The Bad Habit Costing Income Investors Millions: Why 7.5%+ Yielders Get Overlooked

Most dividend investors don’t realize they’re making a critical mistake every single day. It’s a terrible habit—one that causes them to skip over some of the best income opportunities on the market. The culprit? Free financial tools like Google Finance and Yahoo Finance. These platforms default to showing only price movement, completely hiding the real story behind high-yielding securities.

This bad habit is especially costly for closed-end fund (CEF) investors, since CEFs are specifically designed to pay out most returns as dividends. But the damage extends to any income-focused portfolio. Let’s look at a concrete example.

The BlackRock Case Study: Why Your Screener Lies to You

Consider BlackRock Science and Technology Trust (BST), a CEF that holds Apple (AAPL), Microsoft (MSFT), NVIDIA (NVDA) and other major tech stocks. It offers a compelling 7.5% yield and is managed by the world’s largest asset manager.

If you searched BST on a standard stock screener over the past decade, you’d see something troubling: a 130.4% price increase. Meanwhile, the S&P 500—a broader index with less technology exposure—appears to have demolished BST. On paper, BST looks like a loser.

Or does it?

The Bad Habit That Blinds Investors

Here’s where that bad habit kicks in. Most free screeners show you the market price return—just the change in stock price from point A to point B. But that’s only half the equation for CEFs. What they don’t show you is the total return, which includes all reinvested dividends.

This distinction rarely matters for typical stocks. NVIDIA yields just 0.02%, Apple yields 0.4%, and Mastercard (MA) yields 0.6%. Most investors never think about dividends. So screeners ignore them.

But CEFs are different animals. They prioritize dividend payouts, averaging 8.9% yields compared to just 1.1% for typical S&P 500 stocks. Ignoring their dividends means you’re missing the majority of returns.

The Real Numbers: Total Return Tells the True Story

When you factor in all those reinvested dividends, BST’s story transforms dramatically. The total return over the past decade: 408.5%—versus only 130.4% price appreciation alone.

Suddenly, BST doesn’t just beat the S&P 500; it crushes it. That $10,000 investment from 2016 would have grown to $50,850—not $23,040. The difference: $27,810 in income that the bad habit would’ve cost you.

Why? Because CEFs are income machines. They collect yields from bonds, stocks, REITs and other holdings, then distribute nearly everything to shareholders. When you reinvest those dividends, you’re compounding your wealth month after month.

Breaking the Bad Habit in 2026

The real opportunity lies in recognizing that total return is the metric that matters. Stop relying on price charts alone. Instead, seek out CEFs and other dividend-focused investments where total return paints the complete picture.

Right now, investors entering 2026 can tap into five monthly-paying CEFs that yield an average of 9.3%. That translates to 60 monthly dividend “paychecks” throughout the year on every $100,000 invested—or $9,300 annually.

These funds offer:

• Strong, consistent yields at 9.3% average
• Instant diversification across stocks, bonds, REITs and more
• Deep discounts that could drive prices higher as premiums normalize

Breaking the bad habit means shifting from price-obsessed thinking to total-return thinking. It’s the difference between spotting hidden gems like BST and walking right past them. For income investors, that distinction could mean six figures in recovered returns over the next decade.

The market rewards those who look deeper. And in 2026, that deeper look starts with understanding total returns—not just price movements.