There's no question that investing during a bear market can be challenging. Thankfully, dividend stocks can make your life easier.

Companies that pay a regular dividend have a knack for making their shareholders richer. A report released in 2013 from J.P Morgan Asset Management, a division of banking giant JPMorgan Chase, found that dividend-paying companies crushed non-payers in the return column over the long run. Publicly traded companies that initiated and grew their payouts between 1972 and 2012 delivered an annualized return of 9.5%, which compares quite favorably to the 1.6% annualized return for stocks without a dividend.

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Source Fool.com