Here are eleven highly rated charities that benefit Ukrainians. Our extra dividend dollars can go a long way towards helping the millions of people who are suffering as a result of the Russian invasion.

All eleven nonprofits have a four-star rating from CharityNavigator.org, an independent service that rates charities for their financial efficiency and their transparency.

From there, I (Brett) cherry picked the very top candidates based on their individual Financial and Accountability & Transparency rating from CN. I have donated to each of these charities myself. Here they are in alphabetical order.

• A Chance in Life is preparing to help the 900,000 Ukrainian refugees (mostly women and children) that are expected to flee to Italy.

Friday morning, I mentioned to my wife that it was time for us to log into her 401(k) and move it back into stocks.

“Funny,” she said. “On NPR they just mentioned that money managers are moving into cash.”

If that isn’t a contrarian confirmation that a short-term low may be in, I don’t know what is!

Aside from the scaredy cats running money, there is also a misinformation campaign floating around about closed-end funds (CEFs). Since these vehicles are a favorite source of 7%+ dividends for us, we’re going to bust apart these lame claims today.

Then we’re going to roll into two CEFs that are savvy buys now, as Jay Powell starts cleaning up the inflationary mess he made by leaving the switch on his money printer stuck in “high.”… Read more

A contrarian indicator just flashed, and it’s telling us that now is the time to buy one of my favorite high-yield investments: closed-end funds (CEFs). Today we’re going to look at three yielding an outsized 11.6%.

Yield hunters that we are, we know the power of such a payout: with a $520,000 investment, we can kickstart a $60,000-a-year income stream. That’s a cool $5,000 averaged out on a monthly basis. And the three funds we’re going to cover in a moment give us the safety of diversification, going well beyond stocks to give us access to bonds, gold (a decent inflation hedge on its own) and real estate (ditto!).… Read more

What’s better than an asset class that can deliver 8% in annual income like clockwork? How about one that’s actually poised to pop as interest rates rise?

And oh by the way, this industry lets us invest like privileged private equity investors. No “seven-digit” buy-in needed here though! We buy these dividend machines just like we would any other stock.

That might sound too good to be true, especially when we consider that stocks broadly still yield less than 2%. But we’re simply talking about an underappreciated area of the market that includes only a few dozen stocks or so.

Let’s talk about three of these payout powerhouses today.… Read more

We need to talk about a mistake almost every investor makes—and it’s a particularly easy trap to fall into today.

That would be letting the headlines push us to make investing decisions out of fear. Below, we’re going to dive into a scenario where doing so could have resulted in 30% in losses and missed profits in the last 12 months. And that’s before we even consider the dividends that would have been left on the table.

How Letting Inflation Fears Rattle You Could Cost You Big

Let’s consider today’s inflation scare, which feels new, but in fact was just starting to make the news a year ago.… Read more

“This wine is crap.”

My wife (girlfriend at the time) glared back. I couldn’t let it go.

“Seriously…we paid $50 for this? I’d rather drink a bottle of Niagara.”

My comment—and ode to the New York wine that tastes like Welch’s grape juice—didn’t help the glare.

I was 22 years old, making $50K per year. It wasn’t a bad starting salary back in the day, but I didn’t have many extra $50s to spend on a Napa Valley wine tasting.

Plus, this guy had been drinking cheap Canadian beer since he was 16! The thought that I could procure 100 Labatt Blues for the price of our tasting raised my temperature further.… Read more

Dividend stocks reward us with more than just cash flow. They actually benefit our retirement portfolios in four ways:

• A high current yield—for meaningful cash flow today. In a moment we’ll spotlight a timely play with a neat 3.5% yield.

• Dividend growth, which tends to pull a company’s share price higher (as we’ll see below with this stock, whose payout exploded 450% in the last decade).
  

• Share buybacks, which cut the number of shares outstanding, boosting earnings per share and share prices in the process. And of course …

• Price appreciation, as the stock moves up on strong results for the company, its industry or the economy as a whole.

It probably won’t surprise you to hear that I’m hearing from a lot of investors who are concerned about protecting their portfolios, and their income streams, from the worrying times we’re facing today.

As the strategist of the CEF Insider high-yield investing service, I hear those worries, and I take them to heart with every CEF pick I make. And while talking portfolio strategy may seem a little inconsequential given the tragic events unfolding in the Ukraine, it’s vital that we do everything we can to look out for our families’ needs, especially now.

What’s more, by protecting and growing our income streams, as my colleague Brett Owens recently said, we can use our dividend dollars to help address some of today’s dire needs, whether it’s by donating to a charity helping the people of Ukraine or in the USA, by supporting family businesses that have been hit by the pandemic and, now, soaring prices.… Read more

Russia’s reckless (and, sadly, increasingly ruthless) invasion of Ukraine has put a spotlight squarely on the commodity markets. Many of them have already taken off to the moon. Crude oil, of course, was the first to hit orbit.

But there’s one hard asset that’s still flying under the radar—at least for now. And this commodity just so happens to be a source of aggressive dividend growth.

Oil, as mentioned, is most of the media’s attention. Not only has “black gold” set the investing world on fire, with the highest crude-oil prices seen in more than 13 years—but Americans are forced to watch that filter down into all-time-high gas prices.… Read more

It’s not a particularly great environment for investing lately, that’s for sure. The market is churning amid unrest in Ukraine. The rate of inflation is the highest since 1982. And the Fed has signaled an interest rate hike is all but certain.

But you may be surprised to learn there are plenty of dividend stocks that aren’t just surviving right now, but thriving. This elite group of “hidden gems” is enjoying rising share prices even as they offer up dividends twice as big as their peers.

These aren’t the usual suspects, of course. Because in 2022, the old rules of investing simply don’t apply.… Read more