Not exactly, this is where we see whether the counters you have chosen are resilient enough for you to use them as your income generators for retirement. When the economy is bad, we can see how far/much the counter reduces the dividend payout.

And then this is where your asset allocation strategy will come in and whether you have diversified enough or correctly to ensure you are still getting a certain percentage of the dividends vs the time when the economy was good.

The recent 2008/9 has been a good time to observe which were the counters that were resilient in their dividend payouts.

Anyway, good counters will still maintain their dividend payouts even in downturn times, no sweat. Furthermore, if economy is bad, everything also goes down, expenses, other asset classes, etc. Hence, all will go down together, it will sort of balances up.

" Choosing a good counter really important.... Agree "

Winfai, there is no better time to see if the counter you have chosen is good or not, against when there is an economic downturn, and you observe closely which counters fall. Then you will know which counter to buy from thereon.

If you are retired today, and have taken up a number of counters to provide you dividend income, then a downturn hits, you will never know if your income generators will stand unless you have gone through the above cycle that I have mentioned.