Barry Sternlicht knows a thing or two about real estate. The Harvard Business School grad got started early, buying up more than 7,000 residential apartment units in the early 1990s at fire-sale prices following the savings and loan crisis.  Soon after, he signed a mega-deal with real estate tycoon Sam Zell, exchanging many of these apartments for an ownership stake in Zell’s Equity Residential (NYSE: EQR). This transaction ultimately netted Sternlicht (and his investors) handsome triple-digit returns. But that was just the beginning for this savvy investor and the company he founded, Starwood Capital.  #-ad_banner-#Starwood later built an empire of… Read More

Barry Sternlicht knows a thing or two about real estate. The Harvard Business School grad got started early, buying up more than 7,000 residential apartment units in the early 1990s at fire-sale prices following the savings and loan crisis.  Soon after, he signed a mega-deal with real estate tycoon Sam Zell, exchanging many of these apartments for an ownership stake in Zell’s Equity Residential (NYSE: EQR). This transaction ultimately netted Sternlicht (and his investors) handsome triple-digit returns. But that was just the beginning for this savvy investor and the company he founded, Starwood Capital.  #-ad_banner-#Starwood later built an empire of luxury hotels, amassing a global portfolio of more than 1,200 resorts under upscale brands such as Westin, Sheraton, St. Regis, and Le Meridien. Incidentally, it sold this collection to Marriott last year for $13.6 billion.  Elsewhere, Starwood has made big investments in retail shopping malls in Sweden, suburban office parks in South Florida, and undeveloped land parcels in California. As I discussed last month with my High-Yield Investing premium subscribers, Starwood has also teamed up with Colony Capital to create Colony Starwood Homes (NYSE: SFR), which owns 35,000 rental homes. Sternlicht helped orchestrate this venture, which has already generated gains… Read More

In the world of income investing, dividends reign supreme. Treasuries and CDs are offering historically low yields and are no longer considered the ultra-safe cash generators that they once were.  —Sponsored Link— Meet The Man Who Could Soon Put 2,800% In Your Pocket Imagine the type of money you could make with a powerful CEO in your hip pocket. Imagine a man with over 100 IPOs behind him and an almost half-billion dollar revenue stream working for you — see how to profit here. There’s a little-known… Read More

In the world of income investing, dividends reign supreme. Treasuries and CDs are offering historically low yields and are no longer considered the ultra-safe cash generators that they once were.  —Sponsored Link— Meet The Man Who Could Soon Put 2,800% In Your Pocket Imagine the type of money you could make with a powerful CEO in your hip pocket. Imagine a man with over 100 IPOs behind him and an almost half-billion dollar revenue stream working for you — see how to profit here. There’s a little-known group of stocks that offer huge dividend payouts, but their yields are not displayed to the public on financial websites like Yahoo! Finance or Morningstar. This phenomenon is due to a glitch in the way the financial media reports certain companies’ financial information.  I call this group of stocks “Hidden High Yielders.” And if you know where to look, you can find companies yielding three, six, even seven times more than the yield posted on financial websites.  #-ad_banner-#​ For Hidden High Yielders, their true payout is actually much higher because there are dozens… Read More

My wife and I are planning to visit Europe soon. Deciding exactly where to go is proving difficult: historic German castles and biergartens, quaint Irish country inns, moonlit Italian dining… There are just too many things to see.  Regardless of whether we fly to Munich, Dublin or somewhere else, our budget will stretch much further these days thanks to the strong dollar.  Two years ago, the dollar was equivalent to 0.70 euros. Today, the same greenback will get you 0.90 euros. So if you set aside $1,000 in spending money back then and went to a bank to exchange it,… Read More

