How to Live Off

$500,000… Practically Forever

In this income investing report, you’ll discover…

• How the 4% Rule and 60/40 Portfolio are now dead.
• 12 popular dividend disasters you need to dump right now.
• How you could bank tens of thousands of dollars in yearly dividend cash for every $500,000 invested, and …
• 3 incredible monthly payers dishing out dividends up to 14.9%.

Dear Reader,

A half-million dollars is a lot of money. Unfortunately, it won’t generate much income if you limit yourself to popular mainstream investments.

The 10-year Treasury pays around 4.1% as I write this. That’s not bad, historically speaking, but put your $500K in Treasuries and you’re only looking at $20,500 in investment income, right around the poverty level for a two-person household. Yikes.

And dividend-paying stocks don’t yield nearly enough. For example, Vanguard’s popular Dividend Appreciation ETF (VIG) pays around 1.6%. Sad.

When investment income falls short, retirees are often forced to sell their investments to supplement their income.

Of course, the problem here is that when capital is sold, the payout stream takes an immediate hit – so that more capital must be sold next time, and so on.

Avoid the Share Selling “Death Spiral”

Some financial advisors (who are not retired themselves, by the way) say that you can safely withdraw and spend, say, 4% of your retirement portfolio every year. Or whatever percentage they manipulate their spreadsheet to say.

Problem is, in reality, every few years you’re faced with a chart that looks like this.

Apple’s Dividend Was Fine – Its Stock Wasn’t

As you can see, the dividend (orange line above) is fine — growing, even — but you’re selling at a 25% loss!

In other words, you’re forced to sell more shares to supplement your income when they’re depressed.

Remember the benefits of dollar-cost averaging that built your portfolio? You bought regularly, and were able to buy more shares when prices were low?

In this case, you’re forced to sell more shares when prices are low.

When shares rebound, you need an even bigger gain just to get back to your original value.

The Only Reliable Retirement Solution

Instead of ever selling your stocks, you should instead make sure you live on dividends alone so that you never have to touch your capital.

This is easier said than done, and obviously the more money you have, the better off you are. But with yields still pretty low, even rich folks are having a tough time living off of interest today.

And you can actually live better than they can off of a (much) more modest nest egg if you know where to look for lesser-known, meaningful and secure yield.

I’m talking about annual income of 8%, 9% or even 10%+ so that you’re banking $50,000 (and potentially more) each year for every $500,000 you invest.

You and I both know an income stream like that is a very nice head start to a well-funded retirement.

And it’s totally scalable: Got more? Great!

We’ll keep building up your income stream, right along with your additional capital.

And you’ll never have to touch your nest egg capital – which means you won’t have to worry about or running out of money in retirement, or even the day-to-day ups and downs of the stock market.

The only thing you need to concern yourself with is the security of your dividends.

As long as your payouts are safe, who cares if your stock prices swing up or down on a given day?

Most investors know this is the right approach to retirement.

Problem is, they don’t know how to find 8%, and 10% yields to fund their lives.

And when they do find high yields, they’re not sure if these payouts are safe. Will the company or fund have enough cash flow to pay the dividends into the future?

And how sensitive are these payouts to the latest headline, Fed policy change or unrest on the other side of the globe?

We’ll talk specific stocks, funds and yields in a moment.

But first, a bit about myself.

I graduated cum laude with an industrial engineering degree — which is actually pretty popular with Wall Street recruiters.

But I couldn’t stand the thought of grinding it out in a cubicle for 80 hours a week. So I moved to San Francisco and got into the tech scene.

A buddy and I started up two software companies that serve more than 26,000 business users.

The result was a nice chunk of change coming in … and I had to decide what to do with my money.

I had seen plenty of young “techies” come into sudden cash and burn through their windfall in a year, ending up right back where they started.

That was NOT going to be me. I already had dreams of living off my wealth one day, decades before I retired.

I got plenty of cold calls from brokers wanting to “help” me. But I knew that nobody would care as much about my money as me.

So I went out on my own and invested my startup profits in dividend-paying stocks.

I’ve been hunting down safe, stable and generous yields ever since, growing my wealth with vehicles paying me 8%, 9%, even 10%+ dividends.

Over the past 10+ years, I’ve been writing about the methods I use to generate these high levels of income.

Today I serve as chief investment strategist for Contrarian Income Report — a publication that uncovers secure, high-yielding investments for thousands of investors.

Since inception, my subscribers have enjoyed dividends 5 times (and much more!) the S&P 500 average, plus big annualized gains!

And that brings me to a crucial piece of advice…

The ONE Thing You Must Remember

If I could leave you with just one nugget of investing wisdom today, it would be to NEVER overlook the incredible wealth-building power of dividends.

Few investors realize how important these unglamorous workhorses actually are.

Here’s a perfect example…

If you put $1,000 in the dividend-paying stocks of the S&P 500 back in 1973, you would have had $96,970 by the end of 2024, or 97x your money.

But the same $1,000 in the non-dividend payers would have grown to just $8,990 — 91% less.

That’s why I’m a dividend fan.

The stock market is a fantastic wealth-building machine, but it doesn’t always go straight up!

There have been plenty of 10-year periods where the only money investors made was in dividends.

And that’s what gives us dividend investors such an edge.

When you lock in an 8%+ yield, you’re booking an income stream that’s bigger than the stock market’s long-term average return right off the bat.

Of course you can’t just buy every ticker symbol out there with a flashy yield, or you’ll get burned pretty fast.

So let’s wipe the false promises of mainstream finance from our minds and start thinking the “No Withdrawal” way…

Step 1: Forget “Buy and Hope” Investing

Most half-million-dollar stashes are piled into “America’s ticker” SPY.

The SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) is the most popular symbol in the land. For many 401(K)’s, this is all there is.

And that’s sad for two reasons.

First, SPY yields just 1.1%. That’s $5,500 per year on $500K invested… poverty level stuff.

