We’ve been saying the 2022 edition of the stock market will be a mess for a while now—and we were right. But there are still dividend-paying gems out there: we just need to know where to look. (I’ve got three “safety-first” bargain buys for you below.)

The “mess,” of course, was inflation caused by Jay Powell’s tidal wave of cheap money! Now he needs to ditch his Wall Street friends to clean it up:

Why the Fed’s Tune Flipped so Fast

With consumer prices soaring, the so-called “Fed put”: the central bank’s tendency to change tack to rescue a plunging stock market, is dead.… Read more

There’s a group of 7%+ dividends out there that are perfect for today’s market. They’re far less volatile than “regular” stocks, their payouts are tax-free, and (for now) you can get them for a steal—as cheap as 93 cents on the dollar!

That puts them high on the list of “refuges” from the speculative stocks the mainstream crowd is fleeing these days—and we want to make sure we get in first! (And we’ll do that with two muni-bond funds we’ll name below. Their tax-free yields could be worth up to 8.9% to you, depending on your tax bracket.)

I’m talking about municipal bonds—specifically municipal bonds we can buy through my favorite high-yield investment: closed-end funds (CEFs).… Read more

“America’s retirement fund” is looking awfully shaky. Income investors should consider replacing the over-owned S&P 500 index fund with these underappreciated yields up to 7.5%.

The S&P 500 has face-planted right out of 2022’s starting gate, flirting with a correction (that’s a decline of 10% or more) less than a month into the year.

If you’re retired, or thinking about retirement, these drawbacks are costly. They can erase years of hard work in a few bad trading sessions.

This is why we contrarians, who focus on cash flow, lean on “preferred” stocks, instead. These are special classes of shares issued by the same blue-chip firms in the S&P 500.… Read more

When it comes to dividend cuts, closed-end funds (CEFs) aren’t much different from stocks: investors tend to hit the sell button as soon as a cut is announced, leaving those who hang on with a shriveled income stream and a hit to the value of their investment.

In fact, sometimes a selloff in response to a dividend cut can be worse with CEFs because investors mainly look to them for income, with the average CEF yielding 7.5% today.

This is obviously a situation we want to avoid, which is why I’m writing you now: we’re going to look at two recent CEF dividend cuts to see what they can tell us about dodging said cuts.… Read more

Just three weeks ago, we discussed the likelihood that the stock market was going to be a mess this year.

It’s already a train wreck.

You’re probably wondering whether you should buy more shares of your favorite dividend. Well, if you’re sick of wondering, use this simple yet effective “market timing” technique.

Dollar cost averaging (DCA) probably helped you build your impressive retirement portfolio. And DCA is more than just an initial fortune builder. It can also build wealth and income streams during train wreck markets like these.

It was the regular weekly, monthly and/or yearly purchases throughout your earning years that helped you buy more shares of stock low (and buy fewer shares higher).… Read more

The crowd is about to pile into monthly dividend stocks, and we’re going to beat them to it with three of the best of them—and grab ourselves hefty yields up to 6.5%, too.

The three monthly payers we cover below will be very appealing to folks who are getting shaken down as the S&P 500—and especially the tech-heavy NASDAQ—crumble.

Dividends—even monthly ones—normally get a collective yawn from investors in bullish times. But they’ll be darlings this year as Jay Powell switches off his money printer to try to clean up an inflation mess of his own making.

Jay’s Money Printer Works a Little Too Well

Meantime, “regular” stocks and Treasuries still dribble out sorry payouts way south of 2%.… Read more

This stock market selloff has gone way too far—and it’s pumped up the dividend yields on some of our favorite high-yield closed-end funds (CEFs).

That means it’s time to buy. I’ll name three CEFs the panicked masses have mistakenly tossed over the side in a moment. Together, these three snubbed funds throw off an 8.7% average dividend. Plus they’re trading at a nice “double discount”: that is, the CEFs themselves are cheap and their holdings, which consist of top US and international stocks, are way oversold in this latest market fracas, too.

History Is on Our Side

When considering opportunities like this one, it pays to look at history.… Read more

“Buy and hope” investing has never been more hopeless.

With bond yields doing a “moonshot” to 1.8%, they are now looking down at the S&P 500’s sad 1.3% yield. Still, let’s admit—these aren’t enough for us to be able to retire on dividends alone.

Plus, we’re seeing serious volatility as the Federal Reserve hits the Pause button on its money printer. Basic income investors are losing these annual yields in one trading session!

Fortunately, there are serious dividends beneath the surface of the market. Today we’ll highlight five stocks that pay more than 7%. This is a big upgrade.

Back to the “spike” in bond yields.… Read more

Investors are way too pessimistic about the economy. And their gloom—driven by the mainstream press (as usual)—is setting us up for a rare “double discount” on closed-end funds (CEFs) throwing off 7%+ yields.

I say “double discount” because almost everyone is misreading some of the latest economic signals—and it’s causing them to sell stocks (and CEFs!) at exactly the wrong time.

That mistake—which is behind a large part of the drop we’ve seen in the markets since the start of the year—is discount No. 1.

And we’ll get discount No. 2 by shopping for CEFs that are also trading at undeserved discounts.… Read more

“Daddy. Can you come play with me in the playroom?” my four-year-old asked.

“Sure. I’ll be right in,” I said. “Once I get done unloading the dishwasher. Would you like to help me unload?”

“No thanks,” my daughter replied. No surprise, but one day I hope to catch her off-guard.

She walked to the playroom. Barely. And reappeared.

“Daddy. You’re taking for ages.”

For ages is the equivalent of forever in our house. I think. Then again, given her level of exasperation, she could be telling me I’m taking longer than forever.

She’d make a good bond trader. With long rates rising every day, few income investors want to hold any bonds for any amount of time.… Read more