In the meantime, consider … The Inherent Relative Safety That Dividend Stocks Provide … It’s a fact: During weak markets, shares that pay dividends tend to hold up far better than their non-paying counterparts. In 2002, the S&P 500 broad stock market index fell 23 percent. Shares of non-payers in the index fell 30 percent. And the dividend-payers dropped just 11 percent. In 2008, the worst year for stocks since the Great Depression, the same general trend held yet again. Dividend stocks outperformed non-payers by roughly six percentage points. And that’s just speaking in generalities … a well-chosen list of dividend stocks can do even better. For example, the sum…