Are we kicking off another episode of the “Roaring 20s” today?

Who knows. Nobody really predicted the 2010s would be an end-to-end bull market. Yet the most hated rally of all-time resulted in stocks nearly quadrupling:

The Epic Rally Few Investors Believed In

A million bucks that sat in a boring S&P 500 fund a decade ago would have grown to $3.5 million. Unfortunately, many experienced investors did not participate in this full rally, still being shell-shocked after 2008.

(Which illustrates why it is important to always be fully invested. Investors who slept through the ’08 carnage quickly made their money back in the years to follow.… Read more

Right now, with 2020 just hours out, is the perfect time to show you my two-step dividend strategy for the year ahead.

We’ll also dive into four specific stocks and funds to buy. They’ll hand you 6%+ dividends now and set you on the path to unreal payouts of 17.6%+ down the road.

How Powell Crushed Savers

First, if you’re disappointed in the dividend options out there today, you can blame one man: Jay Powell. (Actually, you’ll have to get in line to dump your frustrations on the poor fellow’s head!)

We all know that Powell’s clumsy “pivot” from rate hikes to rate cuts at the start of 2019 sent stocks soaring (and dividend yields plunging—as you calculate yield by dividing a company’s annual dividend payout into is current share price).… Read more

If you’ve been told it’s impossible to outperform low-cost index funds because the market’s too efficient, you’ve been misled.

The truth is, there are many funds that have been beating the stock market for years. And here’s something really surprising: there are more funds pulling off this feat now than there have been in a long time!

In fact, across ETFs, mutual funds and closed-end funds (CEFs), there are 3,594 funds that have beaten the S&P 500’s 24.3% return since the start of 2019.

So much for not beating the market!

That leads me straight into the two things I want to discuss with you today:

1. Why now is still a great time to buy, even with stocks near all-time highs, and …
2. Why you’ll give yourself better odds of beating the market, and grab far higher dividends, if you go with actively managed funds, particularly CEFs like the technology-focused fund yielding an outsized 6% now that I’ll tell you about shortly.

I don’t blame you if you think stock picking boils down to a choice between income or growth. That’s how the financial media has framed it for years.

But it’s not. Not by a long shot. In fact, for years, my Hidden Yields service has shown investors that rapidly growing dividends are something of an “early alert system” for red-hot price appreciation. That’s why I always keep an eye out on regular dividend growers, like the list of 56 stocks whose names and tickers I’ll share with you momentarily.

In fact, if patient investors sniff out the right dividend stocks, they’ll hit the trifecta: income growth, higher prices and big, fat yields.… Read more

With the whipsawing market we saw in early December—and now a snap back to near all-time highs—now is the perfect time to talk about one of the biggest questions you’ll face as a closed-end fund (CEF) investor: how do you know when to sell a fund?

Unfortunately, there’s no simple answer—and often investors who use conventional sell signals, like a falling market price, will end up selling at the worst time.

That leads me to my cardinal rule with CEFs: it’s easier to know when to buy than when to sell. If the fund is well managed, has a strong track record, is deeply discounted and has a relatively safe dividend, it’s generally a screaming buy.… Read more

Make no mistake: now is the perfect time to set ourselves up for 7%+ dividends, along with serious upside—I’m talking total returns well into the triple digits!

The key is my easy “dividend barometer” strategy. I’ll show you exactly how it works—and two stocks it’s flagged for big payout growth and price gains—shortly.

Your Ticket to “Rate-Proof” Gains in 2020

First, we need to talk about Federal Reserve chief Jerome Powell, who says he’ll hold interest rates steady next year. That’s despite President Trump, who’s been Twitter-bashing the poor fellow on the regular for not slashing rates to the bone.

If the smart money (betting through the Fed futures market) is right, The Fed chief will win this battle.… Read more

What if I told you there was a corner of the market where every single fund has turned a profit? And these amazing investments paid out a huge income stream that was entirely tax-free?

The kicker: many of these funds—including one throwing off a 4.6% dividend now (that could be worth 7% or more to you, depending on your tax bracket)—are trading at discounts to their “true” value now. I’ll name this low-risk income (and growth) play shortly.

146 Funds, 0 Losers

This story starts with municipal bonds, which are issued by cities, counties and states to fund buildings, roads and hospitals.… Read more

Are you worried about a market meltdown in 2020? Fair enough–stocks went straight up for an entire decade, making a pullback more than due as we head into the 20s.

Now, more than ever, it’s vital that your portfolio is anchored by bulletproof dividend payers. If it’s not, read on, and I’ll introduce you to a few of the market’s five-star income plays—payouts so safe that even a worst-case recession scenario won’t touch them.

BofA Merrill Lynch analyst Michael Harnett, looking at recent developments such as our “phase one” deal with China and the U.K.’s recent elections, said stocks are “primed for Q1 2020 risk asset melt-up,” projecting that the S&P 500 will rip off a quick 5% by March.… Read more

Today we’re going to look ahead to 2020—and specific sectors to target for rising profits (and dividends!) in both stocks and 7%+ yielding closed-end funds (CEFs).

We’re also going to look inside a worrisome piece of news you might have heard about 2019—that analysts expect corporate profits to rise a meager 0.3% when they close the books on this year—and uncover why this is not a scary omen for the future.

Because when we hear numbers like that, we need to look further and see where they’re coming from. In this case, there’s a very simple reason no one is talking about.… Read more

“Hey Kevin, I think I’m going to look at doing one of those top 20 dividend picks for 2020 pieces. Cheesy, I know, but ‘tis the season.”

My always-supportive publisher knew how to rattle my cage, however:

“Funny, I just saw one of those ‘Wall Street favorite’ pieces cross my desk. Had one of your old favorites included…”

Our old flame Medical Properties Trust’s (MPW) inclusion caught Kevin’s eye. Classic Wall Street. Way to call the stock you should have bought in 2015 as the best buy for 2020!

Now don’t get me wrong, this is a well-run company with a timeless business model.… Read more