As dividend investors, safe payouts are our No. 1 (and 2! and 3!) priority. And with interest rates soaring and a recession looming, we’re going to be bigger sticklers than ever about this in 2023.

That’s why, last week, we talked about five popular dividend stocks whose payouts could be slashed this year. If you hold any of these laggards, you need to sell yesterday.

But how do we tell which dividends are safe?

Well, there’s a surefire indicator that no one talks about: insider buying. And when you combine insider buying with another “signal” we look for in a stock, high short interest, you can set yourself up for safe, growing dividends and serious price gains, too!… Read more

Today we’re going to build ourselves a portfolio that hands us a 10.5% yield. And we’re going to do it with just three funds.

The appeal of a 10.5% payout is tough to deny: when you’re getting that much of your investment back every year in dividends, you’ll recoup the whole thing in less than 10 years. Everything else is gravy!

What’s more, two of the three funds below—all of which are closed-end funds (CEFs)—pay dividends monthly, so we’re getting our payouts in line with our bills. That’s unheard-of in the world of vanilla stocks. Almost all of them make us wait three long months for our next payout.… Read more

Shall we turn 2023 into a bounce back year for our retirement portfolios?

How about we shoot for, say, 23% total returns?

The surest way to do it is by employing a technique I call the dividend magnet.

It’s safe. Reliable. And works beautifully on the back side of a bear market.

I recently gave a guest lecture for a finance class at California State University, Sacramento. One of the students, to put it lightly, was excited to make money in stocks.

His hand went up from the back of the classroom. (Nobody sits in the front rows. Some things never change!)… Read more

There’s no denying that 2022 was the year of energy. A look at the top 10 performers in the S&P 500 index proves that plain as day.

They are, in descending order:

1. Occidental Petroleum (OXY) – 119%
2. Hess (HES) – 94%
3. ExxonMobil (XOM) – 87%
4. Marathon Petroleum (MPC) – 87%
5. Schlumberger (SLB) – 81%
6. APA Corporation (APA) – 76%
7. Valero Energy (VLO) – 75%
8. Halliburton (HAL) – 75%
9. FirstSolar (FSLR) – 72%
10. ConocoPhillips (COP) – 72%

Clearly energy was on the top of the heap over the last 12 months…

… But as the old saying goes, past performance is not a guarantee of future returns.… Read more

There are three big overlooked trends in the stock market now, and by tapping each one, we can set ourselves up for some very nice long-term gains in my favorite high-yield vehicles: closed-end funds (CEFs).

The 11.8%-yielding CEF we’ll discuss further on, the BlackRock Innovation & Growth Trust (BIGZ), is a prime example of a CEF with loads of upside potential now. I’ve also got a collection of buys yielding up to 9.6% on average (with many paying dividends monthly) waiting for you in the portfolio of my CEF Insider service.

Inside 2023’s “Double Discount” on CEFs

CEFs’ high dividends are one reason why we favor these funds.… Read more

Retirement is simple (we stop working). But it’s not necessarily easy (build up a passive income stream that replaces our previous wages).

Retiring on dividends is my jam. Payouts that arrive every quarter—or better yet, every month—are about as passive as it gets. “Mailbox” money.

Which is ideal. We’re not trying to work here, people! We’re crafting an income stream so that we needn’t answer to anyone else.

When our payouts—plus social security and any pension payments (remember those?)—surpass our expenses, we’re there. See ya, Corporate America!

And remember, we employ a “No Withdrawal” Portfolio. We live on dividends alone, which helps us keep our capital intact.… Read more

Hands up if you’ve been caught out by a snap dividend cut. Then you know the sickening feeling as investors dump the stock, tanking its price on the way out.

The result? A shriveled income stream and a crushed share price.

It’s a story I fear we’re going to hear a lot in 2023, with rising rates hitting stocks now, and a recession on the horizon. Folks who win will be those who know when to swing into—and out of—strong payers while shunning feeble dividends set to crumble.

To help you protect yourself, I’ve combed the market for dividends that could be on the chopping block.… Read more

This market has reached a once-in-two-year turning point. And it’s made our favorite income investments—closed-end funds (CEFs)—terrific contrarian buys.

That’s because the best of these funds pay high dividends, usually on the order of 7%+ yields, that can get us through a market downdraft. The vast majority of CEFs pay dividends monthly, too.

Then, when markets bounce, our CEFs’ discounts to net asset value (NAV, or the value of the stocks in their portfolios) snap shut, giving their prices an extra shove higher. The 7.9%-yielding CEF we’ll talk about in a second is a perfect example: its discount rises and falls in a predictable cycle, and that discount is now sitting near once-in-two-year lows.… Read more

Looking for the Dogs of the Dow, 2023 edition? You came to the right place.

We’ll explore these 10 blue-chip dividend bargains in a moment. Collectively, they are yielding 4.5%! But first, a quick recap of the strategy and homage to its 2022 “mini miracle.”

Last year was a dumpster fire for most mainstream investors. The market-at-large dropped 18%. “Safe” bond funds shed 25%, 30% or more. Yikes.

But the dogs ran. Not only did they outpace the market, but they delivered positive gains!

Who were these income greyhounds? And what’s the lineup for ’23? First, a refresher on this simple three-step strategy:

• Step 1: After the final trading day of the year, identify the 10 highest-yielding stocks in the Dow.

Investors often ask me when it’s time to sell a closed-end fund (CEF)—or what to look for in a CEF they should avoid buying in the first place.

With 2023 now dawning, bringing a raft of challenges—and opportunities—for those of us who love high-yield CEFs, now is a good time to tackle this question. And it so happens that I’ve run across a good CEF to use as an example: the Guggenheim Strategic Opportunities Fund (GOF). 

The big eye-catcher with this fund is its blockbuster 14.4% yield, which we’ll come back to in a second. First, let’s discuss the most important metric for telling whether your CEF is overvalued—and thus ripe for a drop in price.… Read more