Second, consider a hypothetical year when, say, SPY fell 20%, not at all out of the question, given the multiyear run stocks have been on. Just from that alone, your $500K would be slashed to $400K.

SPY was down nearly 20% that year. That is no bueno, because that $500K would have been reduced to $400K.

The last thing we want to do is lose the money we’re getting in dividends (or more) to losses in the share price. Which is why we must protect our capital at all costs.

Step 2: Ditch 60/40, Too

The 60/40 portfolio has been exposed as senseless.

Retirees were sold a bill of goods when promised that a 60% slice of stocks and 40% of bonds would somehow be a “safe mix” that would not drop together.

Oops.

Inflation — plus an aggressive Federal Reserve, plus a (thus far) persistently steady economy — drop-kicked equities and fixed income before they went on a serious bull run in 2023, 2024 and into 2025 (with a brief interruption for the April “tariff tantrum.”)

It just goes to show that bonds are not the haven guaranteed by the 60/40 high priests. They could easily plunge just as hard (or harder) than stocks in the next economic crisis.

Just like they did in 2022 (sorry, we’re only going to spend one second on that disaster of a year). US Treasuries plunged, which resulted in the iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF (TLT) getting tagged.

Sure, it still paid its dividend. But even including payouts, the fund was down 31% — worse than the S&P 500. Ouch!

When stocks and bonds are dicey, where do we turn? To a better bet.

A strategy to retire on dividends alone that leaves that beautiful pile of cash untouched.

Step 3: Create a “No Withdrawal” Portfolio

My colleague Tom Jacobs and I literally wrote the book on a dividend-powered retirement.

In How to Retire on Dividends: Earn a Safe 8%, Leave Your Principal Intact, we outline our “no withdrawal” approach to retirement:

1. Save a bunch of money. (“Check.”)
2. Buy safe dividend stocks with big yields
3. Enjoy the income while keeping the original principal intact.

To make that nest egg last, and our working life worthwhile, we really need yields in the 7% to 10% range. We typically don’t see these stocks touted on Bloomberg or CNBC, but they are around.

Of course, there are plenty of landmines in the high-yield space. Some of these stocks are cheap for a reason. Which is why we need to be contrarian when looking for income.

We must identify why a yield is incorrectly allowed to be so high. (In other words, we need to figure out why the stock is priced so cheaply!)

As I write, the top 10 payers in my Contrarian Income Report portfolio yield about 11.4% on average.

On every million dollars invested, this dividend collection is spinning off an incredible $114,000 every single year!

And you don’t have to be a millionaire to take advantage of this strategy.

A $750k nest egg would generate $85,500 annually…

$500K could hand you $57,000…

You get the idea.

The important thing is that these yields are safe, which creates stability for the stock (and fund) prices attached to them.

We want our income, with our principal intact.

It’s really the only way to retire comfortably, without having to stare at stock tickers all day, every day.

Now, many blue-chip yields are reliable. They just need to hit the gym and bulk up a bit. Here’s how we take perfectly good, yet modest, dividends and make them into braggarts.

Step 4: Supersize Those Yields

Mastercard (MA) is a near-perfect dividend stock. Its payout is always climbing, having nearly doubled over the last five years. (MA shareholders, you can thank every business that accepts Mastercard for your “pennies on every dollar” rake.)

Tap, tap, tap. Remember cash? Me neither. Another 2020 casualty, with Mastercard making a few dimes or dollars on every plastic transaction.

The cashless trend has been in motion for years. But international growth prospects remain huge. Just a few years ago, 80%+ of transactions in Spain, Italy and even tech-savvy Japan were in cash.

We expect more dividend hikes as more cash turns to plastic. Or skips plastic entirely and goes straight to e-transfers. Mastercard and close cousin Visa (V) nab a nice piece of that action, too.

The only chink in MA’s armor? Everyone knows it is a dynamic dividend stock. So it only yields 0.6%. Investors keep bidding it higher, knowing that the next dividend raise is just around the corner.

So, the compounding of those hikes makes MA a great stock for our kids and grandkids. You and I, however, don’t have the time to wait for 0.6% to grow. And $3,000 on a $500K investment simply won’t get it done.

Let’s instead consider top-notch closed-end fund (CEF) Gabelli Dividend & Income Trust (GDV), managed by legendary value investor Mario Gabelli.

Mastercard is one of Gabelli’s largest holdings. But we income investors would prefer GDV because it boasts a healthy dividend right around 6.4%, paid monthly, nearly 13 times what Mastercard pays (and this is low in CEF-land; other funds, like the next one we’ll talk about, pay nearly double that).

And as I write this, thanks to the conservative folks who buy CEFs, we have a rare opportunity to buy Mario’s portfolio for just 88 cents on the dollar.

Yup, GDV trades at a 12% discount to its net asset value, or NAV. It’s a way to boost MA’s payout and snag a discount, too.

Where does this discount come from?

CEFs are like their mutual fund cousins, with one exception: they have fixed pools of shares, so they can (and do) trade higher and lower than their NAVs, or “fair” values (the value of their holdings minus any debt).

As contrarians, we can step in when they are temporarily out of favor, like after a pullback, when liquidity is low, and buy them at generous discounts.

GDV holds more blue-chip dividend payers alongside MA, such as American Express (AXP), Microsoft (MSFT) and JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM). And with GDV, we have an opportunity to purchase them at a 12% discount.

These high-quality stocks wouldn’t normally qualify for our “retire on $500K” portfolio because everyone in the world knows they are strong long-term investments.

Even though these companies are constantly raising their dividends, constant demand for their shares keeps their prices high (and current yields low). So they never meet our current-yield requirement.

GDV does. The fund pays a monthly dividend that adds up to a nice 6.4% annual yield.

Let me give you one more idea (and this is where that much larger payout comes in): the Eaton Vance Tax-Managed Global Diversified Equity (EXG) is another CEF with a similar blue-chip dividend portfolio.

