3 Big Dividends (Yielding 7.9%) Built for Post-Election Drama

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Well, that was fast. As you no doubt know by now, stocks gave back their post-election bump nearly as fast as they took it. Now they’re more or less where they started pre-election.

There’s a story behind this “pop and drop” that showed me something we need to bear in mind more and more as we head into 2025 (and a new presidential term): The need to diversify our portfolios, not only within stocks but (especially, with more volatility likely) beyond them.

And that need for diversification goes for our holdings of high-yielding closed-end funds (CEFs), too.

Now, market veterans will no doubt be quick to say that these short-term moves are just noise, and in the long term it doesn’t really matter who is the president.… Read more

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With more volatility likely as we move past the election and into late 2024, retirement planning might not be top of mind for you right now.

I get it.

But with investing—income investing, especially—it’s critical to keep the long term in focus. And over the long term, the direction of the markets is up.

When we invest in closed-end funds (CEFs), we get an extra advantage: High income, which often comes our way monthly. The average CEF yields 8% now. That’s roughly the long-term average annualized price gain of the S&P 500, depending on the timeframe you look at, delivered to us in dividend cash every year.… Read more

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With more volatility likely as we move past the election and into late 2024, retirement planning might not be top of mind for you right now.

I get it.

But with investing—income investing, especially—it’s critical to keep the long term in focus. And over the long term, the direction of the markets is up.

When we invest in closed-end funds (CEFs), we get an extra advantage: High income, which often comes our way monthly. The average CEF yields 8% now. That’s roughly the long-term average annualized price gain of the S&P 500, depending on the timeframe you look at, delivered to us in dividend cash every year.… Read more

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I have to laugh when I hear a pundit say that individual investors can’t beat the S&P 500 (and you and I both know this is something we hear quite regularly!).

Truth is, it’s not that hard. Heck, you really only have to choose an ETF from a different sector, like real estate investment trusts (REITs)!

REITs Beat Stocks in the Long Run

As you can see, these “landlords”—shown by the performance of the benchmark SPDR Dow Jones REIT ETF (RWR) in purple above—have easily outpaced the S&P 500 for the 20 years following the ETF’s inception back in 2001.

That outperformance occurred even with the subprime-mortgage crisis (which was obviously real estate focused) and the pandemic selloff (which hit REITs particularly hard, shuttering malls, warehouses and offices across the world).… Read more

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Since last week, markets have been hamstrung by the fear that inflation is going to hang around. So we (naturally!) are going to make a contrarian play on this overdone worry.

How? By picking up high-yielding closed-end funds (CEFs) focusing on real estate—particularly real estate investment trusts (REITs). Many of these are discounted now.

I’ll show you why this timely move is our route to locking in a steady (and monthly paid) 8.3% dividend in just a moment

First, let’s break down the so-called “bad” inflation number that came out last week, because there are some quirks about it that are easy to overlook.… Read more

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At my CEF Insider service, I regularly write about the most effective ways to get big dividends—often double-digit yields—from closed-end funds (CEFs) holding some of the world’s best stocks.

I’m talking about companies like Microsoft (MSFT), Apple (AAPL) and Visa (V) here—three common holdings among equity CEFs.

But you can’t just dial up any of these high-yielding funds (CEFs typically yield north of 7%) and call it a day. To get the most out of your CEF investments, you need to invest a bit of time and effort.

Well, how about this: I’ll save you the work and show you a simple three fund portfolio you can create today that gets you a 7.7% income stream and the confidence to hold these funds for decades to come.… Read more

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Today we’re going to build ourselves an outsized income stream with just three funds. Buy all of them and you’ll end up with an average yield of 8%+, with payouts rolling your way every month.

Investing doesn’t get much simpler than that!

You’ll also get strong diversification: The three funds we’re about to uncover hold stocks, bonds and real estate. Combined, give you exposure to thousands of assets across the country.

Maximizing Your Savings Potential

Before we go further, let’s put an 8% payout in perspective: If you have $1 million saved, it translates to $80,000 annually, or over $6,600 per month—a substantial amount that could either supplement or even replace your current income.… Read more

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When I explain the appeal of closed-end funds (CEFs), I usually start with the big headline and throw a few bullets afterwards, kind of like this:

CEFs yield an average 8%, and many of those dividends are sustainable and growing.

  • CEFs invest in a variety of reliable and popular assets, like stocks, bonds and real estate investment trusts (REITs).
  • CEFs often trade at discounts to the value of their portfolios. This is known as the discount to net asset value (NAV), and it means we can buy stocks, bonds and real estate through CEFs for less than we’d pay on the open market.

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I just read one of the best articles on personal finance I’ve ever seen.

The piece, titled “I Saved Too Much for Retirement: What I Wish I’d Done Instead,” by Martin Dasko and published on Yahoo Finance, warns of a very real danger: “If you save too much for retirement,” Dasko writes, “you could find yourself missing out on your best years, and even end up with a higher tax liability when you stop working.”

Of course, the article also says that it’s better to overprepare financially and warns of how difficult it is to retire on your own (“hire a professional!”… Read more

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Let’s go ahead and build ourselves an “instant” income portfolio throwing off a rich 8.8% yield. A yield like that, after all, could put a dividends-only retirement within our reach. Or at the very least help you scale back your day job and make up the difference with dividend payouts.

This, of course, is the essence of financial freedom, and my favorite high-yield assets, closed-end funds (CEFs), are our best play here. When we build our retirement with CEFs, we get to hold the top stocks, bonds and other assets, like publicly traded real estate investment trusts (REITs), out there.… Read more

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