What CEF Dividend Cuts Mean (It’s Not What You Expect)

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What CEF Dividend Cuts Mean (It’s Not What You Expect)

Plenty of CEF investors worry about dividend cuts. And for sure, they’re something to keep in mind. But CEFs are not the same as stocks. When we invest in high-quality CEFs, there are a couple other things we need to remember when we catch wind of a cut:

  1. High-quality CEFs will sometimes reduce payouts by a small amount so they can redeploy capital into oversold bargains. I’ll have more to say on this in a moment, but the upshot is that it holds the potential for us to make more in gains from this move than we lose in dividends.
  2. As mentioned, these cuts are usually small, reducing the yield only a small amount (again, we’ll demonstrate this below).

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Last Time This Happened, These 2 Funds Soared 62%

Today we’re in a situation that looks a lot like 2016. And back then, some savvy contrarians tapped it to grab quick 62%+ returns. The same setup is back again—and so is our chance for more upside, plus yields north of 10%.

There are two closed-end funds (CEFs) poised to deliver those high yields (and overall returns); we’ll compare two popular options in a moment. First, let’s delve into the state of the corporate-bond market, because there are a lot of misconceptions floating around right now.

“Junk” Bonds Not as Risky as They Seem

You might know high-yield bonds by their nickname: junk bonds.… Read more

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3 Risks That Can Kill Your Profits in CEFs (and Cost You 10% Dividends, Too)

American novelist William Faulkner once said, “In writing, you must kill your darlings”. It was a warning to other writers not to get too attached to their manuscripts, or their characters, because you always need to be willing to edit and cut down your work to make it truly brilliant.

That advice applies to investing, too. I’ve seen too many investors get emotionally attached to their stocks and funds, which causes them to hold on to losers for too long—or fail to accept that the world has changed. But if we want to minimize our losses (and of course, we always do!),… Read more

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These 3 Funds Are Run By Wall Street’s Top Managers (and Yield Up to 11.7%)

When markets are down, there’s one group of investors who can shrug off the dip because they don’t need to sell. You’re no doubt part of this group—I’m talking about income investors.

With dividends, of course, you can keep your cash flow going regardless of short-term panics over things like interest-rate hikes and geopolitical unrest. Because the cash keeps coming in, you don’t need to sell during these times and can instead use your dividends to keep your bills paid—or maybe even buy the dip in the markets, thereby building your income stream further.

But where can you get reliable income that won’t be hit by the Fed’s moves and other events that are mostly beyond our control?… Read more

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A Foolproof Way to Dodge CEF Dividend Cuts (and Keep Your 7%+ Payouts Safe)

When it comes to dividend cuts, closed-end funds (CEFs) aren’t much different from stocks: investors tend to hit the sell button as soon as a cut is announced, leaving those who hang on with a shriveled income stream and a hit to the value of their investment.

In fact, sometimes a selloff in response to a dividend cut can be worse with CEFs because investors mainly look to them for income, with the average CEF yielding 7.5% today.

This is obviously a situation we want to avoid, which is why I’m writing you now: we’re going to look at two recent CEF dividend cuts to see what they can tell us about dodging said cuts.… Read more

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3 “Perfect for 2022” Dividends Paying 8.2% (And Selling for 20% Off)

I shudder when folks tell me their portfolios can’t give them a decent income stream. Because I know there’s an easy way for them to get safe 8%+ payouts—and everyone misses it.

Let’s be honest. When it comes to investing, most people limit themselves to the blue chip stocks of the S&P 500. The problem? These stocks pay a miserly 1.2% average yield. So you’re getting a measly $1,200 in yearly dividend income for every $100K invested!

No one is retiring on that—unless they have a couple million bucks lying around.

But there is another way. It’s a potent income generator I’ve been specializing in for more than a decade—and sharing with investors through my CEF Insider service.… Read more

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Beat the Bull-Market Blues With This Cheap 6.3% Dividend

I’m hearing from a lot of dividend investors suffering from “bull-market blues”: while stocks have soared, driving up their portfolios’ value, they’re stuck on what to do with their gains—because stocks have soared (and yields have plunged)!

It’s a vicious cycle that doesn’t look like it’ll end anytime soon, and it’s even hit what are traditionally the most overlooked corners of the market.

Take my favorite high-yield investments, closed-end funds (CEFs), which regularly offer huge yields of 7% or more. CEFs invest in all sorts of things, from energy to utilities to corporate bonds and US stocks. And by and large, they’ve gotten pricey, too (but there are still some deals to be had in the space, as we’ll discuss shortly).… Read more

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Earn $60,000 in Monthly Dividends on Just $500K

The mortgage. The car payment. The power bill. The cell phone bill. Your regular dividend check.

One of these things, I’m sorry to say, is not like the others.

While almost every one of your obligations comes once a month across all 12 months of the year, most stocks or funds you can invest in will pay you just four times a year.

If you’re still working, you’re probably thinking “no big deal.” That’s true—your job pays you once or twice a month, so who cares when you collect dividends? You’re not touching your 401(k) or IRA now anyway.

But retirees know the struggle.… Read more

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Here’s How I Pick the Best CEFs for 7%+ Dividends (5 Simple Steps)

Since launching my CEF Insider service in early 2017, the picks I’ve given subscribers have outperformed the broader CEF market—even through the recent market volatility that’s caused just about everything to go down.

The key to this performance is a process of analysis and selection that is both complicated and straightforward. I have a checklist of 52 points I go through to choose the right fund. I apply these one by one, first using some of the broader points to screen funds, then zooming in closer, using more complex analysis to bring you my very best buys.

While it’d take a long time to go through that entire checklist, I want to share with you a five-point system that I use as a springboard for picking winning CEFs for CEF Insider.… Read more

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This 9.4% Dividend Is a Trap Ready to Spring. Sell Now!

A little over two months ago, in an article for Contrarian Outlook, I spotlighted a nice short-term buying opportunity in the PIMCO Global StocksPlus & Income Fund (PGP).

PGP, with its 9.4% current dividend yield, is one of the most popular PIMCO funds, but it is one with a checkered past. And by checkered, I mean this:

Not for the Faint of Heart!

With up and down swings of 20% and more in a matter of months, PGP is a really volatile fund. And note those big dips in mid-2016 and mid-2017. There’s only one reason why huge drops like those appear for a closed-end fund (CEF) like PGP: dividend cuts.… Read more

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