I counted twice, just to be sure. $16,074. That’s the amount in “daily paychecks” — more commonly known as dividends — I’ve received from my investment portfolio in the past 12 months. That total comes to $1,339 a month. Cash. I’m not telling you this to brag. I’m telling you because I firmly believe that my system of investing is hands down one of the best ways to invest in the stock market. #-ad_banner-#Whether you’re 28 or 88… whether you’re a millionaire or just getting started… and whether you have an MBA or didn’t graduate high school… you can make… Read More

I counted twice, just to be sure. $16,074. That’s the amount in “daily paychecks” — more commonly known as dividends — I’ve received from my investment portfolio in the past 12 months. That total comes to $1,339 a month. Cash. I’m not telling you this to brag. I’m telling you because I firmly believe that my system of investing is hands down one of the best ways to invest in the stock market. #-ad_banner-#Whether you’re 28 or 88… whether you’re a millionaire or just getting started… and whether you have an MBA or didn’t graduate high school… you can make money using this strategy.  The best part is all you need is 10-minutes a month. That’s it. You could be earning hundreds, if not thousands of dollars in extra income, in literally less time than it takes you to shower in the morning… If you’re a regular StreetAuthority reader, then you’ve probably figured out by now that I’m talking about the Daily Paycheck strategy. Simply put, the goal of this strategy is simple. By investing in a basket of high-quality income stocks that pay dividends regularly, I’ve successfully built a portfolio that pays me a dividend for every… Read More

Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) has a monster of a problem. The maker of iPhones and iPads has over $147 billion of cash on its balance sheet. On paper, that looks like $147,000,000,000 — or more than the GDP of Ecuador. That doesn’t even count the money the company is raking in this quarter. It’s just the cash it has sitting in the bank right now. This might seem like a nice problem to have… After all, an ample cash reserve is important for independence and security. But having too much cash, especially at current record low interest rates, may be crippling… Read More

Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) has a monster of a problem. The maker of iPhones and iPads has over $147 billion of cash on its balance sheet. On paper, that looks like $147,000,000,000 — or more than the GDP of Ecuador. That doesn’t even count the money the company is raking in this quarter. It’s just the cash it has sitting in the bank right now. This might seem like a nice problem to have… After all, an ample cash reserve is important for independence and security. But having too much cash, especially at current record low interest rates, may be crippling Apple’s ability to grow. #-ad_banner-#For the better part of the last decade, Apple was a model of innovation and financial performance. The company enjoyed a track record of introducing sleek, game-changing products and services including the iPod and iTunes. But it wasn’t always a smooth ride for Apple. In 1997, Apple was in deep financial trouble. The company brought back its visionary founder Steve Jobs. But Jobs alone couldn’t save Apple… he needed money. The only way Apple could save itself was to grovel before its arch rival Microsoft (NYSE: MSFT) and borrow $150 million. Apple never wanted to be… Read More

Do you want to know the secret to predicting which stock will make you money before it even begins its rise to the top? In a word: trends. Trends are our clues to investing, our road map to the financial world. “History repeats itself” is a cliche for a reason, and so I search for trends when picking stocks for my premium newsletter Stock of the Month. Let me be clear, though. I don’t just go looking for any trend. Any investor can follow the flavor of the month. And while you may have some success doing this, I can… Read More

Do you want to know the secret to predicting which stock will make you money before it even begins its rise to the top? In a word: trends. Trends are our clues to investing, our road map to the financial world. “History repeats itself” is a cliche for a reason, and so I search for trends when picking stocks for my premium newsletter Stock of the Month. Let me be clear, though. I don’t just go looking for any trend. Any investor can follow the flavor of the month. And while you may have some success doing this, I can guarantee it won’t last for long.   #-ad_banner-#​Instead, I spend my time looking for a specific type of trend: companies that are about to disrupt their industry, setting the table for a shift in the balance of power that can reward early investors with sizable gains.  Many companies attempt to be disrupters — but few succeed. Disrupters revolutionize their industries using one common strategy. They find elements of their industry models that customers hate — and make them disappear. For example, broker commissions used to be regulated and set at a flat fee, roughly 1% of the… Read More

It used to be a millionaire would have no trouble retiring. Just a few years ago, a five-year Treasury note paid 5%. That meant you could put a million bucks into Treasurys and earn $50,000 a year, risk-free. Today, that same million dollars earns much less — just $14,000 with the same investment. And it’s a similar story with other traditional places where millionaires put their money for safekeeping… #-ad_banner-#The average CD yields less than 1%, savings accounts earn next to nothing and even the S&P 500 pays a paltry 2% dividend yield. Fortunately, there’s a better way to earn… Read More

