The housing collapse combined with the new credit squeeze is about to trigger a dividend-cutting frenzy throughout all sectors.

The big shock will hit when second-quarter earnings are announced, and if you haven't repositioned your assets by then, your dreams of a comfortable retirement will turn into a nightmare.

If you want to protect yourself and profit from the dividend cuts headed your way, you must take action now — because the slide has already begun.

Here's what I mean:

• 2009 is already on track to be a record year for dividend cuts, with over 100 companies in the S&P 500 either cutting or killing their dividends in the last twelve months.
  
  
• It's only going to get worse, now that relatively healthy financial giant J.P. Morgan cut its dividend by 87%. And General Electric cut its dividend by 68%, the first cut since The Great Depression.
  
  
• Many big-name non financials that looked solid on paper are now following suit. Ingersoll Rand has slashed their dividends by 61%, leaving their investors in the lurch. Our research shows more dividend cuts are on the way.
  

The bottom line is this: Bad debt, the continuing credit squeeze and falling revenues in every industry have created a corporate cash crunch that's now spreading beyond the financial sector. The result has been to put pressure on struggling companies to slash dividends or face the consequences. (Make your cash work for you again — details here.)

The chain reaction will inevitably undermine the prices of hundreds of cash-paying dividend stocks… blindsiding investors who've been lured in by higher-yielding shares.

If you don't sell these stocks now, you could find yourself living on skid row as your income collapses and with it your future wealth.

NEXT: Big-Name Stocks to Sell Now