But EXG generates even more income than GDV by selling covered calls on the shares it owns.

More cash flow means a bigger dividend — and EXG pays an already terrific 8.6%!

So we buy and hold EXG and GDV forever, collecting their monthly dividends merrily along the way? Not quite.

In bull markets, these funds are great. But in bear markets, they’ll chew you up.

Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don’t give way to hating,

  And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;

If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
 And stoop and build ’em up with worn out tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,

And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on”;

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings—nor lose the common touch;

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;

If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute

With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run—
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,

And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

Sorry boys and girls that’s Naval gazing.

With NESF trimming their future dividends and the highest yielder in the SNOWBALL SEIT (now sold) cutting their next dividend, there is some yield to be replaced.

Some of the lost yield has already been replaced but there is still work to do.

Whilst this year’s target yield will be met, next years may have to be held.

SDV will have to be sold after their next xd date and the funds invested into a higher yielder.

10k compounded at 7% over 20 years £38,700

10k compounded at 9% over 20 years £56,000

An extra 2% compounded for 20 years, equals another £17,300.

Looking at the table both BSIF and FGEN’s prices are up since the start of 2026, so it may be too late to board the train, although there still appears to be some momentum behind FGEN.

Whilst it’s too early to set a target for next year, it’s likely to be the 2030 target.

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Is $500,000 Enough to Retire at 67?

Here’s a look at what it takes to retire on half a million dollars at full retirement age.

By Dana George – Jun 20, 2026

Key Points

• It’s common to worry about running out of money in retirement.
• There is no one-size-fits-all retirement budget.
• Knowing what you want to do in retirement can help nail down how much money you’ll need.

The Northwestern Mutual 2026 Progress & Planning Study found that 40% of baby boomers fear they’ll run out of money during their lifetimes, and 50% of Gen X feel the same. The anxiety may be driven by the number of reports saying the Americans aren’t saving enough for retirement — a message that can be both frightening and frustrating.

The reality is, there is no one-size-fits-all amount that will allow you to retire. While your sibling or best friend may not be comfortable retiring with $500,000 saved, it could be just right for you. It may not be as easy as it would be with more, but it’s still possible to make it work.

Image source: Getty Images.

If you’re planning for retirement and aim to have $500,000 available, here are four questions to ask yourself.

1. How much do I expect to spend each year?

Naturally, a person who spends $100,000 annually in retirement will need more money than someone comfortable getting by on $50,000. Much of it comes down to how much debt you’re carrying into retirement. If you still have a mortgage, a car payment, and credit card bills, your budget is naturally going to be tighter. The same is true if you live in a high-cost-of-living area.

2. What other sources of income will I have?

Do you expect to receive regular payments from Social Security or a pension, annuity, rental property, or other source? Before determining how far $500,000 will get you, it’s vital to factor in all sources of income.

3. How much do I plan to withdraw from the $500,000 annually?

Let’s say the funds in your retirement account earn an average annual return of 7%. Your first year of retirement, you withdraw 4% ($1,666 per month), and you increase that amount by 2% annually. Due to compound interest, you’ll have over $653,000 left after 30 years.

Your Retirement Plan Might Be Costing You

But what happens if you withdraw 6% in the first year ($2,500 per month) and increase that amount by 2% each year? If your average annual rate of return on the account remains 7%, your money will last just shy of 25 years.

How long you want the money to last depends on several factors, including how many other sources of income you have, your expected longevity, and how much money you’ll need to spend to live your ideal retirement.

4. Is my portfolio diversified?

One tricky aspect of retirement planning is not knowing what the stock market will do at any given time. There are sure to be both bull and bear markets, good times and bad. Having a well-diversified portfolio is the best way to protect yourself against catastrophic losses. That’s because if one sector is hit hard, others can help keep your portfolio afloat.

Still, it’s a good idea to avoid making withdrawals from your retirement account when the market is circling the drain. The goal is to refrain from selling the assets in your portfolio when prices are at rock bottom. If you can live without those withdrawals or have another source of cash to draw from until the market recovers, the funds in your portfolio will last longer.

The answer to whether you can retire with $500,000 saved is yes. However, doing so will involve keeping a close eye on your budget, having a plan to cover emergencies, a way to pay bills when the market is turbulent without depleting your savings, and retirement plans that fit neatly within the amount you want to spend.

These Overlooked Monthly Income Machines Yield Up to 9.9% – And We Can Buy Them on Sale

Brett Owens, Chief Investment Strategist
Updated: May 1, 2026

Preferred stocks are a little-known dividend secret. Worth knowing, by the way—they can yield up to 9.9%!

These “forgotten cousins” of common stocks can make a dividend portfolio. Plus, the discounts! Today we can buy a basket with some ingredients fetching as little as 89 cents on the dollar.

A quick refresher on preferreds. When a company needs capital, it typically either sells common stock—the AAPL to our Apple, the JPM to our JPMorgan—or bonds. But there is a third option, and plenty of companies use it: preferred stock.

Like common stock, preferreds give you a sliver of ownership in a company, they can improve in price based on the company’s performance, and they pay dividends. Unlike common stock, preferreds typically don’t enjoy voting rights, the dividend is usually fixed, and it trades around a par value. In fact, these are all bond-like traits, which is why preferreds are often referred to as “hybrids.”

But what really makes preferreds stand out is just how big those dividends are. A company’s preferreds will routinely pay in the mid- to high single digits, which will typically be 2x to 3x what they’re paying on their common shares.

Just look at what a basic preferred exchange-traded fund (ETF) pays compared to the broader market.

Funds in general are a great way to own preferreds for numerous reasons, not the least of which is that they often pay us monthly. But plain-vanilla ETFs have their limitations. They gobble up preferreds with almost no regard to quality or value, which is why we can often do better with human managers at the helm.

