There are dozens of huge yields out there that no one ever talks about. I’m talking about payouts 6-times (or bigger) than the pathetic 1.4% dividend the typical blue-chip stock pays.

Swapping Dividend Yield for Shareholder Yield 

These big “hidden yields” really are hiding in plain sight. The key to finding them is to set aside dividend yield for a moment and focus on shareholder yield.

Shareholder yield is a simple measure that goes beyond dividends to show you the big-picture view of what you’re pulling in from a stock—including another way companies pay us that doesn’t get nearly enough press (or at least nearly enough positive press!).… Read more

Most people don’t realize this, but there’s a simple, two-step way to grab serious gains in high-yield closed-end funds (CEFs).

I call it the Index Boomerang Effect. And when I say it’s simple, I’m not kidding around.

It goes like this: over time, we can expect a CEF in a particular asset class to perform around as well as the index that represents it (though to be honest, the best CEFs tend to beat their indexes handily, which makes our strategy even more powerful).

But even the best CEFs do lag their indexes from time to time. The key is to spot those times and buy—then ride your CEF to strong gains as the index “pulls” its share price higher.… Read more

Oil stocks—and their fat dividends—are breaking out to new highs.

Question for you. If Fed Chair Jay Powell hadn’t printed a bunch of money over the past 14 months, would energy stocks still be this electric?

Chairman JP Prints Lots of Money

My take? No way. Their recovery would be (much) more muted.

According to the International Energy Agency (IEA)—the best and most unbiased source of industry information I know—world oil demand is projected to hit 96.7 million barrels per day this year.

Meanwhile, global supply is just 93.6 million barrels per day. Production was halted when the world shut down a spring ago.… Read more

Who’s up for speedy 80% stock gains? Believe it or not, there’s a “split secret” hiding in plain sight for us to apply.

Let’s discuss the details. And appreciate that we can tap this strategy using safe dividend paying stocks, too.

Believe it or not, stock splits can hand us a nice price bump. When a company—especially a top-notch dividend grower—splits its shares, the move draws in folks who’ve been holding off, seeing the pre-split price as too expensive.

Let’s be honest: we’ve all done this. How many times have we avoided a stock because it trades for $300 a share?… Read more

If you’re on the lookout for an expert to help you build your nest egg—and bulk up your dividend stream to, say, a 6%+ yield—you have two main choices: a professional wealth manager or an investment advisory service (or a newsletter, as they’re more commonly known).

Which is for you? Let’s break down both options. Then we’ll dive into the kind of three-fund portfolio a newsletter might tip you off to, with a healthy 6.1% income stream and a history of double-digit yearly returns, too.

Wealth Managers Charge More, But They’re a Help in a Crisis

With active wealth management, the main concern most people have is fees.… Read more

Business development companies (BDCs) are big dividend paying companies that tend to thrive as rates rise. Today, we’ll discuss three inflation-powered payouts up to 10.7%.

BDCs extend loans to small businesses and often their loans have a “floating rate” component included. So, the BDC tends to make more money as long-term rates rise.

A quick background on BDCs. Since traditional banks have backed off on lending over the years, BDCs have stepped in. They provided much-needed debt, equity and other financial solutions to small businesses.

Congress whipped up business development companies with a few pen strokes in 1980, creating a structure that’s incentivized to provide smaller companies with financing.… Read more

There’s an obvious reason why we love closed-end funds (CEFs): the dividends!

CEFs’ payouts average around 7% as I write this, and there are plenty paying well into the double digits. One fund we’ll touch on below, for example, yields more than 16%. A payout like that gets you $2,000 a month in dividends on just $150,000 invested.

But, as we often discuss in my CEF Insider service, when picking CEFs, we always need to look past those big yields.

We also need to examine the discount to net asset value (NAV, or the value of the fund’s portfolio) because buying a CEF at an unusually wide discount can net us strong price upside as that discount bounces back to normal, pulling the price up with it.… Read more

Are the best things in life actually free? It depends how we handle the hidden costs.

Free coffee is good. At home, I drink one mega-cup per day. At fixed income conferences, I typically scale that “complimentary” consumption up to double-digits per day. (Hey, they’re just hotel cups.)

Free breakfast is usually better than just free caffeine. And open bar, of course, reigns supreme for your income strategist.

No doubt these freebies are baked into ticket costs, but I will gladly accept the bacon and beer challenge to get my money’s worth.

When readers write in to ask my thoughts on “risk free” yields on certain bonds, it’s time for us to talk.… Read more

With stocks grinding along near all-time highs, decent discounts (and decent dividend yields!) are thin on the ground. But if we look close enough, they are there.

The answer to this no-yield problem is simply going one step beyond the blue chips everyone buys. Our big dividends (at discounts) are lying there in a corner of the market that few serious investors pay attention to. That’s too bad for them, but great for contrarians like us.

I’m talking about closed-end funds (CEFs), which, as a group, yield around 7% on average as I write this.

And here’s the truly underappreciated thing about these high-paying funds: many of them own the big names of the S&P 500 anyway!… Read more

The once unthinkable has happened: AT&T (T), a Dividend Aristocrat that increased payouts for 30 years, said it will cut its payout nearly in half.

The move is especially infuriating because, as recently as April, we were hearing a lot about why the company would likely hike its payout in 2021, and management had stood by the dividend.

That’s now out the window—and the market’s not happy.

Dividend Cut Sends AT&T on a Wild Ride

It just goes to show you that even companies among the vaunted Dividend Aristocrats fall from grace from time to time. We all remember back in 2017, when another sacred cow, General Electric (GE), slashed its payout in half, as well.… Read more