As an income investor, should you be worried about inflation? You bet. On an annual basis, prices were up 2.7% in March. That’s the highest mark since December 2009. Cotton prices are up more than 170% in the past year. Oil had increased by 40% through mid-April. Copper, corn and wheat prices registered double-digit gains in the first three months of 2011 alone, from the same period last year. In the past six months, Kraft (NYSE: KFT), Kellogg’s (NYSE: K) and McDonald’s (NYSE: MCD) have all… Read More

As an income investor, should you be worried about inflation? You bet. On an annual basis, prices were up 2.7% in March. That’s the highest mark since December 2009. Cotton prices are up more than 170% in the past year. Oil had increased by 40% through mid-April. Copper, corn and wheat prices registered double-digit gains in the first three months of 2011 alone, from the same period last year. In the past six months, Kraft (NYSE: KFT), Kellogg’s (NYSE: K) and McDonald’s (NYSE: MCD) have all put through price increases to consumers. Nike (NYSE: NKE) and Whirlpool (NYSE: WHR) have done the same. Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) CEO Bill Simon has said he thinks inflation “is going to be serious.” He warned that recent transportation-related cost hikes will be passed through to shoppers. This means the amount of income you’re earning may not keep pace with how much prices are rising — especially if you are retired and living on a fixed income. If you own long-term bonds, such as 30-year U.S. Read More

One fund is paying a tempting 11% yield. Another offers 8%. Which one should you reach for? To answer that, you need to ask the right question. #-ad_banner-#The question is not,… Read More

I know what income investors like. If I put a double-digit yield in the headline of an article, it will see thousands more reads than an article without a big headline yield. I can put “safety”… Read More

Income investing has an unfair stigma attached to it. The conventional wisdom says invest in dividend payers — also known as “widow and orphan” stocks — if you’re just trying to stash your money somewhere. If you actually want to earn a decent return, then… Read More

It’s one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world. I added the shares to my High-Yield Investing portfolio in January 2009. Over the following two years, I received $2.54 a share in dividends thanks to a 5% yield. Meanwhile, the price rose steadily for a… Read More

I’ve uncovered a small group of double-digit yielders that are so unusual nobody knows quite what to call them. I’ve heard them called perpetual cash machines (PCM), income deposit securities (IDS), enhanced income securities (… Read More

#-ad_banner-#It’s the most consistent way I know to beat the market. Even better, there is rarely a bad time to start investing in these securities. You could have put your money into these stocks at the peak of the tech bubble, or the October 2007 market peak for that matter. Dozens of them are showing a triple-digit profit since then. I don’t want to make it seem you can’t lose money with these unique investments. You certainly can, especially if you aren’t patient. But there’s no doubt the odds are in favor… Read More

#-ad_banner-#It’s the most consistent way I know to beat the market. Even better, there is rarely a bad time to start investing in these securities. You could have put your money into these stocks at the peak of the tech bubble, or the October 2007 market peak for that matter. Dozens of them are showing a triple-digit profit since then. I don’t want to make it seem you can’t lose money with these unique investments. You certainly can, especially if you aren’t patient. But there’s no doubt the odds are in favor of making money, not losing it. We’ve been advocating these types of ideas for years and it has made the subscribers of my newsletter pretty happy… So what are these “magic” investments that have worked so well over the years… despite some of the worst financial turmoil we’ve ever seen? They’re simple. They are “boring” dividend payers that are able to maintain — and raise — their dividends no matter what. They’re among the most lucrative ways I’ve found to make money. Take a look:… Read More

Inflation fears and rising interest rates are riling the fixed-income market. I’ve got a solution. But before I go into too much detail about this idea, it’s important to see exactly what’s going on. Treasury yields, which can serve as a… Read More

On an unseasonably warm day this past November, two men you might have heard of — Bill Gates and Warren Buffett — visited the town of Gillette. This tiny city in northeastern Wyoming is home to less than 30,000 people. Yet, it was important enough to host… Read More

You’ve no doubt heard the Bush-era tax cuts have been extended. After much sound and fury, Congress voted to extend the tax breaks to all Americans, including those in the top income brackets. The tax cuts were set to expire at midnight on Dec. 31, but will… Read More