Riding the Bond Bull: 3 Funds Yielding 8.3%+

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Riding the Bond Bull: 3 Funds Yielding 8.3%+

Bonds are back, baby. Let’s talk about three funds that pay—between 8.3% and 10.9%.

Plus, they are trading for less than the fair value of their parts. It’s free lunch time in Bondland.

Of course not all bond funds are created equal. ETFs serve their purpose, but closed-end funds (CEFs) are where the payout party is at. Value plus yield at the CEF café.

Most ETFs are tied to an index. Which means they are run by rules and robots. Boring.

CEFs tend to be actively managed, meaning “bond brains” are able to adjust their portfolio from defensive to offensive as the investing environment shifts.… Read more

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How to Snag Yields Up To 13% Without Sticking Your Neck Out

It’s a great time to be an income investor. We have yields averaging 11.1% staring us in the face.

All we need to do is step past the broader fear, and we can dial in these dynamic dividends. Which oh by the way, pay us monthly.

To do so we’ll look past traditional ETFs in favor of select closed-end funds (CEFs). These vehicles simply pay more than popular funds. Plus, they tend to be more closely managed—a good thing in manic markets like these.

Getting paid every 30 days smooths out our dividend income. This is what a vanilla portfolio of quarterly payers looks like.… Read more

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5 Ways to Protect Our 8%+ CEF Dividends From Snap Payout Cuts

In my CEF Insider service, we focus exclusively on buying strong, 8%+ yielding closed-end funds (CEFs). It’s our MO! And there are a lot of CEF bargains now, as cautious income investors remain skittish following the 2022 correction.

But today I want to talk about when it’s time to sell a CEF. You might recall the old Warren Buffett quote that his favorite holding period is “forever.” Of course, Buffett was talking about blue-chip stocks, which are his forte.

With CEFs, our play is a bit different. Sure, we want to hold these high yielders (the average CEF tracked by CEF Insider yields 7.9% today) for as long as we can, to make the most of their high—and often monthly—dividends.… Read more

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This 18.9% Dividend Put the “RA” in Fraud

Years ago, we had a 15-month fling with a promising fund. It traded at a generous discount to its net asset value (NAV) and paid a double-digit dividend.

Plus, its price was rallying!

Brookfield Real Assets Income Fund (RA) checked all the boxes. Unfortunately, it failed the all-important “cash-flow smell test.”

RA’s NAV was declining. Not a good sign given the nebulous nature of its holdings.

The “realness” of RA ends with its name. More than half the portfolio is  securitized real estate credit.

And actual infrastructure? The “real assets” headline buyers think they are investing in? Just 30%!… Read more

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This 14%-Yielding “Junk” Fund Is Anything But

We’ve got a sweet opportunity to grab a 14% dividend sitting in front of us, and we can thank the ongoing sale on bonds for this deal.

This double-digit payer—which has held that huge payout steady for years—holds junk bonds, or corporate debt that falls below the investment-grade line.

Isn’t there more risk here? Sure. But we’re well-compensated by the big yields junk bonds pay. Heck, even the yield on the benchmark SPDR Bloomberg High Yield Bond ETF (JNK) is a healthy 5.8% now.

But JNK really is for novice investors. When we go with CEFs like the one we’ll delve into in a moment, we can boost our payout by more than double, to 14%—and get paid monthly.… Read more

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This 3-Fund “Instant” Portfolio Could Pay You $70,784 in Dividends

Today we’re going to click our way to a dividend stream that matches the average household income stream in America—$70,784 per year—and we’re not going to do it on a much smaller nest egg than most people think is possible.

This is important now, because the financial media continues to pump out ridiculous answers to the question of how much most folks need to retire. A recent Bloomberg story, for example, said we’d need $3 million saved to clock out comfortably!

Luckily for us that number is way off. Consider this chart:

Source: CEF Insider

Here you see four different scenarios for getting that $70,784 in yearly dividend income, including two Trinity University studies showing risky and conservative estimates, based on 3% and 4% withdrawal rates.… Read more

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This “Low-Drama” Portfolio Is Built for This Crash (and Yields 11.8%)

Look, I know this inflation-panicked market is frustrating. But despite the endless doomsaying from the pundits, there is good news: if you’re investing for income and have a long time horizon, there are some big dividends (I’m talking 10%+ yields) waiting for us in closed-end funds (CEFs).

In a second, we’re going to dive into three such funds I’ve assembled into a low-drama “mini-portfolio” yielding north of 10%.

We can thank the selloff for this opportunity: when stock (and CEF) prices go down, yields go up. And our CEFs discounts to net asset value (NAV, or the per-share value of a CEF’s portfolio) fall to bargain levels.… Read more

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These 3 “Great Resignation” Buys Yield Up to 10.8% (and Pay Monthly)

Thinking of joining the “Great Resignation” crowd and dumping your 9-to-5 gig? Let’s talk about how you can do it with outsized 7%+ dividends that easily keep the bills paid.

I’m going to show you the powerful secret some of these “quitters” are using today. It all turns on a unique kind of asset called a closed-end fund (CEF) that’ll be our source for those rock-steady 7%+ dividends (paid monthly, to boot!).

More Investors Discover the Income-Producing Power of CEFs

First off, a funny thing is happening as people dump their day jobs: they’re investing more, with the number of new investors jumping 15% in 2020, and scores of folks who already invest building out their portfolios further.… Read more

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This “12% Dividend Secret” Could Let You Retire Now (on Just $300K)

Imagine getting $100 per month in passive income for every $10,000 you invest. That amounts to a $35,000 annual dividend stream with less than $300,000 saved.

It’s not impossible. In fact, investors do it all the time with my favorite high-yield investments—closed-end funds (CEFs). While the average yield on CEFs is currently 6.2%, a third of these funds yield upwards of 7%, and 17 boast payouts of 10% and higher.


Source: CEF Insider

CEFs’ payouts are particularly impressive considering the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY), an index fund tracking the S&P 500, yields a paltry 1.3% today—the lowest yield for the stock market in 20 years.… Read more

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My 12% Plan for a $250K Retirement

You may not know it, but you could have enough money saved to retire right now.

It’s true!

Today we’re going to look at how you can pull a nice $30,000-a-year income stream from your current hoard, even if you’ve saved just $250K. Best of all, you could generate this cash stream without selling a single stock from your portfolio. That could very well be enough for you to clock out, or at least scale back your day job.

Along the way, I’ll also show you how to dodge some of the worst yield traps in dividend-land.

Be Wary of High-Yield Blue Chips

To be honest, I don’t know why anyone would be surprised that this approach is possible.… Read more

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