Dividend Stocks Making Up for Lost Time

Dividend payers -- many of which are stable, larger-cap companies -- offer ballast to any portfolio. Through booms and busts, the underlying companies will keep paying you as long as they remain healthy. The best dividend payers not only increase those payouts from year to year, but also offer stock-price appreciation on top of all that

Thus, they give your portfolio fairly reliable income (which you can live off of if you're older, or reinvest in more stock if you're younger) while boosting its value over time. And the very best of these companies keep their payout ratio relatively low -- below 70%, ideally -- ensuring that they're not devoting too much of their income entirely to paying their dividends.

Source: Motley Fool

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