I just found one of the safest 13.0% yields I’ve ever seen — and it’s in a place practically no income investor dreams of looking right now. In addition, I’ve found securities few American investors even know exist that are offering incredible dividend growth… Read More

Bill Gates owns about 700 million shares of Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) — 713.1 million to be exact. His cache of Microsoft stock is worth a tidy $18.7 billion. Every time the price of Microsoft moves up a penny, Gates’ wealth grows by $7.1 million. Read More

Income investors are exposed. The U.S. government has racked up $10 trillion in debt and Washington continues to spend more money we don’t have. No one’s talking about balancing the budget: The Obama Administration estimates budget deficits will soar to $1.8 trillion this year and $1.3 trillion… Read More

I have a game I like to play. A little con. It generally involves two pigeons. One is a friend, the other is Bill Gates. It never fails. I’m always amazed at how little people know about financial information. When I show someone the SEC’s site, for instance, he or… Read More

It’s the classic Cinderella story. Rags to riches. From nothing to something. The big dance begins with a single step — the initial offering of a company’s shares to the public. Thousands of investors try to “get in on the ground floor.” Take… Read More

“Stupid.” That’s what Buffett’s right-hand man Charlie Munger had to say about not investing in railroads sooner. That was two years ago. Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-B) now has a stake in three of the four major railroads in the United States. But he is so fond of one, he owns… Read More

Most income investors ignore small companies. Conventional wisdom says that large, mature companies pay dividends and small companies don’t. That’s hardly the case. Nearly 10,000 small caps trade on U.S. exchanges. Of those, 3.3% carry a yield of 6% or more. Believe it… Read More

Gold — at more than $1,050 an ounce — appears to be more expensive than ever. But it isn’t. While it’s true that it costs more dollars to buy gold than ever before, the value of the dollar isn’t fixed. The dollar of decades before is not the same dollar… Read More

Longtime readers of my Dividend Opportunities newsletter know I’m a big fan of master limited partnerships (MLPs). There’s not much to dislike. The partnerships don’t have to pay corporate income taxes as long as they earn 90% of… Read More

It’s no secret that investors place a premium on lofty margins. If one business squeezes $0.15 in earnings from each dollar in sales and another manages just $0.10, the first company clearly has a big advantage. But there’s one thing even better than a… Read More