Better Buy: CenturyLink Inc. vs. Verizon Communications Inc.

Telecoms are the bread and butter of solid retirement portfolios. Because the capital requirements to building out nationwide networks are so onerous -- and the service these companies provide so necessary -- they make for protected money-printing machines once established.

That means outsized dividends. The two communications companies we're focused on today, Verizon (NYSE: VZ) and CenturyLink (NYSE: CTL), have such payouts -- yielding 4.7% and 14.7%, respectively. For investors, it might seem like money actually is growing on trees.

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Source: Fool.com