If you’re wondering which sector is set to take off in 2017 (and who isn’t?), look no further than real estate investment trusts (REITs).

I’ll get into why I’m so bullish on REITs—and name 5 great buys now—in a moment.

First, let’s look at the sector’s recent performance, and what it says about where REITs (which own properties ranging from warehouses to apartment buildings) are headed.

Here’s how the Vanguard REIT ETF (VNQ) has done since January of last year, compared to the benchmark SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY):

REIT Investors Fall Behind

Three things stand out here: 1) REITs spiked last summer, when the Brexit vote sent investors scrambling for stability and yield; 2) they didn’t get much pop from the year-end Trump bump; and 3) they’re still way off their 2016 peak and trailing the market as a whole.… Read more

Goldman Sachs recently recommended over 80 stocks that are poised to jump during President Trump’s administration.

That’s a lot of stocks. Not all of them are dividend payers, and many of them have already jumped dramatically in the last few weeks, bringing them at or near their 52-week highs.

You might think this means it’s too late to buy into the Trump rally, but it isn’t.

I’ve gone through Goldman’s picks and selected a dozen high-quality, low-priced stocks with a history of strong dividend payouts and the potential for dividend growth. Half the portfolio has a history of very high dividend growth, while the other half has very good dividend coverage and the potential for future dividend growth.… Read more

As interest rates rise, the best defense will be a good offense. Research from Nuveen and Ned Davis confirms what we already knew – that dividend growth stocks outperform everyone else in the 36 months after a Fed rate increase:

Stock Returns After Fed Increases

That’s no surprise either, because payout growers always outpace their counterparts.

Everyone loves dividends, but dividend hikes are underappreciated. Not only do they increase the yield on your initial capital, but they often are reflected in a price increase for the stock.

For example, if a stock pays a 3% current yield and then hikes its payout by 10%, it’s unlikely that its stock price will stagnate for long.… Read more

Today, we’re going to highlight the four best retirement funds Vanguard has to offer. Since my favorite retirement fund closed its doors to new investors, I had to find more high quality, high income and low cost options for readers like you to consider.

The Vanguard Group is the top mutual fund provider by assets under management, boasting nearly $3 trillion across more than 125 mutual funds. And almost all of that is locked up in long-term assets — a statement about Vanguard’s elite standing among buy-and-hold retirement investors.

Vanguard doesn’t do leverage, it doesn’t do inverse. With very few exceptions, Vanguard’s funds aren’t trading instruments.… Read more

Income investors have mined just about every corner of the market for yield. Blue-chip dividend stalwarts like Microsoft (MSFT) and Exxon Mobil (XOM) are downright expensive at this point thanks to a growing crowd of yield hunters. Those seeking more substantial yields have guzzled the alphabet soup, jumping into REITs, MLPs, BDCs and CEFs.

To quote the Barenaked Ladies, “It’s all been done.”

But in my hunt for less appreciated sources of high yield, I’ve come across three stocks that the financial media barely discusses, and that most investors don’t even know about.

What really sticks out about these stocks isn’t just their yields – which range between 7% and 12%!… Read more

Today I’m going to show you two business development companies (BDCs) that were great buys once but now need to be banished from your portfolio right away.

They’re all good companies, but recent market fervor has caused them to be way overpriced. And while the bull run has been good for all BDCs, there is still one I still see as underpriced relative to its potential. More on that in a moment.

This Popular Name Is Headed for a Fall

First, we need to talk about Main Street Capital (MAIN), one of the best-performing BDCs out there … and one of the world’s most crowded trades.… Read more