The are hundreds of stocks that pay dividends that can be bought and sold on a variety of security exchanges across the world.
While there are plenty of available dividend paying stocks to pick from, many of them are actually bad investments.
You may ask - How can this be? A stock that can pay out a dividend must be a good company.
That statement could not be further from the truth.
That facts are the stocks that pay dividends can come from well managed companies as well as organizations on the brink of going under.
Simply picking a stock with a double digit dividend yield may be an easy way to lose your entire investment.
An income dividend investor must be aware of the risks involved in chasing high yields and look for quality companies instead.
There are some steps that you can take to find stocks that pay dividends from good companies.
Take a look at the basic steps below that can help you start thinking differently about high dividend yielding stocks.

1. Find a Stock Screener - Stock screeners come in all different shapes, sizes, and costs.
   There are plenty of viable stock tools you can find for FREE online.
   You may also want to try and see if your online discount broker offers any of these tools as part of your account Often times the stock investing software provided by a broker is far superior to that of a FREE online tool.
   
2. Filter on Dividend Yield - Once you find your stock investing tool of choice, you need to decide on your filter criteria to find stocks that pay dividends.
   One of the most important pieces of data to filter on is referred to as the Dividend Yield.
   This value represents the total dividend payout over the past 12 months divided by the current share price.
   To find the best dividend paying stocks, a good rule of thumb is to filter stocks that have a 2% - 5% dividend yield.
   
3. Enter Additional Stock Criteria - While dividend yield is critical to finding quality dividend paying stocks, you will probably want to include some additional filter criteria.
   You may want to look for stocks that pay dividends that trade above a certain price or volume.
   Maybe you want to look for stocks that consistently have high growth projections? These are just some of the different types of criteria you can add to your search.
   
4. Analyze your Results - The next step to find quality stocks that pay dividends is to analyze your results.
   If investing was easy, all you would need to do is take your filter results and begin purchasing stock.
   Unfortunately, a stock screening tool can provide mixed results.
   While these stock investing tools can be leveraged to make trading easier, they should never be replaced with good old fashioned due diligence!

Final Thoughts The details provided above are a few simple steps that you can take to find quality stocks that pay dividends.
As you become more familiar with investing in high yielding securities and your comfort level grows, you may want to consider adding more criteria.
Always remember to complete your own due diligence on a stock, regardless of what any stock investing software or analyst may tell you.