The power of growing dividends over time continues to be underestimated by many investors. Many are concerned with another decade of slow growth and low to negative equity returns. However, one way to prepare for another decade of slow economic growth is to invest in dividend paying stocks that have shown they can weather tough economic times and not slash their dividends while it happens.

About every quarter I update my weights for my dividend paying stocks in my retirement portfolio. Let me first summarize the idea behind my weighting scheme. I do not normally believe in weighting by market capitalization, nor do I generally believe in equally weighting stocks.

When it comes to technology companies, few did better for investors in the 90s than Microsoft (MSFT) and Intel (INTC). It was truly an amazing run for these two tech giants as Microsoft returned an incredible 9,000% during this decade while Intel returned 3,300%. Those days are long gone for these two now-mature companies. Their stock prices have languished for over ten years now. But this doesn’t mean we shouldn’t look at them as a solid investment opportunity. To the contrary, both of these companies now fit nicely into a dividend growth portfolio.

One of the biggest variables that confront people when planning retirement is their life expectancy. Some folks like to use the life expectancy of their age group or the life expectancy numbers that exist for a person born today. But this can be very misleading and can result in retirees running out of money in retirement.

The power of growing dividends over time continues to be underestimated by many investors. Many are concerned with another decade of slow growth and low to negative equity returns. However, one way to prepare for another decade of slow economic growth is to invest in dividend paying stocks that have shown they can weather tough economic times and even increase their dividends while it happens.