Some people underestimate the power that dividends can have over time; whether you invest your dividends or not can make a massive difference in the total returns from a stock like U.S. telecom giant AT&T (NYSE: T).

Had you invested in AT&T in 2000, the difference between tracking the S&P 500 and failing miserably all comes down to what you did with those quarterly checks. I'll show you the numbers behind AT&T's past 23 years in the market and investigate whether you can count on AT&T's dividend over the coming years.

Investors focused on price returns didn't get much from AT&T over the years; a $10,000 investment made in 2000 would be worth just $5,775 today. That performance is even more infuriating when considering the S&P 500 would have nearly tripled your money instead.

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Source Fool.com