[jandrewrogers]

Those yields can shrink or disappear quite rapidly, and then you are left selling the equity. From a purely financial perspective, there is nothing special about dividends versus selling equity, it doesn't make you better off; that is just rearranging how value is recognized. The main difference between dividends and growth is tax structure, which generally favors the latter due to the added optionality. Dividends are mostly only useful if you want to cater to fixed income investors and similar.

[adam_arthur]

A company owning real estate, paying 8% dividends with a 65% payout ratio isn't going to have its dividends disappear overnight.

I can buy O (Realty Income) right now and lock in a ~6% yield. They didn't cut their dividend even during the GFC. And I think O is one of the poorer options of REITs to choose from right now.

What do you mean?

This entire thread is about retirement, where fixed income becomes important. If you're 75 do you want to wait 10 years for the market to recover to resume selling your principle?