I've been obsessed with dividend-paying stocks since the sixth grade. I'm not sure exactly what inspired me -- it could have been the movie “Wall Street” or the popular T.V. show character Alex P. Keaton (played by Michael J. Fox) -- but one day I came home from school and said I wanted to buy five shares of IBM with my savings.
In 1999, I began working for Jono Steinberg’s Individual Investor Group, where I wrote a regular investment column.
Later, I spent five years at Standard & Poor’s editing the company’s flagship investment newsletter, The Outlook. During that time, I also penned my first finance book, The Standard & Poor’s Guide for the New Investor. It was published by McGraw-Hill in 2003, and translated into Chinese a year later.
These days, I tell investors about my favorite dividend-paying stocks in my monthly newsletter, Dividend Superstars. I also edit Weiss Research's daily e-zine, Money & Markets.
Posted by: Jimmy on Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Hello Nilus, I was thinking about subscribing to your Dividend Superstars, but I am not exactly sure I know what I would be buying. In particular, do you only cover dividend paying stocks (US & Intl), or do you also cover MLPs, Closed End Funds, Business Development Corporations, Canadian Royalty and/or Income Trusts, REITS, high yield ETFs, Income Deposit Securities/Enhanced Income Securities, etc. Also, although you can not give tax advice, do you cover any of the basics of tax return considerations, I've heard that MLPs have complex tax issues. Thanks,
Posted by: Nilus on Friday, June 6, 2008
Hi, Jimmy. Yes, I try to cover the gamut of income-producing stocks -- in the portfolio right now, we currently have a REIT, a BDC, two MLPs, many U.S. and international dividend stocks, etc. I also do articles on bonds, funds, and ETFs from time to time. Some of the categories you mention haven't received much play in the newsletter yet, but that doesn't mean I won't handle them in future issues. Regarding MLPs, you're right. There are definitely some tax issues, and a lot depends on the individual's particular situation. But I devoted an entire issue to this category of investments, and gave some general guidelines for how taxation of MLP distributions works. If you subscribe (and I hope you do!) you'll have access to that issue. Thanks for your interest, Nilus