Let’s discuss 13 funds that offer substantial, retirement-fueling payouts, as well as diversification that will serve you well in most market conditions.

The second-longest bull market in history is long in the tooth, and Wall Street has baked in more than its fair share of the corporate tax cuts likely coming to the U.S. at some point. Diversification and dividends are the proverbial tortoise versus the high-growth hare – so it will pay to turtle up, especially if this go-go market goes sour next year.

You could dive into individual blue chips with long-standing payouts, but even some of the market’s most conservative, defensive names have swelled to outrageous valuations, putting them at risk for a reckoning should the bears take the wheel.… Read more

Today we’re going to rank the longest-lasting dividends on the planet – five stocks that have written checks to shareholders for at least a century.

Dividends don’t get more secure than that.

Think about what the world was like in 1917. The United States was in the midst of World War I. Girl Scout cookies and Converse Chuck Taylor All-Stars were in their infancy. And the Dow Jones Industrial Average made several attempts on the 100 mark.

Yes, 100.

Since then, the United States has suffered 16 recessions and a pair of depressions, including the granddaddy of them all, the Great Depression of 1929-1933.… Read more

I usually write about the beauty of closed-end funds (CEFs) and how we can tap them for yields of 7% or more while also beating the S&P 500 index.

Today I want to talk about the dogs of the CEF world.

And there are plenty of dogs to talk about—they’ll kill your returns while promising big income streams that aren’t what they seem.

It’s a shame, because a lot of these rotten CEFs attract first-level investors who don’t look beyond the dividend yield. As a result, these folks often get buyer’s remorse when they discover those big dividends were actually hiding a grim—and riskier—reality.… Read more

Don’t be cheap when you buy bonds this holiday season (or ever, for that matter). Bargain shoppers, sadly, tend to be the most at-risk of outliving their fixed income portfolios!

But it’s easy for you and me to double up “regular” bond returns simply by swapping out popularity for quality.

Let’s walk through some of the most popular fixed-income plays today – and replace each with something that yields more (with superior price upside to boot).

The obsession with fees is understandable. Most investors are conditioned by their experience with stock-based mutual funds and ETFs to search out the lowest fees, almost to a fault.… Read more

If you’re a contrarian investor, you know that the market loves to overreact—and that mass hysteria can hand you some nice profits.

That’s because panicked first-level investors toss great investments over the side along with the bad. We’re happy to step in when they do, buy at a discount, then sit back and watch the price snap back.

This is exactly what Warren Buffett refers to when he says to “buy when there’s blood in the streets.”

And it’s even better if there are high dividend payouts on offer.

Funny thing is, these deals are often hiding in plain sight. In fact, one of the most popular stocks in the world was ridiculously underpriced just under two years ago: Apple (AAPL).… Read more

Today I’m going to reveal my personal strategy for outperforming the market over the long haul.

It’s simple. All you have to do is buy dividend stocks—but not in the way most people think.

I’ll also name 4 terrific dividend growers you can buy now and safely tuck away in your retirement portfolio forever. More on those in a moment. First, we need to talk about…

The Wrong Way to Buy Dividend Stocks

When picking stocks for the long haul, many folks put too much emphasis on the current dividend yield.

Trouble is, the high yielders that could really make a difference to your retirement—I’m talking payouts of 6%, 8% and up—are getting scarce as the S&P 500 grinds upward:

Few Trophies for Dividend Hunters

Worse, a high yield can easily lead you onto the rocks, something many people learned the hard way with telecom operator Frontier Communications (FTR).… Read more

Everybody likes a sale, but there’s a significant difference between something that’s a value, and something that’s merely cheap – a good value can last you years and even decades, where something cheap can leave you in the lurch within a few months.

The same can be said for several enticing double-digit yields right now. I’m about to introduce you to five 10%-yielding dividend stocks, all of which boast low prices in the single digits. But that doesn’t make them all good deals.

Far from it.

We all know that nominal share price typically doesn’t mean much – what makes a stock “cheap” is its price compared to metrics such as earnings, sales, free cash flow and other operational measures.… Read more

Right now, there are plenty of safe 9%+ dividend yields sitting right under investors’ noses—literally hiding in plain sight!

Where? In the utility sector.

That’s right. As I write this, you can easily grab payouts 5 times the market average from some of the stodgiest companies out there—so conservative they used to be called “widow-and-orphan” stocks due to their ultra-safe payouts and low risks.

The key to the “hidden” 9% income streams available in utilities today is a special kind of high-yield fund called a closed-end fund (CEF). I’ll explain more and show you 9 buy candidates—including my top utility CEF pick—in a moment.… Read more

Who’s cooking Thanksgiving dinner for you tomorrow?

Specifically, I want to know if your family is doing the cooking – or if you’re outsourcing the meal prep to a robot.

If it sounds like a silly question, well, let’s frame it with respect to our usual beat – generating safe 7% and 8% yields in your retirement portfolio. Would you blindly buy and sell dividend payers based on the “insights” of a computer?

I often hear from readers who catch a “robo rating” on one of our holdings and worry. Even when the analysis is mere inches deep, like this one:

(Your stock) appears to be not be meeting its earnings expectations for past 6 quarters, the profitability of the company is poor which affects its valuation, and its ability to maintain its dividend.… Read more

The Federal Reserve’s rate hikes getting you down? You’re not alone.

A lot of readers have written in, worried that the Fed’s plans to increase interest rates in 2018 are going to hurt their portfolios. Investors starved for income have been piling into high-yielding assets that could get hit by a selloff if interest rates rise.

Those assets would go down because when the Fed increases interest rates, it causes rates all around to go up. So if you hold a bond that pays an interest rate from before that rate hike, its resale value will decline because there are now new bonds that pay higher interest rates, which makes the older, lower-yielding bond less desirable.… Read more