How to Get More Income from Your Investments

How You Can Profit from "Unclaimed" Dividends For years the privileged have been profiting from a little-known "unclaimed" dividends program. And recently, a handful of average investors have found a way to tap these "unclaimed" dividends and get actual checks deposited into their bank accounts every month. If you want to know how to claim these payouts, check out Jeff Opdyke's latest special report here. How to Get More Income from Your Investments By Jeff D. Opdyke, Editor, The Sovereign Individual Dear Sovereign Investor, Every tax season I spend part of an afternoon collecting all the brokerage accounts statements that land in my mailbox and inbox during the year from all over the world. I tally up any capital gains and losses, interest earned and dividends received so my accountant can prepare my tax returns. This year, I actually took notice of my dividend payments. I've always liked getting paid overseas. The cash quietly collects in my accounts and then one day I'll notice it and use the money to buy more stocks. What caught my eye this year was the size of my payments. They seemed … large. Advertisement Could You Use an Extra $472 to $945 a Month? If so, this opportunity may be of good use to you. How much you collect depends on your personal situation, really. But to give you an idea. According to Dr. James W. Wansley, of the Journal of Financial Research, one example of these "unclaimed" dividends paid participants an average yield of 21% for 180 years. And while this particular income stream is closed to new investors, we have uncovered 4 new "unclaimed" dividend pools worth as much as $2.9 billion that are now available to the general public. I went back and looked at where I originally bought the stocks, did a little math, and discovered that with several of my global holdings, I'm earning dividend yields today of 10% or more. And this is on solid companies that, as I found out with a bit of research, have been raising their dividends regularly during the many years I've held the shares. And that brings me to our topic today: A key component of any portfolio strategy must be dividend yield. Throughout time, dividends have accounted for as much as 40% of a portfolio's total return. And in my view, the best yield to seek comes from overseas, where companies – even the small ones – are more-inclined to pay you a larger dividend and where you capture the benefit of stronger currencies. Dividend Payouts by Many U.S. Companies Have Been Slashed The dollar is being destroyed and it's no secret that U.S. interest rates will remain at near-0% at least until the end of 2014 – probably much longer – and yields on traditional income investments, such as government bonds and certificates of deposit, have nothing to drive them even marginally higher. At the same time, in the wake of a decade of two savage bear markets, dividend payouts by many U.S. companies have been slashed, suspended or eliminated altogether in recent years – to the point where U.S. yields are now among the lowest in the world, and a far cry from their historical average of 4.3%. The average yield on the S&P 500 is now just under 2%, thanks largely to the practice among many U.S. companies of plowing cash previously destined for shareholder payouts back into the balance sheet in the belief that company growth is ultimately more beneficial than dividends to shareholders. However, there is strong evidence that shows higher-yielding stocks not only provide enhanced income for shareholders, but are less risky. Numerous studies have also shown that stock portfolios tilted towards higher-yielding companies have paid off handsomely. These days, I know this is especially the case with yields on many investments in companies in Asia, Europe, even Africa, where the culture of high dividend payments has remained intact. Sure, if you dig around, you can find a few U.S. companies like PepsiCo, General Electric and Merck that fork out yields of more than 3% and offer the possibility of share price gains, but these are rarities. Savvy sovereign investors know that the key to a better return is to think globally. Internationally, you can easily find yields of 4%, 5%, 9% – often higher. As I write this, I am looking at a list of small, dividend-paying stocks in Australia. I see yields that range between 5% and 13% in industries across a wide spectrum. According to data from Thomson Reuters, the average payout from the Chinese equity market – available through easily traded Hong Kong shares – has jumped from 0.79% to 3.15%. Dividend yields are also rising in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines. The average yield in Singapore – Asia's best performing market in terms of dividend payout – has jumped to more than 4.5%, compared with 3.9% half a decade ago. Many individual companies are yielding substantially more. Better still, many overseas dividends are in currencies much stronger than the U.S. dollar and over time they will rise significantly against the greenback. Yield is Rooted Deep in Europe But the top-yielding region in the world remains Europe, in spite of the Continent's chronic financial crisis. Dividend payment is rooted deep in Europe's investment culture. Germany's Siemens, for example, which makes everything from household appliances to ultrasound devices used in hospitals around the world, yields 4.3%, while U.S. competitor General Electric yields 3.4%. Meanwhile, in the pharmaceutical sector, the U.K.'s GlaxoSmithKline yields 5.5%, while New Jersey-based Merck pays out a 4.3% dividend yield. Even U.K. supermarket behemoth Tesco, whose shares have lost nearly 20% of their value over the past year, yields 5.1% - which, to me, indicates that in spite of its share price tumble its long-term prospects remain strong. I believe that every investor needs a counterweight to the tough times ahead, a source of income when nothing else is working. And my search for yield outside the U.S. is all part of a dual strategy. While dividends have already emerged as one of the most crucial forms of income this year, it has never been more important to shift a chunk of your wealth outside the greenback and to seek dividend payments overseas. Until next time, stay Sovereign… Jeff Opdyke P.S. I continually search for interesting investment opportunities that you can profit from. And I've uncovered a little-known "unclaimed" dividends program that the privileged have been profiting from for years. And recently, a handful of average investors have found a way to tap these "unclaimed" dividends and get actual checks deposited into their bank accounts every month. If you want to know how to claim these payouts, check out my latest special report here. Related Reading: Opening a Foreign Brokerage Account Quickly and Safely Forget Offshore Banks – I've Found a Better Solution Taking Advantage of High Yield From Latin America's Strongest Banks Profit from Unclaimed Dividends RECENT ARTICLES 5/15/2012 How to Profit from the Changing Chinese Diet As Chinese Wealth Grows, the Price of Grain Rockets. 5/14/2012 Are You Among the 23% Entitled to a Second Passport? There is little doubt that government bureaucrats and tax collectors see dual nationality as a threat to their control over the citizens they profess to serve. 5/11/2012 What My "Air-Route Indicator" Says About the Next Big Investment as a global investor, the knowledge often points me toward investment opportunities – particularly when new routes connect unexpected cities. 5/10/2012 Emerging Market Demands Mean Volatile Food Prices Are Here to Stay So don't be surprised if bread (and other foods) becomes as volatile as gas prices in the future. 5/09/2012 Profiting from Asia's Growing Thirst Increasingly, though, Asian consumers and workers on the go are ducking into convenience stores and grabbing bottled iced tea. STATE OF OUR WORLD National Debt Clock: $15,726,983,274,288 BECOME A MEMBER For more valuable information from The Sovereign Society on how to protect and grow your wealth, become a member today. JOIN NOW SPECIAL REPORTS Jeff Opdyke 2012: The Year of Yield Andy Hecht Metals More Precious and Profitable than Gold Bob Bauman How to Escape America, and Where to Go STAY INFORMED Whitelist Us Follow Us on Twitter Like Us on Facebook   Privacy Policy The Sovereign Investor 98 S.E. 6th Ave ,Suite 2 Delray , Beach FL 33483 The mailbox associated with this email address is not monitored , so please do not reply. Your feedback is very important to us so if you would like to contact us with a question or comment , please click here: http://sovereign-investor.com/contact-us/ Legal Notice: This work is based on what we've learned as financial journalists. It may contain errors and you should not base investment decisions solely on what you read here. It's your money and your responsibility. Nothing herein should be considered personalized investment advice. 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