Are you worried about the bear market? Falling share prices can make it difficult to look at your investments, even if you're bullish on them over the long term. One way to make it easier to get through these challenging times is to hold some quality dividend stocks that you can rely on for recurring income and which can help offset some of the red in your portfolio.

The average stock in the S&P 500 pays a yield of less than 1.4%. But three stocks that are safe and pay much more than that are Merck (NYSE: MRK), BCE (NYSE: BCE), and General Mills (NYSE: GIS).

Merck is a top healthcare company with a market cap of more than $200 billion. When the company reported its first-quarter earnings in April, there were multiple products in its portfolio that generated sales growth of at least 15% year over year, including top-selling cancer drug Keytruda, which, at $4.8 billion, rose by 23%.

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Source Fool.com