Dividend stocks with decent payouts that re-invest is the way to go. The stock price fluctuations are good and bad, good when your dividends re-invest, but bad if you have to sell the stock. You fix this by only selling the stock when it is good. If the value dips, your re-investments can buy MORE shares and this grows your dividend. It starts slow, but after a while really begins to add up.
You bring up a good point. One of the worries of wall street is the shrinking amount of equity from buy backs of stock. Cash flow for many companies is so strong they aren’t just buying back stock, but rapidly increasing their dividends. Furthermore, the new tax cut makes that an even stronger case. America’s appetite for investment into equity is stronger than business creation is providing. That is extremely BULLISH for US small business. Think start up...