For example, a $15,000 investment spread equally across leading dividend stocks Kinder Morgan (NYSE: KMI), Verizon (NYSE: VZ), and W. P. Carey (NYSE: WPC) could generate more than $1,000 of annual dividend income. The real estate investment trust (REIT) has a diversified portfolio of operationally critical properties leased to high-quality tenants. It utilizes triple net leases (NNN), which generate stable cash flow that rises each year due to contractual rental-rate escalation clauses (more than half link rents to the inflation rate).