Are 'Safe' Dividend Growth Stocks Really All That Safe?

The terms "safe" and "bubble" are probably two of the most overused, yet non-defined words you will find as part of today's investment vernacular. On the surface, their meanings are essentially antonyms. The latter synonymous with a sell or bearish analysis, the former, a more bullish take.
While I'd argue that the "bubble" blowers (so to speak) in the income investing arena have lost a lot of credibility given their propensity to cry wolf over the past near-decade, the concept of "safe" seems to have also picked up a lot of steam as of late. That, by itself, should have you concerned.
On the surface, regardless of one's personal definition of what constitutes "safe," I personally find it paradoxical that safe is ever used in conjunction with any income equity. If one wants to say that an FDIC-insured cash account is safe or an AAA-rated corporate bond is pretty safe, I'd buy into that.
Dividend Growth Safety
Whatever your personal view towards safety, there seems to be a belief that a dividend growth stock with a long track record of paying rising dividends constitutes low risk, perhaps even safety, relatively speaking. This would be as compared to a company with less of a dividend paying track record or one with a history of freezes, cuts, or eliminations.
I'd agree that DG is probably one of the "safer" equity strategies investors employ. How safe DG is compared to money markets and... Read more