The average dividend stock currently yields less than 1.5% based on the S&P 500 's dividend yield. That's well below the historical average of more than 4% over the long term because many companies have deemphasized dividends in recent years.

With the Federal Reserve expected to enter a long-tailed rate-cutting cycle, dividend-paying stocks with yields above the 3% mark are under the spotlight. For instance, AT&T (NYSE: T), a longtime favorite among income investors, has seen its stock surge approximately 30% year to date, outpacing the benchmark S&P 500.

That's exactly what has happened with Nvidia. Over the past year, Nvidia stock is up by 166% as the surge in AI investment has been a massive tailwind to the business. On the other hand, even including its massive dividend yield, the YieldMax NVDA Option Income Strategy ETF is up by about 105%. That's 61 percentage points of underperformance.

Dividend investing is always top of mind for many investors, but the process of building a portfolio can be complicated. It's critical to find high-yielding stocks that have safe dividends and, ideally,

The ETF has a simple selection approach focused on high yield. Will that set it up to benefit from falling interest rates?

This dividend stock is offering up a solid dividend yield and a history of massive growth -- perfect for any reinvestment strategy. The post 5.4% Dividend Yield? I’ll Be Buying This TSX Stock and Holding for Decades!

Asian markets have forged higher after the Federal Reserve kicked off its efforts to prevent a recession in the U.S. with a bigger-than-usual cut to interest rates

Markets on Wall Street were positioned to open at record highs Thursday after the Federal Reserve issued a bigger-than-usual interest rate cut intended to fortify a cooling labor market and prevent a

The Federal Reserve this week is expected to approve the first of what will likely be several prime lending rate cuts over the next couple of years in its efforts to keep the U.S. economy on an even keel moving forward.

In the end, the Fed decided to go big. The Federal Reserve lowered its key interest rate by a hefty half percentage point Wednesday, moving ahead with its first rate cut in four years and cheering markets that expected an emphatic move amid a softening jobs picture.