u.s. interest rates

With interest rates at an all-time low, high-yield dividend stocks have replaced bonds as the best option to provide a stream of income in a portfolio. What's more, they deliver the added perk of equity ownership for potential growth. But dividend yield can also be a trap - if a company's share price drops because it's not performing well, while the dividend remains the same, the percent yield will rise. That's why investing based on high-yield as the sole metric isn't always wise.

To get around that problem, investors can examine other metrics besides yield.