3 Best Dividend Stocks for a $100,000 Passive Income Strategy
Retirees who sell shares to cover monthly bills hand the market a weapon to use against them, but three dividend stocks offer a different path where the portfolio pays you without shrinking.
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Retirement flips the income question around. After decades of collecting a paycheck, retirees need assets that send cash on a predictable schedule, and that cash has to hold up when markets turn rough. Selling shares to pay monthly bills works fine until a downturn forces those sales at low prices.
Dividend stocks give retirees a way to collect cash without selling shares. A $100,000 portfolio, split evenly at $33,333.33 in each of three dividend payers, would generate about $4,700 in annual passive income. The group pairs a regular dividend grower with two higher yielders, so the income comes from more than one kind of cash flow. All yields are forward figures based on October 30, 2026 closing prices.
Johnson & Johnson
- Stock #3: Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ | JNJ Price Prediction)
- Yield: 1.96%
- Shares for $33,333.33: 122.01
- Annual Passive Income: ~$653.98
Johnson & Johnson runs two businesses. Innovative Medicine covers oncology, immunology and neuroscience, and MedTech covers cardiovascular, orthopaedics, surgery and vision. Its modest yield comes from a defensive healthcare giant that raises its payout slowly and steadily. The stock’s 34.14% year-to-date gain has drove the yield down even further.
Safety is the main attraction. Second-quarter adjusted EPS of $2.90 beat the $2.85 estimate and easily covered the $1.34 quarterly dividend. J&J holds a AAA credit rating, one of only two U.S. companies with that grade, and has raised its dividend for 64 consecutive years. The bull case rests on growth drugs: DARZALEX sales reached $4.21B (+18.9%) and TREMFYA hit $2.05B (+72.5%). The main risk is execution on the planned Orthopaedics separation, which will reshape MedTech.
Enterprise Products Partners
- Stock #2: Enterprise Products Partners (NYSE:EPD)
- Yield: 5.87%
- Units for $33,333.33: 873.74
- Annual Passive Income: ~$1,957.19
Enterprise operates more than 50,000 miles of pipelines plus storage, processing plants and export terminals, and it earns largely fee-based revenue. Its high yield comes from the MLP structure, which passes most of the cash flow through to unitholders. Coverage is strong: distributable cash flow rose 27% to $2.3 billion, covering the distribution 1.9x. Net leverage stands at 2.9x, and 96% of debt is fixed rate. The $0.56 quarterly distribution is up 2.8% year over year, and the partnership has paid quarterly distributions without a break since 1999.
Co-CEO Randy Fowler said "our team can continue to deliver cash flow per unit growth." The bull case is the $6.3 billion in projects under construction, including the Athena processing plant and an LPG export expansion, both scheduled for 4Q 2026. The main risk is a slowdown in Permian producer activity. IRA holders should also know that under 26 U.S.C. § 512(c)(1), a tax-exempt account counts its share of partnership business income as unrelated business taxable income whether or not that income is distributed. For taxable holders, MLP distributions are typically treated largely as return of capital, which lowers cost basis.
Verizon
- Stock #1: Verizon (NYSE:VZ)
- Yield: 6.33%
- Shares for $33,333.33: 745.21
- Annual Passive Income: ~$2,108.95
Verizon is the largest U.S. wireless carrier, with about 147 million wireless retail connections and a growing fiber business. Its ultra-high yield reflects a mature, capital-intensive business with slow top-line growth. Cash flow covers the payout comfortably: third-quarter free cash flow reached $7.80B, up 13.88%. Adjusted EPS guidance of $5.04-$5.06 sits well above the $2.83 annualized dividend. Verizon raised the quarterly payout to $0.7075 from $0.69, and its dividend record runs back to 1999.
The bull case: under CEO Dan Schulman, Verizon raised full-year guidance for the third consecutive quarter, added 406,000 postpaid phone subscribers, and widened its adjusted EBITDA margin to 40.2% from 37.8%. A key concern is $166.2B in debt alongside capital spending of $16.0-$16.5 billion.
Income Math at a Glance
| Name | Yield | Annual Dividend Income |
|---|---|---|
| Johnson & Johnson | 1.96% | $653.98 |
| Enterprise Products Partners | 5.87% | $1,957.19 |
| Verizon | 6.33% | $2,108.95 |
| Total | 4.72% | $4,720.12 |
Combined Income From a Three-Stock Mix
Combined, these three holdings produce $4,720.12 of annual income from a $100,000 investment, a blended yield of 4.72%. Verizon contributes $2,108.95, Enterprise adds $1,957.19, and Johnson & Johnson brings in $653.98.
Reinvesting those payouts purchases more shares, and each new share adds to the next quarterly check. Over a long holding period, that compounding can turn a fixed income stream into a growing one, especially when it comes from companies with long records of raising their payouts (we outlined a full plan for building that income approach, from the mix to the payout math, in a free report).
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Lee Jackson has covered Wall Street analysts' equity and debt research and equity strategy daily for 24/7 Wall St. since 2012. His broad, diverse career, including a stint as creative services director at an NBC affiliate in Austin, Texas, gives him unique insight into the financial industry.
Lee Jackson's journey in the financial industry spans more than 30 years, including nearly two decades as an institutional equity salesperson at Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, and Morgan Stanley. His career spanned pivotal sell-side Wall Street events, from the dot-com rise and bubble to the Long-Term Capital Management debacle, 9/11, and the Great Recession of 2008. This reflects his resilience and adaptability amid market volatility.
Lee Jackson’s practical financial industry experience, gained through a career at some of the biggest banks and brokerage firms, is complemented by a lifetime of writing across various platforms. This unique combination allows him to shed light on the intricacies of Wall Street in a way only someone with deep insider experience and knowledge can. Moreover, his extensive network across Wall Street continues to provide direct access for him and 24/7 Wall St., a privilege few firms enjoy.
Since 2012, Jackson’s work for 24/7 Wall St. has been featured in Barron’s, Yahoo Finance, MarketWatch, Business Insider, TradingView, Real Money, The Street, Seeking Alpha, Benzinga, and other media outlets. He attended the prestigious Cranbrook Schools in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, and has a degree in broadcasting from the Specs Howard School of Media Arts.
