Drugs ‘n Diapers: 5 Dividends Up to 5.9%

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Worried that the Federal Reserve is driving our economy off a cliff?

I’ve got two words for you:

Drugs ‘n diapers.

Actually, I forgot one. Dividends.

These companies are about as recession-resistant as they come. Let’s start with drugs because, well, it’s always a bull market on prescription spend in America:


Source: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services

While some of us are popping pills, others are changing diapers. (Or using them—we don’t judge!)

Without naming names we can see that someone is making consistent deposits. The trajectory of diaper spend is a one-way trade, too:


Data source: Statista Market Insights

Let’s start on the changing table with a 2.5% payer and work our way up.… Read more

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Worried that the Federal Reserve is driving our economy off a cliff?

I’ve got two words for you:

Drugs ‘n diapers.

Actually, I forgot one. Dividends.

These companies are about as recession-resistant as they come. Let’s start with drugs because, well, it’s always a bull market on prescription spend in America:


Source: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services

While some of us are popping pills, others are changing diapers. (Or using them—we don’t judge!)

Without naming names we can see that someone is making consistent deposits. The trajectory of diaper spend is a one-way trade, too:


Data source: Statista Market Insights

Let’s start on the changing table with a 2.5% payer and work our way up.… Read more

Read More

We’ve been saying the 2022 edition of the stock market will be a mess for a while now—and we were right. But there are still dividend-paying gems out there: we just need to know where to look. (I’ve got three “safety-first” bargain buys for you below.)

The “mess,” of course, was inflation caused by Jay Powell’s tidal wave of cheap money! Now he needs to ditch his Wall Street friends to clean it up:

Why the Fed’s Tune Flipped so Fast

With consumer prices soaring, the so-called “Fed put”: the central bank’s tendency to change tack to rescue a plunging stock market, is dead.… Read more

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We’ve been saying the 2022 edition of the stock market will be a mess for a while now—and we were right. But there are still dividend-paying gems out there: we just need to know where to look. (I’ve got three “safety-first” bargain buys for you below.)

The “mess,” of course, was inflation caused by Jay Powell’s tidal wave of cheap money! Now he needs to ditch his Wall Street friends to clean it up:

Why the Fed’s Tune Flipped so Fast

With consumer prices soaring, the so-called “Fed put”: the central bank’s tendency to change tack to rescue a plunging stock market, is dead.… Read more

Read More

Dividend Aristocrats are popular. Too popular, if you ask me.

I’ll concede that the surest, safest way big stock market gains is dividend growth. Over time, stock prices are literally pulled higher by their payouts. Their dividends act as magnets that pull their shares higher and make their shareholders rich.

The Aristocrats have delivered plenty of wealth. Heck, to be admitted to the club they must have a track record of 25 annual dividend hikes in a row. At minimum.

Which is fantastic past performance. Problem is, the stock market looks ahead.

Many of these stocks are slowing down. Some—such as Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) and Coca-Cola (KO)—have elevated payout ratios of anywhere between 60% to 90%.… Read more

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If you’re like many investors these days, you’re warily eyeing your portfolio, wondering where the next dividend cut will come from.

Fear of dividend cuts is reasonable, even if you hold the Dividend Aristocrats—the 63 S&P 500 firms that have raised their payouts for 25 years (or more). This club includes well-known names like McDonald’s (MCD), Lowe’s (LOW), Kimberly-Clark (KMB) and Procter & Gamble (PG), as well as less familiar firms, like Sysco (SYY), VF Corporation (VFC) and Linde (LIN).

For many folks, the Aristocrats are sacred cows. But the crisis will inevitably force some of these companies to cut payouts in the weeks and months ahead.… Read more

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How much money do you need to retire on dividends alone?

This is a better question to ask than the typical “magic number” formula that most “first-level” thinking firms tout. Let’s review why their approach is fatally flawed, so that we can derive a more reliable method of our own based in actual reality (and funded by actual dividend payments.)

Fidelity Says What?

“You should aim to have 10 times your final salary in savings.”

Buy why? I suppose they are claiming that, if you earned $100,000 in your final year working, that you’ll want to earn this much in income every year for the rest of your life.…
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Lazy financial writers like to say that higher bond yields will hurt dividend stocks. This blanket statement may sound reasonable, but it’ll cost you money if you take it at face value.

Pundits have called sleepy dividend stocks like General Mills (GIS) “bond proxies” in recent years. GIS has paid 3% (more or less) over the last three years. That compared favorably with the 10-year note, which paid 2% (more or less) over that time period.

So, the story goes, investors had been buying stocks like GIS instead of safe bonds like Treasuries to scrape an extra 1% or so. But with Treasuries rallying to 3%, these same investors have “demanded” a higher yield from GIS.…
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If you feel trapped “grinding out” dividend income with popular 2% and 3% stocks and funds, here’s the three-letter acronym that will fund your retirement:

C-E-F

For whatever reason, closed-end funds don’t have nearly the following – or analyst paperazzi – that dividend-paying stocks boast. This “secret” is one of the last great efficiencies in an otherwise tough-to-beat market.

And we contrarian income hounds will gladly take this edge…

After all, it doesn’t make much sense that we can trade in our “dumb” stocks, ETFs and mutual funds for superior tickers that:

  • Yield 6%, 7%, 8% or more,
  • Pay their investors every month,
  • Often trade at a discount to the assets they each own, and
  • Are managed for free (I’ll explain more later) by a top-notch investment manager.


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Blue chip stocks are among the worst retirement investments you can make.

There are several blue-chip stocks that will actually cost you thousands of dollars each year. We’ll discuss three in a moment.

Sure, the financial media might lionize these stocks. But blue chips are simply big companies. When the term first came into being, it was simply an homage to the blue poker chip – at the time, the most valuable chip on the table. Before purples, oranges and grays began to grace the baize.

However, now the term comes with a boat load of perks – the simple assignment of the term “blue chip” is practically a buy recommendation.…
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