Income investors have been crushed this year. Bond yields are down and stocks pay less and less “dividend per dollar” with each rally. But there’s still one little-known corner of the investing world we can look to for safe yields up to 11.8%.

Business development companies (BDC) provide debt and equity financing for small and midsize businesses. Banks, in recent decades, have deemed these types of lenders “too risky.” So, BDCs put on their big boy risk-evaluating pants and began to provide some powerful payouts that are backed by the cash flows of the firms they lend to.

Double-digit yields are the norm, not the exception, in this extremely niche area of the market.… Read more

If you own closed-end funds (CEFs), I have great news: equity CEFs are doing exactly what we want them to: crushing the market while handing us 7%+ dividends.

(And if you’re not yet in CEFs, or want to bulk up your CEF holdings, sit tight: I’ll name a fund you can buy shortly. It has an extra kick in store, thanks to an over-torqued corporate failure: I’m looking at you, WeWork.)

First, here’s what stocks have done this year:

Stocks Soar …

And here’s what CEFs are up to (with the beige line at the top being the equity CEFs tracked by my CEF Insider service).… Read more

Investors have finally pitched a tent above the WeWork circus. Should we REIT (real estate investment trust) shareholders be concerned about a fallout?

The stock was touted in some circles as a potential savior for the office REIT market. As fewer and fewer employees work in traditional workspaces, co-working spots have popped up all over the place in recent years.

Your income strategist knows from experience. Back in 2012 I was a founding tenant for a new tech-focused co-working location here in town. I’m an introvert when I work and found it impossible to take a phone call with everyone yapping in the place.… Read more

I don’t know why you’d mess around with dividend reinvestment plans (DRIPs) when you can “automatically” bag a 7.6%+ income stream and 95% upside with the strategy I’ll show you now.

Better yet, this outsized cash flow drops into your account every month! It takes almost no work. (Just one small, but potent, step, which I’ll show you shortly.)

Before we get to that, let’s look at how easy it is to use this strategy to grab dividends 4X bigger than the sub-2% payouts most folks bring in today.

This simple setup seems a lot like a garden-variety DRIP, but it has one quick “hack” that amps up our dividend and sets us up for fast 95% upside, too.… Read more

If you’re stuck with measly dividends from stocks or Treasuries, closed-end funds (CEFs) are the answer.

After all, these funds yield an amazing 7%, on average, and they let you buy in at a discount (most CEFs trade for less than their net asset value, or NAV).

The One CEF Question I Get a Lot (and the Surprising Answer)

A reader or subscriber to my CEF Insider service will sometimes ask me: can I lose money with CEFs?

The technical answer is, yes, of course—as with any investment, you can lose money. Even when you put your money in the bank, there’s a risk of losing it if the bank goes under and the FDIC collapses.… Read more

You’ve probably heard by now that investing just got a little bit cheaper. Now cheaper isn’t necessarily better, especially for those of us hunting for safe, meaningful yields to fund our retirements.

We’ll get to our diversified 3-click, 7.4%-yielding portfolio (including a couple monthly payers) in a moment. But first, more on the no-commission craze.

Following in the footsteps of Robinhood, Interactive Brokers (IBKR) announced a “Lite” version of its platform with commission-free stocks and ETFs. Then Charles Schwab (SCHW) announced it would offer commission-free stock, ETF and options trading, with TD Ameritrade (AMTD) and E*Trade (ETFC) in tow.

Online brokerages have been pushing selects sets of commission-free ETFs for some time.… Read more

New funds are rare in the closed-end fund (CEF) world. But there’s a new kid on the block throwing off a monthly 6% dividend. Today we’re going to run through this new fund to see if it might have a place in your portfolio.

6% Dividends and Netflix-Like Growth—in 1 Fund

I’m talking about the BlackRock Science and Technology Trust II (BSTZ), launched in mid-May of this year.

The unique thing about BSTZ is right in its name: it’s no stodgy income play: its portfolio is packed with some of the fastest-growing tech plays out there.

I’m not talking about Apple (AAPL), Netflix (NFLX) or Facebook (FB).… Read more

Worried that potential impeachment trials are going to pressure your retirement portfolio? It’s a fair concern. So, let’s talk about ways to protect our stocks and bonds from political drama.

First, let’s dispel the myth that the news drives the markets. Markets are smart, and they usually “sniff out” eventual outcomes before they become obvious to the broader public. They benefit from the wisdom of crowds, watching as individual market participants who “know something” put their money where their mouth is by buying or selling.

My favorite example is from World War II. Former hedge fund manager Barton Biggs, author of the excellent Wealth, War and Wisdom, notes how the stock market amazingly identified in real-time that the Battle of Midway was the turning point of the war for the US.… Read more

If you’re like most income investors right now, you’ve got one eye on this twitchy market—and the other on red flags like slumping manufacturing numbers, chaos in DC and even the dreaded inverted yield curve.

I’m worried, too. But our best play here is not to sit in cash. With your mattress full, you’ll be forced to stand by as inflation drains your savings.

Worse, you’re certain to miss the next rebound. Because that’s the real mistake perma-bears always make: staying out of the market too long!

That’s why the smart move here is to buy. But we’re still going to take out some portfolio “insurance” by focusing on “crash-resistant” stocks.… Read more

If you’re like many folks, you might be looking at your stock gains this year and dreading the tax bill headed your way in 2020.

That makes now a great time to consider the only (tax-) free lunch in investing: municipal bonds. I’ll name one play on these retirement-changing investments in a moment. This unusual fund yields an outsized 5.1% today and sets us up for a “steady as she goes” triple-digit gain, too.

First, let’s talk a little more about the tax side of “muni” bonds: these investments pay a 100% tax-free dividend (so their “real” yields could be much higher for you, depending on your tax bracket).… Read more