Of all the retirement activities you can engage in, worrying about your financial security shouldn’t be one of them. Owning dividend-paying stocks can help you relax and enjoy a more comfortable life — but only if you pick the right stocks and avoid the riskiest ones.
Holding dividend stocks for passive income is a smart strategy if you do it the right way. A simple strategy to keep you on the right track is to focus on blue-chip stocks and companies with a history of growing their dividend payments.
Why choose dividend growth stocks? One reason is that you’ll enhance your ability to generate income. Furthermore, it’s a positive sign when a business can afford to reward its loyal shareholders with bigger and bigger cash distributions.
I’ll make it easy for you to get started. Here are four well-known stocks representing solid businesses that also happen to be dividend growers. When you’re ready to build a more comfortable retirement, feel free to add any or all of these stocks to your portfolio.
Goldman Sachs (GS)
First things first: I will always include the five-year price chart for these dividend growth stocks. That’s because, if you want to retire comfortably, you’ll surely want to see the share price chart go up over time, not down.
Financial giant Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) easily meets this criteria, as GS stock is up 181% over the past five years. This doesn’t guarantee future returns, but you must admit, it’s a good sign.
And, with higher share prices come bigger cash payouts for Goldman Sachs’ investors. Back in June of 2021, the company paid a quarterly dividend distribution of $1.25 per share.
In March of this year, Goldman Sachs is expected to pay a quarterly dividend of $4.50 per share — more than triple the $1.25 payment from June 2021. Today, GS stock offers an annual dividend yield of around 2%, so don’t hesitate to add it to your retirement watch list.
Lowe’s (LOW)
Here’s another market leader, but this one’s in the home improvement supply industry. I’m referring to Lowe’s (NYSE:LOW), a business that has been around for many years and isn’t going away anytime soon.
Sure, Lowe’s stock has had its ups and downs throughout various economic cycles. Yet, LOW stock always seems to recover and during the past five years, it has gained 66%.
That doesn’t include Lowe’s dividend payments, mind you. This company distributes cash payments to its shareholders each and every quarter, year after year. Impressively, Lowe’s has doubled its quarterly per-share dividend from $0.60 in May 2021 to $1.20 in February 2026.
If you purchase Lowe’s shares today, you can anticipate a 1.72% dividend yield. That’s nothing to sneeze at, so take a look at LOW stock as a worthy retirement buy-and-hold.
Johnson & Johnson
For safety-seeking retirees, there aren’t many better choices than Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) stock. This one won’t expose you to much volatility at all, and as we’ll discover in a moment, JNJ stock’s dividend yield is quite healthy.
Speaking of healthy, Johnson & Johnson is a premier provider of healthcare products. It’s a stable business that should easily be able to afford its dividend distributions for many years to come.
Just to provide some basis stats, JNJ stock is up 50% over the past five years and it tends to hold up well when the markets get wobbly. Also, Johnson & Johnson has hiked its quarterly dividend distribution from $1.06 per share back in June 2021 to an anticipated $1.30 per share in March 2026.
Nowadays, Johnson & Johnson stock provides a 2.11% annual dividend yield, which beats many other safe stocks on the market. Therefore, JNJ stock will remain among my top four choices for dividend growers that retirement investors can count on.
Coca-Cola (KO)
I saved the best for last today, as I’m topping off this list with an absolute classic among dividend deliverers: Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO) stock. This beverage and snack food behemoth is known worldwide, and retirement investors adore KO stock for its consistent dividend payments.
Look for reliability, not lightning-fast hikes from Coca-Cola’s dividends. It’s not record-breaking in the stock market, by any means, but it’s reassuring to know that Coca-Cola has increased its per-share quarterly dividend distribution from $0.42 in July 2021 to an expected $0.53 in April 2026.
Moreover, the Coca-Cola share price is up 60% over the past five years and that’s another sign of a secure investment. That’s not even the sweetest part of the deal, though.
Out of the four stocks on this list, Coca-Cola is the highest yielder. In fact, KO stock currently offers a 2.55% annual dividend yield, placing it among the best retirement assets to bring comfort and years of steady income.