I have invested in dividends for 25 years—These stocks prove long-term dividend investing works

What’s a quarter-century of dividend investing experience worth? It’s been worth quite a lot, actually, and today I’d like to show you just how profitable a long-term dividend reinvestment plan can be.

With the 25-year results of three stock picks, I’ll prove to you that dividend investing can definitely work. More specifically, I’ll provide a list of three dividend growers that have consistently increased their cash distributions for at least half a century. So now, let’s kick it off with a fast-food stock pick that’s known around the world.

McDonald’s (MCD)

If any famous American fast-food restaurant chain serves up hot and tasty dividends, it’s good old-fashioned McDonald’s (NYSE:MCD | MCD Price Prediction). History shows that McDonald’s has served up burgers, fries, and cash dividend payouts for generations; currently, the company provides a forward annual dividend yield of 2.42%.

Like the other two picks on today’s list, McDonald’s distributes its cash payments to investors’ accounts on a quarterly basis. The focus here isn’t get-rich-quick schemes; instead, we’re looking for reliable wealth-building opportunities to last for a lifetime.

In that regard, McDonald’s has proven its reliability for a half-century. The company has a 50-year track record of dividend growth, which typically means increases in cash dividend payments (but not necessarily increases in dividend yield percentages) at least once per year.

For example, McDonald’s will increase its per-share quarterly dividend payment from $1.77 on September 16, 2025, to $1.86 on December 15. That represents growth of 5%, and it’s not too late to buy MCD stock shares in order to receive the December dividend.

If you’re still skeptical, I’ll use a dividend reinvestment compounding calculator to show you the potential long-term results. If you had purchased $10,000 worth of McDonald’s stock shares on January 3, 2000 (the first stock market trading day of this century) and consistently reinvested the dividends, you would have ended up with $144,912.77 on October 23, 2025.

Furthermore, your total return would have been 1,347.46% with this simple MCD stock dividend reinvestment plan. This just goes to show how powerful your profits can be when you keep it simple and hold shares of reliable dividend growers like McDonald’s.

Johnson & Johnson (JNJ)

Next up is healthcare product manufacturer Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ), which doesn’t get mentioned often enough in the public conversation about wealth-building stocks. Right now, Johnson & Johnson offers a 2.7% forward annual dividend yield, which is respectable for an ultra-safe stock like JNJ.

I’ve been in the dividend investment game for 25 years, but Johnson & Johnson’s dividend growth history goes back much further than that. In fact, the company can boast 63 years’ worth of dividend growth.

To provide a fairly recent example, Johnson & Johnson boosted its per-share quarterly dividend payout from $1.24 on March 4, 2025, to $1.30 on June 10. With a quick calculation, we can determine that this represents a dividend increase of 4.8%.

Can JNJ stock fit into a long-term wealth-growing plan? The answer is absolutely yes, and the proof is in the numbers.

Just imagine if you had bought and held $10,000 worth of Johnson & Johnson stock shares, and reinvested all of the dividends, from the beginning of 2000 to October 23, 2025. That would have been a brilliant strategy as it would have turned your principal investment into $81,595.44.

Plus, you would have achieved total returns of 716.28%, which is nothing to sneeze at. When all is said and done, there’s irrefutable evidence that Johnson & Johnson stock is a great buy-and-hold asset for patient investors.

Walmart (WMT)

Another safe but potent pick is none other than big-box store giant Walmart (NYSE:WMT). If you need to prove to the critics that dividend investing can be highly effective, look no further than WMT stock.

Currently, Walmart’s forward annual dividend yield stands at 0.88%. That might not sound like much, but I purposely picked Walmart stock to demonstrate that small dividends, when regularly reinvested, can snowball over time.

With a 52-year history of dividend increases, Walmart can be counted on to reward its loyal shareholders. The company’s most recent quarterly per-share dividend hike was from $0.2075 on January 6, 2025, to $0.235 on April 7; this translates to a sizable increase of 13.25%.

What does Walmart’s seemingly small dividend yield really add up to, though? We can put it to the test by imagining that you had purchased $10,000 worth of WMT stock shares at the beginning of 2000.

All you needed to do was hold on to those shares and consistently reinvest the dividend distributions (which you might be able to do automatically with your broker). By simply doing that until October 23, 2025, you would have achieved a total return of 650.53% and ended up with $75,063.02.

Of course, there are other high-quality companies that have raised their dividend payouts over the years. Still, feel free to start out with the stocks of McDonald’s, Johnson & Johnson, and Walmart and embark on your own passive wealth building journey.