Retired investors are often looking to use dividends so they can live off of their nest egg, avoiding the need to dip into it. That is why passive income streams are so desirable. The key is to find companies that have proven they can keep paying through both good times and bad.

Black Hills (NYSE: BKH), (NYSE: CVX), and Enbridge (NYSE: ENB) have all proven they can provide decades of passive income. Here's a closer look at these three stocks.

As far as utilities go, Black Hills is a small fry with a market cap of just $3.5 billion. However, it has achieved something that most of its peers have not -- it is a Dividend King, with over 50 years' worth of annual dividend increases behind it. dividend growth has been consistent at around 5% a year over the past decade. That's not huge, but it is more than enough to surpass the historical growth rate of inflation. Thus, the buying power of the dividend here has grown over time. The current yield is near a decade-high at over 4.9%.

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Source Fool.com