As 2022 showed investors, things don't always go as planned. All three major U.S. stock indexes entered a bear market at some point during the year, with investors having few safe havens to "hide out."

But if there's one historically tried-and-true way to navigate a bear market, it's to buy dividend stocks. Companies that pay a regular dividend to their shareholders are typically profitable on a recurring basis and time-tested.

Perhaps most important, income stocks have demonstrated their ability to handily outperform non-dividend-paying stocks over long periods. Between 1972 and 2012, companies that initiated and grew their payouts delivered an annualized return of 9.5%. That compares to just 1.6% on an annualized basis over the same period for stocks that didn't offer a dividend.

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Source Fool.com