| Dear Reader, Hello! I’m Robert Ross and I’m the editor of The Weekly Profit, my free newsletter here at Mauldin Economics. As Ed D’Agostino mentioned in yesterday’s email, my job involves uncovering the best ways to secure the highest, safest forms of income available today. I don't fall back on any excuses about the current state of the markets. Regardless of what’s going on out there, I take advantage of market conditions to find the most profitable income opportunities for my readers. It’s awfully tempting to ‘go with the crowd’ and complain that since 2008, the Fed’s robbed us of the opportunity to earn a handsome yield on our capital. (You could buy 5-year CDs and 10-year Treasuries and get 4–5% a year back in the good old days.) Unfortunately, those easy yields are history for the foreseeable future. And Social Security isn’t a great solution either. Not only does it deliver paltry income, Newsweek has reported that the “program is running out of money” and might not even be around when you need it most. So what’s left? Well, dividend stocks are a good place to start. But you can’t just jump in, buy a basket of “big name” dividend stocks, and call it a day. In fact, that’s one of the things I warn you against in The Weekly Profit: Dividend stocks can be pretty dangerous if you’re not watching valuations. And Research Affiliates tells us dividend stocks have never been more expensive in 32 of the last 40 years. News flash: Buying stocks at the top 20% of their valuation in the last four decades is not a winning move. Perhaps you’ve heard the old Wall Street saying, “Don’t tell me what to buy, tell me WHEN to buy.” That’s never been more true than today. After all, you really don’t want to be holding overvalued stock that’s highly vulnerable to steep declines …just as you’re planning your well-deserved retirement. That’s why you’ve got to avoid expensive dividend stocks. I wrote a short article on exactly this topic for you, which you can read by clicking here. It includes a rather scary experience I had when I was in the Ipanema neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. And an even scarier one for investors in Kraft Heinz and GE! Check it out—I’m sure you’ll be glad you did. To market-beating income generation, Robert Ross
Senior Equity Analyst
P.S. Another secret to securing high yields at lower risk lies in the fact that the financial markets are MOSTLY but not entirely efficient. When you can identify temporary inefficiencies, then you can gain a valuation edge and beat the market. Remember, high yields and high levels of safety are at the core of what I write about every Wednesday in The Weekly Profit. | 