I started with dividend stocks.
Everything has risk. A dividend portfolio's risk is that the stocks in it are already overbought. You're buying stocks that are overvalued, hoping they are similarly overvalued or even more overvalued than they already are in the future (not so you can sell them, but so the dividend doesn't tank).
I love the idea of having a financial investment that gives you raises and allows you to withdraw without withdrawing principal. In any dividend investor setup, you're going to get way more dividends at the end than the money you have invested (or that's the goal), giving you wider control when you're withdrawing that 4%. It's lower risk in the sense that your companies are the monoliths of today. It's higher risk in that you're betting on them often for a very, very long time. That said, I think it's more lucrative than some think, and pretty awesome to get raises like 33% by just holding steady! You also get the support of knowing most of your losses are paid for in just a few months.
From my stock-picker post:
I research extensively on mostly blue-chips and stick around for dividends. My down swing isn't 33%, it's 12%. My upswing isn't 33% either, but it is around 20%, and I'm fine with that. I haven't had a downswing that wasn't made even or better by dividends in the same year, and I haven't realized a loss in two years. My lowest current potential loss is only about -.26% in a year. With a long investment horizon, blue-chips are PLENTY volatile. I was up something like 25% on T, down 5-10%, then back up 20%.
I managed to invest in Abbot Labs just before they finished their biodegradable heart stent, so when it came, I looked like a winner. Then their buyout issues came and dropped them under my cost, but the approval of St. Jude has pushed them back up again. I'm up about 8% there in under a year, so, not bad, then dividends push it into double digits. Score.
IBM was my biggest win. I read a lot about AI, and IBM appeared to be the sleeper that only Buffet was betting on. Up 25% since Strategic Imperatives seized the ship, and sweet, sweet dividends. Dividends were also hiked recently.
Ford and InBev are bizarre value plays to me. Ford just hiked dividends a unicorn 33% and the stock is down. "CARS ARE OVER!!!" (record year) "CARS ARE DONE!" (record year). I'm not buying cars, but most of America still thinks living 10+ miles from work is reasonable or necessary, and neither employers nor consumers are going out of their way to change that. Even self-driving cars will need companies. The US can convert to driverless cars and lower sales figures, but the rest of the world is still buying cars, too. I wouldn't buy more than one car company, but Ford or GM are pretty easy choices to me.
InBev basically just bought 4/5 of the mainstream beer industry and they're down (read: on sale) 12% as they consider buying Coca Cola.
I'm eating up O Realty's doom predictions. This is a company with hilarious amounts of real estate that they're paying off every day, which is required to pay out all the money it makes, which already pays a dividend higher than the retirement withdrawal rule. Hiked dividends 6% this month, like they often do. They make up too much of my "post 65" portfolio before a year or two, but I don't even mind. I love dividend hikes. Next year I'll have more of this in index funds.
(All of these I am invested in, at about 1k each, except O Realty, which is soon to be about 8.5k. I just wouldn't buy Netflix or Tesla right now - the people looking for the mythical entry point already got in a long time ago, if ever there was one. I buy on dips, almost always see a boost, pocket dividend raises, and am happy floating by around 11% before dividends get hiked again, and blue-chips hike them all the damned time, so I'm happy with the results)
Current dividend stocks (TDAmeritrade):
JNJ PG ABT F IBM O T MMM (last one very funny in hindsight)
Loyal3 treated like a no-cost mutual fund, as it has no commissions (I deposit every month into these and treat as my savings):
MSFT INTC GOOGL AMZN UL TGT KHC HAS BUD AXP AAPL DIS ATVI SBUX KO BRK-B
Of those, GOOGL, AMZN, and BRK-B have no dividends, but BRK-B will get you a GEICO discount.