A 12% yield is almost never a gift. I say that as someone who has watched smart people learn it the expensive way. The market is not giving you free money; it is warning you.
- Collapsed price makes yield math spike; the cut usually follows within a year or two - The screen that works: high yield, low payout ratio, run together in a screener - 5% at 35% payout is covered nearly three times over; 5% at 90% is one bad quarter from a cut - Check payout ratio by company, not sector average; averages hide the sinners - Filter by security type first; preferred shares and BDCs play by different rules
DivPlan ($4.99 one-time) filters high yield plus low payout ratio across 197 payers, so the traps never reach your plan.