If you are entering or approaching retirement, you had better accept the new investment reality of low-risk and long-term thinking. Your days of gambling and taking chances for higher returns are over.
Even some dividend-paying stocks are out of our risk envelope. When it comes to large-cap dividend payers, your choices have to include firms with a stable, long-term outlook and improving fundamentals. But, that doesn’t mean you have to suffer through years of underperformance.
A microcap with a 5.9% yield that is suitable for conservative portfolios based on…
Toilet paper.
It isn’t glamorous but it is profitable. And, is there anything more essential?
There’s a very small company, Orchids Paper Products (NYSE: TIS) that, for a microcap, has been amazingly profitable, stable and stockholder friendly.
One of the nonquantitative methods I use to pick stocks is to follow the amount…
In case you missed it, Bill Gross of PIMCO fame, one of the most respected bond gurus in the world, has pronounced April 29 of this year the official end of the 30-year bull market in bonds. This is the second time in as many years that he has made the same prediction.
Needless to say, he was wrong last year, but only on a timing basis. A lot has changed since last year and he could be right, again.
This is part five of “How to Not Wake Up Broke in Your 80s.”
It’s simple. Own stock in companies in essential industries, with long histories of overperformance and solid dividends, and invest in companies that are stockholder friendly.
Wisconsin Energy (NYSE: WEC) has it all.
Everyone, and I mean everyone, is looking for ways to increase the amount of money they will have available in retirement. The usual ideas include deferred tax strategies, higher-risk investments for potentially higher annual returns and working longer.
But there is another way to double how much cash you could have in retirement. The technique is available to everyone. It’s free and you’ll feel a lot better about yourself if you do it.
According to a recent report by Charles Schwab, most affluent Americans are overconfident about how well prepared they are to fund their retirement needs, especially when it comes to income.
The Schwab report surveyed 1,800 investors with an average income of between $115,000 and $250,000 in investable assets.
The average annual income the survey participants expected to need in retirement was $67,000, just 57% of their current income.
The single biggest fear of every retired person is running out of money during retirement. Even with the best planning, there is that nagging fear that the money could run out before you do.
The stock market – the chosen vehicle for funding most retirement plans – has offered up enough surprises, and losses, in the past 10 years that many folks are looking for an alternative with more security and a guarantee, if possible.
The search for yield in this zero-interest-rate environment is causing many retired persons to fall into a bond trap that will be a complete surprise. And it will cost a lot of money.
Most investors assume the “coupon” rate is what they earn while owning the bond. Depending on the price of a bond, your return and your interest rate can be two very different numbers.
And it’s the annual return that matters.
Share buybacks seem to be as talked about as dividends in this market. And they can be one sign of a quality company.
They are a good indication of an investor-friendly company, which is good for retired folks. And they are also one measure of financial health.
Buybacks are supposed to create higher earnings per share, which is good. But according to a recent article in The Wall Street Journal, not all buybacks are equal. The article had some good guidelines for judging companies that buy back their stock.