During the 50-year period between 1973 and 2023, non-dividend-paying stocks in the S&P 500 index delivered a 4.27% average annual return. Their dividend-paying cousins performed more than twice as well with an average annual return of 9.

Wall St. Insights The seemingly endless political season is almost over. It’s possible we won’t know the winner for a while. Sit back and let dividends do the heavy lifting for a simple, steady path to serious wealth creation over time.

The success of these three elite dividend growers shows in their market-crushing gains over the prior 10 years. Costco's 739.7% total return, along with Visa's 462% and AbbVie's 371% returns, demonstrates how combining competitive advantages with shareholder-friendly capital allocation builds substantial wealth.