One of the more frustrating aspects of owning ASX dividend shares is the fact that the income that dividend shares generate is never guaranteed. Even if an ASX dividend share showers its shareholders with dividends one year, there could be a dividend drought the next.
That makes using dividend shares to fund a retirement or generate a passive income stream a difficult endeavour.
Fortunately, although no dividend share is 'safe' for investors seeking income, some are safer than others.
To illustrate, let's talk about two ASX dividend shares where the dividends just don't seem to stop arriving in investors' bank accounts like clockwork.
2 ASX dividend shares that don't stop paying their investors
Brickworks Limited (ASX: BKW)
Brickworks is an ASX 200 construction materials company. But it also invests in other assets like property and other ASX shares. As such, Brickworks is a company with a remarkably stable earnings base — and one it has been able to consistently nurture over decades.
That's despite its primary business of manufacturing bricks and other building materials being highly cyclical in nature.
In fact, Brickworks has one of the best dividend histories on the ASX. This ASX 200 share hasn't given its investors a dividend cut in more than four decades. It has also given investors an annual dividend pay rise almost every single year over this long history.
Brickworks' current dividend yield of 2.7% might not look too special on the surface. But when you consider the impressive long-term performance of the Brickworks dividend, it starts looking very special indeed.
Washington H. Soul Pattinson and Co Ltd (ASX: SOL)
Soul Patts is another ASX 200 dividend share that has a very proud payout history. This income share doesn't quite have a 40-year-plus track record of not cutting its dividend. But it does have the best ongoing streak of annual dividend rises on the ASX 200.
Soul Patts is an investing conglomerate at its heart. It invests in a large portfolio of assets, including other ASX shares, that it manages on behalf of its shareholders.
It has been able to do this so successfully that the company has given its investors an annual dividend pay rise every single year since 2000. Not even Brickworks can boast a streak that long.
This trend continued in 2022, with Soul Patts forking outs its largest annual dividend ever at 72 cents per share, fully franked.
Again, this company's current dividend yield of 2.58% won't catch too many eyes at first glance. But it hides Soul Patts' impressive and unrivalled track record of providing passive income to its investors.
