How’s your stomach doing these days?

Were you able to keep your lunch down during last week’s intraday swings?

For too many days now, we’ve seen the markets show solid gains – ready to take back at least some of what they lost since Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell rebuked the previous rally…

Then they lose confidence and finish the day underwater once again.

It’s plain to see investor emotions are a mess right now. Nobody knows whether to be greedy or fearful anymore.

Before I write another word on that subject, trust me. I get it. I’ve seen my fair share of volatile markets and understand what it can do to one’s head.

Better yet, I’ve felt it. I’ll share the full story on that in the next few days. For now, just know…

My team and I here at Intelligent Income Daily each have our personal horror stories of losing big by relying on our emotions alone.

But those experiences ultimately made us better traders. We realized there had to be a better way to make – and keep – money in the stock market. This led us to dividend stocks that pay us reliable, growing income every year.

Today, I’m enlisting one of those team members, Adam Galas, to help give you some perspective on “blue-chip” income investments. These are the best of the best dividend stocks, and Adam is one of the most well-informed sources to explain them…

Let’s break down the power of dividend investing over the long term. Then we’ll show how you can supercharge your income using the best dividend payers.

No matter the market.

Market-Beating Dividends

As I wrote to you yesterday, the best dividend-paying stocks are a great way for both retirees and non-retirees to boost their income.

Today, I’ll show you how that works using Enbridge (ENB). It’s the largest oil and gas “midstream” company in North America… a great example of blue-chip dividend stock potential…

And one of Adam’s favorite publicly traded companies to talk about since it boasts:

• A safe 6.5% dividend yield.

• A 26-year dividend growth streak.

• An oil- and gas-focused business model where 98% of cash flow isn’t affected by oil or gas prices.

• The backing of bond investors – the so-called “smart money” – who think Enbridge will grow steadily for the next 90 years (its oldest bonds mature in 2112).

• Decades of market-beating total returns.

Plus, as Adam points out, both Enbridge’s management and the analysts who follow it – the two groups that arguably know it the best – expect it to bring in decades’ worth of 12.5-13.1% annual returns going forward.

Let’s say you invested $1,000 in Enbridge in 1994 (around when it started its dividend growth streak). Adam put together data on how the dividend would have boosted your returns since then.

Here are the results:

And here’s what he says about them:

Even if you were a retiree who needed dividends to live on and took them all in cash… You would have received 12x your initial investment back in Enbridge since 1994. Adjusted for inflation, that’s 5x.

The annual income growth rate was 10%, on par with the raises Wall Street CEOs often get but few regular people do.

What does this mean? Enbridge investors have enjoyed inflation-adjusted retirement income that’s grown almost 2x faster than the market. And today, every $1 invested in 1994 is paying $1.71 in annual inflation-adjusted dividends.

That’s a great result from a company that grew both its business and dividend payout. But we can do even better…

Boosting Your Returns Exponentially

Another thing I wrote to you about yesterday was the power of compounding. That is, the concept of getting interest on interest.

This happens when you keep reinvesting dividend payments right into the stocks that issued them.

Compounding allows you to buy more shares… that pay more dividends… that you can reinvest to buy more shares. It’s a beautiful cycle.

Of course, that means not touching your dividends for years. But if you’re able to do that, the results can be astounding…

Here’s Adam again, this time on what compounding would have done with that same $1,000 initial investment:

Enbridge delivered 16% annual income growth and paid investors 37x their initial investment in dividends. That’s 16x your initial investment in inflation-adjusted dividends, and 13x more than the S&P 500.

For each $1 invested in Enbridge back in 1994, you’re now getting $70 per year in safe income that’s still growing exponentially.

That’s the power of compounding your wealth and income in a blue-chip dividend payer – despite bear markets, crashes, recessions, and inflation. Companies like Enbridge have the resilience to thrive no matter what volatility comes its way.

See why Adam can’t stop talking about this oil and gas company? But again…

Enbridge isn’t the only company featuring such astounding statistics. There are many other blue-chips out there that boast similar past performances.

And their prospects are just as strong today.

To build a portfolio of volatility-proof income investments and fund your retirement… remember to keep the bigger picture in mind and put dividend blue-chips on your radar.

Happy (SWAN) sleep well at night investing,

Brad Thomas
Editor, Intelligent Income Daily