It used to be a millionaire would have no trouble retiring. Just a few years ago, a five-year Treasury note paid 5%. That meant you could put a million bucks into Treasurys and earn $50,000 a year, risk-free. Today, that same million dollars earns much less — just $14,000 with the same investment. And it’s a similar story with other traditional places where millionaires put their money for safekeeping… #-ad_banner-#The average CD yields less than 1%, savings accounts earn next to nothing and even the S&P 500 pays a paltry 2% dividend yield. Fortunately, there’s a better way to earn significantly more income. In fact, I’m using this strategy to earn the same income stream as a millionaire for just pennies on the dollar.  If you’re a regular reader of StreetAuthority Daily, you’ve likely heard about my Daily Paycheck strategy before. Simply put, my goal is to build a portfolio of dividend payers so that I can collect one dividend for every day of the year. In the past year, I’ve collected over $16,000 in dividends… and that’s with a portfolio with securities worth roughly $250,000. With 5-year Treasuries yielding 1.4%, I’m earning more from my portfolio than I would… Read More

People ask me about my most profitable investment. It was an investment I made back in October 1999. Today, it pays me a yield equivalent to 27%, and it has forever changed how I look for income opportunities. #-ad_banner-#In 1999, I was speaking at an economic conference in New York. During one of the breaks, I struck up a conversation with two gentlemen who both happened to work in the oil and gas business. At the time, I was doing some consulting work for a lawsuit involving a number of large oil companies and had been knee-deep in oil price… Read More

People ask me about my most profitable investment. It was an investment I made back in October 1999. Today, it pays me a yield equivalent to 27%, and it has forever changed how I look for income opportunities. #-ad_banner-#In 1999, I was speaking at an economic conference in New York. During one of the breaks, I struck up a conversation with two gentlemen who both happened to work in the oil and gas business. At the time, I was doing some consulting work for a lawsuit involving a number of large oil companies and had been knee-deep in oil price and production data. Oil and natural gas prices had been on a steady 20-year decline following the “oil shock” of 1979. By the time 1999 rolled around, analysts had universally soured on the sector. Prices were going lower, they said. In March 1999, The Economist devoted a whole issue to the glut of world oil.  Discussing the future price for oil, The Economist said, “$10 [per barrel] might actually be too optimistic. We may be heading for $5.” In October 1999, I didn’t agree with the analysts or the common view that oil prices were going to sink lower. As… Read More

Not too long ago, I hit a big milestone.  I officially received my 50,000th dollar in dividend income from my Daily Paycheck portfolio. I’m not trying to brag. Instead, I want to show you how I did it, and how you could possibly too.  #-ad_banner-#A little less than four years ago, StreetAuthority co-founder Paul Tracy challenged me to build a portfolio of dividend stocks that would pay out more than 30 dividend checks a month — one for every day of the year. He even gave me $200,000 and a dedicated brokerage account to get started. I collected the very… Read More

Not too long ago, I hit a big milestone.  I officially received my 50,000th dollar in dividend income from my Daily Paycheck portfolio. I’m not trying to brag. Instead, I want to show you how I did it, and how you could possibly too.  #-ad_banner-#A little less than four years ago, StreetAuthority co-founder Paul Tracy challenged me to build a portfolio of dividend stocks that would pay out more than 30 dividend checks a month — one for every day of the year. He even gave me $200,000 and a dedicated brokerage account to get started. I collected the very first dividend from my real-money portfolio on December 24, 2009 — just a few weeks after launching The Daily Paycheck advisory. It was issued by Invesco Value Municipal Income Fund (NYSE: IIM). My first dividend was for $18.13, or 7 1/4 cents per share for my initial holding of 250 shares. It doesn’t sound like the most promising start. After all, $18.13 won’t get you very far toward retirement — that is unless you reinvest dividends and have a bit of time. As of today, I’ve received 46 dividends from IIM for a total of $953.02. My latest dividend was… Read More

I have a large number of readers who have been with me since the launch of my premium advisory, The Daily Paycheck, back in January 2010. They watched as I slowly transformed the $200,000 cash stake from my company into the $291,776 portfolio it is today. New subscribers are now greeted with a portfolio of more than 50 securities. And the questions I get asked most are 1) How do I get started? and 2) Can I use this strategy if I have less than $200,000 to invest? The short answers to those questions are: slowly and absolutely.  But I… Read More

I have a large number of readers who have been with me since the launch of my premium advisory, The Daily Paycheck, back in January 2010. They watched as I slowly transformed the $200,000 cash stake from my company into the $291,776 portfolio it is today. New subscribers are now greeted with a portfolio of more than 50 securities. And the questions I get asked most are 1) How do I get started? and 2) Can I use this strategy if I have less than $200,000 to invest? The short answers to those questions are: slowly and absolutely.  But I want to spend a little time today explaining the “science” behind The Daily Paycheck strategy and how you can use this strategy to meet your individual needs. #-ad_banner-#It was as much a surprise to StreetAuthority co-founder Paul Tracy as it was to me. As an experiment, Paul tried to build a personal portfolio of dividend paying stocks to see if he could get 30 dividend checks in a month. But he achieved far more than the joy of receiving dividends every day. Paul enrolled all his securities in an automatic reinvestment program through his online brokerage account. And before long,… Read More