This Fund Profits From China Fears (and Yields 9.5%)

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Recent headlines have spurred some readers to write in about China—specifically what rising tensions between Beijing and Washington (no thanks to the former’s ham-fisted spy-balloon fiasco) might mean for their portfolios.

First up, we always need to bear in mind that stocks—and in particular my favorite way to hold stocks (through a high-yielding closed-end fund, or CEF)—really are a long-term investment. I know that sounds obvious, but it can be easy to forget when alarming headlines—a war or a pandemic, say—flash across our screens.

In other words, global chaos is really nothing new for stocks. The difference today is that we’re more connected than ever, so every move made by one of America’s adversaries is emphasized all the more.… Read more

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These days, it seems like every investor is chasing that one big thing that will make them rich—the newest stock, technology, fad or whatever.

We contrarian dividend investors know these folks well—you probably have a friend or family member who chased down gains in crypto, NFTs, profitless tech or heaven knows what else over the last few years.

Heck, they may have even taken a poke or two at you about your “boring” dividend stocks and closed-end funds (CEFs)!

Then 2022 came along. And while everything got hit last year, we CEF investors had the last laugh, as we could use our funds’ 7%+ dividends to pay the bills.… Read more

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Today we’re going to build ourselves a portfolio that hands us a 10.5% yield. And we’re going to do it with just three funds.

The appeal of a 10.5% payout is tough to deny: when you’re getting that much of your investment back every year in dividends, you’ll recoup the whole thing in less than 10 years. Everything else is gravy!

What’s more, two of the three funds below—all of which are closed-end funds (CEFs)—pay dividends monthly, so we’re getting our payouts in line with our bills. That’s unheard-of in the world of vanilla stocks. Almost all of them make us wait three long months for our next payout.… Read more

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Let’s be honest: after the year we’ve just put in, we’re all exhausted. But we can’t let our guard down. Because at times like these, it’s easy to let alarmist headlines skew our buy and sell decisions.

Worse, the clamor, and almost always incorrect market predictions that dominate the news these days, can lure you away from the reliable dividend payers you need to fund your retirement.

I hate to see that happen to investors—especially when they could easily use high-yield closed-end funds (CEFs) to retire on dividends alone. I’ve got three “low-drama” CEFs that can get you there, thanks to their outsized 8.1% average yield.… Read more

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We’re in one of the trickiest times I’ve seen in my investing career: inflation is receding and we’re well positioned for gains next year. Yet after the year we’ve had, many folks are still hesitant to jump into the market.

Even the 12%+ dividends we’re seeing in our favorite high-yield investments, closed-end funds (CEFs) haven’t been enough to tempt many of them.

I get it.

This period reminds me of the early months of 2009, when “green shoots” were appearing in the economy and markets, but investors were still too scarred by the preceding plunge to get in. But those who did buy then—around the bottom in early March 2009—have done very well:

Buying in Times of “Investor Shell Shock” Pays Off

We’ve got a similar opportunity now.… Read more

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Despite last week’s market pop, there are still plenty of terrific dividend buys out there. But don’t waste your time with lame payers like General Mills (GIS), with its 2.7% yield. Or the miserly 2.2% you get from a so-called “Dividend Aristocrat” like McDonald’s (MCD).

Inflation is still at 7.7%! That’s far ahead of these pathetic blue-chip yields. We just can’t afford to own low payers like these any longer.

We need much more income if we want to achieve the dream scenario: a retirement funded entirely by dividends. That’s the path we’re going down today, with three closed-end funds (CEFs) boasting an incredible average yield of 10.5%.… Read more

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Rarely do we get a buying opportunity in high-yielding closed-end funds (CEFs) like the one we have now. Thanks to the selloff, many CEFs trade at deep discounts and pay outsized yields upwards of 9% today.

With this market rally likely still in its infancy, we still have time to act here. But we don’t want to wait long, as this bounce has already started to whittle away CEFs’ discounts.

I’ve got three perfect funds for us to target below. This trio is intriguing because, taken together, they basically mimic an S&P 500 ETF, but with two key differences:

  • They pay a 9.7% average dividend, so you’re getting more of your return in cash than you would if you bought an S&P 500 index fund (which would get you a mere 1.7% payout).

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At CEF Insider, we focus on digging up strong 8%+ yielding closed-end funds that are based here in the US. Even our international picks have a solid base in America!

The 2022 mess has vindicated this strategy and helped protect our dividends from the many messes beyond America’s borders, like the collapsing UK economy, continued COVID-19 shutdowns in China and, of course, Russia continuing to prosecute its despicable invasion of Ukraine.

To be sure, America isn’t an island: all these problems have a knock-on effect on our economy, too. Not to mention the Fed, which is raising rates faster than almost any other central bank in the world.… Read more

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I hate to hear about investors using “rules” like the 60/40 portfolio (where you devote 60% of your holdings to stocks and the rest to bonds) to invest their hard-earned cash.

The problem with “rules” like this one is that they lack the ability to adjust to changing markets, like the mess we’ve been living through this year, which has walloped stocks and bonds in equal measure.

Advisors See the Light on Oversimplified “Rules” Like the 60/40 Portfolio

It seems like advisors and the business media are finally accepting this hard truth. Recently, banks like Goldman Sachs (GS) and JPMorgan Chase & Co.Read more

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Whether you own a Treasury or the typical dividend stock these days, you’re still losing money after inflation.

I know what you’re thinking: tell me something I don’t know!

But there’s a solution hiding in plain sight: closed-end funds (CEFs), a widely overlooked (and publicly traded) asset class that often throws off rich payouts of 8% or more. We’ll do a deep dive into these scandalously overlooked income plays, and how they pay those big (and often monthly) dividends in a moment.

Here’s the top-line takeaway, though: by going with a CEF, you won’t have to sell the blue chips you own now.… Read more

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