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Dividend Dispatch — Today's Theme
Today's Theme
The best income ideas don't show up on your stock screener
Some of the most interesting dividend income in America comes from things growing underground. Not in a Bloomberg terminal.

I was going through my list of unusual income ideas last night — the ones that don't fit neatly into any category — and I kept landing on two assets: trees and mineral rights. Today I've got a company that owns 11 million acres of American forest. And another that collects royalties every time a drill bit touches the Permian Basin — without operating a single well. Then in the second half, ARCC at 10.6% and PDI at 16.1% — with a warning label. Let's go.

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Dividend Dispatch — Section 1a
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The Weird Yield
Income from places you'd never expect
WYWeyerhaeuser owns 11 million acres of forest — and the trees do the work
Weyerhaeuser is a timber REIT — a real estate investment trust (a company that owns property and passes the rental income to shareholders) that owns actual forests. And when I say forests, I mean 11 million acres in the U.S. and an additional 14 million acres in Canada. They've been doing this since 1900. That's 126 years of growing and harvesting trees.

Here's what I love about timber as an asset: the trees keep growing whether the stock market is up or down. If lumber prices drop, Weyerhaeuser can just… wait. Let the trees get bigger. The inventory literally appreciates on its own through photosynthesis. Try getting that from a tech stock.

The yield at 3.5% won't make anyone's heart race. But $0.84 a year in dividends from a company sitting on nearly 25 million acres of timberland? Your $10,000 turns into $350 a year — about $87 every quarter — backed by something you can walk through.

The risk: lumber prices are tied to housing starts. If home construction slows — and elevated rates could do that — Weyerhaeuser's earnings take a hit. The dividend was cut during the 2008 housing crisis. This isn't a set-it-and-forget-it name. It's a bet on American housing with a natural hedge built in.
Yield: 3.5% $10K invested = $350/yr Paid: Quarterly

Did You Forget To Grab This?

Dividend Dispatch — Section 1b
VNOMViper Energy collects royalties from the Permian — without drilling a single well
OK so this is one of my favorite things to explain because people's reaction is always the same: wait, you can get paid for that?

Viper Energy owns mineral rights. Specifically, they own approximately 85,700 net royalty acres in the Permian Basin — the most prolific oil-producing region in America. But here's the key: Viper doesn't drill. Doesn't operate wells. Doesn't buy rigs. They own the rights to the minerals underground, and every time an operator like Diamondback Energy puts a drill bit into Viper's acreage, Viper gets a check.

Think of it like owning the land beneath a toll road. You didn't build the road. You don't maintain it. But every car that drives through pays you.

The dividend is variable — it moves with oil prices because Viper's royalty income moves with oil prices. Last year they paid about $2.33 per share. At today's price near $42, that's roughly 5.5%. Your $10,000 turns into about $550 a year.

And unlike a royalty trust — which holds a fixed pool of assets that slowly depletes — Viper is an actual company. They can acquire more acreage. They've been doing exactly that, consolidating mineral interests across the Permian.

The risk is straightforward: if oil drops to $50 a barrel, these royalty payments shrink fast. The dividend is not fixed. It fluctuates quarter to quarter. This is not a fixed-income replacement — it's an oil bet wrapped in a royalty structure.
Yield: ~5.5% $10K invested = ~$550/yr Paid: Quarterly (variable)

The S-1 Is Public. One Stock Changes Everything.

Dividend Dispatch — Main Rest
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The High Yield
Today's best dividend income ideas — 8%+ yields only
ARCCAres Capital earned $0.55 last quarter — and only paid out $0.48
Ares Capital is the largest publicly traded BDC in America. A BDC — that stands for business development company — is basically a private lender. Here's how it works: ARCC lends money to mid-sized private companies (too big for a local bank, too small for Wall Street), collects the interest, and is required by law to distribute at least 90% of its taxable income to shareholders. In exchange, it pays no corporate income tax. Think of it as a bank that passes almost all the interest it collects straight to you.

Right now they're paying $0.48 per share every quarter. That's $1.92 a year, good for a 10.6% yield. Your $10,000 becomes $1,060 a year — about $265 every quarter hitting your account.

What gives me confidence in ARCC specifically: in Q1 2026, their net investment income was $0.55 per share. The dividend was $0.48. They earned 14.6% more than they paid out. That's the kind of coverage I want to see.

The risk: BDCs lend to private companies, and defaults can spike during recessions. ARCC's portfolio carries credit risk you can't see in a simple yield number. And if interest rates drop significantly, their floating-rate loans earn less, which could pressure future payouts. I own this one — but I watch it closely.
Yield: 10.6% $10K invested = $1,060/yr Paid: Quarterly
PDIPIMCO Dynamic Income pays $134 a month on $10K — but read the fine print
I love explaining this one because it teaches you something important about how a certain type of fund works.

PDI is a closed-end fund. Unlike a regular ETF — which creates and destroys shares as money flows in and out — a closed-end fund issues a fixed number of shares and then trades on the stock exchange like a stock. Because the share count is locked, PDI can trade above or below the actual value of what it holds. That gap is called the discount (or premium) to NAV — net asset value, the per-share value of the fund's actual holdings.

PDI holds bonds and mortgage-backed securities managed by PIMCO, one of the biggest bond managers on the planet. And it uses leverage — borrowed money — to amplify the income it generates. Right now it's distributing $0.2205 per share every single month. That's $2.65 a year, or a 16.1% yield. Your $10,000 turns into $1,610 a year. $134 every month.

Now I have to be straight with you — this is not a buy-and-hold-forever name. That 16.1% yield has included return of capital in some periods, which means the fund is handing you back some of your own money and calling it a "distribution." Over time, that erodes the NAV. Since PDI launched in 2012, its NAV has declined meaningfully even as it's paid out thousands in distributions. You're getting paid, but the underlying asset is shrinking. Eyes wide open on this one.
Yield: 16.1% $10K invested = $1,610/yr Paid: Monthly
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The Extra Yield
This week's calendars, screens & answers
Don't miss this ex-date: American Express (AXP) goes ex-dividend tomorrow, July 2. The quarterly payout is $0.95 per share. If you want AXP's next payment, you need to own shares before the market opens Thursday. Buy on the ex-date itself and you won't qualify — the seller keeps the dividend.
I ran a screen this morning: There are several pure-play royalty and mineral rights companies trading on U.S. exchanges with yields above 4%. VNOM made the cut. So did Black Stone Minerals (BSM). Most have variable dividends tied to commodity prices — that's the trade-off for the royalty model.
Someone asked me: "What's the difference between a royalty trust and a mineral rights company?" Short version: a royalty trust holds a fixed pool of depleting assets — when the oil runs out, the trust winds down. A company like VNOM can buy more acreage and keep growing. Trusts have an expiration date. Companies don't.
The Dispatch
Today we went underground — literally. Weyerhaeuser's 11 million acres of forest and Viper Energy's 85,700 acres of Permian mineral rights are two of the most unusual income sources I know. Then ARCC showed what a well-covered 10.6% BDC yield looks like, and PDI delivered $134 a month on $10K — with the NAV warning I promised. Tomorrow I'm back with Dividend Growth Stars and Safety & Watchlist. Two sections that keep you grounded after a day like today. See you Thursday.
— Charlie

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