If your goal is long-term/retirement income, you could do what millions have always done, but nobody here seems to - focus on income, rather than the "nest egg." There are very safe companies that pay dividends, and some raise them every year at a pace that exceeds annual inflation. Some Canadian banks have been paying dividends, uninterrupted, for over 100 years.
The key is to reinvest, to get that compounding machine going. Some call it SWAN investing (sleep well at night). No fretting over price drop or crashes - instead, those are buying opportunities, because you're getting a temporarily higher yield on cost, you see. Just keep track of your companies, and both your dividend and (over time) your stock prices will gain, too.
Don't get greedy and chase very high yields, but some high yielders are pretty safe. AT&T is around 7.2%, and they are paying down some of their huge debt. Apple would have been great several years ago for me, when they were yielding 2.6%. They have hiked that dividend 6 to 14 % a year or so, so it would be yielding about 5% a year now, and rising.
My faves? REIT (STOR, WPC,O), pharm (JNJ, BMS, PFE, ABBV), Canadian banks (TD, BMO, BNS), data (IRM), consumer (VFC, PEP, SNA, SBUX PG), various finance (MAIN, BEN, AFL, PRU, TROW), energy (SO), European exposure (NOK, UL), and so forth.
Some focus on dividend growth more (I would if I was younger). Others want to ride Tesla and AMD and Shopify and Amazon up some more. Not for me, but I won't lie and say I don't look for the next big one now and then, heh.
