I Bond Tourists: “Roll” Funds Into This Elite 8.2% Payer

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You and I, my fellow contrarian, are old enough to remember when “I bonds”—US savings bonds designed to protect you from inflation—yielded 9.62%.

It was May 2022. Just 14 months ago!

Ah, the good ol’ days. Since then, Series I savings bond rates have tumbled to 4.3%.

Many readers wrote in with I bond questions earlier this year. The savings vehicles boasted a still sweet 6.89%. But they had two major limitations:

  • I bonds tie up our money for a year.
  • We can only invest $15,000 in them annually.

(The annual limit is $10,000 per person, plus an extra $5,000 per year if using a federal tax refund.… Read more

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While vanilla investors worry along with the herd, we contrarians are buying. And oh, the yields we have available!

As I write to you today, I’m staring at no less than 29 income funds that yield more than 8%. Twenty-nine paying more than eight!

For retirees with a million-dollar portfolio, this is $80,000 per year in dividend income. Actually, more, because some of these funds pay up to 13%.

Why would we sell when this is the best time to buy in years? I explained this while yapping with Moe Ansari on his Market Wrap program. Moe asked me: “We hear all the ‘Doom and Gloomers’ out there.… Read more

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This market crash has served up some terrific opportunities in closed-end funds (CEFs), many of which are throwing off safe 7%+ dividends today.

Dividends of that size, of course, are critical today, as we look to offset rising inflation. And I think we can all agree that a CD or Treasury will never match a payout like that.

But of course, not all CEFs are set to rise equally as the stock market continues to regain its footing (which I expect it to as we move through the back half of 2022), so we need to be careful about exactly which sectors—and funds—we target.… 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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With the swift stock-market decline we’ve seen since the start of 2022, and now, you can be forgiven if your stomach tightens just a bit when you go to check your retirement account.

So today I’m going to give you my three best tips for securing your hard-earned cash—and even better, locking in a dividend stream you can easily live off of in retirement. And no, you won’t need a seven-figure nest egg to pull off what I’m going to show you now.

Step #1: Diversify the Right Way

You no doubt know that diversification is key to protecting your wealth, but if you only go halfway, you’re hurting your gain potential (and exposing yourself to potentially severe losses).… Read more

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If you’re relying on income from your portfolio, you know how annoying it is to manage a collection of quarterly dividend payers.

Take five of the most popular dividend stocks on the market today: Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), Home Depot (HD), Procter & Gamble (PG) and Bank of America (BAC).

These are staples of every investor’s portfolio, but a route to a steady income stream they are not! Here’s what your monthly payouts would look like with this quintet if you held, say, $100,000 in each one, for a $500,000 total investment:


Source: CEF Insider

That’s a nightmare!… Read more

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The Federal Reserve is finally beginning to admit that it’s here and, at the moment, it’s spectacular. Chairman Jay Powell is still sticking with his “it’s only transitory” story, at least for now. Mr. and Ms. Market were spooked for a moment, until they remembered that money printing flows directly into the stock market.

So, we dividend investors continue our hunt for safe, meaningful yields amidst this mania-of-sorts that has enveloped everything from tech to lumber to crypto to big tech again. We’ll discuss five safe utility dividends—paying up to 9.9%!—in a moment.

First, let’s review the agency’s acclaimed “dot plot” which showed not only that the central bank was now expecting rate hikes by 2023, but that we’d get a pair of them.… Read more

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Make no mistake: now is the time to buy dividend stocks. That’s because stocks tend to rally from Election Day to the end of the year—no matter which party wins.

The important thing is that the election, and the uncertainty it brings, is over.

The post-election surge is already on, with the S&P 500 jumping 6% since the market close on November 2. Plus we’ve got a nice seasonal effect working in our favor, as stocks tend to gain from October to May.

A Second Chance to Buy Cheap

But don’t worry—if you haven’t used this opportunity to set yourself up for some strong upside (and growing dividend payouts) you’re not too late.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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When you think about the biggest returns you could get on the market today, what do you think of? Tech? Biopharma? Gold stocks?

What about utilities?

This “boring” sector is known for high-yield stocks with little volatility. The (usual) downside to that income is lackluster capital gains, with many utilities staying range bound for years.

Except when they don’t.

Today we’re going to look at two utility funds that, over time, have crushed the S&P 500: the Cohen & Steers Infrastructure Fund (UTF) and the Reaves Utility Income Fund (UTG). Over their near 20-year histories, these funds have returned an annualized 11% per year.… Read more

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