I’ve found what really works when it comes to income investing. It’s a secret that could help you earn returns nearly triple most regular income stocks. In 2010, with $200,000 in actual cash fronted by StreetAuthority, I was given the go-ahead to build a real-money portfolio using the Daily Paycheck strategy. #-ad_banner-# The strategy is straightforward. I select the best income investments on the market, reinvest every cent of dividends I receive, and then watch my paychecks grow. It’s a simple way to invest, and many investors have probably heard about it… Read More

I’ve found what really works when it comes to income investing. It’s a secret that could help you earn returns nearly triple most regular income stocks. In 2010, with $200,000 in actual cash fronted by StreetAuthority, I was given the go-ahead to build a real-money portfolio using the Daily Paycheck strategy. #-ad_banner-# The strategy is straightforward. I select the best income investments on the market, reinvest every cent of dividends I receive, and then watch my paychecks grow. It’s a simple way to invest, and many investors have probably heard about it before. But until now, most have only seen this sort of strategy backtested — not put into practice in real life. The good news is that while we all know being paid dividends regularly — and reinvesting those payments — is “supposed” to work, the actual results have been much more exciting than even I expected. For instance, I’m now averaging more than $1,592 per month in dividends and have earned more than $87,000 in total dividends. But this strategy has also uncovered something surprising that could have a big impact… Read More

It’s one of the most important concepts in income investing — yet it doesn’t get addressed nearly enough. Today, I want to change that. Because once you understand the power of this concept, it may change the way you think about dividends forever.  Calculating a security’s current yield isn’t hard. You take its total annual dividend payments, divide that by its current price and multiply by 100. Simple enough, right? Let’s take a look at one of the long-time holdings in my premium newsletter, The Daily Paycheck, to see this in action. Magellan Midstream Partners (NYSE: MMP) is a master… Read More

It’s one of the most important concepts in income investing — yet it doesn’t get addressed nearly enough. Today, I want to change that. Because once you understand the power of this concept, it may change the way you think about dividends forever.  Calculating a security’s current yield isn’t hard. You take its total annual dividend payments, divide that by its current price and multiply by 100. Simple enough, right? Let’s take a look at one of the long-time holdings in my premium newsletter, The Daily Paycheck, to see this in action. Magellan Midstream Partners (NYSE: MMP) is a master limited partnership (MLP) that currently pays a quarterly dividend of $0.74 per unit. Today, gas prices are 42% cheaper on average than they were a year ago. That means Americans are on pace to spend $100 billion less at the pump in 2015. #-ad_banner-#Now let’s do the math… MMP’s Annual Dividend: 4 X $0.74 = $2.96 MMP’s Current Price: $69.68 MMP’s Current Yield: ($2.96/$69.68) = 4.2% Now, I picked MMP as an example for a reason. It perfectly illustrates the point I want to make in today’s essay. You see, some income investors turn their noses up at yields below… Read More

The last couple of weeks haven’t been kind to investors. The S&P 500 Index is down more than 9% since August 10 and every trading day has been filled with drama. What started as China’s central bank devaluing its currency — the yuan — has morphed into uncertainty about the strength of the global economy. And the one thing that the market hates is uncertainty. It’s not easy to make decisions and take action in a pessimistic and uncertain market. But it’s often the tough decisions that allow us to sleep better at night. Read More

The last couple of weeks haven’t been kind to investors. The S&P 500 Index is down more than 9% since August 10 and every trading day has been filled with drama. What started as China’s central bank devaluing its currency — the yuan — has morphed into uncertainty about the strength of the global economy. And the one thing that the market hates is uncertainty. It’s not easy to make decisions and take action in a pessimistic and uncertain market. But it’s often the tough decisions that allow us to sleep better at night. Here are some of the things I focus on in times like this… Evaluate Your Cash Balance As investors, we have been made to feel guilty about holding cash. It’s as if we’re shirking our responsibilities. We feel like we should always have our entire portfolio working for us. But cash does work for us. Cash holds up pretty darn well in a downturn. Cash helps us sleep better at night, no matter what the market throws at us. Cash allows us to buy shares of great companies during a downturn, without having… Read More

The other morning, I drove myself half-crazy looking for my car keys. It must have taken me almost a half hour to find them. And when I did, they were sitting — in plain sight — on my hall table. The reason I had trouble finding my keys, of course, was that they weren’t where I usually put them. I’m so used to looking in the same places that I walked right by my hall table without a glance. #-ad_banner-#The same thing happens to securities that pay irregular — or special — dividends. Read More

The other morning, I drove myself half-crazy looking for my car keys. It must have taken me almost a half hour to find them. And when I did, they were sitting — in plain sight — on my hall table. The reason I had trouble finding my keys, of course, was that they weren’t where I usually put them. I’m so used to looking in the same places that I walked right by my hall table without a glance. #-ad_banner-#The same thing happens to securities that pay irregular — or special — dividends. I call them “Wall Street Irregulars.”  These dividend payers offer above-average yields, yet most investors skip right over them. That’s because popular investment resources like Yahoo! Finance rarely reflect the total yield these companies offer. Most brokerage and investment websites only take a stock’s most recent dividend payment and multiply it times the payment frequency to get a stock’s annual dividend. The websites then use the computed annual dividend to calculate the yield. So while the “posted yield” — the yield investors see listed — may… Read More

The other morning, I drove myself half-crazy looking for my car keys. It must have taken me almost a half hour to find them. And when I did, they were sitting — in plain sight — on my hall table. The reason I had trouble finding my keys, of course, was that they weren’t where I usually put them. I’m so used to looking in the same places that I walked right by my hall table without a glance. #-ad_banner-#The same thing happens to securities that pay irregular — or special — dividends. Read More

The other morning, I drove myself half-crazy looking for my car keys. It must have taken me almost a half hour to find them. And when I did, they were sitting — in plain sight — on my hall table. The reason I had trouble finding my keys, of course, was that they weren’t where I usually put them. I’m so used to looking in the same places that I walked right by my hall table without a glance. #-ad_banner-#The same thing happens to securities that pay irregular — or special — dividends. I call them “Wall Street Irregulars.” These dividend payers offer above-average yields, yet most investors skip right over them. That’s because popular investment resources like Yahoo! Finance rarely reflect the total yield these companies offer. Most brokerage and investment websites only take a stock’s most recent dividend payment and multiply it times the payment frequency to get a stock’s annual dividend. The websites then use the computed annual dividend to calculate the yield. So while the “posted yield” — the yield investors see listed — may… Read More