REITs, BDCs and others are required by law to pay dividends. If a company can't pay you, why own it? Income/cash flow is king. Now, sometimes it does mean exactly that. In those cases (big tobacco) the dividends are very rich. 8% plus. I'm over 50, so I like income. I don't want to liquidate shares when I need cash.
Some symbols. SRC, LNC, ET, HASI, CCI, HIW, CTO. Thats a handful that i own. They all come with varying risk profiles. They all pay fat dividends that are pretty damn secure. They all have pretty good upside when the market decides to move forward (when the feds stop hiking most likely).