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

This market wipeout has one big silver lining for income investors like you and me: dividend yields are soaring—and today we’re going to tap four of my favorite stocks for payouts all the way up to 8.9%.

First, though, to see just how incredible this buying opportunity is, look no further than the Vanguard REIT ETF (VNQ), the benchmark ETF for real estate investment trusts (REITs).

If you logged into your investment account now and simply bought VNQ, you’d kick-start a nice 4.8% income stream. The ETF has only shelled out a payout that big on two other occasions—and only very briefly—in the last 10 years.… Read more

Forget the 2018 market drop—because it’s handed us a golden opportunity to grab some double-digit “bounce-back” gains as 2019 rolls out.

I’ll tell you why I’m so excited about the year ahead in a moment. Then I’ll give you eight cheap funds set to arc higher as we move through 2019.

The kicker? Not only are these eight funds poised for big gains in the next 12 months, they throw off incredible dividend yields up to 12.6%, too!

Putting 2018 in Context

First, back to last year’s return, which came in at negative 6.1%, including dividends.

The first bit of good news here is that despite their decline, US stocks still led the rest of the world.… Read more

If the market’s resolution for the new year was to start with a clean slate and forget about the worries that piled up toward the end of 2018, that plan lasted fewer than two days.

Sure, traders bought into a sharply lower open on Wednesday and U.S. stocks actually ended with small gains.

However, after the close of the first trading session of 2019, Apple (AAPL) shocked investors with a revenue warning for the first time since 2002.

China Trade Talks Loom

The main reason that Apple cited for the lower quarterly sales was lower iPhone demand in China, heightened by tariffs and other trade issues.… Read more

What good is a 2% or 3% annual yield if you can lose it in a single trading session?

The Nasdaq and Russell 2000 are officially in bear markets, which means they’re down 20% from their peak. But bear markets don’t have to stop at 20%.

They can just keep on collapsing. And the weakest links can fall much, much farther than 20%.

In fact, they often do. Just take a look below at the 444 S&P 500 components that were part of the index during the 2007-09 selloff. Only a handful fell even close to the bear-market minimum.

Meanwhile, almost a quarter hemorrhaged 70% of their value or more!… Read more

Since launching my CEF Insider service in early 2017, the picks I’ve given subscribers have outperformed the broader CEF market—even through the recent market volatility that’s caused just about everything to go down.

The key to this performance is a process of analysis and selection that is both complicated and straightforward. I have a checklist of 52 points I go through to choose the right fund. I apply these one by one, first using some of the broader points to screen funds, then zooming in closer, using more complex analysis to bring you my very best buys.

While it’d take a long time to go through that entire checklist, I want to share with you a five-point system that I use as a springboard for picking winning CEFs for CEF Insider.… Read more

Thanks to the December selloff, it’s relatively easy to find 9% yields. The stock market was a relentlessly receding tide in the fourth quarter, which is bad for “buy and hope” investors but quite helpful for income specialists like us.

Let’s look first at real estate investment trusts (REITs). Many now pay 9% – some good, some bad. The main index Vanguard Real Estate ETF (VNQ) has only paid this much (4.9%) twice before in the past ten years:

VNQ Is Rarely This Generous

By cherry picking the lot we can find 49 stocks paying 9% or more. But we should avoid names like Government Properties Income Trust (GOV), which frequently pops up on cute recession-proof dividend lists.… Read more

What if I told you there’s a way you can buy your favorite blue chips and get a dividend 5 times bigger than what your typical S&P 500 name pays today?

Let’s be honest: with an income stream like that, backed by popular names like cigarette maker Altria Group (MO), telco Verizon (VZ) and even Google, now known as Alphabet (GOOGL)—more on these three stocks below—you’d leap at the chance, right?

The truth is, you’d be crazy not to.

Well, now you can. And today I’m going to show you exactly how to do it—and 1 fund yielding 9.8% to get you there instantly.… Read more

Today I’m going to show you how to get a livable income stream from a $300,000 nest egg—while growing your savings at the same time.

Sounds impossible, right?

Wrong.

What’s more, we’re going to pull it off using just six funds. When we’re done, we’ll end up with a simple, diversified portfolio that throws off an amazing, steady 10.4% dividend yield—more than five times the S&P 500 average!

And if you’re worried that this outsized yield could come at the cost of a weak total return, don’t be, because these funds have delivered 12% per year over the past decade.… Read more

Today we’re going to talk about the single biggest risk you face in your golden years.

But don’t worry—I’ll also show you how to clobber that risk and set yourself up for an easy $40,000 in cash in every year of your retirement. More on that below.

First, the risk I’m talking about is the very real chance you’ll outlive your nest egg. Because a sweeping study says you could be very wrong about the length of your retirement.

A Hidden Danger

Here’s what the numbers say: in 1992, the University of Michigan asked 26,000 Americans 50 years of age and older how long they thought they’d live.… Read more