In early 2009, the average AARP member’s 401k balance was $46,200. By the end of last year, the average AARP member’s 401k balance was $77,300.

In 2002, the average was back in the $40,000s or so. In 2007 (and in early 2000) it in the $70,000s.

That means that in the last thirteen years, most people’s 401k plans have round tripped nearly doubling and nearly dropping in half several times.

Apple, Google, Qualcomm, Amazon, and other Revolution Investor stock picks of ours have also had their ups and downs often mirroring the broader markets and the average 401k, but overall are up many multiples vs. all that endless back and forth.

I think it’s always important to have some of these long-term technology revolutionary innovative companies like the ones we have in the portfolio right now. But I also know that so many of you are at or near retirement age and/or you are desperately looking for some yield on your savings instead of or in addition to the long-term tech Revolution Investor approach. And anyway, there’s also room for diversifying our styles in our portfolio.

I’ve combed through the entire stock universe over the last few weeks picking out some of the (relatively) safest, (relatively) highest-yielding dividend stocks out there. I’ve narrowed it down to ten names, from a few various sectors to further help us diversify.

Now let me be clear that none of these stocks and no other investment in available in the world today with 0% interest rates and currency wars escalating around the globe are safe in the way that your old 6% CD at the local bank was paying you in a low inflation environment. What worked for the last last couple generations of savers isn’t applicable today. Unfortunately for any responsible saver and citizen of this country.

Having to risk your capital with the possibility of losing some of your principal as the price of your high-yielding stock goes down in a bear market is a reality that nobody can escape while the Republican/Democrat Regime and the banks it serves force the “risk trade” we’ve been talking about lately. That’s exactly what the “risk trade” means — savers, retirees and 401k holders are having to move their money into stocks to find any kind of a decent yield.

So as always, you should use a tranche-approach to buying any of these stocks that I’ve highlighted for their (relatively) safe, (relatively) high-yielding dividends. That means buying about 1/3 as much as you want to eventually expose to each position first and then slowly adding to that over time, especially trying to buy when the markets have tanked and taken your stock down with them.

I do think using a patient, contrarian, tranche approach to building a high-yield stock portfolio is probably about the best way for most people who need some interest bearing income to build toward that in this environment.

I’m going to add some of these to my own portfolio in coming days and weeks.

So, in no particular order, here are my Top Five Best Dividend Stocks on the Planet –

Icahn Enterprises

The company recently announced: “Carl C. Icahn, Chairman of the Board, noted that as part of its fiduciary duties, the Board regularly evaluates whether it is in the best interest of IEP and its unit holders to declare and pay a quarterly dividend. Dividends are declared at the discretion of the Board. The new dividend policy reflects the confidence of the Board in the IEP business strategy and the strength of its operating businesses.”

Love or hate Carl Icahn (I have met him and listened to him talk several times and he’s a cut-throat, but pretty darn upfront, candid hard man, but I often like people like that), the 7% yield in this stock gives some of what Warren Buffett would call a safety buffer. This company is a holding company for lots of Icahn’s activist ownership, and this comes with risks that aren’t there for companies that operate real businesses.

Intel 

Intel’s yield is more than twice the Treasury rate right now. Obviously the decline of the PC market that Intel long dominated is weighing on this stock and there’s plenty of risk that Intel doesn’t ever catch up to the ARM/QCOM/BRCM dominance in the mobile computing world. That said, Intel’s investing billions more than anybody else in the future of mobile computing and I think they’ll be a major player for a very long time to come.

Silicon Motion Technology Corp.

It’s a fabless semi company in storage and comm, and Samsung accounts for 35% of revenues. The good news it that Samsung is probably the best customer in tech world these days. The bad news is that I think Samsung is presently being knocked off that throne and that means SIMO would get hurt if Samsung’s growth starts to falter.  But you are compensated for that risk nicely at these levels, as the stock trades at $13 and it comes with $5 cash per share, no debt, and 5.1% yield. 15% rev growth $2 in eps for 2013, which is back end loaded. So exits year at $2.75 is run rate if company outlook happened as planned.

Verizon

I used to work in the telecom industry and even helped design and model out a couple Fiber-to-the-Home and Free-Space-Optics networks back in NYC nearly fifteen years ago. I’ve long explained how Verizon is the best-run, most revolutionary of the stale old big telecom companies. AT&T is second best and also has a great yield. I wish these companies wouldn’t waste their shareholder’s money on stock buybacks and would instead pay down debt and build their cash cushion even further. But the yield and cash-flow here are long-running and rather safe.

General Mills

Inflation, especially for food is running much higher than as reported by our Republican/Democrat Regime bean counters say it is. And it will get much worse in coming years. General Mills has a long history of maximizing cash flows and dividends and growth throughout the wild ups and downs of food inflation in the past and with a 3% plus yield, you get a decent dividend.