The average American can’t afford to retire.

At the moment, the median balance among those 65 and older is $58,035, according to CNBC.  Averaged over a 20-year period, that’s only $2,901.75 a year. Worse, the median private pension is $9,376.  Social security averaged just over $1,400 a month in 2018.

You’d be hard pressed to find anyone that can live on that.

What makes the situation far more difficult is the state of the stock market.

It’s not as if you can depend on your average stock anymore.

With the trade war escalating, it’s been a confusing time for investors.

Contradictory claims from both sides have given way to extreme optimism, and pure grief when all goes south. … Read more

Are you worried you’ll make the wrong call in this gyrating market? It’s a reasonable fear, with the Dow heading up 200 points one day and down 600 the next—and dark trade-war headlines piling up daily.

But sitting in cash is even more dangerous! Because your stuffed mattress is at the whim of inflation—and that slow cash drain leaves you at a real risk of outliving your money in retirement!

So today I’m going to share where my models see this market heading. Plus I’ll reveal one weird fund that sets you up for double-digit upside and a huge 7.1% dividend, too.… Read more

“There it is – Freddo’s Ice Cream. It should be right next door,” I half-heartedly explained to my wife.

And with feigned confidence, I added, “I’ll be right back.”

I crossed the street once, then again… and walked up toward this monolith:

I didn’t see a teller window, so I walked around into the ice cream shop. Maybe that was the entrance.

Nope, just a wall. So I circled back, and the door on the left “buzzed” at me. I tried to pull it open—to no avail.

It buzzed again. I tried pushing this time, and it opened. Inside there were two teller windows, both guarded by bulletproof glass.… Read more

Are you worried that you’re going to outlive your money? It’s a fair concern with interest rates low and heading lower.

To put it bluntly, many well-off retirees are at serious risk of having to pick up a “side hustle” to avoid dying broke. Passive income in the popular retirement “go-tos” is simply no help today, as the average S&P 500 stock pays a skimpy 1.9% now. Ten-year Treasuries? Even worse, at just 1.5%.

So unless you’ve got $2.1 million laying around to invest in the typical blue chip stock—enough to get you a $40,000 annual dividend stream—you’ll likely have to sell some of your stocks to supplement your dividend income.… Read more

Today I’m going to show you nothing less than a “dividend unicorn”: a closed-end fund (CEF) yielding 8.8% that’s raised its payout 24% in just the last six months. (And yes, it’s primed for many more hikes, too.)

Get this: because of the weirdness of the CEF market, this cash machine is still cheap today—trading at 13% off its “retail” price!

Let’s dive in.

I’m talking about the PGIM High Yield Bond Fund (ISD). It’s a smaller CEF (with just $552 million in assets). That small size helps set up our chance to buy cheap—and I’ll say more about why this deal exists in just a moment.… Read more

“I did read that. I thought about you, B.O.”

While other people may be known for their hobbies, or their families, my publisher thought of me when a Vanguard fund re-opened!

I’ve yapped about the Vanguard Dividend Growth Fund (VDIGX) before. I rarely mention (let alone endorse!) mutual funds. But VDIGX is notable for two reasons:

1. I plow 100% of my 401(K) contributions into this fund, and
2. It’s a pretty good option as far as retirement plans go.

Why this fund? Because in my “Brett Inc.” company plan, I have a set list of Vanguard funds to choose from. This is “set and forget” money so my goal is to maximize long-term returns.… Read more

Quite often, investors come into the market with the false perception that making money is a guarantee.

However, many learn the hard way that’s not often the case.

That’s because they come into the market without a game plan.

And as any investor will tell you, that’s a bad idea — especially in today’s volatile market.

In fact, with markets saturated with fear over the trade war, and with an inverted yield curve pointing to a recession, you must have a plan.  After all, if you fail to plan ahead, you plan to fail.

If you want to do well in a fear-based market, plan ahead like a billionaire.… Read more

Forget the trade war noise. Here’s the only thing you need to know: if you’d bulked up your stock holdings on any of the dips we’ve seen in the last four years, you’d be a lot richer today.

Buying the Dip Amplifies a 65% Gain

The reason for the market’s “one step back, two steps ahead” pattern is simple: despite the interest rate- and trade-driven terror, corporate profits and sales are rising (as are workers’ wages), and unemployment is low.

In other words, the US economy is solid—and it’s stayed solid through every short-term crisis of the last few years. So now we have another pullback that’s given us another chance to amplify our upside.… Read more

Should we income investors buy any bonds right now? Bond prices have rallied, but the rear view mirror doesn’t help any new money we’re putting to work right now. Meanwhile interest rates are tanking, which tends to defeat the point of purchasing fixed income in the first place.

But, stocks are on a roller coaster ride. If you’re getting a bit nauseous with the violent day-to-day swings, you may appreciate a little stability to balance out your portfolio.

Whether you’re looking for dividends, sanity, or both, you’ve come to the right column. Let’s take a spin around Bondland and rank ‘em worst to first.… Read more

Here’s the funny thing about the inverted-yield-curve talk we’re getting hit with lately: most people are looking at the wrong numbers!

I’m going to show you how we savvy dividend investors can jump on this mistake to bag total returns of 69% and up—fast. First, here’s what I mean when I say investors are looking at the wrong numbers.

These days, all we hear about is the yield-curve inversion we’ve seen a couple times over the last few weeks, where the yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell below that of the 2-year.

It’s certainly worth paying attention to, because the inversion of the 10- and 2-year Treasury yields does predict recessions—though the timeline tends to be around 18 months and maybe even longer than that.… Read more