It’s a pitfall that can slash your income and your nest egg overnight—and this hidden trap is particularly dangerous to your financial health right now.

I’m talking about a snap dividend cut, something poor folks still sitting on General Electric (GE) shares learned again last week, when the stock tanked 9% in a single day after GE slashed its quarterly payout 92%—to a token penny.

The sad part is, anyone could have seen this massacre coming for miles.

All you had to do was look at GE’s cash flow, which kept staggering after the company sideswiped investors with a 50% dividend cut a year ago.… Read more

If you’re still fearful about stocks as we pick up the pieces from the market’s grim October, let me ease your mind with one chart:

Stocks Still a Long-Term Winner

As you can see, that’s the market’s return over the last 10 years. As you can also see, stocks have returned nearly 2.5 times a person’s original investment in just a decade! Few other investments can make that claim.

The real problem? Income.

The average S&P 500 stock pays a lousy 1.9%, but let’s say you need 8% of your portfolio in monthly income to pay your bills in retirement. If you buy the popular SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) and withdraw 8% monthly, you’ll be forced to sell in a falling market like the one we’ve seen.… Read more

When it comes to dividends, any stock yielding more than 10% these days needs to be taken with a grain of salt. That’s because bigger isn’t usually better when you’re talking about dividend yields.

Any income investment can be priced relative to government interest rates, currently between 2% and 3%, depending on how much extra risk you’re willing to take on. Historically-speaking, any time a stock is paying more than seven percentage points above the AAA-rated, government-secured debt, investors begin to worry if the dividend could be cut.

However, following the 7% loss suffered by the S&P 500 in October, more stocks are sporting a double-digit yield that at any other point in 2018.… Read more

From what I hear from readers these days, a lot of people out there are compulsively clicking the “refresh” button, living in fear of the next 500+-point drop in the Dow.

But is now the time to actually start panicking?

We’re going to dive into that question today. I’ll also reveal 1 fund that protects your nest egg with a unique form of “insurance” while handing you a huge 7.5% cash payout.

More on this lifesaving “pullback-proof” dividend a little further on. First, we need to talk about …

Why the Pundits Are Wrong (Again)

The market wipeout has had one extra element that’s added even more terror: dire warnings from the semiconductor industry, which sent Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Texas Instruments (TXN) and Nvidia (NVDA) into free-fall and badly beat up the benchmark VanEck Vectors Semiconductor ETF (SMH).… Read more

Don’t be tricked by these manic markets. Let’s use this opportunity to “lock in” some inexpensive 7.7% dividend treats.

You probably know the mistake that most basic investors make. They fixate on the wrong charts and the wrong tickers. For example most “buy and hope” types are bemoaning the stock market’s near-10% correction:

Rocky Times for Buy and Hope Investors

Meanwhile savvier shareholders are focusing on dividend disparities like this one from Omega Healthcare Investors (OHI). The healthcare REIT (real estate investment trust) yields 7.8% today, which is more than four times what the slumping S&P 500 pays!

Four Times the Dividend Yield

OHI investors might not even realize that the markets are down.… Read more

What if you could lock in a 7.7% gain year in and year out, and get it all in cash, no matter what the S&P 500 does?

With the market’s paper gains for 2018 now mostly gone, no thanks to the correction, I’m guessing this would have a lot of appeal. So today, I’m going to show you 2 “pullback-proof” dividends paying 5.4% and 7.7%, with plenty of price upside ahead, too.

Thanks to the pullback, these two are perfect for buying now and sitting on forever (or at least a few decades). More on them in a moment.

How to Beat Fear and Get Rich From the Pullback

First, if the daily barrage of negative headlines has you pondering bailing out on stocks, stick with me for a second, because that’s the worst thing you could do now.… Read more

If you’re like most people, you probably think it’s tough to find a fund that’s had a great 2018, especially since recent volatility has brought pessimism back in vogue.

But you’d be wrong.

Truth is, a lot of funds are doing well, with over 400 up nearly 5% or more so far on the year. The top performers share 3 common themes that could tell us a lot about which sectors are poised to take off next year.

Let’s dig in. Along the way, we’ll hone in on 13 funds cashing in as these breakthrough trends head higher.

Trend No. 1: A Return to Healthcare (5 Funds)

Investors tend to get scared of healthcare and biosciences stocks during times of broader market unease, but every once in a while they ignore the panic and focus on the lifesaving innovations this sector can provide.… Read more

This bull market is ten years old and stocks at large are richly valued. No wonder the last few weeks have been scary for some, who haven’t seen a real bear market in a very long time. Should we take our cue from the recent pullback to sell some positions, hunker down in cash and “wait things out” for a bit?

Absolutely not. First, it’s very difficult (and really, impossible) to know when it’s time to “get back into stocks.” Hulbert Financial recently ran the numbers for Barron’s on the advisors it monitors. It focused on the best “peak market timers” – the gurus who correctly forecasted the bursting of the Internet bubble in March 2000 and the Great Recession in October 2007.… Read more

Another one bites the dust.

That’s what I thought when I saw earlier this month that Sears Holdings (SHLD) was throwing in the towel and filing for bankruptcy.

The news was not too surprising for anyone that’s been following the retail sector, but with nearly 200 Sears and KMart stores that are now slated to close, it could be the blow that knocks some mall REIT dividends to the mat for a 10-count.

That’s because in addition to Sears, Mattress Firm, Brookstone, Claire’s and Bon-Ton are just a few of the retailers that also went under in 2018.

The mall was already on life support before Amazon.com… Read more

In a recent survey of CEF Insider readers, a few asked me whether I prefer equity or debt closed-end funds (CEFs) and why.

It’s an intriguing question because the two fund types act very differently. So let’s dive into these differences, and the benefits both breeds offer, so you’ll know which fits best in your portfolio now.

Equity Vs. Debt Funds

Put simply, an equity CEF has more than half its assets in stocks, while a debt CEF has more than half its assets in debts—usually corporate bonds, junk bonds or municipal bonds. Sometimes the lines get blurred, like with convertible-bond funds that also buy stocks.… Read more