We could get that actively managed coverage through mutual funds, but closed-end funds (CEFs) are the superior play. Here’s why:

• CEFs’ prices frequently disconnect with the value of their assets, sometimes allowing us to buy a fund for much less than it’s actually worth.
• CEFs can take on debt to plow additional assets into their highest-conviction picks, which can supercharge performance and the yields they pay.
• CEFs can use options strategies such as selling covered calls to generate even more income than the portfolio would produce on its own.

The result? Yields that blow ETFs and mutual funds out of the water—and translate into a massive yearly salary of $43,000 if we put a $500,000 nest egg into the trio of CEFs I’m about to highlight.

And unlike preferred ETFs, we can buy these 7.6%- to 9.9%- yielding closed-end funds for discounts of between 4% and 11%.

John Hancock Premium Dividend Fund (PDT)
Distribution Rate: 7.6%

A great example of the difference the CEF structure makes is the John Hancock Premium Dividend Fund (PDT). Its 7%-plus yield would make it one of the top payers in ETF land, but it’s actually one of the lowest-yielding preferred closed-end funds … because management is playing with a little bit of a handicap.

PDT is a hybrid fund, investing roughly 50% of its assets in preferreds, and the other 50% in plain old common dividend stocks.

The preferred sleeve of the portfolio can hold its own. Its top holdings include preferreds from the likes of Citizens Financial (CFG), Wells Fargo (WFC), and Citigroup (C) that mostly pay in the 6%-7.5% range. The common sleeve? Sure, it includes Verizon (VZ) and a couple of other formidable dividend payers, but most of these companies are throwing off sub-4% distributions.

How does PDT bridge the funding gap? By throwing a lot of extra capital at management’s picks—the fund’s debt leverage currently stands at a thick 34%.

Over the very long term, this willingness to bet big has made itself apparent in two ways:

1. Much more volatility than a basic portfolio of preferreds.
2. Returns that not only blow vanilla preferred ETFs out of the water, but are also mighty competitive with even 100% dividend-equity funds.

This Hybrid Portfolio Has a Lot of Horsepower

Despite its run of late, John Hancock Premium Dividend Fund is trading at a wide 11% discount to its net asset value (NAV), meaning we’re effectively buying its preferreds for 89 cents on the dollar. That’s not just cheap on its face—it’s a relative bargain for this monthly payer, too. PDT has, on average, traded almost in line with its NAV over the past five years.

Cohen & Steers Tax-Advantaged Preferred Securities and Income Fund (PTA)
Distribution Rate: 8.3%

Most of us have been trained to see “tax-advantaged” and think “municipal bonds.”

As much as I’d like to give Uncle Sam the slip on my preferred payouts, that’s not quite what the Cohen & Steers Tax-Advantaged Preferred Securities and Income Fund (PTA) has to offer. Instead, PTA aims to minimize federal income tax consequences on its dividends by owning preferred stocks that pay qualified dividends—which are taxed at the more favorable long-term capital gains rates—and by adopting more of a buy-and-hold mentality so as not to trigger short-term capital gains. (And when it does pick up short-term capital gains, it’s mindful about offsetting those gains with short-term losses.)

Management isn’t exactly breaking its back to do this. Most preferred stocks pay qualified dividends. And preferreds aren’t exactly day trading fodder, either.

This is a global portfolio of about 300 preferreds, split roughly 50/50 between the U.S. and the rest of the world, mostly developed Europe. Financials, like BNP Paribas (BNPQY) and Royal Bank of Canada (RY), are dominant at almost 75% of assets, which is par for the preferred course. Credit quality is fine if not a little low; about 55% of assets are allocated to investment-grade preferred stocks. Leverage is even higher than PDT, at 35%, helping juice the payout above 8%.

PTA has only been around since 2020 and didn’t exactly charge out of the gate. But a lot of that had to do with timing—many preferred funds took it on the chin through the rate hikes of 2022 and 2023.

Since Its 2023 Bottom, PTA Has More Than Doubled Up the Preferred Standard

Cohen & Steers’ fund is trading at a 7% discount that looks decent in a bubble. However, its five-year average discount is only a hair lower, so it’s technically less expensive than normal, but it’s not a screaming deal.

We can’t get too attached, though. Like with some other CEFs, PTA is a “term” fund that’s scheduled to liquidate on Oct. 27, 2032, though the fund’s board of trustees technically could vote to extend its life by up to two years.

Nuveen Variable Rate Pref & Inc Fund (NPFD)
Distribution Rate: 9.9%

The Nuveen Variable Rate Preferred & Income Fund (NPFD), which came to life in 2021, has a similar story. It started trading not long before the Fed’s tightening pounded preferreds, so it looked awful from the start—but it has been in a relative sprint ever since bottoming out in 2023.

Preferred stocks usually pay a fixed dividend, but as this Nuveen fund’s name implies, NPFD is interested in variable-rate preferreds. Sort of.

Most of NPFD’s assets (about 85% right now) are invested in “fixed-to-fixed rate securities,” which step from one rate to another based on a set schedule, not underlying interest rates. Another 9% is dedicated to fixed-to-floating rate securities, which start with a fixed coupon that it pays for a few years before switching to a variable-rate coupon. It even holds a few fixed-rate securities. In all, only about 5% of assets are invested in truly variable-rate preferreds.

The rest of the portfolio details are pretty standard. This is another global preferred fund, at a roughly 60/40 U.S./international blend. About 75% of assets are in investment-grade preferred, so credit quality is good. And the 185-stock portfolio is amplified with 26% debt leverage.

Income investors would be hard-pressed to find a better preferred yield than what NPFD offers—at last check, it was the highest-yielding preferred fund on the market.

A discount to NAV of 4% is modest in the first place, but it’s actually more expensive than its long-term average discounts of almost 9%. So we’re not getting a screaming bargain here—but nearly 10% a month, paid monthly, papers over a lot of sins.

