There are no absolutely surefire ways to make big profits as an investor, but it's hard to do better than dividend-paying stocks. Businesses that commit to sharing a portion of their profits with their investors tend to outperform businesses that don't, and by a wide margin.

Over the 50-year period from 1973 through 2022, stocks in the S 500 index that grew or initiated dividend payments rose by 10.24% annually on average, according to Hartford Funds and Ned Davis Research. But stocks in that benchmark index that didn't pay dividends rose at an average pace of just 3.95% annually.

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Source Fool.com