The Simple, Safe Way to Bank 15% Gains in 2023

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Why chase the market when we can let 15% per year—every year—come to us?

This is the perfect time to buy what I call “hidden yield” investments. These are stocks that dish out dividends today. But, more notably, they have an important catalyst coming in the year ahead that will help boost their stock prices.

This trigger is so powerful that it sends these stocks sailing by 15% or more per year, every year. Which is truly great when other equities and even bonds are getting buried around us.

We’ll talk about these stocks and their “dividend spark” in a moment.… Read more

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Utility dividends haven’t been this generous in years. Thank you, stock market selloff!

These yield machines have been expensive for a while. Today, utility stocks are finally cheap—and their dividends are finally high enough to get our attention!

That makes right now our time to buy. The Federal Reserve created this deal, and hey, the Fed could easily take it away with any hint of a policy pivot.

History tells us that cheap utility stocks don’t stay in the bargain bin for long. I’m staring at two in particular that are likely to bounce back next year. Both of these stocks are likely to deliver double-digit payout hikes, too.… Read more

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Why chase the market when we can let 15% per year—every year—come to us?

This is the perfect time to buy what I call “hidden yield” investments. These are stocks that dish out dividends today. But, more notably, they have an important catalyst coming in the year ahead that will help boost their stock prices.

This trigger is so powerful that it sends these stocks sailing by 15% or more per year, every year. Which is truly great when other equities and even bonds are getting buried around us.

We’ll talk about these stocks and their “dividend spark” in a moment.… Read more

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If you’re looking for reasons to toss and turn at night, there seem to be plenty these days…

Ever-rising prices and ever-shrinking inventories of key goods, from energy commodities to microchips.

The first period of tighter monetary policy in the US in over two decades.

A bloodbath for some of the biggest names in tech, as evidenced by the latest tailspin for Netflix just a few days ago.

There’s an old saying that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over, yet expecting different results. But many investors seem to be doing just that, fighting this difficult environment with the same old tech stocks like Netflix and the same old index funds that are bleeding red ink in 2022.… Read more

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It’s no surprise to us calculated contrarians—2022 is already looking like a volatile train wreck. With the Federal Reserve shutting off its money printer, cash is flowing away from the most speculative part of the stock market for the first time since early 2020.

Declines are likely to produce winners and losers. While profitless stocks are probably toast, dividend growers are likely to turn into darlings.

This is shaping up to be the year of the “dividend magnet.” If you don’t know what this is, here’s a crash course on the safest, surest way to make money from stocks in the months ahead.… Read more

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Dividends are back. And here are 54 secure payouts that are due for a raise between now and March.

The S&P yields a lousy 1.6% as I write. It’s sad to imagine a hefty million bucks in stocks could toss off a mere $16,000 in annual income. So, we income investors need a better play.

And that, my friend, is where these rising dividends come in. They are a “double threat” because we have two ways to win:

  1. The current yield, which (in many cases) will clear the 1.6% I mentioned. Plus,
  2. The price appreciation that comes along with the dividend increase.

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Who doesn’t like a safe, stable utility dividend? In today’s zero-rate, VIX-spiking world, it’s a throwback to simpler times—the “old school” type of dividend we’d like to accumulate sufficiently to retire on!

Heck, twenty years ago to this date, we could have bought shares in Southern Company (SO) and enjoyed a 6.5% yield. A $100,000 stake in Southern would have paid $6,500 every year in dividends.

Plus, regular raises were on the way. After a stagnant few years, Southern began hiking its payout every year. That 6.5% yield would eventually grow to a fat 12.4% yield on cost:

Southern’s 20-Year Yield Rise

But wait, there was more.… Read more

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Have utility stocks been stripped of their safe-haven status?

I’ve fielded that question from a few readers who have rightly pointed out the utility sector’s unimpressive performance during 2020’s market rout and partial recovery.

The short answer? No, it hasn’t. At least not for those of us who look through short-term price jitters to lock-in long-term payouts.

Back in the “good old days,” utility stocks delivered enough income to actually retire on. And thanks to this once-in-a-decade panic, that’s the case once again. Even though utility stocks are well off their bottom, investors still can grab perfectly safe yields of up to 7% in the space.… Read more

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Oil prices have been locked in a tight range for five years—and I know I don’t have to tell you that this has been a disaster for energy investors.

Oil Fails to Launch

With the benchmark Energy Select Sector SPDR (XLE) unable to hold its gains for long (let alone recover to pre-crash levels), even the most conservative energy investor has been clobbered.

Why is this happening?

After all, you’d think a growing global population and emerging-market growth would drive up the price of a limited resource like oil. But the tables have turned. I’ll get into why shortly.

These Dividend Payers Are Better Buys Than Oil

For now, though, I recommend that income-seekers go a different route and pick stocks (and closed-end funds [CEFs]) that benefit from cheaper oil and gas—like utilities.… Read more

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“Buy and hope” traders are, understandably, terrified today. Their portfolios are paying nearly nothing in dividends. Don’t you think fat 10% payouts would put them at ease a bit?

The unfortunate situation for our “B&H” friends is that they bought stocks without a plan to generate cash flow from them. They purchased their shares – probably after much of the decade-long run up – and now must hope that this old bull market is not aging in dog years!

A better idea? Demanding big dividends. After all, without cash flow, what is a stock really worth besides what someone will possibly pay us for it tomorrow?… Read more

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