10 Income Investments Serving Up Superior Yields

Respectable yields are scarce nowadays. But these 10 income investments, spanning several types of special classes, offer up to 10.3% annually.

concept art of income investments
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If you're looking for income investments in 2021, best of luck. While bond yields are bouncing back, the 10-year still yields a paltry 1.6%, and the S&P 500 yields even less.

If you need a far greater yield than that from the income portion of your investment portfolio, you might consider investing in pass-through securities. These are defined as securities that pass through a majority of their capital gains and investment income.

Four major types of pass-through securities include closed-end funds (CEFs), real estate investment trusts (REITs), business development companies (BDCs), and master limited partnerships (MLPs).

Let's take CEFs, for example. According to BlackRock, the average yield for CEFs in the fourth quarter of 2020 was 7.8% and 11.5% based on net asset value (NAV) and market price, respectively. That's not just better than the S&P 500 and 10-year T-notes – that's better than almost anything else you can find on the market. The same is generally true for the other pass-through security types.

If you're willing to look beyond Wall Street's best-traveled areas of yield, read on as we discuss 10 income investments that stand out among the most interesting opportunities.

Disclaimer

Data is as of March 15. Dividend yields are calculated by annualizing the most recent payout and dividing by the share price.

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Will Ashworth
Contributing Writer, Kiplinger.com

Will has written professionally for investment and finance publications in both the U.S. and Canada since 2004. A native of Toronto, Canada, his sole objective is to help people become better and more informed investors. Fascinated by how companies make money, he's a keen student of business history. Married and now living in Halifax, Nova Scotia, he's also got an interest in equity and debt crowdfunding.