“Crash-Proof” Your Portfolio With These Tax-Free 5% Dividends

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“Crash-Proof” Your Portfolio With These Tax-Free 5% Dividends

There’s a group of 7%+ dividends out there that are perfect for today’s market. They’re far less volatile than “regular” stocks, their payouts are tax-free, and (for now) you can get them for a steal—as cheap as 93 cents on the dollar!

That puts them high on the list of “refuges” from the speculative stocks the mainstream crowd is fleeing these days—and we want to make sure we get in first! (And we’ll do that with two muni-bond funds we’ll name below. Their tax-free yields could be worth up to 8.9% to you, depending on your tax bracket.)

I’m talking about municipal bonds—specifically municipal bonds we can buy through my favorite high-yield investment: closed-end funds (CEFs).… Read more

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How to Invest Like a Billionaire (and Get 5% Tax-Free Dividends)

I’m guessing you heard about the plunge in Tesla (TSLA) stock spurred by founder Elon Musk’s recent tweet asking if he should sell 10% of his shares.

(The tweet—a poll of Twitter users—garnered a positive response, by the way; Musk says he’ll abide by it.)

I know—another bizarre Musk tweet doesn’t seem to mean much to us income investors. But this one is different, because as hard as it may be to believe, it’s telling us one thing: buy municipal bonds—an asset class many investors dismiss as “sleepy.” That’s not true: there’s a reason why “munis” are favored among billionaires, starting with their huge tax-free dividends.… Read more

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These Tax-Free Bonds Turn a 4% Yield Into 7.5% (Here’s How)

The 10-year Treasury is storming past 1.6% yet again. Look out, high yield!

I kid because I love (income). And one-point-six just doesn’t do it for me. Plus, remember, this bounty does not escape the tax man. Any interest income we earn from Treasuries—no matter how sad—is subject to federal and state taxes.

So, if we’re multiplying a nest egg (let’s use $500K) by 1.6%, we must remember that the final answer is probably not $8,000 in annual income. Because if we’re raking in income from any other sources, we should lop off a chunk of this for taxes.

Interest Received is the official IRS tax term, for my fellow tax wonks.… Read more

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3 Funds That Could Pay You Huge 7%+ Dividends Ranked Worst to First

These days, many of the dividend investors I talk to feel squeezed between:

  1. Weak yields (which have plunged as stocks have surged) and
  2. High taxes (which are likely to rise further).

You’re no doubt feeling this pinch, too. The good news is that there’s an investment that lets you wiggle out of this trap, regularly offering steady-as-she-goes dividends up to 5%.

There’s another nice twist that works in your favor here, because these payouts are tax-free, so they could be worth a lot more to you—I’m talking payouts north of 7.5% with tax savings factored in, depending on your tax bracket.… Read more

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This Bond-Buying “Hack” Converts a 5% Dividends to Massive 8.3% Payouts

Let’s break out of today’s zero-rate wasteland and help ourselves to huge, safe payouts yielding all the way up to 8.3%. And these massive payouts are tax-free too!

And, no, we won’t be hiring a team of CPAs to pull this off—nothing so expensive and impractical. Instead, we’re going to set ourselves up with a closed-end fund (CEF) that holds municipal bonds, or “munis.” And thanks to their tax-free nature, if you’re in the top tax bracket, a muni bond paying, say, a 4% dividend could be worth 7% or more to you.

I’ll give you a specific CEF that’s worth putting on your list now in a second (its 5% stated yield could be worth an outsized 8.3% to you, if you’re in the top tax bracket).… Read more

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A Hidden (and Tax-Free) Way to Cash in on the $2-Trillion Infrastructure Boom

Infrastructure spending is back in vogue, and we’ve got a chance to grab a piece of it tax-free.

That would be through municipal bonds, investments most people see as sleepy (though I have no idea why) but are poised to roll as President Biden’s $2-trillion infrastructure package (or some version of it) becomes law. That’s because the law will usher in an explosion of new “muni” bonds—and there are select actively managed closed-end funds (CEFs) ready to pick up the best ones.

By buying them now, we can nicely front run this muni-bond wave.

Tax Savings Can Boost Your Payout 20% (or More)

The best part of buying muni bonds (which are issued by states, cities and some non-profit entities, like hospitals, to fund infrastructure) is that the income they generate is 100% tax-free.… Read more

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No Rate Worries Here, Just Tax-Advantaged Yields Up to 7.8%

Does a rising 10-year Treasury yield mean we should move on from municipal (muni) bonds? We’ll talk muni strategy in a moment. First, let’s pay homage to these tax-efficient payers.

Munis are superior to Treasuries two ways. First, they pay more. Even with the 10-year rate popping above 1.6% earlier this week, we can double or triple our dividends with munis. The iShares National Muni Bond ETF (MUB), for example, yields 2.1%, which is 30%+ better than the still-chintzy T-Bill.

Plus, munis have tax benefits. MUB is an easy-to-buy vehicle with a tax-advantaged payout that is higher than its stated 2.1% yield.… Read more

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No Rate Worries Here, Just Tax-Advantaged Yields Up to 7.8%

Does a rising 10-year Treasury yield mean we should move on from municipal (muni) bonds? We’ll talk muni strategy in a moment. First, let’s pay homage to these tax-efficient payers.

Munis are superior to Treasuries two ways. First, they pay more. Even with the 10-year rate popping above 1.6% earlier this week, we can double or triple our dividends with munis. The iShares National Muni Bond ETF (MUB), for example, yields 2.1%, which is 30%+ better than the still-chintzy T-Bill.

Plus, munis have tax benefits. MUB is an easy-to-buy vehicle with a tax-advantaged payout that is higher than its stated 2.1% yield.… Read more

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These Stimulus-Powered Investments Could Soar 53%+

There’s $2 trillion in cash headed straight into the US economy, and today we’re going to grab a share, both in the form of price gains and dividends.

I’m talking about the latest stimulus plan that’s made its way through the House of Representatives.

While plenty of folks fret over the rise in public debt this $1.9-trillion plan brings—and that’s a real concern—it’s a problem for another day. The cash is needed to get the economy through to the other side of the current crisis.

And pretty well all of this package is set to get spent through direct payouts to people and organizations that will spend it, with the headline item being $1,400 in stimulus checks (or about $1.1 trillion in all) going to taxpayers.… Read more

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These Tax-Free 5%+ Dividends Are Hiding in Plain Sight

With stocks crowding all-time highs, we need to follow our contrarian instincts now more than ever.

That, of course, means going where everyone else isn’t.

And the best contrarian investment I can think of right now is municipal bonds, or bonds issued by state and local governments to pay for vital infrastructure.

Don’t click away! Because these “sleepy” bonds boast dividends so high that, simply by buying them, you could match, or even beat the stock market’s long-term historical return (around the 7% to 8% range) in dividends alone.

Better still, “munis” boast the highest stability on the market, so we’ll be “backstopped” by rock-steady prices while we collect our outsized dividends.… Read more

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