These 50%+ “AI Dividends” Could Ruin Your Retirement

Michael Foster, Investment Strategist
Updated: October 2, 2025

What if you could squeeze, say, a 70% dividend yield from a fast-growing AI stock like NVIDIA (NVDA) or Palantir (PLTR)?

Sounds great, right?

Instead of relying just on these stocks’ prices for your profits (since dividends are, frankly, the furthest thing from their CFOs’ minds), you get their returns as high-yielding dividends.

That’s something a new breed of ETFs is promising. These funds, which are gaining in popularity, hold just one stock—usually a Palantir, Tesla (TSLA) or NVIDIA—and trade options on that one stock to deliver stated yields often way above 50%.

Does it work?

First, let me say that, as someone who has covered 8%+ yielding closed-end funds (CEFs) for over a decade, I get the sentiment behind these funds.… Read more

A Legit 13.7% Dividend with Unstoppable “Mob-Boss” Economics

Brett Owens, Chief Investment Strategist
Updated: October 1, 2025

In most US industries, banks help businesses finance their buildings. The lenders also provide working lines of capital for the operations to grow.

Cannabis is different. It is tricky for operators to find money due to federal roadblocks.

At the national level, cannabis is still illegal. However, 40 states have legalized the drug in some fashion. Uncle Sam mostly looks the other way and lets states regulate their own markets—except when it comes to banking and taxes.

Banks cannot lend to cannabis operators. So, good luck financing that building.

Also, there is a tax code relic of the 1980s war on drugs (“Just Say No!”)… Read more

This 7.6% Dividend’s New “Rights Offering” Lets Us Buy Cheap (for Now)

Brett Owens, Chief Investment Strategist
Updated: September 30, 2025

We contrarians live for the “one-off” shots at extra income (or gains!) our favorite dividend plays throw our way.

One of these “special situations” just landed in our lap: A shot at buying a megatrend-powered 7.6% dividend that’s rarely cheap. And we’re picking it up for a song.

It’s a long-time holding of our Contrarian Income Report advisory, and it’s sitting right in the tracks of the surging AI buildout. In fact, it may be the last “cheap” AI play on the board! This one’s dropped from trading for more than its portfolio is worth to a lot less.

A 7.6% Dividend Bargain We Haven’t Seen Since 2020 

As you can see, this fund dropped from trading 6% above its net asset value (NAV, or the per-share value of its portfolio) to 7.1% below, as of this writing.… Read more

How to Grab Big (7%+) Dividends in … Small Caps?

Michael Foster, Investment Strategist
Updated: September 29, 2025

Small caps are (finally!) back, but most people are in the dark about how to tap them for serious dividends. But there is a proven way to do that—one that puts a rich 7.1% payout squarely on the table for us.

Everyone has missed this one. We’re going to dive into it today.

The main reason I hate to see people ignore small caps—especially now—is that, well, their time has come.

Small Caps Have Lagged for Years—And They’re Due for a Bounce

As you can see, It’s been a solid decade of small-caps delivering, well, small profits to investors. But it’s time for the script to flip.… Read more

These 6%- to 13%-Paying Landlords Love Jerome Powell Right Now

Brett Owens, Chief Investment Strategist
Updated: September 26, 2025

The Fed has finally cut rates, and if the “dot plot” is any indication, it won’t be the last. This is fuel for real estate investment trusts (REITs)—they thrive when borrowing costs fall and their fat dividends shine next to shrinking bond yields.

Today we can lock in payouts between 6% and 13% from landlords set to surge as Powell’s long-awaited pivot plays out.

Why do REITs rally as rates fall? These stocks act as “bond proxies” that move alongside bonds and opposite rates. Here is a major REIT ETF plotted against the 10-year Treasury yield. As you can see, when the important rate zigs, the REIT benchmark zags:

REITs Zig When Rates Zag

Rate cuts don’t always hit the 10-year overnight.… Read more

I Expect This 8% Dividend To Beat the Market (You May Not Like Why)

Michael Foster, Investment Strategist
Updated: September 25, 2025

Near the end of 2022, a reader wrote in to tell me that my bullish view of the economy at the time was off the mark. From his vantage point, people were struggling, prices were soaring, and wages weren’t keeping up.

This reader wasn’t alone—it was around that time that Bloomberg wrote that the chances of a recession in the next year were 100%. So there was zero chance of avoiding one, in other words.

We all know what happened next: The economy and stock market took off. That translated into real gains (and high income) for the portfolio of my CEF Insider service.… Read more

The 4.3% Dividend Play That Gets Paid When AI Powers Up

Brett Owens, Chief Investment Strategist
Updated: September 24, 2025

Worried about a recession? If so, this “slowdown-resistant” 4.3% dividend is for you.

Unemployment just hit 4.3%, the highest since early 2021. Payrolls keep missing, and revisions keep knocking prior month numbers even lower. Employers are clearly pulling back.

The jobless headlines suggest an incoming recession. Perhaps. A big driver is automation—white-collar work being replaced by AI. Software is cheaper, faster and never calls in sick. That may eventually weigh on consumer spending in our service-driven economy.

But here’s the investing play: while AI is trimming jobs, it’s also fueling a bull market in energy demand.

Over the past few years, AI started as a tech story.… Read more

The Bond God’s $4,000 Gold Call (and a “Dividend Twofer” to Profit)

Brett Owens, Chief Investment Strategist
Updated: September 23, 2025

When DoubleLine CIO Jeffrey Gundlach speaks, we yield hounds listen.

Right now, the “Bond God” has gold on the brain. We’re dialed in, because his latest utterances are pointing the way to a sweet 7.4%-paying “gold-dividend twofer” for us.

I’m talking about a play for price upside in the near term, followed by big monthly dividends (yes, 7.4%, and maybe more) when the “discount trigger” we’ll talk about in a sec kicks in.

The Bond God Calls ’Em Like He Sees ’Em

The Bond God is a dyed-in-the-wool contrarian who holds a special place in our hearts because, well, he’s often right.… Read more

If 2026 Is 2008 Redux, You’ll Want to Own This 8.4% Dividend

Michael Foster, Investment Strategist
Updated: September 22, 2025

$20 trillion.

That’s how much value has been added to the US housing market in the last five years. It’s a number so big it’s near-impossible to get your head around. And it’s a double-edged sword.

On the one hand, if you own a house, that house is worth more, and you’re richer as a result. But if you don’t, buying is expensive and comes with a higher risk of a price drop. That’s because this $20-trillion gain is a 57% increase since 2020, or 9.5% per year.

That is, simply put, unsustainable.

Which is why, today, we’re going to look at a way to hedge against this risk and collect an 8.4% dividend as you do.… Read more

Three Dividends Up to 7.5% Powering the AI Boom

Brett Owens, Chief Investment Strategist
Updated: September 19, 2025

Artificial intelligence is supposed to be graceful, just code humming in the cloud. Yet it’s anything but lightweight. AI is an energy hog.

Every time a chatbot like ChatGPT spits out an answer, it pulls from enormous racks of servers running in data centers. Those servers draw electricity on the scale of small cities.

Over the past few years, AI has been a tech story. With increasing adoption, however, it is about to evolve into a power story.

AI can’t happen without natural gas. Renewables are growing for sure but most new data centers are still tied to gas-fired plants.… Read more