For well over a century, Wall Street has provided a pathway for everyday Americans to secure their financial freedom. While the road to financial independence is full of twists and turns, patience tends to be handsomely rewarded.

Although there are a lot of ways to grow your wealth in the stock market, few strategies have proved as consistently fruitful over the long run as buying and holding top-notch dividend stocks.

In 2023, the researchers at Hartford Funds issued a report ("The Power of Dividends: Past, Present, and Future") that examined the multiple ways income stocks have run circles around non-payers over extended periods. In particular, a collaboration with Ned Davis Research compared the performance of dividend stocks to non-payers over the prior half-century.

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Source Fool.com