I have never owned a rental and never had much luck in stocks until I gave up and decided to just go for dividends. Then in a year or so I looked at the portfolio and saw the stocks had mostly doubled in price.
Nearly all dividend payers increase their payouts every year. In many cases, the dividend increases are far more than annual pay raises that most people ever hope to get.
The majority of companies that pay dividends do so on a quarterly basis (which varies) so if you hold enough companies you’ll probably have some money coming in every month. A lot of dividend growth investors prefer companies that pay on a monthly basis.
Dividend payers also make holding stocks less stressful as you are getting paid while you wait for the stocks to appreciate in value. And qualified dividends get favorable tax treatment.
It takes a lot of time to build an income generating portfolio that pays out enough in annual dividends to produce a nice financial cushion, but it can be worth the effort.