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10 Stocks I am Retiring On

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A retirement portfolio needs businesses that can keep rewarding shareholders long after the current market narrative fades. Dividends show how important those quieter sources of return can be: according to S&P Dow Jones Indices research cited in our coverage of Dividend Aristocrat stocks, dividends have accounted for roughly 31% of the S&P 500’s total return since 1926, with capital appreciation accounting for the remaining 69%. In the 1940s and 1970s, dividend income accounted for more than half of total returns. The lesson is not that every retirement investment must pay dividends, but rather that long-term shareholder gains can come from sources other than rising share prices.

Warren Buffett offers a useful test for that level of dedication. He has advised investors to buy only what they would “perfectly happy to hold if the market shut down for 10 years.” Rather than relying on the potential to sell tomorrow, investors should consider how much the underlying business may make over a decade. That business-owner perspective is the common thread running through Insider Monkey’s discussion of Warren Buffett’s best long-term stocks to buy.

For retirement investors, the distinction between a high starting dividend and an increasing dividend is crucial. The S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats index requires components to have increased dividends for at least 25 years in a row. This is a record that spans numerous economic cycles, though it doesn’t guarantee future growth. Insider Monkey’s analysis of dividend growth stocks to buy and hold in 2026 looked at 68 such companies and evaluated their five-year average dividend growth rates.

Of course, financial strength is just as important as payout record. A dividend competes with debt repayments, capital spending, and other financial requirements. Liabilities are broader than debt, but the comparison shows the type of liquidity cushion worth considering alongside dividend yield.

Our Methodology

For this article, we looked through financial websites such as The Motley Fool, Seeking Alpha, Yahoo Finance, and 24/7 Wall St. for journalists and experts that say a stock is the one they are retiring on, building their retirement portfolio around, or plan on holding for life. We included a stock only if at least two different sources supported it, and for each stock, we explain who made the assertion and what their thesis is. We then rated the 10 stocks that satisfied this criteria in ascending order of hedge fund ownership. We also list each stock’s short interest and number of hedge fund holders as of Q2 2026, allowing investors to see whether hedge funds agree with these retirement picks.

Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Insider Monkey’s quarterly newsletter strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 599.2% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 372 percentage points (see more details here).

10. Enbridge Inc. (NYSE:ENB)

Short Interest: 1.14%

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 31

Enbridge Inc. is North America’s largest pipeline operator, and its stock is priced based on cash flow rather than earnings. The third-quarter results, released on November 6, were steady. Adjusted EBITDA increased by 4% to C$4.43 billion, while distributable cash flow (DCF) surged by C$123 million to C$2.69 billion. However, adjusted net income of C$1.07 billion fell short of the C$1.10 billion projection. Management reiterated its 2026 DCF guidance of C$5.70 to C$6.10 per share, expecting to finish at the midpoint.

The company’s income profile explains why Motley Fool contributor Matt DiLallo picked Enbridge among the companies he planned to buy in his retirement account in February 2025. His thesis focused on consistent dividend growth: a distribution of 60% to 70% of reliable cash flow, an investment-grade balance sheet, and retained cash for future expansion. He saw the combination as a way to increase retirement income without relying just on share price appreciation.

A few details soften the picture. Debt-to-EBITDA grew to 5.1x, exceeding the 4.5x to 5.0x target. Enbridge recently completed a $3 billion equity offering to fund $3.65 billion in acquisitions. CEO Greg Ebel will retire at the end of the year, with Michele Harradence taking over on January 1. The more serious issue is rising interest expenditure, which is a true cash cost and makes balance-sheet discipline critical to the dividend premise. Insider Monkey asked as to why the shares were trading roughly 18% lower than their high, despite the fact that revenue had nearly doubled prior to the report. Read about it here.

9. Brookfield Asset Management Ltd. (NYSE:BAM)

Short Interest: 5.49%

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 32

Brookfield Asset Management Ltd. earns fees from a growing portfolio of infrastructure, energy, credit, and private equity capital. Fee-related earnings (FRE) rose 15% to $864 million, or $0.54 per share, in the third quarter, with trailing twelve-month FRE reaching $2.05 per share at a margin of 55%. Distributable earnings increased 15% to $763 million, while BAM earned $48 million in carried interest, the first significant amount since the spinout.

That said, growth is receding after a strong second quarter. FRE growth decreased from 20% to 15%, third-quarter fundraising fell to $25 billion from a record $30 billion a year earlier, and fee-bearing capital growth slowed to 13% at $682 billion, down from 19% in the previous quarter. Deployment also decreased to $18 billion from $23 billion. Year-to-date fundraising remains at $123 billion, while the Bloom Energy AI power framework has risen fivefold to $25 billion. Read about who takes the risk in the Bloom deal here.

In his March 2026 Seeking Alpha article, Leo Nelissen made the case for retirement. He picked Brookfield Asset Management for its asset-light fee income, its hard-to-replicate infrastructure exposure, and its capacity to double its business in five years. He contended that increasing fee-bearing capital may promote both income and capital appreciation.

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