President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping have agreed to disagree. For now. Is this a big deal, little deal or no deal for our dividends?

The outcome wasn’t much of a surprise. Stocks have done their part by politely rallying. My real concern is the lack of dividend deals left on the big board.

The S&P 500 is up almost 18% year-to-date. Sure, stocks were due for a bounce heading into the year (as we discussed in late December.) But still, a relentless rally wipes out a lot of bargains.

Remember the sale on industrial cash cow Ingersoll Rand (IR)?… Read more

Believe it or not, we now have the best window to buy dividend stocks that we’ve had in decades. Two proven 100%-return indicators just flipped to “green.”

The conditions we’re about to see are rocket fuel for companies growing their dividends like weeds. As usual, we’re going to zig while like-minded money managers (you know, those that outperform a mere index) zag.

Our 100% Proven Contrarian Play

The first factor that points to more upside for stocks is the foul mood among the so-called “smart money.”

According to a June survey by Bank of America Merrill Lynch, fund managers expectations of global growth sank the most since November 1994.… Read more

Until about a year ago, the most common question I got from readers was always something like: “How will rising interest rates affect my portfolio?”

The question looks simple, but the answer was not, and in 2015, when the Fed said it would start hiking rates (the first hike came in December of that year), plenty of panicked investors sold (despite my advice at the time):

Short-Term Rate Fears …

What this chart really meant is that these short-term panickers gave patient investors a great buying opportunity, as the next chart shows:

… Set Up Longer-Term Gains

But the folks who sold right around the time of the first rate cut missed out because they feared the Fed.… Read more

Your 2% bonds are going to make you broke. You need to buy these safe, higher paying dividends instead.

We’ll get to these “real yields” (up to 9.3%!) in a moment. First, let’s recap. Treasury yields just took their biggest bath in weeks, sending the 10-year T-note to 2%. Less than a year ago, the 10-year was flirting with (a not exactly nosebleed) 3%.

And now that Fed chair Jay Powell has fallen in love with the doves (whether by choice or by force), he’s going to keep rates low for a long time. Which means bonds will have no place in a retirement portfolio geared towards income.… Read more

There’s a very easy (and costly) mistake you can make when picking funds. And plenty of folks make it every day.

These investors run up on the rocks because this error looks like a good idea, until you dig just a little bit deeper.

Today I’m going to show you exactly what this mistake is and reveal three laggard funds that just might tempt you into making it. The worst part? They don’t even pay you a dividend for your trouble!

First, the mistake itself: I’m talking about choosing a fund because it has one big winner in its portfolio.

Sound like nonsense?… Read more

Be careful how you buy your bonds. The most popular tickers have a few “fatal flaws” that’ll doom you to underperformance at best, or leave you hanging in the event of a market meltdown at worst!

Let’s pick on the widely followed and owned iShares iBoxx High Yield Corporate Bond ETF (HYG) as an example. It has attracted $15 billion in assets because:

1. It’s convenient – as easy to buy as a stock.
2. It’s diversified (for better or worse, as we’ll see shortly) with 981 individual holdings.
3. It pays–5.6% today, to be specific.

The accessibility of funds like HYG appears cute and comfortable enough.… Read more

If you’re sitting in “dead money” Treasuries and CDs, the dawn of a new round of interest-rate cuts is probably the last thing you want to hear.

Since Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s “pivot” on rates in early January, the yield on the 10-year Treasury has plunged, from 2.7% to 2.0%.

So if you put a million bucks in Treasuries at the start of the year, you’d be banking $26,900 in income. That’s pathetic enough for a seven-figure nest egg!

But fast-forward just six months, and your mil fetches you far less: just $20,100.

Powell Will Spark a Stampede Into These 8% Dividends

With Treasury rates collapsing and the stock market soaring—driving S&P 500 dividend yields down to a lame 1.7%—there are few places for income-seekers to turn.… Read more

Let’s face it: you hardly ever get decent income from commodity stocks. And when you do, these payouts are usually first to get the axe next time, say, oil nosedives.

And with oil doing this…

Oil Falls—Oil Companies’ Profits to Follow

… you may worry that it’s about to get harder to squeeze income out of oil companies.

Still, if you’re worried about inflation or the Federal Reserve distorting markets, or if you just want to hedge your stock portfolio, you’ll likely turn to commodities at some point. And there’s no more established inflation hedge than gold.

There’s just one problem: gold doesn’t produce anything.… Read more

Seven percent dividends.

That’s what my 18 favorite stocks and funds yield on average in my “No Withdrawal” Retirement Portfolio. And it’s that very yield that gives the critically-acclaimed portfolio its name. Investors collect so much income every month that they don’t need to pull out their nest egg to make ends meet.

The regular dividend checks pay the regular bills.

That yield, by the way, was higher just a few months ago, but as prices go up, yields go down … and prices across the portfolio have been going up, up, up!

That’s no happy accident—that’s a vital component to a successful retirement portfolio that many advisors and financial pundits too often miss.… Read more

Today I’m going to give you a strategy—and a strong 6.5%-yielding fund—that both shine when the market throws a tantrum.

And both are way better than what most people do when things get rough: cash in.

Many studies have shown that trying to time the market simply doesn’t work. And even if you did have the superhuman ability to get in and out perfectly, you’d still underperform a buy-and-hold approach. Thanks to compound interest, keeping skin in the game is more important than trying to save your skin.

Options: Your (Surprising) Friend When Markets Roil

Instead of fruitlessly trying to time the market, we’re going to do something that actually works (and takes far less effort!).… Read more