The Dow Jones Industrial Average emerged from correction territory this week, as investors applauded earnings in the financial sector. At the same time, markets chose to ignore the now record-long U.S. government shutdown and ongoing Brexit saga in the U.K.

Financials Start Earnings Season On Positive Note

Bank of America (BAC), Citigroup (C) and Goldman Sachs (GS) all traded higher this week, after posting solid quarterly results. The earnings news was not all rosy however, as Morgan Stanley (MS) fell short of expectations on Thursday. Outside of the financial sector, Ford Motor (F) also cut profit expectations this week.

As the following chart shows, quarterly reporting activity will continue to pick up next week and the floodgates really open in February.… Read more

Think you can’t retire on anything less than a million bucks?

Many people would answer that question with a “yes.” If you’re one of them, I have great news: the “million-dollar myth” is just that, a myth.

I’ll tell you why in a second. Then I’ll reveal 4 buys throwing off a safe cash dividend yielding 8.5%—letting you fund your golden years on a lot less.

(These 4 are the tip of the iceberg, by the way. At the very end of this article, I’ll give you 20 more retirement lifesavers paying gaudy 8% average dividends, as well!)

A Million-Dollar Retirement … on $470K!?… Read more

One of the silliest doom-and-gloom stories you’ll hear these days is how we’re all going to be destroyed by debt. It’s just plain wrong—and letting this fear win could mean a crippling blow to your nest egg this year and beyond.

In fact, it’s already caused one group of investors to miss out on a massive 265% return, as I’ll explain below.

Getting Half the Story

The easiest way to understand how the debt terror works is to bring it down to a single example. I like to use Mark Zuckerberg.

Back in 2012, Zuckerberg got a mortgage for about $6 million.… Read more

Eric Ervin was making his wealthy client so much money that he suggested: “Hey, why don’t you just quit your job?”

The investor saw the opportunity to scale Eric’s “secret strategy” – and he wanted to help fund a new venture to bring this brilliance to the financial masses!

Both guys knew the power of dividend growth investing. But Eric’s second-level insight is what made them both a boatload of cash. He figured out a way to bet purely on the higher payouts – as close to a “sure thing” as you’ll ever see in stocks. Here’s what I mean.

Blue chip stocks tend to raise their dividends every year.… Read more

The “Dogs of the Dow” is one of the simplest, most well-known dividend strategies on Wall Street. And investors who choose to jump in during 2019 will be shooting for their fifth straight year of market-beating returns.

Of course, by being a little more selective, you and I can beat even the Dogs – just like we did last year!

A quick refresher: The “Dogs of the Dow” strategy involves buying the 10 highest-yielding stocks in the 30-component Dow Jones Industrial Average at the start of the year. The idea is that when you buy blue-chip stocks, high relative yields are actually signal value.… Read more

It’s a proven way to get in on a closed-end fund (CEF) before its next huge surge: watch for the managers to buy shares of the fund with their own cash—then dive in right alongside them.

I’m telling you this now because one of the smartest minds on Wall Street just dumped a pile of his own money—$2.6 million, to be precise—into one of the funds he personally manages.

Such a brazen move by an insider is one of my favorite buy signals. Today I’m going to reveal both the investor and the 7.1%-yielding fund he just snapped up. Of course, we’ll also cover the many reasons why you should seriously consider copying his canny move now.… Read more

Investors stepped in this week to do some value shopping, leading to the longest winning streak for the S&P 500 since last September.

The minutes from the December FOMC meeting were released on Wednesday, suggesting a more patient outlook for future interest rate increases. In fact, Fed funds futures are now pricing in just a 19.2% probability of an interest rate hike in 2019, compared with a 10.4% chance of a rate cut.

According to Bespoke Investment Group, energy names and other cyclical groups have been behind the market’s recent winning streak, which are precisely the names that were a drag in 2019.… Read more

It’s a pearl of investment wisdom that’s been around for 100+ years. You’ve probably heard it over and over again.

It goes like this: if you want to make money in stocks, you must buy companies with unforgettable household names.

Too bad this “wisdom” is a relic of the past—so much so that it can actually kill your profits! I’ll show you why now, and give you four big names you should avoid, or sell if you hold them.

Then we’ll move on to two much better buys—off-the-radar companies that have been quietly handing their shareholders big price gains and massive dividend hikes that put their “cool kid” cousins to shame.… Read more

It sounds hard to believe, but sometimes a dividend hike can be dangerous. In fact, when it comes to closed-end funds (CEFs), sometimes the worst thing you can see is a fund with a generous payout, a very high yield and a history of dividend increases.

It’s true!

And today I’m going to show you how this tough-to-spot CEF trap can slash your payouts (and your nest egg). Then we’ll dive into one fund that looks like a healthy dividend grower—but is, in fact, anything but.

A Hidden Danger

Make no mistake: the hazard I’m going to show you now is real.… Read more

If you’re like many income investors I hear from, you’re probably worried that 2019 is already shaping up to be a repeat of 2008. The media doesn’t help – the talking heads like to conjure up fear because it draws eyeballs to the TV screen and clicks to Internet articles.

But what if they’re right? In a moment we’ll discuss the safest dividends for a serious pullback.

First, let me calm you down and add that a 2008 rerun is not our most likely scenario. As generals tend to fight the last war, investors tend to fear the last bear market.… Read more