From Dividend Growth Investor:

For my retirement strategy, I purchase dividend paying stocks with shareholder friendly managements that can afford to raise dividends every year. I typically tend to focus on companies that have raised annual distributions every year for over a decade. I do, however, try to analyze the long-term dividend histories of companies I am researching in order to determine if there are any past events which could forecast trouble for my income stream in the future.

Utilities are notorious for raising distributions for one or two decades, before cutting or freezing them for several years. After that, it is pretty easy to start raising distributions again, and the company might even...

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