Something unusual has happened in closed-end funds (CEFs) lately—a lot of new names are showing up in the leaderboard of the top long-term performers.

According to my CEF Insider service, there are now 36 funds that have delivered over 15% annualized total returns over the last decade, and three have delivered over 20% annualized returns, including their hefty dividend payouts.

And today we’re going to dive into five that have returned 17% and up (annualized) over the last decade. They’re powerful income generators for any market, with monster dividend yields all the way up to 10.5%!

Let’s get started.

Winning CEF #1: Cohen & Steers Quality Income Realty Fund (RQI)

RQI uses investors’ money to build a diverse portfolio of real estate investment trusts (REITs).… Read more

Not yet as rich as you always wanted to be? Don’t worry, because today we’re going to dial you in for some “rich guy” dividend favorites that’ll pay you up to 9.9% every year.

Private equity is a lucrative and secretive world. It’s often limited to accredited investors, which means these funds require you to have $200,000 or more in annual income to qualify.

If you’re living on dividends alone, this might be challenging. Fortunately, there are some private equity plays that you can buy just like individual stocks. They trade for as cheap as $12 per share and they’ll pay you dividends from 8.8% to 9.9% along the way:

Private equity (PE)—funds that can invest in the equity and debt of privately held companies, which we typically can’t get our hands on—is generally touted as outperforming the stock market.… Read more

Today we’re going to dive into a question subscribers to our CEF Insider service often ask: what happens to a closed-end fund’s dividend when stocks take a tumble?

The answer is coming up shortly (and if you’re at all worried about this levitating market suddenly snapping back, you’re going to like what I have to show you).

Then I’m going to reveal one 6.6%-paying fund whose management is dialed in to market swings and know how to protect their investors’ income when things get rough.

How do I know? Because they did just that in the 2008-09 crisis.

More on that shortly.… Read more

If this were any “normal” time, we’d be able to buy safe bonds and collect enough income on our nest egg to fund our retirements. Unfortunately, this is the “new normal” where the Fed is not the friend of us current and hopeful retirees!

Jay Powell is afraid for his job, which means he’s going to cut rates and keep them low for a long time. This means we must look beyond traditional bonds for meaningful income.

What about blue chip dividend-paying stocks? Well, an 11-year stock market rally has ruined that idea. Anyone putting new money in a pricey dividend aristocrat is “buying and hoping” that the stock continues to levitate while the firm dishes its dividend.… Read more

Make no mistake: Jerome Powell’s pain is our chance to set ourselves up for 7%+ dividends, along with serious upside—I’m talking total returns well into the triple digits!

The key? The two stealth dividend-growth picks I have for you today. More on those shortly.

First off, you have to feel sorry for the Fed chief. Not only is he taking a whipping from the president’s Twitter feed for not cutting rates sooner, now he’s being second-guessed for considering a cut at all, given June’s blowout jobs report.

It’s a wonder the poor man doesn’t lock his office door, barricade it with his chair and refuse to come out!… Read more

Members of our CEF Insider service often ask me when they should sell a closed-end fund.

The truth is, when it comes to 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 in relation to net asset value, or NAV (another way of saying the underlying value of the fund’s portfolio) and has a relatively safe dividend, that CEF has already gone a significant distance toward being a buy.

Sell signs aren’t always as clear, but they’re still there. You just need to know what to look for.… Read more

What’s better than a portfolio that will pay you a $117,000 salary every year in retirement?

How about one that delivers a consistent paycheck each and every month that you can plan all of your regular expenses around?

I’ll show you how, via with three already-diversified high-yield monthly dividend stocks. But first, let me show you how most income investors get it wrong.

Mistake 1: Cheating Themselves on Yield

Sure, yield isn’t everything—you want growth potential, dividend growth potential and safety, too—but it matters. Consider this: Every 1% in yield equates to $10,000 on a $1 million nest egg. Thus, 2% is $20,000, 3% is $30,000, and so forth.… Read more

Imagine if you could find a single signal that would warn you when a recession is on the horizon.

Well, one such indicator does exist—and it’s telling us that storm clouds are indeed building. That means it’s time for contrarians like us to get greedy for income (and gains)!

I’ll explain this seeming contradiction—and name a 6.7%-yielding fund that should be on your list—in a second. First, here’s more on this reliable “recession indicator.”

A Three-Decade History of Being Right

Campbell Harvey, an economist at Duke University, knows all about this recession signal: he was the first person to run across it, over 30 years ago.… Read more

Successful dividend investing is simple, though not necessarily easy. There are nuances which trip up many investors (including most professionals!) These twists and turns create “yield alpha” opportunities for contrarian-minded income investors like us.

If everyone else in the market were perfectly grounded and calculated, there would be no chance for us to make above-average returns. After all, the 11.3% and 17.5% annualized returns that my Contrarian Income Report and Hidden Yields readers are earning would be snapped up in a perfectly efficient market.

Thanks to these inefficiencies, we are able to bank big yields and price returns in Dividend Land.… Read more

Today I’m going to give you everything you need to sail through the next crash, crush the S&P 500 by this time next year—and grab safe dividends up to 8.4%.

We’ll pull off this “dividend hat trick” through a set of “pullback-proof” investments with dividends up to 5 times bigger than what your typical S&P 500 stock pays.

In a moment, I’ll reveal three funds yielding up to 8.4% that are more than worthy of your attention now. They come from a corner of the market that will surprise you.

First, though, you might be wondering how I found these big, steady payouts.… Read more