It used to be that finding a decent yield in the stock market was easy.

Just seven years ago, all you had to do was buy an ETF in a sector that got income hounds’ hearts racing, like the Utilities Select SPDR ETF (XLU) and lock in an easy 4.48% payout:

The “Good Old Days” Are Over for Utility Fans

But do the same today, and you’ll get just 3.1% for your trouble, no thanks to the merciless rise in stocks (and shriveling of yields) driven by a decade of near-zero interest rates.

And sure, a 3.1% payout may still sound okay.… Read more

Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have rapidly earned a favored spot among investors thanks to their dirt-cheap diversification. If you want to quickly build a blended portfolio at a low price, it’s hard to do better than ETFs.

Closed-end funds (CEFs), by contrast, are virtually an afterthought, and that’s too bad. Because in many cases – including the three high-yield dynamos I want to show you today – they’re a superior source of quality and raw total-return performance.

What is a closed-end fund exactly? Funnily, it sounds almost like an ETF – it’s a big, pooled investment in numerous securities (stocks, bonds, preferred shares or other assets) that trades on an exchange.… Read more

Investors looking for the surest path to dividend growth typically look to the S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats. These are the supposedly “elite” dividend stocks within the S&P 500 that have not just paid but hiked their regular distributions at least once a year for a minimum of 25 consecutive years.

It’s not a crowded clubhouse, with just 52 members at the moment, but don’t be fooled – just like most groups of stocks, there are winners and losers, like the group of five Dividend Aristocrats I’ll be breaking down for you today.

You’d think that decades of dividend growth would be a sure indication of stock quality, and thus outperformance.… Read more

Stocks are going gangbusters, but some closed-end funds—including three I’m going to tell you about below—have gotten way ahead of the market.

That means it’s time to sell. Yesterday.

But don’t let that turn you off the whole CEF space. Truth is, there’s still a treasure trove of hidden gems here, including some that crush the S&P 500 while paying incredible 7%+ dividends. It’s just that investors sometimes go overboard and bid certain CEFs above their actual value.

How is this possible?

Because unlike ETFs and mutual funds, which always trade at or near their net asset value (NAV, or what a fund’s underlying assets are worth), CEFs often trade at big premiums or discounts to NAV.… Read more

We were inching forward on a busy road in suburban Boston. I looked out our window and asked my friend how much of the retail strip to our right he’d short (if he could).

Joey works for a real estate hedge fund in New York, by the way.

“All of it,” he replied without hesitation.

He paused.

“Sell it all.”

I nodded in agreement. Death by Amazon before our very eyes!

Now you and I don’t normally chat about brick and mortar stores because, quite frankly, who cares about retail stocks. They don’t pay big dividends unless they’re in big trouble, like Macy’s (M) (and its 6.5% mirage yield) right now.… Read more

If you feel good because your S&P 500 index fund has taken off like a rocket in 2017, you may not want to read this article.

Because the S&P 500 is, in fact, not doing well this year—at least not compared to its peers.

Don’t believe me?

Take a look at the SPDR S&P 500 ETF’s (SPY) performance relative to a global stock fund like the Vanguard Total World Stock ETF (VT):

The World Races Ahead

Not only is a global stock portfolio crushing the S&P 500, but US equities are actually dragging the world’s returns down.

Notice how, in the chart above, the Vanguard FTSE All-World ex-US ETF (VEU) is up 14.6%, versus VT’s 11.1% return for 2017?… Read more

Here’s a fact: if you want to clock out of the workforce in any kind of comfort, you’ll need $4,000 a month—$4,074, to be exact.

How do I know?

Because that’s what your average 65- to 74-year-old couple shells out every month, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It comes out to $48,885 a year.

Of course, that figure swings based on where you live, but let’s look at your typical retirement hotbeds: I’m talking about the Carolinas, Florida and Arizona—places you’d like to live if your idea of retirement doesn’t involve pushing a snow blower.

According to a recent CNBC survey, all of these states ranked in the middle of the pack by cost of living.… Read more

Sometimes it’s best to sell in May and just stay away. Especially when a firm’s dividend stream is being eaten alive by Amazon & Co.

The Wall Street Journal’s Mark Hulbert studied the “summer rally myth” last year – and concluded it is indeed a good time to sell:

“Over the past 60 years, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has produced an average monthly return of just 0.1% during these three summer months, compared with a 0.7% average for all other months.”

Worse, even skilled market timers don’t have much to work with. Hulbert found that over the past 60 years, rallies from June’s lows into highs over the next two months averaged 6.9% — the third-lowest such rally potential, behind (you guessed it) July and August.… Read more

Most business development companies (BDCs) have low profiles on Wall Street. Their relative obscurity makes them good vehicles for banking high yields – in fact, today we’ll discuss three that pay between 12% and 16% annually.

BDCs invest in small- and midsize businesses, the building blocks of entrepreneurial America. They were created by the government in the 1980s to help grow up-and-coming companies in a bid to stimulate business and create jobs. They provide debt, equity and other forms of financing to businesses that larger banks and investment firms shy away from.

They’re also income machines by law.

Their regulated structures require them to dole out 90% or more of their taxable income to shareholders in the form of dividends.… Read more

Index investing is popular among investors for one reason: most people don’t want to put the time and effort into finding investments selling at deep discounts.

The most popular way to get into index investing is through exchange-traded funds, which have replaced mutual funds as the hot investment vehicle of the day.

There’s just one problem: even the highest-yielding ETFs are only paying 4% dividends. This doesn’t mean you can’t get bigger yields from index investing, however; it just means you have to look further afield. Today I’m going to show you a way to jump into index investing and get a 7.4% income stream at the same time.… Read more