My wife and I are planning to visit Europe soon. Deciding exactly where to go is proving difficult: historic German castles and biergartens, quaint Irish country inns, moonlit Italian dining… There are just too many things to see.  Regardless of whether we fly to Munich, Dublin or somewhere else, our budget will stretch much further these days thanks to the strong dollar.  Two years ago, the dollar was equivalent to 0.70 euros. Today, the same greenback will get you 0.90 euros. So if you set aside $1,000 in spending money back then and went to a bank to exchange it, you would have walked out with 700 euros to spend. Today, the same outlay will put 900 euros in your pocket.  ​ This favorable exchange means my wife and I can enjoy better meals, stay in nicer hotels, and visit more attractions — all without spending a single extra dollar. You can see why travelers love this strong dollar. Unfortunately, large businesses hate it. U.S.-made goods exported overseas have become more expensive for foreign buyers. Compounding matters, any sales based in euros, yen or rupees are being converted back into fewer dollars — causing revenue and profit to shrink… Read More

I recently announced a major shift in my premium newsletter, High-Yield Investing. To put it simply, I’m going global. Now, a decent number of the current holdings in my premium newsletter, High-Yield Investing, are based abroad. But we simply haven’t made looking for foreign yielders a major focus. We’re going to change that. #-ad_banner-#Most investors automatically assume that U.S. dividend payers are the best. Not so fast. As I’ll explain in a moment, by only looking at American companies for income, you’re severely limiting your choices. By changing the directive of my newsletter from primarily U.S.-focused to a global focus… Read More

I recently announced a major shift in my premium newsletter, High-Yield Investing. To put it simply, I’m going global. Now, a decent number of the current holdings in my premium newsletter, High-Yield Investing, are based abroad. But we simply haven’t made looking for foreign yielders a major focus. We’re going to change that. #-ad_banner-#Most investors automatically assume that U.S. dividend payers are the best. Not so fast. As I’ll explain in a moment, by only looking at American companies for income, you’re severely limiting your choices. By changing the directive of my newsletter from primarily U.S.-focused to a global focus means I now have the freedom to leave no stone unturned in the search for income. That means my subscribers can now rely on one source to build a well-rounded portfolio and truly earn the highest dividends the world has to offer.  The Case For International Income For a variety of reasons, the average publicly traded large-cap U.S. firm carries a lower dividend yield than those in many other countries. That doesn’t mean you can’t find plenty of excellent high-yield opportunities on American soil; some of the world’s best high-income stocks are U.S.-based. But to truly maximize the income-generating… Read More

Last week, U.S. stocks reached their high water marks for the year. Then on Friday, they were in freefall after UK voters narrowly voted to leave the European Union. The historic vote will have far-reaching political, social and economic ramifications. Stock markets around the globe were reeling amid the uncertainty surrounding Britain’s departure from the EU, which will influence everything from mortgage rates to foreign currency exchange. #-ad_banner-#Fortunately, we have limited direct exposure in High-Yield Investing. Most of my remaining holdings either have tangential exposure to UK markets or are well-positioned to ride out… Read More

Last week, U.S. stocks reached their high water marks for the year. Then on Friday, they were in freefall after UK voters narrowly voted to leave the European Union. The historic vote will have far-reaching political, social and economic ramifications. Stock markets around the globe were reeling amid the uncertainty surrounding Britain’s departure from the EU, which will influence everything from mortgage rates to foreign currency exchange. #-ad_banner-#Fortunately, we have limited direct exposure in High-Yield Investing. Most of my remaining holdings either have tangential exposure to UK markets or are well-positioned to ride out this storm. Still, even if my portfolio wasn’t directly in the line of fire, there was plenty of collateral damage. Bank lenders and businesses that rely on cross-continental trade were among the hardest hit. The ripple effects of this vote will be felt for many months to come. As is typically the case in turbulent times, cash is flowing into reliable safe harbors like gold and U.S. government bonds. From my vantage, the biggest upshot for us is that the current turmoil will likely stay the Federal Reserve’s hand and rule out any further… Read More

Well, it finally happened. I’ve been watching oil prices flirt with the $50 mark for some time. On June 7, benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures finally pierced through that key psychological level and settled at $50.36 per barrel. That’s the first time oil prices closed above $50 in almost a year. Prices have since retreated slightly since then to around $48, but it’s still a monster comeback. It was only a few months ago that prices were languishing at $26 per barrel. #-ad_banner-#Crude oil dominated the headlines when prices were on the way… Read More

