My Dividend Hunter service focuses on earning income from a portfolio of high-yield investments. When I read analyst ratings on the stocks I recommend, I often find the analysis has the wrong focus.

Traditional stock analysis examines a company’s business results and growth prospects to value the share price. From there, an analyst determines whether the stock is under- or overvalued and assigns it a buy, sell, or hold rating.

Wall Street analysts’ buy-and-sell signals can be helpful for investors focused on building wealth through capital gains. However, when the market turns negative, Wall Street’s forecasts often prove to be losing bets.

However, I believe these ratings recommending purchasing or selling stock shares to earn capital gains are incompatible with investing for a high-yield income stream.

The main problem with trying to time the market or share purchases is that you cannot earn dividends unless you own shares. If you own and sell dividend-paying stocks, the dividends stop coming.

To build an income stream, you must start buying shares, no matter where you think the broader market is going. This is a tricky concept for investors who are used to trying to guess the direction of share prices to wrap their thoughts around.

I teach my subscribers that income investing involves two processes. The first is to find high-yield investments with the most secure cash flows to pay dividends. I constantly monitor the investments I recommend to ensure they can continue to pay dividends. Share price changes do not affect the ability to pay dividends. Rather, a company’s ability to generate free cash flow determines its dividend-paying potential.

As income investors, we buy shares of attractive high-yield stocks or other investments. The plan is to hold those shares to earn a stable income stream. To grow the income stream, more shares are purchased through dividend reinvestment or by adding more capital to your high-yield holdings. Every time you buy a dividend-paying share, you grow your income.

This approach produces two very positive benefits…

First, if share prices go down, yields go up, and you can grow your income faster by continuing to invest when the market goes through a correction or even a bear market. During market downturns, it’s essential to secure the dividend payments, which is part of what I do for my Dividend Hunter subscribers.

Second, if you focus on earning an income and track your income as your primary investment results metric, you will suddenly stop worrying about the stock market’s direction. Your income will go up every quarter with a properly managed high-yield portfolio, no matter what share prices do!

Understanding that your investment strategy will produce steadily higher income and that you no longer need to count on uncertain capital gains to meet your investment goals gives tremendous peace of mind.

Finally, a high-yield dividend-focused strategy can earn attractive returns. My Dividend Hunter recommended portfolio has an average yield of over 10%.