I think of dividends as a form of arbitrage and discipline.

Management companies who give out a steady dividend and know that that's an expectation are probably more conservative given that constraint versus some companies without a dividend with management that will try to diworsify. In cases of companies with large ownership managers, it also sort of helps to align shareholders with upper management.

Wrt arbitrage, regardless of the stock valuation, there will always be that percentage of the dividend that is coming directly from the company's cash. As such I feel it works to align valuation as a weak(?) form of arbitrage so to speak.

Then there's also what others have mentioned which is that you get a certain check by default every year versus having to think about things and deciding what to sell.

That said I totally agree that you can't completely take your eye off the ball. But I don't think there's any harm in having some proportion of your portfolio in a dividend achiever etf, or similar

Berkshire Hathaway FAQ

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