I love buying high-yielding dividend stocks. They enable me to generate lots of passive investment income, which I reinvest to buy more income. I should eventually generate enough to completely offset my living expenses.

However, as much as I love collecting dividend income, I've learned the hard way to avoid the high-yielding payouts of companies with deteriorating finances, because they put the dividend at a high risk of a future reduction. That's the fate I see ahead for real estate investment trust (REIT)  (NYSE: BDN) and its eye-popping 16.8% yielding dividend. Because of that, I won't go near that stock.

On the other hand, the 9.7% yielding payout of Energy Transfer (NYSE: ET) is on very solid ground. That's driving me to buy it hand over fist.  

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Source Fool.com