Well, it finally happened. I’ve been watching oil prices flirt with the $50 mark for some time. On June 7, benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures finally pierced through that key psychological level and settled at $50.36 per barrel. That’s the first time oil prices closed above $50 in almost a year. Prices have since retreated slightly since then to around $48, but it’s still a monster comeback. It was only a few months ago that prices were languishing at $26 per barrel. #-ad_banner-#Crude oil dominated the headlines when prices were on the way down. But now that the pendulum has turned, the financial media has gone strangely quiet. That’s fine with me. It might allow more time to put additional money to work in this sector while asset prices are still depressed. Could this rally falter and prices retreat again? Sure. We can’t rule out that possibility. But because the upward surge has been driven by improved fundamentals — not speculators — I don’t think we’ll retest the lows again in this cycle. North American oil producers have been dialing back their exploration and production budgets for… Read More

We’re approaching a major milestone. More companies are paying dividends, and those payments are getting increasingly larger as a percentage of profits. In fact, payout ratios recently reached 37%, and aggregate dividend payments among S&P 500 companies have totaled $410 billion over the past year. That’s more than $1.1 billion in dividends per day. #-ad_banner-#At least, that’s the official count. The true payout is actually much higher because there are dozens of supplemental dividends that go unreported each quarter. By unreported, I’m not talking about some secret way of transferring cash to a select… Read More

We’re approaching a major milestone. More companies are paying dividends, and those payments are getting increasingly larger as a percentage of profits. In fact, payout ratios recently reached 37%, and aggregate dividend payments among S&P 500 companies have totaled $410 billion over the past year. That’s more than $1.1 billion in dividends per day. #-ad_banner-#At least, that’s the official count. The true payout is actually much higher because there are dozens of supplemental dividends that go unreported each quarter. By unreported, I’m not talking about some secret way of transferring cash to a select group of well-connected insiders. These extra payments are dished out openly and uniformly to all shareholders. But they are considered “special.” As such, these distributions aren’t reflected in the yields you see quoted on popular financial sites like Yahoo or Morningstar. But trust me, the cash is just as green and spends just the same as any other dividend. And these special payments typically come in much bigger denominations, often 10 to 20 times larger than the firm’s regular quarterly dividend. There’s no special trick or complicated system to capturing these dividends — you… Read More

On April 13, 2015, the S&P 500 closed at 2,081. On April 13, 2016, it closed at 2,082. Of course, there have been innumerable up and down gyrations since then. But in the end, the benchmark index is right back where it started. In essence, we’ve gone nowhere over the past year. #-ad_banner-#There are more than a few pros, including top strategists at Goldman Sachs, who think the most likely trend for future stock prices isn’t up or down, but sideways. Given the macroeconomic cross-currents, you can understand why the market has no clear… Read More

On April 13, 2015, the S&P 500 closed at 2,081. On April 13, 2016, it closed at 2,082. Of course, there have been innumerable up and down gyrations since then. But in the end, the benchmark index is right back where it started. In essence, we’ve gone nowhere over the past year. #-ad_banner-#There are more than a few pros, including top strategists at Goldman Sachs, who think the most likely trend for future stock prices isn’t up or down, but sideways. Given the macroeconomic cross-currents, you can understand why the market has no clear direction. There are several compelling reasons to sell stocks… crumbling commodity prices, ongoing terrorist threats, rising interest rates, excessive valuations, stalling global economic growth. Yet, there are just as many strong arguments in favor of buying… robust job creation, strong consumer spending, cheap and available capital, heated M&A activity. You can see why the bulls and bears are in a tug-of-war right now. It’s quite possible that neither will gain the upper hand, leaving the broader market drifting. There will certainly be volatile day-to-day price swings, but the larger trend could… Read More