3 Quant Growth And Income Stocks

Jun 17, 2026, 9:00 AM ETRLJ, EPR, XOM, XOM:CA

Steven Cress, Quant Team

SA Quant Strategies

Summary

• While a pending U.S.-Iran peace deal may temporarily cool headline commodity volatility, a stellar quarter of surprise jobs growth and an entrenched 3% Core CPI indicate that structural inflation will remain sticky.
• Thriving in a high-employment, sticky-inflation environment requires a strategic pivot toward stocks that leverage immediate daily pricing power, experiential consumer demand, and deep operational cost insulation.
• Discover three Quant Growth & Income stocks, supported by strong Quant Ratings, that offer inflation insurance in an increasingly unpredictable market.
• I am Steven Cress, Head of Quantitative Strategies at Seeking Alpha. I manage the quant ratings and factor grades on stocks and ETFs in Seeking Alpha Premium. I also lead Quant Growth and Income, which is a model portfolio for dividend investors interested in capital appreciation and income.

Sticky Inflation

President Donald Trump has announced a tentative peace deal between the U.S. and Iran that would cease military actions and reopen the Strait of Hormuz. The agreement is set to be signed this Friday in Geneva during the current G-7 Summit.

The market’s immediate response was a textbook relief rally. As markets opened on Monday, indexes surged higher, crude oil prices fell, and the overall angst of the market seemed to cool.

While the pending peace deal would eliminate a massive geopolitical wildcard for markets to navigate, assuming that it’s also an overnight fix for inflation would likely be a miscalculation.

Energy inflation driven by the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz certainly shocked the financial system, but today’s sticky inflationary environment isn’t a one-trick pony. A stellar quarter of surprise jobs growth has suddenly revived a labor market that had been stagnant for the better part of a year. And regardless of energy-driven inflation, Core CPI has remained range-bound to the 3% mark and has shown few signs of deviation.

The Labor Market is Strengthening

May’s jobs report reinforced the complex macro backdrop, supporting the case for higher-for-longer rates while underscoring the economy’s resilience. The labor market has recorded its strongest quarterly growth trend since mid-2024, with payroll growth continuing to exceed expectations. Goldman Sachs Global Investment Research forecasts a stabilization of the unemployment rate through the end of the year.

Core CPI Remains at 3%

Inflation data released last week provided further support for the higher-for-longer narrative. Headline CPI accelerated to 4.2% YoY, while Core CPI (ex. Food and Energy) increased to 2.8%. While headline inflation could see a pullback if oil prices continue to drift closer to pre-war levels, the underlying pricing pressures that have kept Core CPI close to 3% are showing no signs of a slowdown.

Although inflation remains well below the peaks reached in 2022, the recent uptrend illustrates that the disinflationary process has become increasingly uneven and arguably unreliable. Combined with resilient labor market conditions and continued capital spending tied to reshoring initiatives and AI-related investment, the latest data reinforces the view that economic activity remains sufficiently firm to keep inflation pressures elevated.

With Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh leading his first FOMC meeting this week, all eyes will be on the committee’s Summary of Economic Projections (‘SEP’) for any signs of when a potential rate hike will occur.

Robert Kaplan, Goldman Sachs vice chairman and former president of the Dallas Fed, believes that the potential end to the Iran War would likely buy Warsh and the Fed more time before deciding on any rate movements. For the Federal Reserve, the combination of solid employment growth and persistent inflation could result in interest rates remaining restrictive for the long term.

Top Quant Growth and Income Stocks

This backdrop continues to favor safe-haven businesses with durable cash flows, strong pricing power, and resilient demand characteristics, qualities that are captured by Seeking Alpha’s Quant Growth & Income Portfolio. To give you an idea of what the QG&I strategy looks like in action, we’ve selected three featured holdings from the portfolio that exhibit characteristics needed to inflation-proof your portfolio. These selections serve as an example of how our quantitative framework can cut through the volatility of headlines and personal emotional bias to systematically target growth and income stocks that neutralize uncertain macro conditions.

RLJ Lodging Trust (RLJ)

• Market Capitalization: $1.67B
• Quant Rating: Buy
• Sector: Real Estate
• Industry: Hotel & Resort REITs
• Dividend Yield (“FWD”): 5.42%

RLJ Lodging Trust is a hotel REIT that owns a portfolio of 92 premium-branded properties concentrated in urban, convention, and high-demand leisure markets across the United States. RLJ holds a unique advantage in a sticky inflationary environment due to its pricing agility. While a sustained higher-for-longer rate environment can eat away at traditional commercial REITs through long-term lease obligations, RLJ’s business model maintains a safety buffer through its 24-hour pricing loop. Because hotel room bookings are re-priced daily through real-time price monitoring, RLJ’s price agility can absorb prolonged periods of high interest rates.

RLJ’s attractive combination of dividend income and improving cash flows was evident in its strong first quarter results. The company was able to improve operating momentum through pricing power and demand normalization across its portfolio. RevPAR increased 4.8% year-over-year, while non-room revenues grew 8.2%, significantly outpacing room revenue growth.

Management raised its full-year adjusted FFO guidance to a range of $1.29 to $1.45 per share as the company’s portfolio remains strategically positioned in major urban and business-centric markets that stand to benefit from continued normalization in corporate travel, convention activity, and group bookings.

RLJ Lodging Trust is currently rated as a Buy according to Seeking Alpha’s Quant System, backed by strong Factor Grades.

Our Quant System currently highlights RLJ’s rapid Momentum Grade increases over the last six months. Specifically, RLJ scores a rare A+ Momentum Grade, with straight ‘A’s across the board in price performance over the past year.

A key component of the bull thesis is RLJ’s strengthened balance sheet. During the first quarter, management refinanced all debt maturities through 2028, extending its maturity profile and reducing refinancing risk. The company ended the quarter with more than $950 million of liquidity, including approximately $353 million in cash and a fully available revolving credit facility.

