Earn Up to 10% a Month on Your Investments (If You Like Risk)

Energy is still the leading category tohunt for high current income. The typical royalty trust or masterlimited partnership is priced to yield about 10%. Cross Timbers Royalty Trust (CRT), Enerplus, Penn West Energy Trust (PWE) and Provident Energy Trust (PVX).All are fairly diversified. Avoid trusts that sell only natural gas.Gas should be a good long-term investment, but there's a surplus of itnow and its price will stay depressed longer than oil's price will.

The best no-load, open-end fund in this category is Fidelity Floating Rate High Income Fund (FFRHX). Among leveraged, closed-end funds, two possible choices are BlackRock Floating Rate Income Strategies Fund (FRA) and BlackRock Floating Rate Income Strategies II (FRB).In early May, both sported high yields, and their share prices tradedat discounts to the value of their underlying assets (that's a must ifyou invest in a leveraged closed-end).Two parts Fido to one partBlackRock sounds like a good recipe.

Vanguard's low-cost, no-load offering, Vanguard High-Yield Corporate (VWEHX), is the first choice here. Loomis Sayles Bond Fund (LSBRX)is really more of a go-anywhere fund, but it usually holds asubstantial amount of its assets in junk bonds and emerging-marketsbonds, as well as investment-grade corporates. The fund, a member ofthe Kiplinger 25, yields about 9.7% and complements the Vanguard fund well.

The anchor of every check-a-month plan should be Realty Income (O).This is a high-quality, one-of-a-kind REIT that calls itself theMonthly Dividend Company. It owns more than 2,000 properties leased towell-known retailers and restaurant chains. Realty Income has paid 463consecutive monthly dividends. Not every streak is solid these days,but this one is as close as you can get to a sure thing. Plus, theshare price fell far less than that of most REITs during the market'sdownturn. Realty Income yielded 8% in early May.

The PowerShares Preferred Portfolio (PGX)is an unleveraged ETF that passes through dividends from an array ofpreferred bank and utility stocks. It has stabilized after losing halfits value from May 2008 to February 2009.

Two ETFs, iShares JPMorgan U.S. Dollar Emerging Markets Bond (EMB) and PowerShares Emerging Markets Sovereign Debt (PCY),invest in bonds from such places as Russia, Brazil, Turkey, Indonesiaand Mexico. After running into trouble in the fall of 2008, the funds,both of which pay monthly, have rebounded handsomely.