Over the last century, the stock market has stood on a pedestal above all other asset classes. While investing in Treasury bonds, housing, gold, and oil would have increased your nominal wealth, none of these other asset classes has come anywhere close to the average annual returns delivered by stocks over the very long term.

What makes Wall Street so special is its diversity of investments. With thousands of publicly traded companies and exchange-traded funds to choose from, there's a really good chance there's an investment vehicle (or 10) to satisfy everyone's goals and level of risk tolerance.

But among these countless puzzle pieces, few strategies have been more consistently successful than buying and holding dividend stocks over extended timelines.

Continue reading

Source Fool.com