The annual “sell in May and go away” period for stocks is nearly upon us, and many investors are worried about Wall Street starting to take profits from the market’s go-go run since November. Me? I’m looking for high-quality, high-yield dividend plays that you can buy in May – or June, or July, or whenever – and never sell.

Today, we’re going to discuss two 7%-plus yielders that fit any “no withdrawal” portfolio perfectly.

They are preferred stocks – wonderful “hybrids” that offer aspects of both stocks and bonds. Preferred stocks can trade on an exchange just like any common stock, but they trade around a par value and dole out a fixed regular payment just like a bond.… Read more

If you’re interested in getting into the S&P 500, it seems like a good time to do so. Earnings are rising, GDP growth is strong, the unemployment rate is falling, and wages are heading upward.

There’s just one problem: as I wrote a few months ago, the S&P 500 is a lousy bet.

There are a couple reasons why, the biggest being the income problem. If you buy into the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) or the Vanguard 500 Index Fund (VOO), you’re going to get a dividend yield of less than 2%. So buy $500,000 worth of those funds and get a whopping $791 monthly in cash dividends.… Read more

Amazon.com (AMZN) is eating everything retail alive – including most retail REITs. As a result, the entire sector is selling at fire prices – leaving us with a select handful of underappreciated bargains.

Why the panic? Amazon has completely transformed retail over the past decade or so, starting with books, but expanding into just about every corner of the traditional retail market – clothes, electronics, home goods and even staples like toilet paper and laundry detergent. The company gobbled up $98 billion in “electronics and other general merchandise” sales across all of 2016 – an expansion of nearly 30% that shows Amazon’s growth in e-tailing is still rampant.… Read more

Imagine an investment that can double in value in 5 years while giving you a 12% income stream that has actually grown over time.

And what if I told you there are a lot of these investments out there? They’re just not well known.

The reason for that is that they’re closed-end funds (CEFs), an investment that isn’t as popular as mutual funds because most 401k plans don’t offer them. And they’re far less popular than exchange-traded funds because they’re just a little more complicated than something like the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY).

ETFs like SPY are easy to set up and manage, which makes them cash cows for issuers like Blackrock, Vanguard and State Street, even though ETF fees are relatively low.… Read more

A high dividend yield can be the ultimate retirement holding. Or it can be a trap.

Today, I’m going to show you five stocks with mouth-watering yields of between 6% and 23% that are tomorrow’s dividend disasters. If you own shares in any of these firms, sell them now.

Don’t “ride these stocks down” like RadioShack shareholders did when the nearly century-old former electronics retailing giant that filed for bankruptcy protection in 2015.

RadioShack suspended its dividend in July 2012. The warning signs were there, but no one listened. Revenues had been in constant decline since their peak 16 years earlier, debts were mounting, ratings agencies were downgrading RadioShack’s bonds.… Read more

Real estate investment trusts (REITs), when picked carefully, provide generous dividends that will fund your retirement cash flow needs by themselves.

Today I’m going to show you how REITs are literally the best buy-and-hold asset you can put your money into – and I’ll introduce you to three powerful real estate plays yielding up to 7.8% annually. These three are well positioned for decades of outperformance against the rest of the investment world.

We all know that REITs are income machines. First-quarter 2017 data shows that REITs on average yielded 4.1% — more than double the average S&P 500 stock!

But many self-annointed “REIT gurus” focus too much on income and ignore REITs’ other outstanding virtue: growth potential.… 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 overly-negative sentiment to find value.… Read more

Real estate investment trusts (REITs) have essentially one job to do for their investors – pay reliable dividends. Many do, but when firms find their payouts in jeopardy things get ugly in a hurry. Which is why you need to avoid, or sell, the five ticking time bombs we’re going to discuss today.

Dividend cuts don’t just “happen.” When a REIT slashes or suspends its dividend, it’s rarely a surprise – and rarely an isolated incident.

Let’s consider Armour Residential REIT (ARR) – here’s five years of dividend cuts and misery:

Sure, the current yield for Armour always looks good at 10% or higher.… Read more