Groucho Marx famously said: “I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member.”

When it comes to dividends, the 10% Club isn’t usually a badge of honor either. That’s because bigger isn’t usually better when you’re talking about dividend yields.

The FOMC has targeted short-term rates of between 1.75% to 2.00% in the U.S. and the yield on the benchmark 10-year note is hovering around 3%. Almost any other income investment can be priced based off these rates, 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 question if the dividend is sustainable.… Read more

Lazy financial writers like to say that higher bond yields will hurt dividend stocks. This blanket statement may sound reasonable, but it’ll cost you money if you take it at face value.

Pundits have called sleepy dividend stocks like General Mills (GIS) “bond proxies” in recent years. GIS has paid 3% (more or less) over the last three years. That compared favorably with the 10-year note, which paid 2% (more or less) over that time period.

So, the story goes, investors had been buying stocks like GIS instead of safe bonds like Treasuries to scrape an extra 1% or so. But with Treasuries rallying to 3%, these same investors have “demanded” a higher yield from GIS.… Read more

When it comes to investing, too many folks ignore the signal and listen to the noise.

Case in point: one of the biggest stories of 2018—a looming trade war between America and China. Lately, the story has mutated into one about a trade war between America and, well, just about everyone—Europe, Asia, Mexico, even Canada!

But this trade war is noise—2018 has been a great year for stocks, and it’s going to get even better. Further on, I’ll give you a couple great ways to cash in.

First, a look at the facts, which are plain for everyone to see … and they clearly prove the naysayers wrong.… Read more

Most “high bracket” investors love the idea of tax-free muni bonds. But they aren’t sure where to buy them, and often end up using exchange traded funds (ETFs) as their vehicle of choice.

Bad idea.

Muni ETFs provide a smooth but unfulfilling ride. The popular iShares National Muni Bond ETF (MUB) for example has rewarded its investors with a drama-free decade. Prescient investors who foresaw the big crash of 2008 and piled into munis saved themselves a year of heartburn and earned $50,000 in Federal tax-free income on every $100,000 they saved from stocks:

MUB is Steady, But Unspectacular

Stocks, as usual, were better over the long run.… Read more

What if I told you there’s a way you can buy your favorite blue chips and get a dividend up to 6 times bigger than what these stocks pay today?

Let’s be honest: with an income stream like that, backed by household names like Pfizer (PFE) and AT&T (T)—more on these two 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 2 quick moves to get you there instantly.

Like Buying Cheap in 2009 … and Knowing What Happens Next

Funny thing is, for a brief, shining moment in the not-so-distant past (early March 2009), many blue chips actually did deliver payouts of 7%, 10% and more.… Read more

I don’t want to alarm you, but if you’ve got a lot of cash sitting on the sidelines right now, you’re about to miss out on a double-digit stock-market gain in the next 6 months.

In a moment, I’ll show you 5 funds you can buy today to lock in these quick, life-changing profits (and dividend payouts, too). To make it even easier for you, I’ve ranked these 5 popular buys from worst to first.

But first, let me tell you what I’m basing this bold prediction on. The story starts in early February of this year.

You no doubt recall those wild days: after a sharp run-up in stocks in January, which itself was on the heels of a 23% gain for the S&P 500 in 2017, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) suddenly did this:

A Nosedive

Panic was in the air—so much so that I was getting calls from worried family and friends asking me what was causing the selloff and what it meant for their retirements (I wrote about that in this article).… Read more

When most investors hear about a momentum stock, they expect to see a chart with multiple zig-zagging trend lines. However, I believe the trend can also be your friend with fundamental data and help individuals find potential winning investments.

Price momentum is important for traders looking to make a quick hit in days or weeks, but fundamental momentum can help investors generate a steady and growing amount of dividend income over a period of years.

The key for any stock that pays a dividend is the underlying profit that supports the payout each period. Investors have historically rewarded companies that consistently exceed (or surprise) expectations and higher earnings can lead to higher future dividends.… Read more

Environment, social and governance (ESG) investing. Socially responsible investing (SRI). Sustainable investing. These are some of the biggest investing buzzwords of the past few years, pointing to a movement by investors pushing companies to be more conscious about their impact on issues such as climate change, diversity, human rights and sustainability.

But ESG, SRI and the like are more than just buzzwords. They’re actually the principles behind several hot-performing stocks, as well as some of the more attractive dividend-yielding blue chips on Wall Street. And today, I’ll explain how some of these “do-gooder” stocks actually translate their principles into better profits, bigger share gains and fatter dividends that we can compound into retirement riches.… Read more

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