While this is great, investors know that passive income can never be guaranteed. This is especially true if the company is going through a hard period of trading. But that’s why I believe it only makes sense to support companies that have a solid track record of returning cash to their committed shareholders every year (or almost every year).

Powerful passive income

FTSE100 energy supplier National Network (LSE: NG) is an obvious example due to its long history of paying dividends to people willing to take the risk of owning shares of individual companies. Importantly, this company is also in great shape when it comes to increasing the amount of money it distributes.

Now I said “great”. I didn’t say “perfect”. Investors are now braced for a infrequent interest rate cut in FY25. This comes after Grid announced it would raise £7 billion to accelerate the transition to renewables.

As painful as it may be, the forecast dividend yield is still 4.9%. This is significantly more than a fund tracking the FTSE 100. It looks like it could easily be covered by the expected return as well.

As a utility company, National Grid also seems to me to be a relatively sheltered option if (and that’s a huge “if”) the UK economy gets into trouble in 2025. After all, we all need access to electricity.

By owning its shares, investors will make money on this relationship.

Defensive dividends

Another top-tier titan that offers an attractive combination of reliability and growth when it comes to dividends is a defense company BAE systems (LSE: BA). We’re talking about year-over-year increases going back decades.

Honestly, I’d be amazed if this didn’t continue. Geopolitical concerns have intensified as the Ukraine-Russian conflict drags on, forcing nations to boost spending budgets to protect themselves. From a pure investment standpoint, this is great news for the industry, and BAE has been busy signing deals left, right and center.

So what’s the catch? Well, the projected profitability for 2025 is at a fairly average level of 3%. Interestingly, the company’s stock has also dropped 13% in the last month. I suspect some of the latter may be due to management sticking to the previous earnings growth guidance in the last trading statement.

However, being more reliable than most sources of passive income that can be maintained “forever”, I think it takes some effort.

Monster performance

For even greater income diversification, investors should consider purchasing a financial services provider Legal and general (LSE: LGEN). This gives it the highest projected yield of the three stocks mentioned here: a monstrous 9.4%. With equal positions, this would give us a very good average return of 5.8% for all three stocks!

Of course, there is no such thing as a free lunch. The key risk is that the Legal Department and the General Department are more exposed to macroeconomic problems than the other two departments. To prove this, it was forced to stick a knife into the dividend stream during the Great Financial Crisis.

On a positive note, the dividend has been steadily increasing for 15 years. I just don’t see how management would want to disrupt this trend, especially if the UK economy has a fit 2025.

In addition, demand for stocks should boost as interest rates fall and cash savings lose the appeal.