Based on your financial expertise, provide your response or viewpoint on the given financial question or topic. The response format is open.

How should I think about stock dividends?
Dividends are actually a very stable portion of equity returns, the Great recession and Great Depression notwithstanding:   However, dividends, with lower variance have lower returns.  Most of the return is due to the more variant price:  So while dividends fell by 25% during the worst drop since the Great Depression, prices fell almost by 2/3. If one can accumulate enough wealth to live only off of dividend income, the price risk becomes much more manageable.  This is the ideal circumstance for retirement.