The disaster that was 2020 is finally out of our hair, though there could be one silver lining if you followed a contrarian investing approach in 2020: serious gains in your stock portfolio.

But, of course, those gains come with a big consequence: Uncle Sam will be coming for his share on Tax Day in April. And to be honest, we don’t have much leeway to cut our 2020 tax bill at this point. But there is one canny move we can make to (legally, of course!) reduce our tax burden in April of next year: buy municipal bonds.

What Everyone Gets Wrong About Municipal Bonds

Sure, municipal bonds (issued by cities and states to fund local infrastructure) seem like a pretty boring option when there are corners of the stock market (I’m looking at you, tech) that jumped 40%+ last year.… Read more

If you’re not yet as filthy rich as you hoped you’d be by now, don’t worry—we still have plenty of time to get you there.

And I’m not talking about investing your “growth capital” into risky fly-by-night names in hopes of buying high and selling higher. We can scale our money more securely—and just as spectacularly—by purchasing sound dividend payers that happen to be growing their payouts rapidly. Here’s why.

There are three—and only three—ways a company’s stock can pay us:

1. A cash dividend.
2. A dividend hike.
3. By repurchasing its own shares.

Everyone loves the dividend, but investors usually don’t give enough love to the dividend hike.… Read more

Let’s relegate 2020 to the trash heap (where it belongs!) and look to the new year that dawns tomorrow. I’ve got three predictions I’m going to lay out for you now, and three high-yield closed-end funds (CEFs) with dividends up to 8% that are nicely positioned to ride them to strong gains in the next 12 months and beyond.

Prediction No. 1: Home Sales Will Surge—and So Will This 8% Payer

One of the biggest financial stories of 2020 was the strong real estate market. In November, US home prices jumped 12.7%, and Zillow believes 2021 will be “the hottest [year] in recent memory.”… Read more

Can we income seekers safely get back into REITs (real estate investment trusts) next year?

With the yield on the S&P 500 about to drop to a sad 1.5% (thanks, Tesla (TSLA) addition), renewed REIT-hope sure would be nice! The landlord industry index Vanguard Real Estate ETF (VNQ) pays 3.5%. That’s a dividend oasis in this zero-point-nothing world.

Once upon a time, VNQ performed in-line or better than the blue-chip index. It was a pretty good deal, as you could double your dividend and keep up with the Joneses’ portfolio with less heartburn.

Then, April 2020 came along, tenants stopped paying rents, and REITs-at-large got crushed:

A Good REIT Run While It Lasted

Does the fork-in-the-road above represent a paradigm shift or relative value?… Read more

If you’re making buy decisions based on the daily gyrations of the S&P 500, you’re setting yourself up for big losses—and costing yourself a shot at big dividends, too.

Why? For starters, at a 1.6% average yield, the popular names simply don’t pay enough. You’d need to save $2.5 million just to generate $40,000 in yearly dividends!

We need a better option—one that lets us save a reasonable amount of money (I’m talking $500,000 to $600,000 here) and still generate meaningful income.

I’ll give you two of my best contrarian strategies for doing that in a moment. First, let me show you why it pays to be patient right now, even though many folks are rushing to buy stocks, with the S&P 500 up 14% as I write this.… Read more

As contrarians, we know we need to buy when everyone’s selling. Because that’s when we get gains like this:

Buying Into the March Crash Was Hard—But It Paid Off

Of course, anyone who sold their stocks in the depths of the March crash learned just how damaging that can be. But if you played the contrarian and bought in March, you did great.

But where should contrarians be shopping today, with US stocks, especially tech stocks, at all-time highs? We’re going to explore beyond big tech and focus on a contrarian hunting ground few investors consider: emerging markets.

One reason why developing economies don’t make it onto most investors’ radar is that they’ve been underperforming: in the last three years, their returns have been a fifth of those of US tech stocks, even as these markets have seen strong growth and technological improvements (especially in less-developed Asian nations).… Read more

Exactly who is retiring on the income from safe bonds in 2021?

You might remember when, once upon a time, the 10-year Treasury was a source of acceptable retirement yield:

• Thirty years ago, we could get 7% or more for sitting on high-quality U.S. debt,
• Twenty years ago, we could still gather 6%,
• Even a decade ago, we were pocketing a respectable 4%.

Today? We can’t even collect a lousy 1% yield!

Buying Treasury Bonds? Congrats—You’re Broke!

Put a million bucks into 10-year Treasuries and we’re banking just $9,500 per year in income. That’s below poverty levels. Yikes.

Things aren’t any better on the stock side.… Read more

Let’s take a look at how the new stimulus bill affects our portfolios—and dividends!—then look at how we’ll invest in closed-end funds (CEFs) for 7%+ dividends as 2021 unfolds.

Cash to Consumers = Bigger Corporate Profits (and Dividends)

One thing’s for sure—unlike the spring package, this one eliminates the problem of big companies absorbing billions in aid. This package is focused on putting cash in consumers’ hands, which I think we can all agree will do a better job of stimulating the economy.

For starters, taxpayers will get $600 in checks sent to them, while people on unemployment will get an extra $300 per week.… Read more

When this closed-end fund (CEF) lowered its monthly dividend for the first time in 17 years, many income investors (understandably) panicked and sold.

Too bad for them. They missed out on 27% returns over the next 20 months.

Can a dividend cut actually be a good thing? Like life itself, it’s complicated—but my short answer is “yes.” Here’s when (and why).

CEFs are the exception to the “dividend cuts are bad” rule. In CEF-Land, payouts are taken from a fund’s portfolio, which is represented by a fund’s net asset value (NAV). Sure, the funds that we buy generally have income streams that are supposed to “power” NAV higher.… Read more

What are we dividend investors to expect in 2021? Let’s look to Washington, DC, where the switch on Jay Powell’s printing press is stuck in “high”:

Money Supply Surges—With No End in Sight

With Powell’s fiat money keeping (what’s left of) the Main Street economy afloat, you can bet that his “instant” cash will keep rolling in. He’ll have a willing partner in incoming Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who followed the same strategy when she was Fed chair:

New Boss Same as the Old Boss

This is a recipe for inflation once the economy gets back on its feet. Back in September, we discussed some stocks that make solid inflation hedges by hiking their dividends faster than prices (and inevitably, interest rates) rise.… Read more