Dividend investing is always top of mind for many investors, but the process of building a portfolio can be complicated. It's critical to find high-yielding stocks that have safe dividends and, ideally,

Honeywell International Inc. (NASDAQ:HON), one of the best innovative stocks that pay dividends, has raised its payouts 14 times in the past 13 consecutive years. The company’s quarterly dividend currently sits at $1.08 per share for a dividend yield of 2.14%, as of September 18.

With the Federal Reserve expected to enter a long-tailed rate-cutting cycle, dividend-paying stocks with yields above the 3% mark are under the spotlight. For instance, AT&T (NYSE: T), a longtime favorite among income investors, has seen its stock surge approximately 30% year to date, outpacing the benchmark S&P 500.

That's exactly what has happened with Nvidia. Over the past year, Nvidia stock is up by 166% as the surge in AI investment has been a massive tailwind to the business. On the other hand, even including its massive dividend yield, the YieldMax NVDA Option Income Strategy ETF is up by about 105%. That's 61 percentage points of underperformance.

The Allstate Corporation (NYSE:ALL), one of the best unstoppable stocks, has been growing its dividends consistently for the past 14 years. The company pays a quarterly dividend of $0.92 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.97%, as of September 9.

These five dividend stocks have among the largest payouts, perfect for passive income generation, and offer the best current entry points.