There are no certainties or guarantees in the stock market. But there are some companies that have track records so solid that you could feel comfortable about investing in them and then not checking back on their performance until 2046, if you had to.
For me, that list of stocks would include Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ: COST), which pays both regular quarterly dividends and the occasional large special dividend. It would also include reliable income stock Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO), and Walmart (NASDAQ: WMT), a retailer with plenty of stock price appreciation potential. Those last two are also both Dividend Kings, a title they’ve earned by raising their payouts annually for at least 50 consecutive years.
Missed AI’s “Act 1”? Act 2 Could Be 14x Bigger. Most investors think they missed the AI boat because they didn’t buy Nvidia in 2005. But according to our analysts, we’re only at the end of “Act 1″—the R&D phase. “Act 2” is the global rollout. Continue »
Between them, they offer a unique collection of companies to split a $7,500 investment budget evenly among that can reliably boost the income generation of any portfolio over the next two decades, and anchor it during tough economic environments,
Investing $2,500 in Coca-Cola
As of this writing, Coca-Cola shares have climbed 23% so far in 2026, easily outperforming the nearly 12% return of the S&P 500. The beverage giant is also outperforming rival PepsiCo, which is down about 12% this year.
What’s helping spur those gains is that Coca-Cola is finding success by coming up with new twists on its established offerings, which bodes well for its future. In the second quarter of 2026, it saw 16% volume growth in its Coca-Cola Zero Sugar line, as well as a 20% volume increase in its relaunched Mr. Pibb brand.
Its product portfolio includes far more than sodas, however, as it has expanded over the years into an array of other beverage categories. Its water, sports, coffee, and tea segment showed some of the strongest volume growth among its divisions, climbing 6%. That shows it’s currently meeting consumer demand, but it’s also well positioned, through the diversity of its beverage lineup, to handle shifts in consumer tastes.
What Coca-Cola offers as an income stock is reliability. It has boosted its dividend payout for 63 consecutive years, and at the current share price, the dividend currently yields 2.4%. Based on its Sept. 30 closing price of $86.08, a $2,500 investment in Coca-Cola would buy a little more than 29 shares (assuming your broker offers fractional investing, which most now do).
