Yes, You Can Retire on $490K (or less). Here’s How.

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Yes, You Can Retire on $490K (or less). Here’s How.

Is your nest egg way smaller than a million bucks? Do you worry you’ll never be able to retire?

I know: who doesn’t have this fear, right? Especially in today’s twitchy market.

Good news: you absolutely can leave the grind behind. And probably sooner than you think.

You can do it on far less than a million, too—just $490K (and maybe less than that, depending on your circumstances). The best part: you won’t have to sell a single stock in retirement.

Choose Your Own (Retirement) Adventure

Today I’m going to show you two routes to our $490K retirement: if you’re near (or already in) your golden years, you’ll want option 1: a collection of steady dividend payers yielding 7% and up.… Read more

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3 Big Dividends (up to 6.9%) That Thrive in any Market

If this wobbly market has you parked on the sidelines, worrying the big 2019 rally might evaporate at any second, I have good news: this is still a great time to buy.

But you need to buy carefully if we want to maximize our upside (and protect ourselves from a 2008-style meltdown).

The solution?

Top-quality closed-end funds (CEFs) handing you dividend cash that more than doubles (and in many cases more than triples) what your typical S&P 500 stock pays. I’ll give you three solid CEF picks (selling at fire-sale prices up to 23% off) at the end of this article.… Read more

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Weekly Market Summary: U.S. Stocks Set Records Amongst Solid Earnings

The Nasdaq Composite and S&P 500 indexes set new record highs on Tuesday, as first-quarter earnings continued to exceed low expectations this week. The rally this week completed a sharp 25% comeback in the S&P 500 that started when U.S. markets bottomed during the last week of December.

There was strong economic data reported in the U.S. this week, highlighted by a blowout first-quarter GDP reading on Friday. We experienced 3.2% growth in the domestic economy last quarter, which smashed the estimate of 2.5%.

New home sales were another beacon of light on Tuesday, showing a 3% increase for March. The print exceeded expectations and marked the highest level in 17 months.… Read more

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This 10% Yield is Trash (Plus 3 More Dividend Traps to Sell Now)

The S&P 500 has just set new all-time highs, and so has the Nasdaq. It’s no coincidence that stocks are back to historically high valuations, and yields have been flattened back to historically low levels.

If you’re an income hunter, you know it’s a difficult time. I’m here to tell you that it’s a dangerous time, too.

Buy High and… Sell Higher?


Source: Multpl.com

Tight income environments like this make dividend investors “reach for yield” at their own peril. They forget that a stock’s yield is only as good as its cash flow because, after all, a dividend is nothing more than a promise from a company.… Read more

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Shocker: These “Safe” 7% Dividends Will Lead the Market (Down)

It’s easy to see why investors love utilities:

  1. Low volatility
  2. High yields

But there’s a problem: recent scares like the inverted yield curve mean some utilities, and utility funds, have gotten ahead of themselves and are more prone to a pullback than most folks think. (The three 7%+-yielding closed-end funds (CEFs) I’ll show you shortly top this “overpriced” list.)

The worst part is, many people think utilities are underbought, because the benchmark Utilities Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLU) is up 8.3% year-to-date, half the 16% gain of the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY).

But that’s recency bias. Stretch the timeline to 12 months and things look very different:

Utilities Get Pricey

Interest-Rate Pause Should Boost Utilities.… Read more

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How to Boost Your Portfolio’s Yield by 194%

As investors near retirement, they tend to favor bonds, which provide income and less drama than stocks. However, less drama means less potential upside. With retirees living longer than ever before—which means much more time for inflation to eat away at your nest egg’s purchasing power—it’s important to not go too conservative too early in life. And fortunately, today even 65 or 70 may be too early!

One suggested solution for our long life expectancy “problem” is to stay with stocks longer. But stocks can go down as well as up, and a big pullback can inflict permanent damage on a portfolio.… Read more

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3 Deadly Dividends to Sell Yesterday (and 3 BIG Dividends You Need Now)

ETFs, or exchange-traded funds, are for suckers. There is no reason for any savvy income investor to get wrapped up in this “$3.4-trillion obsession.”

Why do I say $3.4 trillion? Because that’s how much Americans have tied up in them. But there are better ways to buy the same types of stocks, and shortly we’ll highlight three ETF replacements you can buy just as easily for yields up to 7.5%.

Wall Street is (of course) happy to play along with the ETF craze, cranking out fund after fund to give folks their fix—some so “out there” they track wheat futures, casino stocks, even companies that aim to curb obesity.… Read more

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5% Dividends, Zero Dollars in Tax. Here’s How

Still spinning from Tax Day?

You’re not alone: plenty of folks who bagged wins last year are feeling shell-shocked, now that Uncle Sam has walked off with his cut.

Let’s face it: it’s too late to recoup any of that cash. But you can still take steps to weaken Uncle Sam’s grip on from your income stream, before you find yourself in the same boat next year.

And there’s an easy way to do it—it actually comes, in a strange way, from the government itself!

“Keep 100% of Your Gains Forever”

I’m talking about municipal bonds, or bonds issued by states, cities and counties to finance roads, bridges and just about any other project you can imagine.… Read more

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Weekly Market Summary: Investors Digest Strong Earnings Reports

U.S. stocks posted modest gains this week, which was shortened by the Good Friday holiday. The first full week of earnings season saw largely positive reports, especially from the banks, given the fact that aggregate profits are expected to decline 3% to 4% in the first quarter.

The earnings decline in the face of robust gains to begin 2019 was enough to send strategists at Jefferies to the sidelines this week. On Monday, the firm lowered its rating on U.S. Equities to Modestly Bearish, in the context of their global asset allocation.

However, overall investor sentiment remains high in this country.… Read more

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32 Upcoming Dividend Hikes You Can’t Miss

Growth or yield? Why choose when we can have both.

There are 32 dividend hikes on the way that are going to set up their investors for a big 12 months ahead. How? Simple–these payout raises are going to provide fuel to their attached share prices. The 10%+ raises (and there will be double-digit increases) in particular are going to position their shareholders for safe 10% to 12% returns in the year ahead regardless of what the broader stock market does.

Ever wonder why the yield on your favorite dividend aristocrat always looks low even though the firm is regularly raising that payout?… Read more

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