When it comes to income investing, it’s all too easy to fall into the trap of forgoing growth in pursuit of juicy dividends. It’s a major problem when investing in U.S. stocks in particular, but internationally, investors can have their cake and eat it, too: There is no reason why you cannot have both income and growth.

There’s more bad news for those of you who are worrying about the United States’ global geo-strategic position. According to a recent report, starting next year, Chinese manufacturing output will exceed that of the United States.

Back in the middle 1980s, income investing for U.S. investors was pretty simple. Inflation was around 5% – roughly the same as now – but U.S. government bonds were paying close to 8%, and without going into high-risk debt issues you could find 9% with very little difficulty.