# Why Dividend Stocks Crushed It in 2022 (And Could Again)

While most stocks got hammered last year—Nasdaq down 33%, S&P 500 down 19%—there was a quiet winner nobody talks about: high-dividend Dow stocks.

The strategy? Called "Dogs of the Dow," it's ridiculously simple: grab the 10 highest-yielding Dow stocks, split your money equally, hold for a year, then rebalance. That's it.

**The results?** Dogs of the Dow returned roughly 2% in 2022 (including dividends), beating the Dow itself by 7 percentage points. Not earth-shattering, but while everyone else was watching their portfolios crater, dividend collectors were actually in green.

The 2023 lineup includes Verizon (6.6% yield), Dow Inc (5.6%), Intel (5.5%), and Walgreens (5.1%). Average yield? 4.4%—which is wild for a stock strategy.

**The real question:** Will it work again in 2023? Nobody knows. But if recession fears stick around, boring dividend stocks could outperform growth stocks again. The beauty is you don't need to be a genius—just patient and disciplined enough to rebalance once a year.

Worth exploring if you're tired of chasing memes.