The stock market is probably going to be a mess this year. With the Federal Reserve taking away the punch bowl it’s been providing since March 2020, investors are likely to start selling once they begin sobering up.

This will likely be bad for speculations, such as profitless tech stocks and crypto coins featuring dog breeds. But it could be great for the dividend stocks we love, as “flights to safety” will naturally find refuge in our reliable payers.

We’ve already enjoyed some great dividend-powered profits from 2020 and 2021. And there’s no reason for us to cash in these profits just yet.… Read more

If you invest in closed-end funds (CEFs), you’re already miles ahead of most folks. (And if you don’t, there’s never been a better time to try them—I’ll show you a tech-focused CEF whose payout triples the dividend on “regular” stocks in a moment.)

A Trillion-Dollar Monster

The main reason why most investors miss out on CEFs (which offer tantalizing yields of 7.3%, on average, as I write this), is that the CEF market is small, with only around 500 CEFs out there in total. Compare that to ETFs, which numbered around 7,600 last year.

In fact, last year, ETFs hit a big milestone: they attracted a trillion dollars in a single calendar year.… Read more

If you’re as nervous about the 2022 financial scene as I am, we should take this holiday week to review 22 reliable dividends. I’m talking about generous payers that are prepared for any market, bull or bear.

In a market where liquidity is drying up fast, sign me up for safe dividends plus additional profits. The asset price “fuel” that our Federal Reserve has provided since March 2020 is disappearing. Fed Chairman Jay Powell is being forced by inflation numbers to reduce the massive cash the Fed has been providing the financial markets.

So, let’s talk about 22 stocks with sizable and stable dividends averaging 6.8% that can double, triple, maybe even quadruple your portfolio yield overnight.… Read more

Today we’re going to take a look at an unusual closed-end fund (CEF) that hands us a rich 10.5% dividend that comes our way monthly (and grows!). And it sends regular special dividends our way, too.

When you add those “bonus” payouts in, this fund often pays life-changing yields of up to 15%!

The fund in question is the PIMCO Dynamic Income Fund (PDI), a dividend titan that should be on any closed-end fund (CEF) investor’s watch list. (In fact, if you’re a subscriber to Contrarian Income Report, a sister to my CEF Insider service, you already know PDI—it recently landed in the CIR portfolio through a merger we’ll discuss a little later.)… Read more

If you’re as nervous about the 2022 edition of the stock market as I am, we should take this holiday week to review reliable REIT dividends.

REITs (real estate investment trusts) are stocks that dish 90% of their profits as payouts. This makes them ideal income plays for retirees. Rather than buying shares and “hoping” they’ll go up, we can lock in quarterly (or even monthly!) dividends—real cold cash!—with REITs.

For example, my favorite REIT for 2022 yields 4.9%. This equates to $4,900 per year on a $100K position, a great start to the year. Plus, we have the opportunity for price gains—for a total return of 10% or so.… Read more

We’re setting up for a volatile 2022, which means this is the perfect time for us to trot out the time-tested dividend-investing technique we’re going to look at today.

It works well during sanguine times. But when the markets get rocky, this “buy low” method really shines. It’s our way to buy more shares when our favorite dividend stocks are in the bargain bin. We can think of it as the ultimate market-timing tool for income investors.

You’ve probably used a version of this technique to build your current nest egg. Methodically investing a set amount of cash is known as dollar cost averaging (DCA).… Read more

Imagine a fund that’s beaten the Oracle of Omaha himself, Warren Buffett, for years and, unlike Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A), pays a whopping 9% dividend!

Little-Known CEF Outruns the Best

As you can see in the chart above, the fund in question here is a closed-end fund (CEF) called Central Securities Corporation (CET). It’s got two things in common with Buffett himself: a focus on value and a long history—even longer than Buffett’s! CET traces its roots all the way back to 1929. In fact, the fund was founded on October 1 of that year, just 28 days before the Black Friday crash that triggered the Great Depression!… Read more

Let’s buy the dip on high-growth dividend payers as we head into 2022. Basic investors are fearful, which means it’s time for us contrarians to get greedy.

Thanks to the year-end pullback in stocks, we have an opportunity to double our dividend money even faster than usual. Usually, these moonshot plays aren’t so cheap. But we have a “mini” bear market in small caps and other areas of the market to thank for these bargains.

In a moment we’ll discuss 22 dividend growth stocks that are poised to double in just a few years. These companies have been growing their payouts so fast that, at this pace, they’ll double their payouts in just a few years.… Read more

Once folks get a taste of closed-end funds (CEFs), they typically rave about one thing: the dividends! Yields of 7% and up are common with CEFs, and they often come your way monthly.

We also love the fact that even though CEFs are a small corner of the market (with only about 500 or so out there), we can build a diversified portfolio with them: there are CEFs that hold US and international stocks, bonds, real estate—even private equity. You name it.

This broad range gets us around a problem most income-seekers face: being forced to stake significant sums in one, or a handful of, stocks just to get big payouts.… Read more

“Junk” bonds have never paid so little. Which makes them pointless. We’re here for the yields, not the credit quality!

Fortunately we can improve our dividends and our safety by being smarter. We are going to simply sell the popular 4%+ bonds and replace them with better 8%+ yielding equivalents.

First, the dogs. Anyone who owns either of the two most popular high-yield bond ETFs is a sad income investor today. Their yields are at all-time lows. The SPDR Bloomberg Barclays High Yield Bond ETF (JNK), for example, pays only 4.3%:

JNK’s Current Yield is Junk

And it gets worse, because this trailing yield looks better than the year ahead.… Read more