The most successful investment portfolios typically share one common denominator over the long run: a solid dose of dividend stocks.
While dividend stocks may not seem sexy on the surface, they have a history of running circles around their non-dividend-paying peers. In fact, a 2013 J.P. Morgan Asset Management report found that companies that initiated and grew their dividend payouts between 1972 and 2012 delivered an average annual return of 9.5%. This compares to a more modest average annual return of 1.6% for non-dividend-paying stocks over the same time frame.
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