RLJ’s forward P/AFFO (“FWD”) of 8.43 vs. the sector median of 16.37 is more than a 48% discount.

The company has maintained an exceptional dividend profile, with a current 5.42% FWD dividend yield, providing investors with a reliable income highlighted by its consecutively paid dividend for 14 years. Management’s willingness to aggressively repurchase shares suggests confidence that the stock remains undervalued relative to its underlying real estate portfolio and future cash flow potential. This is also supported by its AFFO Payout Ratio of 45.71%, representing a 38% discount to the sector.

EPR Properties (EPR)

• Market Capitalization: $4.46B
• Quant Rating: Strong Buy
• Sector: Real Estate
• Industry: Other Specialized REITs
• Dividend Yield (“FWD”): 6.37%

EPR Properties is a premier player in experiential real estate, out-of-home leisure, and entertainment venues. EPR’s portfolio spans across high-traffic destinations such as golf complexes, ski and winter resorts, theme parks, and theaters. Consumers have grown wary of goods inflation and have increasingly migrated to spending on services and experiences. EPR is positioned well to capitalize on this consumer trend even in a sticky inflation environment.

EPR is experiencing a strong tailwind driven by its $7.1 billion gross investment across 335 properties, which currently holds a 99% occupancy rate. This foundation is supported by an expanding market and a strategic 94% portfolio concentration in experiential properties.

EPR Properties is currently rated as a Strong Buy according to Seeking Alpha’s Quant System, backed by an exceptional suite of underlying Factor Grades.

Our Quant System currently highlights EPR’s rapid Growth Grade increase—currently an ‘A-‘, when only six months ago it was rated a ‘C.’ Investors should consider capturing this momentum heading into the summer. As shown below, EPR scores strongly on its AFFO Growth (5Y CAGR and FWD) scores, with its AFFO Growth (“FWD”) nearly doubling the sector median figure at 5.46%.

In a traditional commercial real estate setup, high interest rates have the potential to erode cash flow as maintenance management costs rise. However, EPR’s triple net lease structure (“NNN”) protects them from rising inflationary pressures on margins.

Under long-term agreements, tenants are legally obligated to pay for 100% of the property-level costs that are subject to rising input costs. This includes taxes, insurance, and utility costs. This structure has provided an exceptionally strong buffer for AFFO growth.

Additionally, EPR includes annual rent escalators, which are usually tied to the Consumer Price Index (“CPI”). This helps to insulate the company’s cash flow from internal cost pressures. And ultimately, providing the basis for a phenomenal dividend profile.

EPR’s balance sheet strength passes through to its incredible ‘A’ Dividend Yield Grade. The income profile is headlined by its 6.37% dividend yield (“FWD”), outperforming the sector median by 42%. More importantly, its 9.73% AFFO yield (“FWD”) is nearly 52% higher than the sector median and provides a profitable yield gap of 3.36%, anchoring the company for strong growth ahead while protecting its payout.

Exxon Mobil Corporation (XOM)

• Market Capitalization: $584.04B
• Quant Rating: Strong Buy
• Sector: Energy
• Industry: Integrated Oil & Gas
• Dividend Yield (“FWD”): 2.92%

Founded in 1870 and headquartered in Spring, Texas, Exxon Mobil is one of the world’s largest integrated oil and gas companies that engages in the exploration and production of crude oil and natural gas internationally, operating through four segments: Upstream, Energy Products, Chemical Products, and Specialty Products.

On the surface, you may question the inclusion of an oil giant amidst the notion of falling oil prices. While high oil costs can benefit energy companies like Exxon Mobil in the near term, eventually the rising costs of operation and exploration catch up. A more balanced energy environment is actually where Exxon is built to thrive and where its competitive advantages really stand out.

Selling products under the Exxon, Esso, and Mobil brands with a total refining capacity of 4.1 million barrels of oil per day, Exxon Mobil holds a strong internal hedge against oil volatility. When oil prices normalize, input costs for its downstream units drop significantly. This reduces expenses and unlocks expanded profit margins within these segments, offsetting the reduction in revenue from upstream pricing.

Meanwhile, Exxon Mobil’s upstream unit is targeting $25 billion in earnings growth by 2030 through a combination of growth and cost reductions. Management has specifically pursued high-performing capital projects with a focus on the Permian Basin and Guyana regions, which are expected to be primary drivers of new production volumes over the next five years.

Exxon Mobil is currently rated as a Strong Buy according to Seeking Alpha’s Quant System, backed by impressive Profitability and Revisions Factor Grades.

XOM’s ‘A+’ Profitability Grade is supported by a fortress balance sheet and $47.72B cash from operations position, driving its 29.77% gross profit margin and 9.79% return on common equity.

FY1 earnings and revenue revisions saw near-unanimous upward movement in both, boosting its Revisions Factor Grade from a C to an A- over the past quarter. This underscores Wall Street’s confidence in XOM’s mature and highly integrated operations. Even with energy market volatility stemming from the Middle East, analysts believe the company possesses the operational expertise and capacity to navigate short-term challenges.

Exxon Mobil’s strong cash position and commitment to reducing debt levels have fortified its reliability with shareholder return, earning it an ‘A+’ Dividend Consistency Grade.

With 43 consecutive years of dividend growth and 43 consecutive years of dividend payments, a 2.92% forward dividend yield, and a “Strong Buy” Quant Rating, XOM demonstrates both income reliability and sector leadership.

Looking Ahead: Secure Growth and Income

There’s a lot of uncertainty in the months ahead. Sticky inflation continues to prove it’s not going to leave without a proverbial fight. Investor sentiment remains fragile amidst persistent inflation, soaring interest rates, volatile energy prices, a rebounding labor market, and upcoming midterm elections. Income investors are facing headwinds, and achieving benchmark-beating results in this higher-for-longer rate environment might require owning stocks with strong fundamentals that can survive a prolonged inflationary environment.

