Americans spend more than $100 billion per year on lottery tickets. Most of those tickets end up worthless.

Investing that money in dividend stocks is a better bet than buying a lottery ticket. Companies around the world paid out a whopping $1.7 trillion in dividends last year, according to research from Janus Henderson Global. In addition to that income, most dividend stocks increase in value over time. On average, dividend-paying stocks have delivered a 9.2% annual total return over the last 50 years, according to Hartford Funds and Ned Davis Research. Investing as little as $20 per month into dividend stocks could grow into $1 million in about 65 years. Invest more money or in higher-returning dividend stocks, and you could become a millionaire even faster. You could then live off the income your dividend stocks pay each year.

There are lots of great dividend stocks. Two high-quality dividend stocks are Realty Income (NYSE: O) and Brookfield Infrastructure (NYSE: BIPC)(NYSE: BIP). They have been very enriching investments over the years, which seems likely to continue.

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Source Fool.com