I think if you're too focused on US-based investments, you're going to be in a bad way regardless. If you don't have a Roth IRA already, you should have one and max it out before you even begin to think of a traditional brokerage.

If you want safe dividends for a cushion, it makes more sense to have a High-Yield Savings Account paying out ~4% per year, monthly, and having growth-focused retirement accounts (preferably a balance of US and international, ie something like VT). Dividend stock investing only really makes sense if you already have 6 months to a year's worth of expenses in a HYSA already and a maxxed out Roth IRA and 401K focused on asset growth.

To challenge you slightly: what are your tax reasons for focusing on dividends? People commonly misunderstand the comparative tax implications of dividend vs total return investing. In most cases focusing on dividends is suboptimal both in terms of return and diversification.

Zooming out, there’s key pieces missing here: what are your goals with your investing? What is your current financial situation?

My blanket advice for generic scenarios would be:

• If your taxable brokerage position isn’t large, consider building an emergency fund of 6-12 months
• Pick a simple, diversified, and easy to automate investment allocation (eg. a three fund portfolio)
• Outline your goals, investments are a means and not an end unto themselves
• Sketch out a rough path from today to your goal so you’re not navigating blindly

curious as to the significance of mentioning "linux user" lol