Why so hard up about dividends
The interesting about the recent change in people's taste, is that more and more people want to get their money back or having something (like a payout) that is regular. Thus more people are going into dividends. The fact that recently the market is heading fluctuating also shows how time and time again that most people are always affected by the short term volatility.
But as some of our guys have mentioned,
1) there are dividends that are paid out of NAV
2) dividends not paid from NAV
3) dividends that are fixed in payout, no matter how much their stocks or funds cost
4) dividends that gives out % of their NAV
Hardly any single stock companies can cushion any kind of crisis or financial storm. But if you were to look into funds, those that are have dynamic assets and have tactical allocation, allows the fund managers to switch around (different asset classes) to cushion depending on the type of industry issues. (example like the oil and equity markets are now weakening) Those stocks are in the market (IPO) will be sensitive. Then you will have to filter those that are capable (these goes towards long term) and that are violatile (which wouldnt make sense for dividend investment, only buying low and high sell). If you want to go towards dividends, my advice is those stable companies, or into tactic funds or private companies that are not violatile to industries like oil and a few others
my 2 cents