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While interest rates are on the rise, yield-seekers still don’t have many appealing options they can use to collect a steady income stream. The best CD rates in late 2018 were around 2.5% for a one-year term, while the 10-year Treasury was slightly more than 3%. With those low rates, income-seekers need to take on more risk for the reward of a higher yield. Most stocks also don’t hold much appeal, since the average yield of those in the S&P 500 is just 1.7%. However, high-yield dividend stocks do exist, as long as you know where to look. One sector known for paying rather generous dividends is the oil patch. What is a dividend? A dividend is a distribution of a portion of a company’s earnings to holders of its stock. Similar to rates on bonds and CDs, a stock’s dividend yield is the annual cash return an investor can expect to be paid on that investment. It fluctuates based on a stock’s price, since companies pay out dividends on a per-share basis. So when a stock rises, its yield falls, and vice versa. This payout often makes up a significant portion of a stock’s total return: On average, […]
