Danger: Sell These 4 ETF Disasters Now (and Buy These 5 Cash Machines Instead)

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Danger: Sell These 4 ETF Disasters Now (and Buy These 5 Cash Machines Instead)

I get lots of pushback when I post an article panning exchange-traded funds. ETF fanboys (and girls) base their love on two things: ETFs’ cheap management fees and convenience, because they let you jump into an entire sector in one click.

My response? Handle these so-called “set it and forget it” plays with a lot of caution—or risk a big dent in your savings.

Getting What You Pay For

Far too many ETFs (like the four I’ll reveal below) are cheap for a reason: lousy returns! Worse, some aren’t even cheap—like my “second-worst” pick below, which charges an outrageous 2.1% fee and has no one at the helm at all.… Read more

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This Little-Known “Trick” Slashes Your Fund Fees to $0

Members of my CEF Insider service often tell me they’d love to know a lot more about the people at the helm of closed-end funds—the good, the bad and the ugly.

It makes sense: after all, when you buy a CEF, these folks play a huge role in whether you notch a big gain (and income stream) or, well, not so much.

An Insider’s View

As one of the few analysts who focuses solely on CEFs—especially smaller CEFs—I’ve had several conversations with managers at CEF companies from across the market.

A common theme? They’re all frustrated that the average investor doesn’t know the many benefits CEFs deliver.… Read more

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2 Perfect Retirement Stocks Paying up to 8% (and 2 losers circling the drain)

It’s the No. 1 fear that keeps retirees (and near-retirees) pacing the halls at night: that their nest egg will expire before they will!

It’s easy to see why.

After all, many of these folks will need to fund a retirement that’s much longer than their parents’ was: according to the Brookings Institution, nearly one in four men who were 65 in 2015 will live to 90. Women have better odds: over one in three.

That adds up to 25 years (or more!) out of the workforce.

And today’s retirees are clocking out as old retirement-income “go-tos” scrape bottom: the average S&P 500 stock pays out just 1.7% today, near 7-year lows.… Read more

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The 5 Dumbest High-Yield Funds (Ranked Worst to Just “Bad”)

Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) shattered growth records in 2017, with inflows topping $464 billion last year. The global ETF market now boasts more than $4.5 trillion in assets, and a large part of the appeal has been driven by dirt-cheap fees.

But many of these fund’s fees are “cheap for a reason.” We’ll talk about five today that lure investors in with appealing current yields – but then proceed to dump their dumb money out the back door.

These five funds may have sweet dividend yields, but they have produced sour total return results thanks to one fundamental flaw or another.

ETRACS Linked to the Wells Fargo Business Development Company Index ETN (BDCS)
Dividend Yield: 8.7%

One of the most basic appeals of the exchange-traded fund is the cheap diversification they provide.…
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