I don’t often follow pure income vehicles, but this is as good an opportunity as I’ve come across. In fact, it’s “safe” enough for an 89-year-old mom. And it’s IRA-friendly — you can hold it in a retirement account. I think it will prove a great way to put some capital to work in our current ultra-low interest rate environment. VOC Energy Trust (NYSE: VOC) went public in May 2011 at $21 per share. Read More

I don’t often follow pure income vehicles, but this is as good an opportunity as I’ve come across. In fact, it’s “safe” enough for an 89-year-old mom. And it’s IRA-friendly — you can hold it in a retirement account. I think it will prove a great way to put some capital to work in our current ultra-low interest rate environment. VOC Energy Trust (NYSE: VOC) went public in May 2011 at $21 per share. It has an interest in 881 producing wells in Texas and Kansas. VOC pays the costs of operating and drilling wells. VOC Partners, the sponsoring company, gets 20% of the net income from the wells. The remaining 80% goes to the trust, which pays it out to shareholders. (Come tax time, shareholders receive a 1099 — not a K-1, thankfully. This makes VOC a good holding for a retirement account.) For a while, things went swimmingly and VOC paid handsome distributions. Then in October 2012, VOC announced it had drilled a bad well. The… Read More

You hear about it often. A company buys back its own stock. The right way to do this — good for long-term holders of shares — is called a tontine. We’ll look at six tontines down below. But first, what is it? It may sound like a French pastry, but the tontine is a legal and (non-fattening) tactic for amassing riches. We have Lorenzo de Tonti to thank for it.#-ad_banner-# The year is 1652. The place: France. King Louis XIV broods… Read More

You hear about it often. A company buys back its own stock. The right way to do this — good for long-term holders of shares — is called a tontine. We’ll look at six tontines down below. But first, what is it? It may sound like a French pastry, but the tontine is a legal and (non-fattening) tactic for amassing riches. We have Lorenzo de Tonti to thank for it.#-ad_banner-# The year is 1652. The place: France. King Louis XIV broods on his throne. The French treasury is bare. Meanwhile, there is an ongoing war with Spain, and he needs money. Enter Lorenzo de Tonti, a banker from Naples. Tonti has an idea. “Let us have citizens invest in shares of a government-run pool,” Tonti suggests. “We will pay regular dividends to them from the pool. But they cannot transfer or sell their shares. And when they die, they lose their shares. We cancel them.” Tonti continues: “We promise to pay the same amount regardless of how many… Read More

You hear about it often. A company buys back its own stock. The right way to do this — good for long-term holders of shares — is called a tontine. We’ll look at six tontines down below. But first, what is it? It may sound like a French pastry, but the tontine is a legal and (non-fattening) tactic for amassing riches. We have Lorenzo de Tonti to thank for it.#-ad_banner-# The year is 1652. The place: France. King Louis XIV broods… Read More

You hear about it often. A company buys back its own stock. The right way to do this — good for long-term holders of shares — is called a tontine. We’ll look at six tontines down below. But first, what is it? It may sound like a French pastry, but the tontine is a legal and (non-fattening) tactic for amassing riches. We have Lorenzo de Tonti to thank for it.#-ad_banner-# The year is 1652. The place: France. King Louis XIV broods on his throne. The French treasury is bare. Meanwhile, there is an ongoing war with Spain, and he needs money. Enter Lorenzo de Tonti, a banker from Naples. Tonti has an idea. “Let us have citizens invest in shares of a government-run pool,” Tonti suggests. “We will pay regular dividends to them from the pool. But they cannot transfer or sell their shares. And when they die, they lose their shares. We cancel them.” Tonti continues: “We promise to pay the same amount regardless of how many… Read More

As soon as I met Ryan O’Connor, I knew I wanted to get him on my team. He’s an investing junkie like me, and we clicked immediately. Turns out it’s all in his family… His grandfather was an old poker buddy of… Read More

Billionaires such as hedge fund manager John Paulson have found a neat way to slip the tax man. It’s also one you can take advantage of. Paulson, you may remember, made a fortune betting against subprime mortgages in 2007. Last… Read More