Want Income for Life? Here Are 3 Stocks to Buy Now and Never Sell.

Finding a good dividend stock to buy at any given time usually isn't too tough. Finding one you can buy and hold forever, however, is a different story. The matter of longevity comes into play. You want to be sure the underlying company has the longevity required to not only continue paying its dividend, but to reliably raise its dividend payments at least in step with inflation. That's a taller order.

Nevertheless, these dividend names are out there. Here's a closer look at three of them.

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Pfizer

Given the company's struggle since the easing of the COVID-19 pandemic undermined a fantastic but short-lived franchise, some investors might be surprised that drugmaker Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) earned a spot on this list. But it has, particularly since newcomers will be plugging into a healthy forward-looking dividend yield of 6.9%.

Although it'll be a while until investors can clearly see it, this pharmaceutical giant is developing multiple new profit centers. It acquired Seagen in 2023, for instance, largely for its oncology pipeline. This pipeline includes cancer-fighting Padcev, which was recently approved as a treatment for muscle-invasive bladder cancer when used in conjunction with Merck's Keytruda.

Pfizer has said it expects to bring at least eight new blockbuster drugs (drugs that generate in excess of $1 billion in revenue per year) to the market by 2030, funded by a combination of acquisitions and in-house development.

It's also moving deeper into the fast-growing obesity drug space, largely with the late-2025 acquisition of Metsera. Metsera's MET-097i is particularly promising. Like Eli Lilly's Zepbound and Novo Nordisk's Wegovy, it's a GLP-1 drug. Unlike weekly-dosed Wegovy and Zepbound, MET-097i is showing efficacy with only a monthly dose. This gives Pfizer an opportunity to enter a weight-loss drug market that Mordor Intelligence expects to be worth $133 billion per year by 2031 with a distinctly different, more convenient option.

It's not as if Pfizer hasn't pushed through similar hardships before. Lipitor, Lyrica, and Viagra were all blockbuster drugs at one point, and Pfizer found a way to overcome the expiration of their patent protection with the development of new ones.

Coca-Cola

Pfizer might be an unexpected addition to a list of dividend stocks to buy and never sell. But Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO) certainly isn't. The beverage giant's not only paid a quarterly dividend like clockwork for decades, it has raised its quarterly per-share payment every year for the past 64 years, with no end to the streak in sight.

It's not difficult to figure out why, either. Its beverages (which include Gold Peak tea, Powerade sports drink, Minute Maid juice, Dasani water, and its namesake cola, just to name a few) are consumer staples that people purchase over and over, with demand never severely affected by nominal price increases.

That being said, a nuance further protects Coca-Cola's dividend-supporting cash flow, and it's mostly unappreciated because it goes largely unnoticed. It's the company's business model.

Contrary to a common assumption, Coca-Cola does very little of its own bottling these days. It punts most of this work -- and cost, and risk -- to third-party bottling partners so it can focus on what it does best. That's marketing. It just so happens that simply selling its concentrated flavor syrups remains a high-margin business, even when bottling and distributing ready-to-drink beverages doesn't.

Brookfield Renewable

Finally, if you're looking for a lifetime of reliable income from holdings you'll probably never need to sell, consider a stake in Brookfield Renewable (NYSE: BEPC).

This company oversees a collection of partially and wholly owned stakes in several renewable energy outfits that generate recurring income. Some of its existing holdings include power wholesaler Geronimo Power, wind and solar power company Scout Clean Energy, and the Goose Prairie solar farm in Moxee, Washington.

Brookfield has also directly partnered with Microsoft and Alphabet's Google to provide both companies' data centers with electricity, with an agreement with Google to provide it with 3 gigawatts of hydropower. This is just a sampling of its portfolio, of course.

The nature of this mix of holdings is no minor detail. Unlike most mutual funds and all investors, Brookfield Renewable can forge private partnerships, make outright acquisitions, and even steer such dealmaking. This ultimately allows the company to structure its assets in a way that supports reliable dividends and reliable dividend growth.

To this end, the relatively young organization aims to produce annual per-share payout growth of between 5% and 9%, contributing to net annual returns of between 12% and 15%. There's no reason to think it can't do so, given the organization's flexible structure paired with the planet's growing preference for renewable energy.

Newcomers would be stepping in while the stock's forward-looking yield stands at a respectable 4.6%.

James Brumley has positions in Alphabet and Coca-Cola. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Eli Lilly, Merck, Microsoft, Novo Nordisk, and Pfizer. The Motley Fool recommends Brookfield Renewable. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.