A dividend is basically a forced sale of a stock. If a bank gives you 6% interest on your deposit you have your initial deposit plus your 6% yearly interest. With a dividend you end up with the stock price minus the dividend.

> $2,000. Buy around 100 or so shares of Union Bankshares, Inc. (one of the "high dividend" stocks from this Yahoo article) for example. It says the quarterly yield on these shares amounts to around 6.41%

Let me illustrate. You invest $2000 stock and then they pay out 6.5% dividend ($130). Now you have $1870 stock and $130 of dividend. By default meaning you end up with $2000 stock exactly where you started, but it gets better! Now you have pay taxes on the $130 dividend.

I'm not saying to avoid stocks that pay dividend, it just isn't something you should seek out.