One week ago, money-printer-turned-inflation-hawk Jay Powell told the world he was going to keep hiking interest rates. And more than he thought his Federal Reserve needed just two months ago.

Yes, even higher interest rates. Obviously more bad news for bonds, right?

It depends. Let’s explore the second level take, because Jay’s outlook is actually bullish for a select slice of fixed income.

Our inspiration, as always, is renowned value investor Howard Marks, chief of Oaktree Capital Group, with $164 billion under management. Marks’ writing has won acclaim from legendary peers such as Joel Greenblatt, Jeremy Grantham, Seth Klarman and even Warren Buffett.… Read more

We’ve finally got something (two things, in fact!) working for us dividend investors in this dumpster-fire market:

• The midterm elections, which always bring a buying opportunity (as we’ll see below) and …

• The calendar, as stocks post most of their gains in the six months starting November 1.

The last time this “double-profit” setup appeared, after the 2018 midterms, we tapped it for a 57% return. That win was driven by a payout that grew quarterly.

Now we’ve got a chance to pull off the same feat again—with the same ticker we used then, too! This kind of opportunity is very rare indeed—only appearing once every four years.… Read more

Jerome Powell’s latest trip before the microphone has opened up a surprising opportunity for us dividend investors.

I have three funds for you that are deeply discounted in the wake of the Fed chair’s press conference last week, following the release of the latest rate decision. Buying this trio now also sets you up for dividends ranging from 9.7% to a stunning 12.5%.

Before we get to them, let’s set the stage by zeroing in on exactly what happened last Wednesday, from the time the Fed’s decision and seemingly dovish statement were released until after Powell was finished speaking at the following press conference.… Read more

As contrarian income seekers we buy when yields are high and prices are low. Today, we’re going to explore a three-pack of dividend funds that pays 8.5%.

This is “retire in style” income. We put a million dollars in these plays and get paid $85,000 per year. Plus, we keep our principal intact.

And wait, there’s more. The cheapest of these three funds is currently trading for just 89 cents on the dollar. Yes, that’s an 11% discount to the value of its underlying holdings.

Too good to be true? Or bottom-fishing bargain? Let’s explore my preferred dividend strategy and these three dividend machines.… Read more

If you’re serious about investing, you have to develop a head for math. Hard numbers not only keep you grounded, but sometimes offer the only way to make sense of the weird ways that Wall Street works.

Consider that odd fact I shared recently about how a 50% loss followed by a 50% gain actually leaves you 25% in the hole. Strange, but true!

And here’s another fun fact: In a room of just 23 people there’s a 50/50 chance that two people share the same birthday. In a room of 40 people, the chance is more than 90%… And at 55, the chance is 99%.… Read more

Today’s market is ideal for us to grab stock-focused closed-end funds (CEFs) paying outsized 10%+ dividends. Here are three (of many!) reasons why:

• CEFs’ dividend yields are through the roof: As I just mentioned, many equity CEFs pay double-digit yields today. And as members of my CEF Insider service know, most of these sturdy income plays pay dividends monthly.
  

• Deep discounts are everywhere: Of the 447 or so CEFs out there, the average fund trades at a 9.6% discount to net asset value (NAV). That’s near levels we saw in the darkest days of the pandemic! It’s totally overdone, which is why …

• Equity-CEF discounts have upward momentum.

$500K can be enough money to retire on. Even as early as age 50!

The trick is to convert the pile of cash into cash flow that can pay the bills. I’m talking about $35,000 to $40,000 per year or more in dividend income on that nest egg, thanks to 7% and 8% yields.

These are passive payouts that show up every quarter or, better yet, every month. Meanwhile, we keep that $500K nest egg intact. Or, better yet, grind that principal higher steadily and safely.

Got more in your retirement account? Cool—more monthly dividend income for you!

We’ll talk specific stocks, funds and yields in a moment.… Read more

We contrarian dividend buyers love it when an insider loads up on their own (ideally washed out!) stock. Especially when that stock is:

1. Throwing off its highest yield in years.
2. Growing its payout at a 9% annualized rate, and …
3. Tied to one of the biggest megatrends there is: our never-ending addiction to mobile data.

We’re seeing all three of the above with cell-tower REIT Crown Castle International (CCI), which has been knocked down some 37% in this selloff. That’s driven its yield up to 4.4%—just a shade below all-time highs!

A Megatrend Stock With a Mega-Yield

The insider? One Matthew Thornton III, a member of Crown Castle’s board who has a lot of skin in the game.… Read more

Rarely do we get a buying opportunity in high-yielding closed-end funds (CEFs) like the one we have now. Thanks to the selloff, many CEFs trade at deep discounts and pay outsized yields upwards of 9% today.

With this market rally likely still in its infancy, we still have time to act here. But we don’t want to wait long, as this bounce has already started to whittle away CEFs’ discounts.

I’ve got three perfect funds for us to target below. This trio is intriguing because, taken together, they basically mimic an S&P 500 ETF, but with two key differences:

• They pay a 9.7% average dividend, so you’re getting more of your return in cash than you would if you bought an S&P 500 index fund (which would get you a mere 1.7% payout).

Vanilla investors are selling. Which means we income-focused contrarians are buying.

Our goal, after all, is to retire on dividends. So why would we run from the biggest dividends that Mr. and Ms. Market have presented us in years?

Yields, yields, yields. We recently discussed 29 income funds yielding more than 8%.

How about stocks? Glad you asked. Let’s chat about 16 sweet large-cap cash-machine stocks paying up to 15%.

If you didn’t catch it, I recently chatted with Moe Ansari on his Market Wrap program. You can read more about it here, but in short, I said the time to sell was over—we’re flush with cash and ready to buy.… Read more