Bruce Miller's "Retirement Investing for Income ONLY"

[jennypenny]

Has anyone read his book? He posted the first in a series of articles on Seeking Alpha. He hasn't written any other SA articles, but I've followed his comments on SA and he's pretty shrewd.

[Chad]

I read the article you linked too, but I'm not sure what new ideas this guy is bringing to the table. Everything he said sounds fine. Though, I don't see what's new about it. What am I missing?

[jennypenny]

I'm not sure he's bringing any new ideas to the table, but I've always found his comments and approach to be reasonable and methodical, which makes me interested in reading his book. (and I'm not a dividend investor by any stretch) A cursory glance at his comments will give you a sense of how he analyzes dividends. Maybe it's just his writing style that I like?

I should probably buy the book. A couple of his tips earned me big bucks last summer, so I owe him at least $4.49.

[GandK]

@jennypenny, I'll be interested to know what you think of it. Be sure and post back when you're done.

[jennypenny]

I finally had a chance to read Miller's book. I liked it. I started reading his comments on Seeking Alpha when I first invested in mREITs. He hates them LOL, but his arguments against them were reasonable and detailed. The book is the same.

To Chad's point, I don't think he's bringing any new ideas to the table, but it's a thorough, detailed explanation of income investing. He starts with basic stuff (there's a chapter explaining what a dividend is). It progresses through the different asset classes*, including how to analyze them, and how they are treated by the tax code. The chapter on taxes is great for someone who's unfamiliar with the tax code beyond LT and ST gains. Miller gives enough detail in each of the chapters so that a person interested in this type of investing wouldn't need to seek out more information on how to do it.

The book is geared to novices. I think it's a good reference book for people branching out beyond 401Ks or mutual funds. It needs an editor, but that doesn't detract from the information he presents. I'm not sure if seasoned investors would learn much from the book (GTOO could have written it). OTOH, I'm glad I bought it. I thought it did a good job of tying together all of the aspects a person needs to consider for ERE purposes like investments, inflation, taxes, income, liquidity, etc. For me, it was worth the $4.49, but maybe I'm just being generous because I like him.

*This part is really thorough. He includes BDCs, REITs, MLPs, and Royalty Trusts, as well as stocks.

[Dragline]

I read it as well. It is very dense with information. I agree it makes a good reference book for a lot of things that most people don't really know much about. And that it needs some editing.

[Chad]

Dense? How much of an easy read is this? I'm looking for something for my dad to read, as I move him towards income producing investments for retirement. I would like to not have to explain every little thing to him as we move forward. A basic primer on income investing would be nice.

[Dragline]

I think it would be a little overwhelming for a novice investor, because it discusses almost every type of income producing stock or bond and provides ways of analyzing them to pick the right ones, etc. I think its only going to appeal to people who enjoy a hands-on approach and want to feel like they have explored everything. But if he's interested in being extremely well-informed about all the possibilities, he might like it.

[Chad]

Thanks. I appreciate the response.

[jennypenny]

Miller posted his second article on Seeking Alpha

http://seekingalpha.com/article/2658545 ... on-part-ii

[jennypenny]

Another article in the series if anyone is interested.

http://seekingalpha.com/article/2685055 ... come-funds

[jennypenny]

Another article ... http://seekingalpha.com/article/2708375 ... lty-trusts

[jennypenny]

And another one ... http://seekingalpha.com/article/2830276 ... ep-process

His book is in KU, if anyone got the KU special for Christmas and wants to borrow it.

[jennypenny]

next one ... http://seekingalpha.com/article/2908236 ... ss-part-ii

[jennypenny]

Interesting realted article by Miller ... The Challenge Of Managing An Income Portfolio In A Traditional IRA


I think I forgot to link to the article on Part 3 of his 7-Step Income Stock Selection Process.

[jennypenny]

The 3 Paradoxes of Income Investing

[jennypenny]

Defining, Measuring And Diversifying Income Risk

I thought the article might appeal to some here because Miller discusses ways to distinguish income risk from investment risk.

[Chad]

His stuff is very logical. It's very similar to what I have been doing with my father's portfolio. I'm looking for dividend stocks in the 2-4% range with very very low risk to the dividend. The indicators he uses are nice. It's also nice that we have a recent big black swan in the Great Recession to test the dividend payments of these companies.

[jennypenny]

The latest article is on taxes http://seekingalpha.com/article/3689116 ... -household

[jennypenny]

Miller was the guest on a two-part podcast with DGI. There might not be much new for some of you dividend gurus, but I like his approach. I've been following his articles closely on Seeking Alpha to figure out an income-based plan for retirement.

Part 1
Part 2

It's under "dividend health check up" in iTunes.