Today I’m doing something unusual: I’m changing my call on a popular closed-end fund (CEF).

Why?

Because this fund has gone on sale, and it’s just too good of a deal to overlook. If history is any guide—and with this fund it almost always is—it’s in for some nice upside very soon. In the meantime, buyers will grab a hefty and safe 10.9% cash dividend!

So if you dropped, say, $100k into this fund tomorrow, you’d get nearly 11% of your investment back—in cash—just one year from now (and I should also mention that it pays dividends monthly, too).… Read more

Just because you’re a dividend investor doesn’t mean you’re fated to “grind out” income 3% and 4% at a time. With a slight change to your current (dare I say pedestrian?) strategy, you can keep your dividends and enjoy 81% to 437% price upside or more.

These types of life-changing returns are easily achievable within a few years. You just need to employ the “ultimate contrarian dividend strategy” – and buy select born again payouts.

The strategy is two-fold:

1. Find the stocks with rock-bottom sentiment around them, and
2. Only buy them when a cheery outlook is guaranteed.

First, Find Firms Burdened With This “Stigma”

Contrarian investing works because it capitalizes on over-negative sentiment to find value.… Read more

When investors look for dividends, they usually think about blue-chip names that are just as common on Main Street as they are on Wall Street. However, there are a large number of single-digit stocks flying under the market’s radar that also offer attractive yields.

Individual investors tend to gravitate toward stocks trading under $10 for multiple reasons. For one, it can psychologically feel more powerful to buy 100 shares of a company trading for $7 than just seven shares of a $100 name.

While both investments are just as likely to generate attractive returns over time, low-dollar stocks have historically proven to be more volatile.… Read more

I saw an interesting tweet the other day—someone commenting on how lots of people have no qualms racking up $100,000 in debt to get a university degree but think putting $5,000 into the stock market is too risky.

The foolishness of this thinking is evident to anyone familiar with the stock market. Five-thousand dollars in a bland S&P 500 index fund like the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) would now be worth $12,175 after just a decade. That’s a lot of money to give up on just because of fear!

And don’t be fooled: this kind of thinking isn’t prudence. It’s fear.… Read more

The stock market’s up, so yields are down. And while there are still some generous payers available, be careful – some are paper tigers that will probably suffer this year.

That’s exactly the danger that’s facing four enticing high-yielders (yielding up to 20%!) that I’ll discuss with you shortly.

Since stock prices generally follow their payouts higher, it’s important to remember the opposite also happens. When dividends get cut, shares get crushed.

I’ve warned readers about Frontier Communications (FTR) and its dangerous dividend for years now. Hopefully investors listened to me, because those that didn’t lost “two ways” – they lost their yield and they lost their capital:

The Danger of Dividend Cuts

Frontier’s 2017 dividend cut – as well as its 2018 dividend suspension – are just one cautionary tale.… Read more

Last week, I showed you a smart monthly income strategy that hands you $3,333 a month on a $500k investment—all in dividends alone.

This easy monthly dividend setup works out to an average 8% yield (or $40,000 a year on our $500k) paid out to you every 30 days like clockwork.

I think you’ll agree this is plenty of cash for many people to clock out on. So today we’re going to talk growth.

Because our $3,333-a-month “8% strategy” already crushes Wall Street’s flawed 4% rule. You know the one: it recommends that you draw down 4% of your nest egg a year by selling stocks to supplement your dividend income.… Read more

Today I’m going to take you inside the most disrespected, criticized, lambasted and just plain ignored investments on the market today.

Why would I do that?

Simple. Because if you’re not as rich as you’d like to be, these unloved income plays are the perfect way to get you there.

I’m talking about closed-end funds (CEFs), a group of investments that, with a bit of effort (which I’m happy to put in for you) can hand you big, fast upside, safe cash dividends of 8% and higher—or both.

So why do so many investors see CEFs as perennial money losers?… Read more

If you feel trapped “grinding out” dividend income with popular 2% and 3% stocks and funds, here’s the three-letter acronym that will fund your retirement:

C-E-F

For whatever reason, closed-end funds don’t have nearly the following – or analyst paperazzi – that dividend-paying stocks boast. This “secret” is one of the last great efficiencies in an otherwise tough-to-beat market.

And we contrarian income hounds will gladly take this edge…

After all, it doesn’t make much sense that we can trade in our “dumb” stocks, ETFs and mutual funds for superior tickers that:

• Yield 6%, 7%, 8% or more,
• Pay their investors every month,
• Often trade at a discount to the assets they each own, and
• Are managed for free (I’ll explain more later) by a top-notch investment manager.

The yield on the benchmark, 10-year U.S. Treasury note has moved above 3% in May, which is the highest it’s been since 2011.

This is notable to REIT investors for multiple reasons. First, higher interest rates (both short-term and long-term) mean that bank CD’s and other lower-risk income investments are offering higher competitive yields.

Of equal note, is the fact that rising long-term interest rates are now factoring into higher discount rates for fundamental valuation models. In other words, investors will now require higher dividends to justify current valuations and be compensated for the rise in rates.

I believe that investors consistently reward growth in stocks, even with more income-oriented groups like REITs.… Read more

It’s a piece of advice so common I’m sure you’ve heard it a million times. Too bad it’s dead wrong.

I’m talking about the so-called “wisdom” that index funds always beat funds with real, live human managers.

Before I get into why it’s wrong—and show you 10 smartly run funds that easily beat their ETF cousins (while dropping an unheard-of 7.5% average dividend into our laps)—let me explain the problem here.

First, I should say that there are cases where index investing makes sense. If you’re 20 years old and you’re putting 10% of your income into a retirement fund, planning to retire when you’re 60 and won’t touch your savings till then, index investing may work for you.… Read more