Author: Tim Plaehn, Investors Alley

These stocks offer stable businesses and the ability to continue to pay and grow their dividends.

There’s tremendous appeal to owning shares of high-yield stocks, however, dividend cuts happen. If you want to build a high-yield income stream, the primary skill to acquire is how to separate the dangerous high-yield stocks (like these) from the more secure.

Each year I’m asked by the MoneyShow folks to submit two stock picks for the new year. I put out an aggressive stock pick and a conservative one. Since I am the Dividend Hunter, both of these stocks are higher yield dividend paying companies.