The right income stocks can be game changers for investors, rewarding them with exponential profits every year. In this article Tim Plaehn recommends three stocks that have histories of regular payment increases which gives investors expanding incomes.​ These stocks are the kind you can buy and hold forever.

A great time to buy into or add to a REIT position is just before a dividend increase is announced. With those REITs that have a history of steady dividend growth, a company will declare a new dividend rate, pay that rate for a year and then announce a new, higher rate after four level quarterly payments or 12 monthly dividends.

Each REIT follows its own schedule as to when a new dividend rate may be announced. Some companies will increase the dividend near the end of the year. Others will do so with the fourth quarter earnings announcement in February or March and start paying a higher rate at the end of the first quarter. Another tactic is to announce dividend increases in the middle of the year. Whatever pattern an individual REIT uses, it tends to be repeated year after year.

For investors, dividend increases offer several different opportunities. If you have a short term trading focus (such as the trade recommendations in my 30 Day Dividends newsletter), the anticipation of or actual announcement of a dividend hike can drive up the share price in a relatively short period of time.

Buying a REIT of interest before the next rate hike can produce a share price increase that puts your holding quickly into the positive gain territory. Having that positive result sitting in your brokerage account helps you stick with your dividend-focused investment strategy and sleep well at night. As an example, one of our core holdings in The Dividend Hunter is healthcare REIT Ventas, Inc. (NYSE: VTR) and it has a history of an average 9% increase in its dividend, with the new rate announced every December. The VTR share price started climbing soon after the third quarter dividend was paid at the end of September. Investors who knew the dividend hike was coming were able to pick up a 20% share price gain over the last 2 1/2 months.