Sell Now! 20 Dicey Dividends for 2024

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I don’t want to be the messenger of bearish news to kick off the new year. But, as a card-carrying contrarian, I can’t help it either.

We should sell our dicey dividends now. While the market is high.

The best time to buy was October, when vanilla investors were fearful. We discussed “backing up the truck” to buy anything and everything week after week after week.

CNN’s Fear and Greed Index (FGI) had bottomed out at 16 out of 100, an Extreme Fear reading only seen during stock market panics:

1 Rally and 3 Months Ago: Extreme Fear

Meanwhile the bastion of basic financial thinking, MarketWatch.com,… Read more

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I don’t want to be the messenger of bearish news to kick off the new year. But, as a card-carrying contrarian, I can’t help it either.

We should sell our dicey dividends now. While the market is high.

The best time to buy was October, when vanilla investors were fearful. We discussed “backing up the truck” to buy anything and everything week after week after week.

CNN’s Fear and Greed Index (FGI) had bottomed out at 16 out of 100, an Extreme Fear reading only seen during stock market panics:

1 Rally and 3 Months Ago: Extreme Fear

Meanwhile the bastion of basic financial thinking, MarketWatch.com,… Read more

Read More

Real estate is getting thumped, which means real estate investment trusts (REITs) are a bargain once again.

Finally! REIT yields are back to where they ought to be—(land)lording over the vanilla S&P 500:

We contrarians, of course, can do even better than the popular Vanguard Real Estate ETF (VNQ). While 3.5% isn’t bad, it pales in comparison to the 12.7% “headline yield” we’re about to discuss.

Why are REITs cheap again? Simple: The Fed.

As I mentioned months ago, higher interest rates mean not only higher costs of capital for REITs (and all other companies, for that matter), but also more competition for income as bond yields become increasingly competitive.… Read more

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Real estate investment trusts (REITs) have become quite popular with income investors in recent years. And why not? These “retirement makers” are required to give 90% of their profits to their shareholders as dividends.

So, if you’re looking to retire on dividends, REITs are a natural place to look.

Problem is, their popularity comes at a price. The Vanguard Real Estate ETF (VNQ) yields just 2.5% today—pretty lame by its standards:

The Problem with Popularity: VNQ Pays Just 2.5%

A disappearing dividend isn’t the only problem with VNQ. Like most ETFs it tends to overweight the largest REITs, which typically translates into both lower overall yields and slower dividend growth.… Read more

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Unlike the broader market, REITs (real estate investment trusts) haven’t been messing around this year. The Vanguard Real Estate ETF (VNQ) has convincingly broken out to new highs.

For us dividend stock traders, the choice between the confident VNQ and tip-toeing S&P 500 has been an easy one. With short-term time frames, it’s usually best to ride the hot trend:

Money Cycles Towards REITs

REITs are on fire—the good kind, not 2020 dumpster variety—but they still have upside thanks to last year. Many perfectly good real estate stocks were tossed into the trash. These are high-quality landlords still trading on the cheap side as that 2020 stench slowly fades from their shares.… Read more

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The Fed has crushed many retirements because bonds simply don’t yield enough. Heck, neither do most stocks thanks to the equity bubble they’ve inflated!

But we dividend-focused retirees have a four-letter secret at our portfolio’s disposal. I’m talking about yield machines that pay up to 8%. And thanks to a slow 2020, these stocks are still reasonably cheap. I’m talking:

R-E-I-T.

Real estate investment trusts (REITs) are a great source of yield. If you’re a regular reader, you’ll probably recall our reasons why REITs hold up well against inflation.

Today we’ll discuss some studies that support this “inflation-proof” position.

In theory, inflation should weigh on REITs much the way it does on many yield-bearing assets.… Read more

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Let’s cut the Fed-babble and call things how they really are. Because what happened last week means a lot for our dividends—and whether we’ll be able to count on them in the future.

(In a moment, we’ll hit up three stocks that are perfect buys in today’s “Fed-driven” economy—they pay dividends up to four times bigger than those of the S&P 500.)

Last week we learned that:

  • The economy is roaring, with GDP up 6.4% in March from a year ago—that’s the kind of number you expect from a developing country like Vietnam, not the world’s biggest economy, yet …
  • The Fed’s money printer will STILL go “Brrrrrrr…” Jay Powell made no bones about it after last Wednesday’s Fed meeting: his massive bond purchases and zero-point-nothing interest rates are here to stay.

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What’s better than a 6% yield paid every quarter?

An 8% annual yield—paid every month—of course.

These hidden gems aren’t easy to find, but they are out there. While 99% of the market’s dividend payers dish out dollars every quarter or longer, it is possible to find dividends that match up with our monthly bills.

Monthly dividends can be a “must have” in retirement. While those in the workforce can cash a check once or twice a month, retirees don’t have active income. (That’s the point of retirement—less required activity!)

Our leisure and financial security is possible. We simply need our money to work harder for us.… Read more

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2020 is finally in the books, and many REITs (real estate investment trusts) remain in the bargain bin. Is it time to buy these generous dividend payers and bet on a 2021 rebound?

Savvy contrarians that we are, we’re focusing on REITs because they are the one part of the market that was left behind as everyone rushed back into stocks in the back half of 2020.

Normally, REITs more or less track the blue-chip index, but when COVID-19 crushed these landlords’ tenants, that changed in a big way: investors sold REITs—and they’re still on the mat.

REITs Fall Behind

That orange line is the price return of the benchmark Vanguard Real Estate ETF (VNQ), which yields 4% today—a massive payout in today’s zero-point-nothing interest-rate world.… Read more

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In normal times, real estate investment trusts (REITs) are a great way to cut your portfolio’s volatility—and double the income you’d get from regular stocks.

Of course there’s nothing typical about 2020, but this “new normal” actually presents an especially excellent opportunity to buy select REITs on the cheap. I’m talking about cash cows with rent flows that were not disrupted by shutdowns.

Cheap stocks with higher-than-usual yields and bulletproof cash flows? Read on and we’ll sign up for this deal together.

REITs, remember, are “no drama” pass-through investments: they collect the rent on their properties, take out enough to keep their buildings in good working order, then pass (almost all of) the remaining cash to you as dividends.… Read more

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