As America celebrates its 250th, there’s something happening inside its economy that’s not getting enough attention.

A quiet boom.

It’s one more thing worth celebrating this month—and we’re going to do that. We’re also going to get set for the next leg of America’s low-key growth run with a closed-end fund (CEF) yielding north 11.6%.

The chart below, which The Economist published two years ago, nicely sums up the wealth-building power of the US economy over the long haul.

The key piece of info here is on the left side of this chart. Here, we can see that over the last century, each generation of Americans has started its working career earning more than previous ones.… Read more

In the working world, paychecks show up every two weeks. Or at least, every month. Which keeps up with the pace of monthly bills, charges, and expenses.

In the stock market world, payouts (dividends!) arrive every quarter. That’s 30 days in between bills, but a full 90 days spanning divvies.

Hence the appeal of monthly dividends. These management teams know that the investors who hold their stock are here for the payment. It’d better show up every 30 days, and it’d better be the same amount. No cuts allowed.

Problem is, some of these monthly payers are writing checks their business can’t cash.… Read more

The crowd is still way too worried about interest rates—and their fear is handing us a shot at two stout monthly dividends (yielding up to 11.9%) on the cheap.

We can thank new Fed chair Kevin Warsh for ginning up the panic here. Because he was appointed by President Trump, the suits expected Warsh to push for lower rates right off the hop. Instead, the new Fed chief has gone full Dirty Harry on inflation.

Investors are buying it. But they’re already on the wrong side of the story.

Oil has plunged to around $68 a barrel. And the job numbers for June, out last week, were soft, with the number of new gigs around half of what it was expected to be.… Read more

Today we’re going to discuss a 6%-paying fund that’s quietly built a portfolio perfectly tuned for the rest of the 2020s.

Few investors realize it … yet. Which is why we can grab this 6% payer (whose payout looks set to grow from here) at a 10% discount to its “true” value.

The fund in question is the Sprott Focus Trust (FUND), a closed-end fund (CEF) managed by Whitney George. He’s a manager you may have heard of: George is known for the profits he’s earned over the decades by focusing on two key areas: energy stocks and small caps.… Read more

Wall Street analysts have one job: predict where companies’ earnings are going in the coming quarter. Sounds simple enough, except said suits aren’t so good at it!

For the most recent earnings season, these forecasting fruit flies buzzed around modeling 12% earnings growth for the quarter. The S&P 500’s companies showed 27% profit growth—more than double what the “experts” predicted in their spreadsheets. They were way off.

So what does it mean when earnings come in at more than double the forecast? It means these companies have plenty of room—and reason—to hand more of that cash back to us. And that matters because over the long run stock prices follow their dividends.… Read more

The wind is shifting around AI—and we’re getting set to ride the next wave with dividends up to 12.3%.

Today we’re going to discuss what I see as the “intersection” between AI’s growth and the 8%+ income streams we’re drawing from the portfolio of our CEF Insider service.

Then we’re going to spotlight three CEFs in the sweet spot: They’re profiting indirectly from AI’s growth, while giving us exposure to sectors beyond tech.

Here’s why I see that as a strong move now.

On the one hand, AI is helping companies find new efficiencies. And I know I don’t have to tell you that tech is driving big investments across the economy.… Read more

Happy anniversary to my friends Charlie and Ginny, who were fired by their lame financial advisor this time last year.

Why? And, more importantly, how are they doing one year later? Let’s discuss.

Our friends have the same goal as retirees like us: to put the pile of money we saved our entire lives to work for us in retirement. Then, use said pile to provide income, so we don’t have to worry about the pile, the market, the news, and the headlines.

That is where the couple “went wrong,” according to the person they paid to give them “advice!”

Their transgression?… Read more

Sell in May? Ha! Try “buy in July.”

Truth is, summer is the best time to troll for dividend deals—especially July. We’re going to “back up the truck” on two tickers in a sec.

Why July?

Because it’s the strongest month of the year for stocks, according to a 2024 report from the Carson Group, a financial-advisory firm. Here’s the upshot: Over the 20 years leading up to July 2024, the S&P 500 rose 2.3% on average.

And that’s just the average. Many years saw bigger gains than that.

This is our short-term play.

On the horizon, we’ve got the midterms.… Read more

There are plenty of reasons to buy closed-end funds (CEFs), but the one that most investors love most is pretty obvious.

The income!

The average CEF yields 8.7% as I write this. And while most investors have been conditioned to believe that this level of payout is unsustainable, this is not the case with CEFs. Many of these funds sport yields of 8% or more and haven’t cut payouts in years, even decades.

In fact, several have grown their dividends in that time.

The reason why is simple: The stock market gains around 10.6% per year on average. So a CEF that invests in stocks and pays 10.6% per year can maintain payouts, theoretically, since the fund is just handing that profit to shareholders as a dividend.… Read more

We should avoid REITs right now because the Fed talks tough about raising rates.

Or we should buy REITs right now because the Fed’s worries are overblown.

Which is true? Well, it depends.

Let’s talk about our beloved real estate investment trusts, or REITs, which we favor as retirement-focused investors. REITs must dish most of their profits to us as dividends. A congressional act created them decades ago, and it requires them to send us at least 90% of their taxable income as payouts, in exchange for tax advantages.

Now the lazy Wall Street maxim holds that REITs trade opposite interest rates.… Read more