An old stock market adage suggests that investors “Sell in May and go away”. The first part of that saying held true, at least for the first couple of days of the new month.

The move was likely driven by profit-taking, as the S&P 500 index ended April, closing Tuesday at a record high. The FOMC also poured some water on the rally Wednesday, as comments with the latest interest rate decision talked down expectations for an interest rate cut.

On the other hand, Friday’s April jobs report was a win for the bulls. The U.S. economy added 263,000 non-farm payrolls in the month, which was well ahead of the estimate of 190,000.… Read more

We retirees and soon-to-be retirees have a dilemma. The traditional pension is just about gone. Social Security won’t support the lifestyle most of us want. We are left to our own devices.

But even if we do build up a fat balance in a 401(k) or other company retirement plan, how do we make it last? Especially when the bank pays “zero point nothing.” Today, you can’t find anything that pays significant “interest.”

This is becoming a crisis in the US. We are told that stocks provide the best returns over the long term, but retirees need income now. Most retirement investors prefer dividend income to long-term gains, but yields haven’t been this low in decades!… Read more

When it comes to stocks, it takes a strong stomach to bet against the crowd. But the truth is, you can pull in big profits doing just that.

Today I’m going to show you how to push straight through the hype and peer pressure—and cash in.

It’s easy to see how shunning the crowd pays off. Look back at December, the darkest point of last fall’s meltdown. That’s when I recommended ignoring the crash completely and focusing on the gains at hand. This went double if you bought stocks through 7%+-yielding closed-end funds (CEFs).

What happened next? A fast 18% profit:

Savvy Contrarians Hit Paydirt

Fast-forward to today, and we contrarians are in a tough spot: the market’s floating higher, and the party appears to be back on.… Read more

Got $100,000 sitting in cash? Here’s how I’d double is ASAP with safe dividend stocks.

Option 1: “Grind it higher” with cash flow. Put the money into stocks and funds paying current yields of 7.3% and grab a little bit of upside to boot.

Option 2: Double it in four or five years (turn $100,000 into $200,000!) thanks to yearly total returns of 16.3%.

You choose. The “buy and hope” obsessed folks on Wall Street provide us with these two free lunch options. However, this isn’t an entire buffet! We must choose course one or course two.

So, let’s first figure out how much of a yearly “dividend salary” we’re looking for from this pile of money.… Read more

I’m worried about this levitating market. And today I’m going to show you why you need to keep a close watch on your nest egg (and your dividends), too.

Then we’ll dive into my personal plan for preparing for the next market rout. Here’s what sets my strategy apart: we’ll grow your nest egg and your dividend income while building in the downside protection you’ll need in the months ahead.

(I know that sounds contradictory, but I assure you it’s true. I’ll explain.)

A “Groundhog Day” Market

My worry is rooted in one date: January 26, 2018. That’s when stocks first broached today’s levels.… Read more

Something very weird is happening with high-yield closed-end funds (CEFs): many of them are ridiculously cheap, despite soaring double-digits this year.

(And when I say these are “high-yield” funds, I mean it: nearly all of the five funds I’ll show you shortly yield 7% and up!)

I know that sounds impossible: a big run-up and a bargain in one buy?

It’s true—and it’s the beauty of CEFs: unlike with mutual funds and ETFs, CEFs’ market prices can swing massively from the net asset value (NAV) of their portfolios. That’s because investors often ignore CEFs and fail to bid them up to what they’d be worth if they were liquidated tomorrow.… Read more

The Nasdaq Composite and S&P 500 indexes set new record highs on Tuesday, as first-quarter earnings continued to exceed low expectations this week. The rally this week completed a sharp 25% comeback in the S&P 500 that started when U.S. markets bottomed during the last week of December.

There was strong economic data reported in the U.S. this week, highlighted by a blowout first-quarter GDP reading on Friday. We experienced 3.2% growth in the domestic economy last quarter, which smashed the estimate of 2.5%.

New home sales were another beacon of light on Tuesday, showing a 3% increase for March. The print exceeded expectations and marked the highest level in 17 months.… Read more

The S&P 500 has just set new all-time highs, and so has the Nasdaq. It’s no coincidence that stocks are back to historically high valuations, and yields have been flattened back to historically low levels.

If you’re an income hunter, you know it’s a difficult time. I’m here to tell you that it’s a dangerous time, too.

Buy High and… Sell Higher?


Source: Multpl.com

Tight income environments like this make dividend investors “reach for yield” at their own peril. They forget that a stock’s yield is only as good as its cash flow because, after all, a dividend is nothing more than a promise from a company.… Read more

It’s easy to see why investors love utilities:

1. Low volatility
2. High yields

But there’s a problem: recent scares like the inverted yield curve mean some utilities, and utility funds, have gotten ahead of themselves and are more prone to a pullback than most folks think. (The three 7%+-yielding closed-end funds (CEFs) I’ll show you shortly top this “overpriced” list.)

The worst part is, many people think utilities are underbought, because the benchmark Utilities Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLU) is up 8.3% year-to-date, half the 16% gain of the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY).

But that’s recency bias. Stretch the timeline to 12 months and things look very different:

Utilities Get Pricey

Interest-Rate Pause Should Boost Utilities.… Read more

As investors near retirement, they tend to favor bonds, which provide income and less drama than stocks. However, less drama means less potential upside. With retirees living longer than ever before—which means much more time for inflation to eat away at your nest egg’s purchasing power—it’s important to not go too conservative too early in life. And fortunately, today even 65 or 70 may be too early!

One suggested solution for our long life expectancy “problem” is to stay with stocks longer. But stocks can go down as well as up, and a big pullback can inflict permanent damage on a portfolio.… Read more