Conventional investing wisdom says that if you're looking for income from your portfolio, you should buy bonds. Thanks to the market meltdown of 2008, however, stocks may well have become a better way to earn income from your investments.

That's right: For the first time in 50 years, the S&P 500 index offers investors a higher yield than the 10-Year U.S. Treasury note.

That's in addition to the long-term growth potential that stocks still have going for them -- and in spite of how far they may have fallen in 2008.

Dividends can rise, too
For an investor with a long-term time horizon, it really is a beautiful sight to behold.

See, stocks now have not just two but three things going for them: superior current income, long-term price appreciation, and increasing income.

After all, despite the rash of companies cutting their dividends in 2008, companies can -- and quite often do -- raise their dividends. And a company that consistently raises its dividends over time -- demonstrating that company's solidity and sustainability -- often outperforms the broader market.

Income today, more tomorrow
So if you truly want income in your portfolio, you shouldn't be looking at bonds. You should be looking at stocks that not only pay dividends, but have a history -- and a future -- of raising those dividends.

To see what might fit that bill right now, I ran a screen with the following criteria:

Here are a few of the companies it returned:

Company

Recent Yield

2008 Dividend Increase

Payout Ratio

Waste Management (NYSE: WMI)

3.3%

11.7%

44%

Chevron (NYSE: CVX)

3.5%

11.8%

21%

PepsiCo (NYSE: PEP)

3.3%

18.5%

44%

United Technologies (NYSE: UTX)

3%

15% Continued...