The Dividend Pyramid: 2 Income Giants Yielding 6% And 9% I’d Buy Hand Over Fist

Look, I’m not saying I worship dividends, but if there were a shrine dedicated to the gods of monthly income, I’d be there every Sunday lighting a scented candle and whispering sweet nothings to my brokerage account. You can keep your meme stocks, NFTs, and speculative nonsense that trades like a caffeinated squirrel on Adderall. Me? I want cash. Regular, beautiful, compounding cash.

And in a market where people are losing their minds over AI this and rate cuts that, there’s a quieter, more reliable path to riches: dividend income. Not just any dividends, though — we’re talking about climbing the Dividend Pyramid, a concept I made up 15 minutes ago but that sounds wise, ancient, and vaguely Warren Buffett-ish.

Let’s talk about two rock-solid dividend giants sitting pretty at the top of this metaphorical pyramid. One yields a juicy 6%. The other? A lip-smacking, knees-buckling 9%. And no, this isn’t a trap. They’re real companies with real cash flow. And I’d buy both hand over fist — because if the market tanks tomorrow, these names will keep the money flowing while everyone else panic-sells their crypto.

The Dividend Pyramid: A Framework for Sanity in a Greedy Market

Before we spill the beans, let’s define the Dividend Pyramid. It has three tiers:

1. Foundation (2–4% yield): Reliable dividend payers with fortress balance sheets. Think Johnson & Johnson, Procter & Gamble — the kind of companies your grandma probably owns and forgot to brag about.

2. Middle Tier (4–6% yield): Higher yield, still stable. These companies often have a bit more cyclicality or sector risk, but they're still rock solid.

3. Top Tier (6–10%+ yield): High-yield monsters. These names pay you handsomely but require a closer eye on risk, payout ratio, and long-term viability.

Today, we’re climbing straight to the top tier. Bring your helmet. And your calculator.

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Income Giant #1: Enterprise Products Partners (EPD) – 6.8% Yield

Ah, Enterprise Products Partners. If you don’t own EPD yet, please stop reading, buy a share, then come back. I’ll wait.

This is a midstream energy master limited partnership (MLP). Translation: they own pipelines, processing facilities, and storage tanks for oil and natural gas. They don’t dig the stuff out of the ground, so they’re not exposed to wild swings in oil prices. Instead, they’re like energy toll booth operators — the more traffic flows, the more they earn.

Why I Love EPD Like a Tax-Advantaged Teddy Bear

1. Insane Distribution Coverage

   • EPD has a distribution coverage ratio of 1.7x. That means they earn almost twice as much as they pay out in distributions. That’s like your landlord telling you rent is due and then giving you half of it back. This level of safety is rare in the high-yield world.

2. 30+ Consecutive Years of Distribution Increases

   • Let’s hear it for boring and consistent. Enterprise Products has not just paid a dividend — they’ve raised it almost every year for decades. They even managed to do it during COVID, when oil prices briefly went negative and every energy bear was screaming into the void.

3. Insider Ownership? You Bet.

   • The Duncan family, which founded the company, owns a significant chunk of EPD. That means they have skin in the game — and by game, I mean they want the cash machine to keep running just as much as we do.

4. Boring as Hell – And That’s the Point

   • Energy infrastructure is not sexy. It doesn’t get featured on CNBC or Reddit threads. But you know what’s hot? A 6.8% yield that keeps rolling in whether the S&P is up 20% or down 30%.

5. Tax Deferral Magic

   • As an MLP, EPD distributions are mostly return of capital, meaning you don’t pay taxes until you sell — and then it’s capital gains, not ordinary income. You’re basically legally deferring taxes for years while collecting checks.

But... What’s the Catch?

Yes, it’s an MLP, which means:

• You’ll get a K-1 instead of a 1099, so tax filing is slightly more annoying.

• Don’t put it in an IRA. Uncle Sam frowns on that. Something about unrelated business taxable income (UBTI). Trust me — just keep it in a taxable account and collect your money like a grown-up.

