is used by billionaire investment gurus on the regular.

I’m talking about an often-overlooked investment called a closed end fund (CEF). And today I want to show you how to invest in CEFs in just three simple steps.

CEFs are like mutual funds or ETFs in that they pool together money from investors, which the fund’s managers then use to buy a basket of stocks, bonds, real estate investment trusts (REITs) or other investments, depending on the CEF’s mandate.… Read more

Smart, innovative retail dividends are going to hold a special place in the hearts of many income investors when this pandemic is through. I recently mused about my springtime e-tailing adventures out of Puerto Backyarda. While I got my mister to stay cool, many opportunistic dividend buyers are going to enjoy hot payouts that double or better in the years ahead.

Stores such as Best Buy (BBY) and Home Depot (HD) have kept people slapping away on their keyboards and occupied with home projects. Even more importantly, retailers like Walmart (WMT), Amazon.com (AMZN) and Kroger (KR) not only supplied Americans with the basics, but they also kept cranking out services and strategies to keep people safer as they gathered up what they needed.… Read more

Most of us know we need to stay in stocks through this crisis—but some days it’s easier said than done!

Let’s be honest: we could all use a break—a way to hedge against the nasty drops we see when we log into our trading accounts in the morning.

My first suggestion—try not to log into your account every morning! But if you insist on doing so, then my second suggestion is to take a close look at a popular hedging vehicle called a covered-call fund.

Covered-Call Funds: 6%+ Dividend With “Crash Insurance”

Covered-call funds are a kind of closed-end fund (CEF) that holds stocks but gives us an income stream we’d never see from an S&P 500 company—yields of 6% to 10% are the norm among covered-call funds.… Read more

As our quarantine headquarters migrated from the cozy accommodations of Los Living Room in March to the spaciousness of Puerto Backyarda in April, life got a bit more manageable.

Then, in May, it got hot. Really hot.

“Want the hose?” I offered. “It doesn’t feel like it’s 103 if you get your feet wet.”

My Puerto guest, a friend who’d stopped over for an afternoon beer (actually, three 100 calorie “light hazy ales”) was not amused that we were stuck outside. The poor guy was wearing pants, and quite frankly, he didn’t stand a chance.

It goes without saying that he has not yet returned.… Read more

With the epic “relief rally” finally on fumes, it’s time to consider jettisoning any dividends that (let’s be honest) should have been sold in February. Stock prices are quite disconnected from their underlying fundamentals, and the four firms we’re going to discuss today have particularly poor prospects.

Sure, these yields appear generous. But these days, we can lose this much in a few bad trading sessions.

(Low payout ratios—the percentage of cash flow being paid as dividends—are usually preferable. A negative ratio is not! More on this wreck shortly.)

As you know, I don’t provide personal financial advice. That said, if I owned any of these shares, I’d sell ’em!… Read more

Most folks think retiring on $527K is a dream—but most folks haven’t heard of high-yield closed end funds (CEFs). With yields as high as 22%, these unsung income plays can fast-track your race to financial independence.

Here’s how: let’s say you’re looking to clock out and use your portfolio to replace $50,000 in yearly employment income. Many financial advisors will tell you that the most you can withdraw out of a conservative stock portfolio is 4% a year (this is known as the 4% safe withdrawal rate). Simple math tells us that this means you will need $1,250,000 to retire.… Read more

With pandemic cases once again in full focus, the market is (once again) trading like its assets. Everything’s up big one day, everything’s down big the next.

We rational, contrarian-minded income investors however know that the stock market is indeed a “market of stocks.” It doesn’t make sense for everything to trade “as one.” We should look to buy the underappreciated, underowned dividends on these dips.

I’m tracking a number of undiscovered dividend growth stories in the underfollowed small-cap space. Most investors don’t consider income from small caps. These companies don’t attract the eyeballs that mega-cap tech firms and well-known consumer brands do, so analysts and the media typically avoid the small-cap space, even in good years.… Read more