Shootout at the AI Corral: This 11.7% Payer Is a Winner

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I first saw a spaghetti western last year and am still kicking myself for not watching one sooner—A Fistful of Dollars is a masterpiece.

I’m reminded of the movie’s title because a fistful of dollars is what a lot of investors got from the so-called “Magnificent Seven”—namely Alphabet (GOOGL), Amazon.com (AMZN), Apple (AAPL), Meta Platforms (META), Microsoft (MSFT), NVIDIA Corp. (NVDA) and Tesla (TSLA)—last year.

These tech wonderkids were, of course, on a tear in 2023, jumping 75% on average and providing the bulk of the market’s gain.

The reason for that is pretty clear: artificial intelligence, which burst onto the public consciousness with the release of ChatGPT in November 2022.… Read more

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The hardest part of convincing folks they can lock in high dividends for the long haul (I’m talking 9%+ yields here) is that many just don’t believe it.

And frankly, I can’t blame them. Too many people are paid a lot of money to tell investors that yields like that are impossible. But the truth is you can get a 9.5% yield today—and even more. But even at 9.5%, we’re talking about a middle-class income of $4,000 per month on an investment of just a touch over $500K.


Source: CEF Insider

Below, I’ll reveal how to start building a portfolio that could get you an even bigger income stream than this today.… Read more

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Today we’re going to click our way to a dividend stream that matches the average household income stream in America—$70,784 per year—and we’re not going to do it on a much smaller nest egg than most people think is possible.

This is important now, because the financial media continues to pump out ridiculous answers to the question of how much most folks need to retire. A recent Bloomberg story, for example, said we’d need $3 million saved to clock out comfortably!

Luckily for us that number is way off. Consider this chart:

Source: CEF Insider

Here you see four different scenarios for getting that $70,784 in yearly dividend income, including two Trinity University studies showing risky and conservative estimates, based on 3% and 4% withdrawal rates.… Read more

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Thanks to the selloff, it’s possible to buy closed-end funds (CEFs) at such high yields that we can do what seemed unthinkable just a few months ago: build a CEF portfolio that will pay $5,000 a month in dividends on about $540k invested.

That’s an 11.1% average yield!

This, of course, is because many CEFs have been caught up in the selloff, and yields move inversely to prices. So a fund that may have yielded, say, 7% six months ago (which is about the long-term CEF average) is suddenly yielding a lot more now.

In addition, it’s possible to build an income stream this big with just three CEFs.Read more

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When we’re faced with a situation like today’s, with inflation and interest rates on a tear, we want dividends that keep us ahead of rising prices while hedging us against volatility.

Luckily, there’s a selection of high-yield closed-end funds (CEFs) that do just that. We’re going to look at three that yield 9.9% on average today, plus they give us the diversification we need to withstand market shocks.

And with a 9.9% yield, you could use these stout income generators to pay your bills on a modest investment, avoiding the need to sell into a downturn to augment your income. Heck, a retiree with $500K could generate $4,125 a month in dividends!… Read more

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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

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Today we’re going to build a portfolio that can make us totally financially independent with just $500K invested. And we’ll do it on dividends alone—without having to touch our principal.

Now I know that sounds outlandish in today’s low-yield world. Here’s how we’ll make it happen. (Hint: our plan involves three closed-end funds, or CEFs, paying dividends that dwarf the measly 1.3% you’d get from the typical S&P 500 stock.)

The Dividends-Only Retirement Portfolio

The principle behind retiring on $500,000 (or any amount, really) and being guaranteed of not outliving your nest egg is pretty simple: make sure the amount you’re taking out of your portfolio is less than what your portfolio earns you on a yearly basis.… Read more

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Do yourself a favor and shut out all the “experts” who say it’s impossible to retire on dividends alone. They’re just plain wrong! Because even today, with stocks soaring (and dividend yields in the tank), you absolutely can build a portfolio yielding a solid 7%+.

We’re going to do it now, and we’re going to do it easily—with just three funds. These funds—part of a unique asset class called closed-end funds (CEFs)— pay 7.6% between them, and the biggest yielder of the bunch throws off a huge 8.7% payout!

And they’re just the start.

A 7.6% dividend yield is enough to pay you $38,000 a year on just $500K invested, and you wouldn’t have to draw a single penny of your principal to get that cash stream.… Read more

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If there’s one thing you can be sure of in investing, it’s this: alarmists—whether they’re bulls or bears—almost never get it right. And playing the contrarian angle is a great way to grab big gains and 7%+ dividends.

Think back to the days before the election: brokerages were warning of unprecedented volatility following the big day. I heard from some investors who sold most of their holdings right before voters went to the polls, terrified that uncertainty over the results would cause a crash.

Then something weird happened. The election ended, the result was close—and stocks surged.

Close Race = Big Gains

Why did everyone get it wrong?… Read more

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It’s the most common rule in investing: if you want to cut your risk (and protect your dividends!), you need to diversify.

Yes, we’ve all heard it before, but what most people don’t get is just how much you can damage your finances by not sticking with it—or, conversely, how much you can reap in gains (and safe dividends) by following a smart diversification strategy.

From $0 to $1 Million in Assets … and Back to $0

I’ve seen this play out firsthand; a friend was an early employee at a social media startup that got a big investment from a tech billionaire.… Read more

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