Dividend investors often set minimum requirements for an “acceptable initial dividend yield and/or dividend growth rate when they are considering buying a dividend stock.

Thus one investor might say, “I won’t invest in a dividend stock with a starting yield less than 3%. Another might say, “I want a minimum 10% per year dividend increase.

The goal, of course, is to purchase stocks whose yields and dividend growth rates are high enough to make them better bets than safer fixed-income investments like money market accounts, certificates of deposit, and bonds.