There are four funds sitting right under investors’ noses throwing off rich 10.6% dividends today. What’s more, these high-yield closed-end funds (CEFs) deliver these rich payouts monthly.

We can thank the recent selloff for this opportunity. It’s weighed on these CEFs’ prices, tweaking their yields higher.

With a 10.6% payout, you can get a yearly dividend stream of $40,000 on just a $378,000 investment. If you went with an index fund like the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY) or Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO), which both yield 1.7% as I write this, you’d have to invest $2.4 million to get the same payout!… Read more

Dividend safety matters more than ever today. And we can’t take the continued presence of a payout for granted, either. There are still shoes waiting to drop on dividends that are widely thought to be “secure.”

But how do we verify dividend safety?

The answer is simple: We look for stocks that are throwing cash at shareholders like it’s no big deal. By “following the money” we’ll also find shares that are:

• On pace to double their dividends every few years, with
• The safest dividends to boot.

The conventional wisdom says you can trust companies with entrenched, long-growing dividends because they have a reputation to uphold.… Read more

There is a proven way to grab sturdy double-digit dividends in this income-starved market.

Today we’re going to follow it. The secret? Take a contrarian approach to a group of stocks most folks have (wrongly) soured on. Those stocks would be real estate investment trusts (REITs), which yield just over 4%, on average, putting the 1.7% paid by the typical S&P 500 stock to shame.

And if you make the simple move I’ll show you shortly, you could easily triple that 4% payout! You’ll give yourself a solid chance of beating the typical REIT investor’s returns, too.

I’ll give you names and tickers in a minute, but let’s talk first about an obvious trap most investors are falling into with REITs these days.… Read more

Is it time to buy the dip?

Almost. And when we do, let’s not just “buy” an index fund (or worse, a lame ETF!) and “hope” that we timed it right. No, no, we contrarian income seekers can do better.

Let’s instead choose investments that cash flow. In a moment we’ll talk about one that yields 7.4%.

And let’s not buy them at mere “face value” either. Only the unsophisticated first-level types, as our man Howard Marks calls these marks, pay full price! We can, and should, demand discounts in addition to the pullback.

The major indices have officially “corrected” from their September highs (which is typically defined as a 10% decline).… Read more

Finally—a selloff! It’s the perfect time for us to add secure monthly dividend stocks to our portfolio now that their valuations have landed back here on Planet Earth. I’m talking about every-30-day payers with dividends that annualize up to 7.1%.

Their price decline has increased their dividend yields, giving us a shot at a terrific combo: higher yields, monthly payouts and price upside. Yes, you read that right. We don’t have to “settle” for 7.1% yields that are paid to us monthly. By buying right, we can capture some price gains, to boot.

Monthly Dividend Stocks Make Sense for Retirees—and Aspiring Retirees

If you’re relying on your portfolio for income, monthly dividends are a godsend, because managing your cash flow from stocks paying quarterly is a total headache.… Read more

If we can be sure of one thing these days, it’s that millions of investors are fed up with the pathetic 0.7% yields offered by so-called “safe” plays like Treasuries. And the 1.7% dividend that the average S&P 500 stock pays? Nobody’s not retiring on that, either!

So it follows that many more investors will go on the hunt for high, safe dividends in the coming months.

That means a group of 500 big yielders called closed-end funds (CEFs) will draw a lot more interest. The average CEF yields 7.2% now, and the biggest payers yield well into the double digits, like the 14.6%+ yielders we’ll dive into below.… Read more

Are you trying to grind out a livable retirement on dividends alone? It’s possible, and it doesn’t require millions and millions already in the bank. (Even today, with interest rates in the tank.)

However, we must step outside the mainstream to achieve this. After all, why mess around with a standard $15,600 a year in retirement income when we can “supersize” that annual yield haul up to $108,000?

The “standard” $15.6K is what we get listening to mainstream financial advisors and pundits, and buying the vanilla ETFs that they recommend. The latter $108K is what we can achieve with a little bit of original thinking.… Read more

You’ve probably heard of the “4% rule.” It refers to the amount you can safely take out of a portfolio without running out of money in retirement. It even comes with a catchy acronym: SWR, or “safe withdrawal rate.”

This “wisdom” is gospel for many advisors, but it’s completely wrong! Blindly following it could mean staying in the workforce for years, even decades, longer than you have to.

Here are three reasons why you should ignore this myth. Further on, we’ll look at a better option that will hand you rich 7% dividends and price upside, too.

Reason #1: It’s not really 4% anymore

The first reason is that the 4% rule has even been disavowed by its author.… Read more

Last week, Federal Reserve Chair Jay Powell reiterated his stance that he’s keeping rates at zero for a while. It was no surprise, but it confirms that we’ll continue to ignore US Treasury bonds. They might not pay enough in our lifetimes to warrant our attention ever again!

Instead, we’ll turn our focus to higher paying fixed income vehicles. I’m talking about corporate bonds, convertible bonds and “preferred” stock. They all dish more dividend per dollar than lame T-Bills.

But is this the best time to buy them, with an election just around the corner? It’s a common question, as I’m seeing many subscribers writing in to ask:

Brett, what dividends do we need to Buy/Hold/Sell if X/Y/Z happens in November?… Read more

I know you’re struggling to find cheap stocks to buy these days (or at least stocks that aren’t cheap for a reason!). This pullback is a bit helpful, but not enough for us dividend investors—the average S&P 500 stock yields a pathetic 1.7% as I write this.

That’s nowhere near enough dividend income to retire on, unless you’re sitting on a portfolio $2.5 million or more!

But don’t worry, there are always bargain-priced dividends out there—we just have to go a step beyond what the mainstream crowd is buying. Today I’m going to show you one such investment; it’s my favorite one to buy for big dividends and upside.… Read more