It's hard to find good income in the current low-interest world. It's not good that investors have to go further up the risk curve if they want to maintain the level of returns.
There are some options out there that offer stability and a good source of income, here are three of them:
Whitefield Limited (ASX: WHF)
Whitefield is one of the oldest and largest listed investment companies (LICs) in Australia.
It owns many of the same shares that the large-cap focused LICs and indexes do, like Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA) and Westpac Banking Corp (ASX: WBC), except it has generated higher historical returns than most of them. Over the past five years its average annual return per annum has been 15.6%.
Whitefield has consistently paid a dividend each year, which is currently 5.4% grossed-up.
DuluxGroup Limited (ASX: DLX)
DuluxGroup is the owner of the Dulux paint brand, but it also owns British Paints, Cabot's and Yates.
Most of its brands have defensive and consistent earnings, which are less cyclical compared to other property businesses like REA Group Limited (ASX: REA) and Reece Ltd (ASX: REH).
DuluxGroup is currently trading with a grossed-up dividend yield of 5.22%.
Medibank Private Ltd (ASX: MPL)
The largest private health insurer may count a lot of retirees as its customers, it could also be a good investment for those same people.
Health insurance has an important part to play in the private healthcare system and it's a very profitable part.
As long as Medibank can slowly increase its total number of policyholders over the long-term then it should be a pleasing investment trading at 19x FY18's estimated earnings with a grossed-up dividend yield of 5.81%.
Foolish takeaway
At the current prices, all three aren't cheap. Whitefield is definitely the safest because of how diverse it is, but I think DuluxGroup will generate the biggest returns because of how many strong brands it has.
