The key with this income stream is that nothing has to happen for you to get it. In fact, something bad has to happen for you not to get it. If the company you bought the bond from has financial problems, it could default on the bond payments. If the company you have shares in has negative earnings for a while, they could miss dividend payments. The risk of the investment is the likelihood of an event happening that could prevent you from getting the income flow.
Investors judge investments by fundamental guidelines.
When you are speculating, you are buying into a hoped for event. Unlike investing, something has to happen for you to make money. In fact, if this something does not happen, you will most likely lose money. When you buy stock in your typical Internet company today, there is no dividend, and usually there are no earnings. The speculator hopes for an event to happen in the future that will cause the speculation it to have real value.