Name a Bond Fund: It’s Probably Down. Here’s Why.

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Name a Bond Fund: It’s Probably Down. Here’s Why.

If you own a bond fund, it’s probably down in recent months. Let’s talk about why and walk through three popular fixed-income ideas from worst to first.

We’ll start with the iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF (TLT). TLT is the knee-jerk investment that many “first-level” investors buy when they are looking for bond exposure. Unfortunately, there are two big problems with TLT:

  1. It only yields 2.1%.
  2. Worse yet, its 19-year duration is drubbing its total returns.

Any kid knows that 19 years is “way too long” to hold a bond when inflation is running a hot 7.5%. (Please, somebody get these TLT investors a Contrarian Income Report subscription!)… Read more

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3 REITs With a Hidden “Double Shot” of Upside (With 62%+ Dividend Growth)

There’s a “double shot” of upside waiting for us in real estate investment trusts (REITs) right now, and some of these companies—like the 3 we’ll discuss below—are so stuffed with cash they can’t hike payouts fast enough!

REITs are among our favorite dividend plays because:

  • They’re “pass through” entities—REITs own property ranging from apartments to seniors’ homes and malls. They simply collect rent checks, take out enough to keep the buildings in good shape, then hand the rest to us.
  • They pay zero corporate tax, so long as they pay out 90% of their net income as dividends. This tax “hall pass” means even more dividends (and faster dividend growth!)

… Read more

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This Safe 4.5% Tax-Free Dividend Will Never Be Cheaper

We’ve got a pullback-driven (and tax-free!) dividend opportunity waiting for us now, and we can thank the Fed’s looming rate hikes for it. It’s a “safety first” closed-end fund (CEF) paying a 4.5% tax-free dividend and trading at a rare 8.4% discount to its “true” value.

This opportunity comes our way through municipal bonds, or “munis.” If you follow the market for these bonds, which are issued by state and local governments to fund infrastructure projects, you know that they’ve pulled back this year:

Munis Slip, Giving Us an “In”

A 2.9% drop, as we see here in the iShares National Muni Bond ETF (MUB), the benchmark ETF for the space, is small compared to the much bigger declines in stocks, but this is pretty rare: as an asset class, muni bonds are less volatile than other kinds of bonds, let alone stocks, which is why any short-term drop tends to be a buying opportunity.… Read more

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How to Get 4%-6% Energy Yields at 8%-13% Discounts

Nearly two years ago, our Contrarian Income Report service picked up cheap oil dividends that, at the time, yielded nearly 11.8%. With oil trading at negative prices (meaning producers were paying people to take barrels off of their hands), our purchase didn’t feel warm and fuzzy. But then again, most successful contrarian trades don’t.

We recognized that oil prices were likely in the midst of a “Crash ‘n’ Rally” pattern. This is an oil-price phenomenon that has played out several times before.

We discussed this back in 2021:

Energy prices tend to “crash ’n’ rally.” The crash is quick, while the ensuing rally lasts for years.… Read more

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These S&P 500 “Dogs” Are Set to Bounce. This 8%-Yielding CEF Will Profit

One of the best things about closed-end funds (CEFs) is that, even though there are only about 500 or so of these 7%+ yielders out there, you can find CEFs that win in every kind of market.

So with a few clicks, you can build a diverse CEF portfolio yielding well north of 7%. (The 20 holdings in our CEF Insider service’s portfolio, for example, yield 7.7% on average and hold everything from tech stocks to municipal bonds and real estate investment trusts, or REITs.)

Below I’ve got an 8% monthly dividend payer that’s primed for “snap-back” upside as one group of stocks—those that sell discretionary products, from electronics to clothing—spring back to life.… Read more

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This 10.5% Dividend Already Doubled Our Money (More to Come!)

I have no idea why “income” investors mess around with dividend reinvestment plans (DRIPs). Most don’t yield enough to matter.

If the goal is to retire on dividends, why not “automatically” bag a 10%+ income stream and 100%+ upside?

Better yet, this outsized cash flow drops into your account—and grows—every single month!

It takes almost no work. (Just one small, but potent step, which I’ll show you shortly.)

Before we get to that, let’s look at just how easy it is to use this proven strategy to double—and even triple—the cash stream your portfolio is throwing off today.… Read more

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This “Dividend Triple Play” Strategy Could Hand You Fast 61% Gains

Let’s set ourselves up for some quick 61%+ returns—and accelerate our dividend growth—by “front-running” stocks that are about to split their shares.

I call this my “Dividend Triple Play” strategy because, as you’ll see in a moment, it uses three critical indicators: a looming share split, dividend growth and share buybacks, to propel us to serious gains and payout hikes.

Members of my Hidden Yields dividend-growth service recently benefited from this setup—and it helped them walk away with a sweet 61% return!  It’s easy to repeat, and I’ll even give you the ticker of another stock that could be our next high-flying “dividend splitter” below.… Read more

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2 Contrarian Fund Picks (1 Paid a Monster 15.7% Dividend Last Year)

We’re seeing signs every day that this pouting market is way oversold—and contrarians that we are, we’re going to work this sentiment to grab stout closed-end funds (CEF) paying dividends yielding north of 7% that have been unfairly beaten down.

Here’s my take on how far off-base today’s investor mood is. In a moment, we’ll dive into 2 CEFs yielding up to 8.5% we can buy to cash in.

  1. Inflation is not hurting corporate profits. If anything, profits are going up across the board. Many companies have seen their profits—and profit margins—rise in the earnings season that’s currently underway.
  2. Supply chains have challenged businesses, but they haven’t caused the economy to grind to a halt.

… Read more

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Hit the Bull’s-Eye With These 5 Mid-Cap Dividend Growers

As contrarians, you and I make our profits from stocks that are under-loved and under-covered. And today, we’re going to discuss five “under the radar” names with the potential to return up to 34% per year, every year, no matter what happens with the broader markets.

These stock prices have the potential to increase by 10% to 34% annually because that is how fast these dividends are growing. This type of growth may sound remarkable, and that is because the best dividend-growth opportunities are found in Wall Street’s blind spot: “mid caps.”

Mid-cap stocks don’t get the love that blue chips enjoy, which is perfect for us, because these are dividends that literally double every few years.… Read more

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My Latest Recession Prediction (and 3 Safe Funds Yielding Up to 5.8%)

As dividend investors—and closed-end fund (CEF) investors, specifically—we know to stay the course when market corrections hit: we don’t want to sell and cut off our precious payouts!

That’s the opposite of the fanboys and girls who dabble in crypto, profitless tech stocks, NFTs and God knows what else. When recessions arrive, they’re free to bail—though they always do so way too late. Then they’re forced to sit and watch what’s left of their cash get devoured by inflation!

By staying the course, we don’t have to worry about those risks: with our CEFs’ high yields, we can sit tight during rocky times, happily collecting our payouts until things calm down.… Read more

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