Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: “There’s a recession every seven years.”

It’s the kind of financial folk wisdom that sounds right but is, in fact, all wrong. But that doesn’t stop influential people from touting it as truth.

Morgan Stanley, for example, was warning investors that the seven-year cycle was a serious risk back in 2015. And they were wrong.

The world’s GDP rose 3.2% in 2015 and 3.1% in 2016, according to the International Monetary Fund. The US didn’t do too badly, either, growing 2.6% and 1.6% in those years. So far, 2% looks like an easy target for 2017.… Read more

Something strange happened recently, and it’s set up a terrific—and almost totally overlooked—profit opportunity for you.

What is it?

The European Union is going to ensure that people who held bonds in two recently failed banks (Veneto Banca and Popolare di Vicenza) will get a 100% bailout.

Now unless you’re holding these specific bonds, you’re probably wondering what this could possibly have to do with you.

Stick with me—I’ll get to that in a second. First, back to the bailout.

The EU’s move isn’t actually all that surprising. We’ve seen governments bail out bondholders many times since 2007 (and the EU has been doing even more bond bailouts in the last couple years).… Read more

The stock market is high, which means yields are low. But don’t worry – we still have places to put new money for 7.5% payouts today with 20%+ upside to boot!

I count ten stocks and funds to be specific with these secure, elite payouts. And while their current yields may say “just” 7.5% on average, all ten are poised for 10%+ total returns in the years ahead.

How is this possible?

Remember, total returns are made up of dividends and price appreciation. The latter, price gains, are driven by some combination of:

1. Dividend raises, and/or
2. A discount window closing (or at least narrowing).

The Fourth of July is right around the bend, which means it’s time for financial pundits to flood readers with their favorite all-American stocks. But as I’ll illustrate in a moment via four all-American high-yield dividend stocks, there’s plenty more incentive to “buy American” than just a date on the calendar.

The U.S. is the largest economy in the world, making up 22% of the world’s nominal gross domestic product (GDP) at about $18.46 trillion as of 2016. California alone – at about $2.6 trillion – would represent the world’s sixth-largest economy if it were an independent country, snuggly tucked between the United Kingdom and France.… Read more

What do Exxon Mobil (XOM), Colgate-Palmolive (CL) and Walmart (WMT) have in common?

Their dividend growth is running on fumes.

Sure, they’re all still members of the Dividend Aristocrats – that social club of companies that have raised dividends for at least 25 consecutive years. But Exxon, Colgate and Walmart all have kept their streaks of dividend increases alive within the past year by hiking their payouts by less than 3% apiece.

Sad!

If you’re looking for serious dividend potential, I can introduce you five income gushers that are doling out annual payout increases of 20% or more. But first, let’s quantify how why dividend growth is the single most important factor for you portfolio.… Read more

At the start of June, I warned investors to avoid a certain fund like the plague.

It’s down almost 10% since then.

Of course, anyone long the fund was turning a blind eye to the very real dangers lurking behind it. Today I want to talk about the mistake they made and how we can avoid repeating this blunder in the future.

First, let me tell you what fund I’m talking about. It’s run by one of the greatest investment companies in the world, with one of the best track records out there; in fact, it’s one of the few companies that has consistently beaten the market for over a decade across most of its investments.… Read more

I keep saying it because it’s true and critical to your retirement wellbeing  (or lack thereof)  – don’t take any dividends for granted today!

In a minute I’ll outline a 3-step “dividend disaster” test that you can quickly run on the stocks you own. I want to make sure you don’t hold the next Mattel (MAT) simply because “its yield looked good” or “so-and-so guru recommended it.”

First-level income hounds piled into Barbie’s plastic 6% yield. But when the firm “surprisingly” announced a sharp 61% dividend cut two weeks ago, shares completed a 36% dive:

6 Years of Dividends, Gone

Our Contrarian Income Report portfolio was, yet again, unique in our handling of this ticking toy bomb.… Read more

Everyone’s obsessing over FAAMG stocks, and for good reason. Facebook (FB), Apple (AAPL), Amazon (AMZN), Microsoft (MSFT) and Google, now known as Alphabet (GOOG), are on a tear for 2017, rising nearly 30%, on average.

And today I’m going to show you two funds that invest in these companies while offering higher dividends than any of these stocks pay individually.

Of course, everyone has heard of Facebook, Apple and Google. (And in case you missed it, my colleague Brett Owens revealed five individual tech stocks he likes now on June 19.)

But hardly anyone has heard of either of these high-yielding tech funds.… Read more

Today I’m going to show you 2 easy ways to set yourself up for safe double-digit yearly dividend growth and invite quick 100%+ upside too.

I’ll also reveal a blue chip stock that’s delivering both strong price gains and rising dividends. It will have you pocketing a nice 5%+ yield in short order.

So let’s get going, starting with…

The Dividend-Growth Signal Most People Miss

If you’ve been buying dividend stocks for a while, you probably know about the payout ratio.

It’s a sacred cow for many folks; you calculate it by dividing the total amount of dividends paid by the company’s last 12 months of net income.… Read more

As we speak, $376 billion is locked up in five of Wall Street’s most overrated, overloved funds. And the sad reality is that there’s a high chance a few thousand bucks of that are courtesy of … well, you.

The good news? I can show you seven far better options.

While Wall Street still rolls out hundreds of new exchange-traded funds every year, one of the greatest advantages for any ETF is age. Funds that got an early start have marketing advantages, media advantages and tend to come from companies that can compete on price, meaning bargain-basement fees that undercut the competition and keep newer fund providers from even bothering to jump into the space.… Read more