If I were retired, I would make sure to keep investing in ASX dividend shares to fund a comfortable lifestyle with passive income that would ideally last as long as I needed it to. But I wouldn't just invest in any dividend-paying share if I was in this fortunate position.
For retirees, income certainty is one of the most important traits that a dividend share can possess. After all, we wouldn't want to have any unexpected passive income droughts in our golden years just because a company decides to cut its dividend.
So with that in mind, here are two ASX dividend shares I would happily buy if I were retired today for 2024 and beyond
2 ASX dividend shares I would buy for passive income in 2024
Telstra Group Ltd (ASX: TLS)
First up is a company we'd probably all know (and may or may not love), Telstra. Retirees who have been relying on dividends for many years might have bad memories of Telstra's dividend cuts back in 2016 and 2017.
However, the Telstra of today is a completely different beast, with the woes of the NBN rollout well behind it.
Today, the telco easily maintains its role at the top of the Australian mobile and broadband markets. Telstra is simply the preferred provider of telecommunication services in the country.
According to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), the company has a near-41% share of total NBN connections. Its closest rival, TPG Telecom Ltd (ASX: TPG), has just a 21.3% share. The numbers are similar when it comes to mobile connections.
That makes this company extremely resilient, in my view. Telstra maintained its dividend all throughout the pandemic and even gave investors a pay rise last year.
What's more, Telstra shares offer an attractive and fully-franked dividend yield of almost 4.3% today.
Transurban Group (ASX: TCL)
Next up, we have another company most city dwellers may know if not love. Transurban is the largest toll road operator in the country. It runs almost every toll road in Sydney, as well as several across Melbourne and Brisbane.
If you regularly motor around any of these major cities, you'd be familiar with how hard it is to avoid paying Transurban for the privilege.
Most of the company's roads are major arterial routes. But even better (for investors, not motorists), Transurban has generous provisions built into most of its long-term contracts for these toll roads.
Most allow the company to increase its tolls every quarter by at least the rate of inflation. Some even allow increases at the rate of inflation or 4%, whichever is higher.
All this makes Transurban a fantastic and reliable ASX passive income payer, in my view, and one perfect for a retiree. Today, the company has a chunky trailing yield of 4.68% on the table.
