Another day, another sign the first-level crowd is (wrongly!) losing its head over inflation—and yet another opportunity for us to tap those fears for big dividends!

Let’s start with the number the headline-focused crowd can’t move past: 6.2%, which is the jump consumer prices took in October 2021, compared to a year earlier.

Inflation Lurches Higher …

But something strange is going on here—the stock market doesn’t care. While we’ve been hearing about inflation pretty much all year, the S&P 500 still jumped 25% in 2021. That’s because, while the “dumb money” panicked and sold out at various points during the year, the big institutional players—or the “smart money”—stayed long, and indeed bought more.… Read more

Successful dividend investing is simple, though not necessarily easy. There are nuances which trip up many investors (including most professionals!). These twists and turns create opportunities for contrarian-minded income investors like us.

So, ready to retire on dividends? Follow these five steps and we’ll do it together. Let’s start with an obvious yet underappreciated rule for income investors.

Step 1: Count Your Dividends

Since we focus on high yield, most of our returns come from the “yield” component of stocks. For example, we added this high-paying bond fund to our portfolio 2016 and its price-only returns look quite pedestrian.… Read more

We’ve just hit the best time of the year to roll out one of our most potent dividend “hacks.” Timed just right, it’ll deliver us stout payouts yielding upwards of 5%—and growing triple-digits, too.

Best of all, we can “work” this proven dividend-growth system in just two quick steps, which we’ll dive into now. Then I’ll name three stocks you can buy today to give yourself a shot at “front running” double-digit payout hikes—and swift capital gains, too!

Step 1: Buy Just as a Dividend Hike Is Announced

We’ll start by “timing” our buys just as dividend hikes are announced. That’s a veteran move because a company’s shares almost always rise with its payouts, and there’s often a lag between the announcement of the hike and a rise in the stock.… Read more

I hate to see everyday folks grinding it out with “has-been” dividend payers like AT&T (T) when there are dozens of safe 7%+ yielders out there, many with incredible performance histories, too. 

Trouble is, most people don’t know where to look. But I’ll take you on a personal tour of this overlooked corner of the market (and reveal the ticker of one of the best of these investments, which is throwing off a 10.2% yield as I write this) today.

First, back to Ma Bell: sure, she yields a high 8.4%, but the stock is one of the biggest yield traps on the market!… Read more

“Regular” REITs typically buy physical properties, find someone to manage them, and lease them out. They collect rent checks and avoid paying taxes on most of these profits if they pay most of their earnings out as dividends (per the terms of their tax loophole, which frees them from paying taxes if they distribute 90% of their profits as payouts). This is the reason REIT stocks typically boast big yields.

Mortgage REITs (mREITs), on the other hand, don’t own buildings. They own paper. Specifically, they buy mortgage loans and collect the interest. How do they make money? By borrowing short (assuming short-term rates are lower) and lending long (if long-term rates are, as they tend to be, higher).… Read more

I’m hearing from a lot of CEF Insider members who are worried about inflation these days, and there’s a good reason why: consumer prices raced up 6.2% in October from a year ago!

The good news is that we’ve got an easy setup that lets us work inflation fears to our advantage, grabbing ourselves bigger dividends, and bigger price upside, as we do. All we have to do is buy stock-focused closed-end funds (CEFs) on dips when inflation reports come out.

(Below we’ll discuss two CEFs you can target on these dips. They’re built to protect your portfolio—and your dividends!—if inflation proves more than transitory.… Read more

I stopped pulling my suitcase and fumbled for my phone. “Owens.”

“Hey buddy,” I replied to my childhood friend. “If it’s loud… well I’m in Vegas. On the Strip actually, walking to my hotel to check in.”

It was almost 80 degrees. Your income strategist was sweating through his shoes and pants and, more concerning, he’d forgotten his hat—which meant the top of his increasingly exposed head was being slowly but surely sizzled by the desert sun.

But “shortcuts” back through the casinos would require re-masking up, per Nevada state law. Plus, they are loud. And my boy wanted to talk about cryptos, even though he’d done very little investing through his entire life.… Read more

Let’s beat back this Fed-fueled market—where everything seems pricey—with three proven strategies that prime us for 100%+ gains, and 100%+ dividend growth, too.

One of them is a nifty ploy that sets us up to “front run” a 100%+ return by getting in companies about to split their businesses. At the end of it all, we’ll end up with two growing dividends instead of just one! (We’ll cover the two telltale signs of a looming split in a bit.)

These three strategies are the inner workings of my Hidden Yields dividend-growth service, which has delivered a 14.7% annualized return since launch in September 2015.… Read more

Thinking of joining the “Great Resignation” crowd and dumping your 9-to-5 gig? Let’s talk about how you can do it with outsized 7%+ dividends that easily keep the bills paid.

I’m going to show you the powerful secret some of these “quitters” are using today. It all turns on a unique kind of asset called a closed-end fund (CEF) that’ll be our source for those rock-steady 7%+ dividends (paid monthly, to boot!).

More Investors Discover the Income-Producing Power of CEFs

First off, a funny thing is happening as people dump their day jobs: they’re investing more, with the number of new investors jumping 15% in 2020, and scores of folks who already invest building out their portfolios further.… Read more

The long-awaited infrastructure bill has passed. Let’s talk about the six best dividend stocks to capitalize on this spending.

Here’s where the larger chunks of money are going:

• $110 billion to build new roads, bridges and other major infrastructure
• $66 billion to improve passenger and freight rail
• $65 to upgrade America’s broadband infrastructure
• $65 billion to upgrade and build up the electric grid
• $55 billion to improve America’s water infrastructure
• $39 billion to modernize public transit
• $25 billion to repair and maintain airports
• $17 billion to update port infrastructure
• $7.5 billion to build a network of electric vehicle chargers
• $7.5 billion to create low-emission buses and ferries

Most of this “obvious” government spending is going to industrials and materials firms.… Read more