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Income Giant #2: Owl Rock Capital (ORCC) – 9.4% Yield

Now let’s talk about a name that pays more than your savings account ever dreamed of: Owl Rock Capital Corporation, now part of the Blue Owl Capital group. This isn’t your garden-variety dividend stock. ORCC is a business development company (BDC). And BDCs are where yield-hungry investors go when REITs are too vanilla.

What Does ORCC Do?

ORCC lends money — big, chunky loans — to middle-market companies. These aren’t mom-and-pop shops, but they’re also not massive multinationals. Think private companies with $50M–$500M in revenue. The kinds of firms that banks overlook but private lenders adore.

In exchange, Owl Rock collects interest rates north of 10% on these loans. That money flows back to you, the investor, in the form of sky-high dividends.

Why I’m Coo-Coo for Owl Rock

1. Stable, Fat Yield

   • The current dividend yield is around 9.4%. That’s not a typo. That’s enough to double your money in under 8 years if reinvested. And they’ve paid consistently, even tossing in occasional special dividends like sprinkles on an already amazing cupcake.

2. Floating Rate Exposure

   • 90%+ of their loans are floating rate, which means as interest rates rise, so do the payments they receive. While most of the market cries about the Fed, ORCC laughs all the way to the dividend bank.

3. Undervalued and Underfollowed

   • Despite solid performance, ORCC trades at or slightly below net asset value (NAV). That’s like buying $1 for 95 cents — and that dollar spits out cash every quarter.

4. Strong Portfolio Diversification

   • ORCC isn’t betting the farm on one sector. Their portfolio includes healthcare, software, insurance, logistics, and more. Their largest holding? Only about 2% of the portfolio. That means a single borrower’s bellyflop won’t sink the whole ship.

5. Investment-Grade Credit Rating

   • Unlike many high-yield stocks that walk a tightrope of financial distress, ORCC has a solid BBB- credit rating from S&P. That’s investment-grade. That’s confidence. That’s “we actually pay our bills” energy.

What’s the Downside?

• As a BDC, they’re required to pay out 90%+ of taxable income, which means they can’t retain much cash for growth. But guess what? That’s why you’re here — for income, not reinvested dreams.

• Rising defaults could hurt them if the economy tanks. But with their underwriting discipline, a strong interest coverage buffer, and a diverse loan book, they’ve been through worse.

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Why Buy These Two Now, Hand Over Fist?

Let’s put our financial feelings aside for a moment and look at the logic.

1. They Print Cash. Literally.

Both EPD and ORCC generate consistent, stable, and growing cash flows. That’s the holy grail of dividend investing. These companies don’t need a roaring bull market to keep you paid. They just need time.

2. They Beat Bonds, CDs, and Most REITs

• A 10-year Treasury yields around 4.5%.

• CDs might give you 5% if you lock your money away like a hostage.

• Meanwhile, EPD and ORCC give you 6.8% and 9.4%, respectively — with upside.

3. Recession-Resilient

• EPD’s toll-road model isn’t that cyclical — energy flows whether the economy is hot or not.

• ORCC is designed to benefit from higher interest rates, and their portfolio is built with risk mitigation in mind.

4. Compounders in Disguise

If you reinvest these fat dividends, you’re not just collecting. You’re compounding at double or triple the S&P 500’s yield. That turns into real wealth over time — the kind that pays your bills in retirement and lets you laugh at inflation.

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The Bottom Line: Build Your Pyramid Like a Dividend Pharaoh

You could keep guessing what Jerome Powell will say next, or you could build a dividend pyramid that pays you in every season.

Start with safe 2–4% names. Stack on some 5% REITs. But when you're ready to play the big leagues, when you want your income to matter, your cash to count, and your brokerage account to feel like a vending machine of money — you need top-tier dividend giants like Enterprise Products Partners and Owl Rock Capital.

They’re not just stocks. They’re income engines. Yield machines. Retirement rockets. And I’m buying them hand over fist because frankly, I’m tired of pretending 1.5% from a dividend ETF is enough.

Give me cash. Give me consistency. Give me companies that pay me to exist.

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Disclosure: I own shares of both EPD and ORCC. This isn’t investment advice, but it’s definitely a middle finger to low-yield mediocrity.

The Best Dividend Stocks for 2025: How to Create a Cashflow Machine Paying You Every Month Paperback – April 13, 2025