Where’s an income investor to go for a decent yield these days? Money markets are obviously out. So are U.S. government bonds, unless you’re willing to tie up your money for a few decades. Corporate and emerging-market bond yields have shrunk to the point that they no longer seem worth the risk. Real estate investment trusts (REITS) have been running up for a while, so they look a bit risky, too.

You might as well just park your money in a bank account and wait for interest rates to rise, right?

Well, I wouldn’t go quite that far. There are still some very compelling, albeit lesser-known, income-producing investments that yield 6%-8% or more. No, they’re not as rock-steady as high-quality bonds in terms of price stability. Nor would I expect them to be, since they trade and behave like stocks. They’re generally a lot less volatile than the overall market, though, so the yields more than justify the risk.

I’m talking about royalty trusts, which are exactly the types of income investments my colleague Carla Pasternak features in her newsletter, High-Yield Investing. A royalty trust is a corporation that makes money selling oil and gas, minerals or other resources, or by leasing extraction rights to such resources. Income isn’t taxed at the corporate level, provided at least 90% of income is paid to shareholders as distributions or dividends. Those payments are taxable to shareholders — but at lower capital-gains rates.

Companies typically establish royalty trusts to raise capital, and they tend to fund the trusts with mature assets they expect to be depleted at some point. When the assets are gone, royalties stop and the trust ends. (Sometimes  a royalty trust simply has an expiration date that’s stated in the trust agreement.)

Here are three royalty trusts to consider — MV Oil Trust (NYSE: MVO), Great Northern Iron Ore Properties (NYSE: GNI) and Permian Basin Royalty Trust (NYSE: PBT). I’ve singled them out not only because of their high yields, but because these yields are excellent values relative to the amount of risk you’d be taking to receive them.

1. MV Oil Trust
This royalty trust generates income by selling oil and natural gas produced by MV Partners LLC, an exploration and production firm operating in Kansas and Colorado. MV Oil Trust’s payout ratio is currently 100%, good for a dividend of $3.07 a share and a yield of 8.4%.

It’s a lot of yield for the risk, as shown by beta — a metric used to compare a security’s volatility to the overall market. As the benchmark, the market is assigned a beta of 1.0. So, MV Oil Trust’s beta of 0.76 means it’s 24% less volatile, yet it’s yielding nearly five times the market’s measly 1.8%.

Shareholders can probably count on healthy dividends for quite some time. The trust isn’t scheduled to terminate until June 30, 2026, or after 11.5 million of barrels oil equivalent (MMBOE) have been produced, whichever is later. Considering that fewer than 4 MMBOE have been produced in the five years since inception, the trust ought to be able to maintain a high payout for at least another decade.

2. Great Northern Iron Ore Properties
Great Northern owns rights to about 12,000 mineral and nonmineral-producing acres in northeastern Minnesota. It leases acreage to mining firms, which pay royalties to the trust based on the tonnage they mine.

With a market cap of $150 million, Great Northern is substantially smaller than MV Oil Trust, and it won’t be around nearly as long, since the trust expires on April 6, 2015. I’d still buy it, though, for one thing: its price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 7.6 is less than half the S&P 500’s P/E ratio of 15.4. And with a payout ratio of 95%, $12.50 a share in dividends, a 9% yield and a beta of 0.53, these shares are well worth having even for a relatively short time. Here again, you get a lot of yield for a lot less risk.

3. Permian Basin Royalty Trust
Permian Basin, which generates income through mineral interests, and oil and natural gas-producing properties in Texas, has a 100% payout ratio, a dividend of $1.36 per share and a yield of 7.8%. Its beta is 0.74.

There’s no specific termination date, but the trust could end if it fails to generate net revenue of at least $1 million a year for two straight years. It netted $64 million last year, with net revenue ranging from $38 million to $111 million in the past five years, so termination for inadequate revenue seems unlikely for many years. The trust can also end if at least 75% of shareholders vote for termination.

Action to Take–> If you want high yields, consider royalty trusts. Just be aware that the dividends, which are paid either monthly or quarterly, can vary in the short term with fluctuations in the underlying commodity prices. Remain steadfast, though, and you should be one happy income investor in the long-term.

P.S. — We found an obscure mining company that tossed back 19% in dividends last year (plus another 34% in capital gains). If you think that’s impressive, wait until you see this video…