Real talk: I spend most of my time telling you to buy boring index funds, and I mean it. But I know a lot of you want income, actual cash hitting your account every quarter, and energy is where the yields actually live right now. MSN just ran a piece on three high-yield energy stocks worth a look this September, so let's talk about what's on the list and whether it belongs in a real portfolio.

The energy patch is one of the few corners of the market still paying serious yields. Big oil and midstream companies spent the last decade cutting debt instead of drilling like maniacs, and now they're sitting on cash they're handing back to shareholders. That's the backdrop. Not sexy. Pipes and pumps and dividends.

What makes these picks interesting is that they check multiple boxes at once: yields well above the S&P 500 average (which, as I've written before, is sitting near historic lows right now), businesses that throw off steady cash whether oil is at $60 or $90, and balance sheets that won't fall apart if the economy wobbles. High yield AND a payout that looks sustainable is the combo you want. A 9% yield with a payout ratio stretched to the breaking point is just a trap with a bow on it.

My usual caveats apply. Energy is cyclical, and these aren't Treasury bills. If oil craters, even well-run companies get dragged down with the sector. Warren would also want me to remind you that chasing yield for yield's sake is how people ended up holding pipeline stocks that cut their dividends 80% in 2020, and fine, he's right about that one. I'd rather you buy a diversified energy position at 4 or 5 percent that survives a bad year than swing for a 10 percent yield that evaporates the first time demand hiccups.

If you do want in, keep it to a slice. I'd treat any single-sector income play like a topping, not the meal. The bulk of your money still belongs in those boring index funds I keep buying every month like clockwork, and if you want income from those, sell a few shares when you need cash. Total return still beats yield-chasing over long stretches.

But if you're building an income sleeve, the names in that article are a reasonable starting point for your own homework. Check the payout ratio, check the debt, check what they actually said on their last earnings call. Twenty minutes of reading beats a decade of regret.

I don't hold any energy stocks directly myself, for the record. My individual stock money is still sitting in the stuff I've written about here, wins and losses both. But September with yields like these? I'm at least opening the spreadsheets.