Over the long-term, owning stocks has been the best way to preserve and grow your wealth above the rate of inflation. As we've seen with AI stocks this year, stocks can certainly appreciate a lot in a short amount of time.

But while those fast-movers garner a lot of headlines, only 68% of all stock market returns since 1926 came from price appreciation, with the remaining 32% of all stock market returns actually coming from dividends, and the reinvestment of those dividends, according to research by S&P Global.

So not only are dividends attractive for their consistent payouts regardless of what the market is doing, they're essential to generating attractive long-term returns.

Continue reading

Source Fool.com