If the months ahead are defined by sticky inflation and potential rate hikes, it could be difficult for growth and value opportunities that lack income-generating payments. Ultimately, RLJ, EPR, and XOM highlight income opportunities that have a natural defense against today’s macro backdrop.

If you’re looking for a data-driven income strategy, explore our new Quant Growth & Income Portfolio – a systematic model built to outperform dividend ETFs by focusing on yield, growth, and safety. Seeking Alpha’s quant ratings and investment research tools help to ensure you are furnished with the best resources to make informed investment decisions while taking the emotion out of investing.

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• I am Steven Cress, Head of Quantitative Strategies at Seeking Alpha. I manage the quant ratings and factor grades on stocks and ETFs in Seeking Alpha Premium. I also lead Alpha Picks, which selects the two most attractive stocks to buy each month, and also determines when to sell them.

This article was written by

Steven Cress, Quant Team

Steven Cress is VP of Quantitative Strategy and Market Data at Seeking Alpha. Steve is also the creator of the platform’s quantitative stock rating system and many of the analytical tools on Seeking Alpha. His contributions form the cornerstone of the Seeking Alpha Quant Rating system, designed to interpret data for investors and offer insights on investment directions, thereby saving valuable time for users. He is also the Founder and Co-Manager of Alpha Picks, a systematic stock recommendation tool designed to help long-term investors create a best-in-class portfolio.Steve is passionate and dedicated to removing emotional biases from investment decisions. Utilizing a data-driven approach, he leverages sophisticated algorithms and technologies to simplify complex, laborious investment research, creating an easy-to-follow, daily updated grading system for stock trading recommendations.Steve was previously the Founder and CEO of CressCap Investment Research until its acquisition by Seeking Alpha in 2018 for its unparalleled quant analysis and market data capabilities. Prior to that, he had also founded the quant hedge fund Cress Capital Management, after spending most of his career running a proprietary trading desk at Morgan Stanley and leading international business development at Northern Trust.With over 30 years of experience in equity research, quantitative strategies, and portfolio management, Steve is well-positioned to speak on a wide range of investment topics.

Analyst’s Disclosure: I/we have no stock, option or similar derivative position in any of the companies mentioned, and no plans to initiate any such positions within the next 72 hours. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it. I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.

Seeking Alpha’s Disclosure: Past performance is no guarantee of future results. No recommendation or advice is being given that any particular security, portfolio, transaction or investment strategy is suitable for any specific person. The author is not advising you personally concerning the nature, potential, value or suitability of any particular security or other matter. You alone are solely responsible for determining whether any investment, security or strategy, or any product or service, is appropriate or suitable for you based on your investment objectives and personal and financial situation. Steven Cress is the Head of Quantitative Strategy at Seeking Alpha. Any views or opinions expressed herein may not reflect those of Seeking Alpha as a whole. Seeking Alpha is not a licensed securities dealer, broker or US investment adviser or investment bank.

The following shares leave the Watch List

AEI > yield

RESI > agreed bid

SEIT > change in dividend policy to ???

The Best (and Easiest!) Way to Turn a $21,000 TFSA Into Consistent Cash Flow

Great-West Lifeco can turn a $21,000 TFSA into simple, tax-free dividend cash flow backed by a profitable insurance and retirement business. 

Dividendstock research

Posted by Amy Legate

Published June 18

GWO Key Points

• Great-West Lifeco earns money from insurance, workplace retirement plans, and wealth management across Canada, the U.S., and Europe.
• It’s growing earnings, and it recently raised its dividend, which helps your TFSA income keep rising over time.
• A $21,000 position can generate meaningful quarterly dividends you can reinvest tax-free to compound faster.

Cash flow doesn’t need to feel complicated. A $21,000 Tax-Free Savings Account (TFSA) can look modest at first. It won’t fund retirement by itself. It won’t replace a paycheque overnight. But inside a tax-free account, even a simple dividend strategy can start building useful income without adding stress. The key comes down to picking a business with durable earnings, a steady payout, and enough growth to keep that cash flow moving higher over time. 

GWO

That’s where Great-West Lifeco (TSX:GWO) looks interesting today. The company owns Canada Life and operates across insurance, retirement, wealth management, and asset management. It serves customers in Canada, the United States, and Europe. So instead of depending on one product or one region, GWO stock earns money from many financial needs people keep coming back to. That’s retirement savings, workplace plans, insurance coverage, annuities, and investment services. 

TSXstock trends

Canadians want income without chasing risky yields. A TFSA gives investors a huge advantage here. Dividends, gains, and withdrawals all stay tax-free. So when a stock pays reliable income and grows over time, investors can keep more of the return working for them.

Into earnings

The latest results help support the case. In the first quarter of 2026, GWO stock reported base earnings of $1.2 billion, up 20% from last year. Base earnings per share (EPS) climbed 23% to $1.37, and the company also reached a base return on equity of 19.1%, which shows strong profitability.

Tired of guessing which stocks to buy?

When our analyst team has a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, Stock Advisor Canada’s total average return is 91% – a market-crushing outperformance compared to 87% for the S&P/TSX Composite Index.

* Returns as of June 15th, 2026

The dividend makes the TFSA strategy simple. GWO stock currently pays a quarterly dividend of $0.67 per share. That works out to $2.68 per share annually. That would generate about $662 in annual dividend income at the time of writing.

That won’t change anyone’s life immediately. But it creates real cash flow. Investors could take the payments, reinvest them, or let them build up for future buys. Inside a TFSA, each dollar can work without a tax drag. Over many years, that matters.

Great-West also raised its dividend by 10% earlier this year after reporting record 2025 base earnings. That’s important as investors shouldn’t just look for today’s yield, but for payout growth. A dividend that rises can help protect purchasing power and make a TFSA more useful over time.

