Ignore the overtorqued headlines about inflation: even though prices are rising, they won’t take out the economy.

In fact, rising inflation is setting us up with a contrarian opportunity to grab double-digit dividends in a corner of the market everyone’s written off. That would be consumer-discretionary stocks, which you’d think would be the main victims of inflation, but that’s far from the case, for reasons we’ll get into shortly.

We’ll also delve into one smartly run consumer-focused closed-end fund (CEF) yielding an outsized 11% below. But first we have to talk strategy, because while there are opportunities for us, this twitchy market also includes some traps we need to watch for.… Read more

“Mom, please make sure you secure your mask first before assisting the kiddos.”

We receive this reminder every flight from at least one flight attendant. Mom receives the reminder while your income strategist sits across the aisle (a mile away as far as his parenting partner is concerned) in an uneventful seat dubbed Daddy Island.

This, of course, runs counter to Mom’s (and even Dad’s) instinct. If your kid is in trouble, your first, second and third reaction is to help your child first. The airline’s point is that we can best help our children by first securing our own oxygen.… Read more

When a market storm hits, we dividend investors can protect our wealth and grab steady payouts when we buy stocks backed by strong recurring revenue.

It’s one of the oldest business models there is! Here’s how it works: customers pay for the services these companies provide every month, year or whatever, which gives them predictable—and ideally growing—profits.

What’s more, these payments are “sticky”: once buyers start making them, they’re quickly “out of sight, out of mind,” automatically pulling from their bank accounts (or dropping onto their credit cards) on the regular.

(I’ll show you two such firms in a moment, one of which is converting its recurring revenue into a recurring payout that soared 88% in just two  years.… Read more

This market’s insistence on falling—even though earnings are soaring—has opened up a strong buying opportunity for us dividend investors.

And we’re going to tap it to grab a rare “double discount” on an 8%-yielding closed-end fund (CEF) that no one’s noticed. This income-and-growth machine has soared 260% since inception and has the potential to crush stocks this year, thanks to its undeserved markdown.

More on that below. First, let’s talk about this stock-market disconnect, because recent declines have yanked the S&P 500’s price-to-earnings ratio down to 23.8. That may not sound cheap, but it’s far below last year at this time, when valuations hit a nosebleed 43.7.… Read more

Over longer time periods, dividend stock prices tend to follow their dividends—for better or for worse.

Sometimes, the stock price gets there first. This can be a race to the sky, in the case of a rising dividend. Or a race to the basement, when a payout is about to be cut.

For example, we had been concerned about Kraft Heinz’s (KHC) dividend for years. Income investors “sniffed out” the inevitable payout cut before the lower quarterly dish became official:

Kraft’s Stock Price Tipped Off Its Dividend Cut

Investors waste no time ditching a troubled dividend when a firm has hacked its payout in the past.… Read more

These are trying times, so let’s talk about how we’re going to protect our retirement (and our families’ futures) as market volatility increases.

The Ukraine crisis is, of course, first and foremost a humanitarian tragedy the world is racing to respond to, as it should. It’s also being felt well beyond the borders of Russia and Ukraine, with rising energy prices fueling inflation fears, which are, in turn, causing panic in global markets.

High, Monthly CEF Dividends Help Stabilize Our Portfolios

At times like these, closed-end funds (CEFs) are a good investment choice because their high dividends help us meet our income needs while volatility increases: as I write this, our CEF Insider portfolio is delivering an 8% yield, on average, and we’re getting a predictable income stream, too, with 16 of our 21 holdings paying us monthly.… Read more

We’ll talk about protecting our retirement portfolios—and finding safe dividend stocks—in a moment. But first, let’s appreciate the Ukrainian woman who offered sunflower seeds to Russian soldiers in her neighborhood.

You’re occupants.
You’re fascists.
Take these seeds and put them in your pocket
So at least sunflowers will grow when you all lie down here.

She gave the soldiers a full minute of nonstop verbal barrage. You can watch it with captions here.

Warning, her language is not safe for work—which makes the interaction all the more special. (Hat tip to Ukraine’s Twitter feed for the post. Their government has put on a master class in social media marketing over the past week.)… Read more

I’m about to reveal my very best strategy for pocketing 20%+ upside (and 7.8%+ dividends) from high-yielding closed-end funds (CEFs).

It’s a “rinse and repeat” move that can help you grab the biggest gains from these potent income investments, lock in those wins, then sidestep the pullbacks. (I’ll also show you two ridiculously cheap CEFs throwing off massive yields up to 11.4%.)

It’s the perfect time to put this strategy in play because the Ukraine mess, and the broader market dumpster fire, have set us up with some sweet deals in CEFs.

The One (and Only) Predictor of CEF Upside

Besides massive dividends, CEFs stand out because it’s easy to tell if they’re truly oversold and ready to gap higher.… Read more

With the swift stock-market decline we’ve seen since the start of 2022, and now, you can be forgiven if your stomach tightens just a bit when you go to check your retirement account.

So today I’m going to give you my three best tips for securing your hard-earned cash—and even better, locking in a dividend stream you can easily live off of in retirement. And no, you won’t need a seven-figure nest egg to pull off what I’m going to show you now.

Step #1: Diversify the Right Way

You no doubt know that diversification is key to protecting your wealth, but if you only go halfway, you’re hurting your gain potential (and exposing yourself to potentially severe losses).… Read more

The S&P 500 is about as pricey as it ever gets. It’s also in freefall as I write.

This is good news for anyone looking for a future bargain. The plunge, however, is really bad news for most retirees who don’t read this column. They tend to own nothing except “America’s ticker” via the SPDR S&P 500 Trust ETF (SPY).

At 24-times earnings (P/E ratio), SPY is expensive. After all, who has 24 years to wait to get paid back?

But the actual payback period is even worse for SPY. Most of its firms don’t pay out all of their profits as dividends.… Read more