If you are becoming a bit skittish after the recent prodigious stock gains, but have the good sense to avoid abandoning stocks, you might consider becoming a bit more defensive in your stock holdings. One way to do this is to seek out stocks that pay dividends. While doing so won't protect you from the pain of losses should the market head downward, the past has shown that dividend paying stocks tend to hold up better than those companies that spend all of their earnings. There is another element in this investment environment that makes dividend stocks attractive.  Earning dividends of 2% or more on quality stocks is like a king's ransom compared with the Lilliputian interest paid on the likes of money market funds and Treasury bills.  Of course, you can always go out an buy individual dividend-paying stocks, but if you'd like to spread your money around among a lot of dividend-paying stocks, mutual funds or exchange-traded funds ETFs) are the answer.  If you concur with my reasoning, here are my recommendations. 

-  Bridgeway Large-Cap Value (BRLVX)

-  Gabelli Equity Income AAA (GABEX)

-  Homestead Value (HOVLX)

-  Vanguard Dividend Growth (VDIGX)

-  SPDR S&P Dividend (SDY)

-  Vanguard Dividend Appreciation ETF (VIG).