Looking ahead

The business has a few strong tailwinds. Aging populations need retirement and insurance products. Employers need workplace savings plans. Investors want wealth-management support. In the United States, Great-West’s Empower business gives it a large retirement platform with room to deepen customer relationships. In Canada, Canada Life gives it a familiar brand and broad reach. And in Europe, GWO stock adds another layer of earnings diversity. 

Beginnerstock guide

The appeal comes from ease. A TFSA investor doesn’t need to trade constantly or guess every market move. They can buy a profitable dividend payer, collect cash, and let time do more of the work. GWO stock fits that role well because it combines a solid yield, dividend growth, and a business tied to long-term financial needs.

Bottom line

So, what’s the best way to turn $21,000 into consistent TFSA cash flow? Keep it simple. Pick a strong dividend stock, reinvest when possible, and avoid overthinking every short-term dip.

GWO stock won’t deliver the most exciting story out there. But for Canadians who want steady income, tax-free compounding, and a stock they don’t need to babysit, it looks like a smart place to start.

This 8.7% Dividend Clobbers Stocks (and It’s Selling for 13.7% Off) by Michael Foster, Investment Strategist This Iran deal adds one more tailwind to our (already surging) 8%+ paying closed-end funds (CEFs). It’s just one more “boost,” on top of many others, that point to more upside ahead for these proven income plays. Why do I say that? Because if the agreement holds up (and that’s still uncertain at this point), oil will likely continue its retreat. That, in turn, sets the stage for lower inflation – and falling interest rates, too. And the lower rates go, the better CEFs tend to perform. That makes now, while rates remain elevated, the time to make our move. And the Neuberger Berman Next Generation Connectivity Fund (NBXG), a recent addition to the CEF Insider portfolio, is a solid option that’s clinging to an undeserved double-digit discount. The fund is a strong play on continued AI growth, as it holds top tech names like NVIDIA (NVDA) and Amazon.com (AMZN), as well as smaller, private IT firms. The dividend? A rich 8.7%. And even though tech has been driving the market for years now, NBXG trades at that discount to net asset value (NAV) I just mentioned: 14.4%, to be exact. So we can essentially pick this one up for less than 86 cents on the dollar. I’m bullish on NBXG because tech stocks are rate-sensitive, and as rates fall, the value of their future earnings rises. Moreover, as oil retreats, companies across the economy will have more cash freed up for capital expenses. And AI, with its promise of higher productivity, will likely be among their top investment priorities. That’s particularly true of the nation’s smaller businesses, which are already among AI’s fastest adopters. Those potential gains come on top of fundamentals – by that we mean growth in corporate sales and earnings – that are already surging across the economy, according to the latest data from FactSet: As of the end of the first quarter, S&P 500 earnings are growing 28.8% year-over-year. That figure omits seasonal variation, so it’s a reliable growth indicator. The sales backstopping those profits are also rising sharply: With 11.8% year-over-year revenue-growth across the S&P 500, we can see that sales are growing much faster than inflation, indicating that consumer spending is not only holding up, but growing. This data justifies more stock gains on its own. But we do have to take the market’s valuation into account, so let’s do that: “High” P/E Reflects the Market’s Earnings Growth  With a P/E ratio of 28.1, the index is far above its average of around 16.2. In fact, it’s nearly double. That sounds bearish on the surface, but let’s dig a bit deeper. First, today’s levels are far below the near-40 the index’s P/E ratio hit in 2021. And that ratio was hit because earnings weren’t growing enough to match the price gains in stocks. Today it’s the opposite, with earnings growth of 28.8% on a year-over-year basis outpacing the 26% price gains in stocks over the last year. Second, that long-term average of 16.2 includes data going back to the 1800s, when margins were smaller and growth was meager compared to today’s fast-paced economy. With earnings growing as fast as they are, prices need to grow to catch up – and then some, to pay sellers of stocks a premium due to the fact that stock earnings growth is accelerating at a historically high clip. Third, and more important, remember that operating margins are rising, which is key here. Note how in this chart, from Yardeni Research, profit margins (the red line) are heading almost straight up after recovering in 2024. This shows, in stark terms, the effect of AI making the economy more efficient and, by extension, sending profits on that double-digit ride we just talked about. Higher profit margins are worth more to investors, so when you measure the stock market on a price-to-earnings ratio, you should expect that ratio to naturally rise as people pay more for more profitable companies. An 8.7% Tech Dividend That Grows There are plenty of equity-focused CEFs in our CEF Insider portfolio that are nicely positioned to profit from a continued market run-up while delivering high yields: The average CEF tracked by CEF Insider now yields 8.7%, while having an average 6% discount to NAV. That discount was much higher at the start of the year, but bullish appetites are driving prices higher. That bullish trend looks set to continue, which brings me back to NBXG, whose 13.7% discount is a real standout. And, as we can see in orange below, that discount is nearing lows reached in March, when NBXG’s total return on the year (in purple) was much lower than it is now. NBXG Goes On Sale, Despite Its Gains  NBXG has also booked a 21% total return on the year, far above the market’s 9.1% return, so it should be getting more bids. Meantime, its underlying NAV has risen 22% on the year so far, much more than management would need to fund the next year of payouts on its own, at the current distribution rate. The fund’s strong performance in recent years prompted management to hike the already healthy payout last year, and more hikes are likely as economic growth continues and rates move lower:  Source: Income Calendar Put it all together and we’ve got a strong, reliable income stream we can collect while we wait for NBXG’s discount to close, propelling the fund’s price higher as it does. 4 Huge Dividends (10% on Average) Built for the Critical “Pivot Point” Ahead NBXG is a great play on the productivity surge AI is unleashing. And we’re going to go one step further, balancing the fund’s tech holdings with shares of companies from across the economy using AI to supercharge their profits. I’m talking insurance firms, banks and pharmaceutical makers. Thanks to AI, they’re slashing costs, making better decisions and, in the case of pharma stocks, bringing new treatments to market faster than ever before.