My mother, at 84 years, has been DRIPing her banks shares for longer than I can remember. The annual dividend is higher than her ACB. For total return, dividends pay off in spades.

Plus dividend yields, on average, are very high right now. The S&P 500 is paying 2.2% while a 10 year US treasury pays 1.5%. Dividend paying stocks are dirt cheap right now across the board ... that is also partly why noone is buying mining stocks ... increasing costs, decreasing commodity prices, squeezing margins and piddly dividends do not make them attractive right now relative to the overall investment space.