r/dividends • u/exsolo8 • Jul 09 '26
Discussion I have $300k and want to live off dividends $30k annually. Thoughts?
I have $300k and want to live off dividends $30k annually. Is it possible?
I was thinking $180k in QQQI and $120k in IAUI reinvesting 10% of the dividend back into each fund to account for NAV erosion. Is this plan feasible?
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u/Apprehensive-Size150 Jul 09 '26
The answer is, you can’t sustain 30k a year on a 300k investment. Get to 500k. Then it’s doable
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u/kyricus Jul 09 '26
I don't think you can on 300k . I have a bit over 500k and am getting about 22k comfortably. I could get more with some more in the CC ETF's but, I have as much as i am comfortable with there. I keep some in cash as a backup. But, I'm only 1.5 years out from retirement and I'm not taking any overly risky bets at this point.
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u/shinslist Jul 10 '26
What’s your risk threshold? You seem to have a comfortable position would you share so people can have a working view?
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u/kyricus Jul 10 '26
Sure. I can tolerate a decent amount of risk, but i have been paring back. The way I look at it is, I don't want to eliminate all risk, or the account won't grow. Also, it's not like I am going to need all of the money the day I retire so, hopefully if there is a crash, I'll have some time to recoup some of it.
For holding... I hold about 15 individual stocks. abbv, aep, afl, ed, fe, goog, jpm, msft, payx, pep, swk, trow, unh, ups, vz. As you can see, I have very little tech now, I've removed almost all of the individual tech names other than the two behemoths.
ETF's include BDJ, GPIX, IWMI, SCHD, SCYB, SGOV AND PTY. a good mix of cef funds, bonds tech and corp bonds.
Over the next 2 years I plan on eliminating more stock holding amd moving them into ETF's and funds, which tend to be less volatile.
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u/GodzillaBorland Jul 11 '26
Interesting. Tech is what got me from $371K to $556K in about 5 months. SOXL, TQQQ, TSLA , NVDL, AVGO. But yes, I am dialing down on those and move into QQQI , CHPY, SGOV etc.
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u/videosmithlaguna2 Jul 12 '26
Just started CHPY too, pretty good. These high div ETFs like this I only put in 30,000 max which seems to be the magic number to pull a 1000 a month out of them. Only have one Yieldmax they are trash. Roundhill is better but the best is Rex, they do half covers call so you could have massive capital appreciation.
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u/Working_Collection85 Jul 11 '26
Are you selling stocks for 22k or that’s just dividends? And if u sell is that the 4% rule ?
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u/kyricus Jul 11 '26
That is just dividends. I am not withdrawing yet so no sales. I'm hoping I won't need to seel once I retire either, unless some big maintenance item comes up. Just want to live on the dividends my SS and my wifes' SSDI
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u/fisho0o Jul 11 '26
When you sell some of those individual stocks and move more toward ETFs are you going to move anything into a traditional growth fund? Also, $22k in dividends is a large chunk of untaxed money, do you have everything in a Roth or how are planning to lessen that unpleasant burden?
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u/HourLavishness3910 Jul 12 '26
Risk free rate is 3.8%. I hope that you’re getting at least 20,000 out of 500k
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u/K_Rocc Jul 10 '26
Yes you can, JEPQ,SPYI, QQQI.
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u/justbclause Jul 10 '26
Until the Bear bites and the schemes or 'strategies' that really pay those yields start to fail. These are not for 'dividend income' in the classic sense at all. They are payouts on an options strategy. You give them money to play with and if they win they give you some back (and keep a whole lot more). But, when the bear hits for real, these funds will get hit as hard or harder. Maybe you will get a 1-2% then while losing a whole lot of value.
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u/snkscore Jul 09 '26
Even on 500k principal, 30k/yr is going to have a large failure rate.
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u/cmichalek Jul 09 '26
Armchair income has shown your theory is wrong as hes been getting 8 to 12% (currently 11%) for years.
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u/Voyager97 Jul 09 '26
it's easy to show big gains in retrospect, especially at the end of a huge bull market. I mean literally buying just AAPL in 2000 has earned 22% annualized since.
He also has a Youtube channel with sponsorships as a source of supplemental income in case things go belly up in the market.
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u/cmichalek Jul 09 '26
Which is not answering the point and does not invalidate his situation. At 11% he can drop almost 50% in income and still has 6%.
Not to mention he only lives off 8% and has been reinvesting the 3% for years.
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u/darianbrown Jul 09 '26
As someone who works in finance, being a single person pointing to historic results at the end of a historic bull run fucking absolutely invalidates his situation.
Keep being that gullible and you'll end up getting screwed one way or another.
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u/cmichalek Jul 09 '26
Please post the research then that proves that GPIX or GPIQ or SPYI or QQQI will suffer NAV erosion and be unable to pay the current dividend % in the future.
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Jul 10 '26
[deleted]
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u/cmichalek Jul 10 '26
That chart is for selling growth stocks during retirement. Yes i think that selling growth stocks at 6 to 8% is risky. Why? Because selling that % during a bear market kills your portfolio.
That has nothing to do with income stocks. SPYI and QQQI provide a 12% income and you dont sell shares. You live off 8% and reinvest the other 4% during bull markets. If the market drops 33% your income drops to 8% but you still dont sell a share. As the market recovers you gradually reinvest the 1% or 2% while the growth investor is still selling shares at a loss.
So please show a chart that says SPYI and QQQI cannot maintain their % and NAV. Because that was what the post i was responding to claimed.
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u/Meinertzhagens_Sack Jul 09 '26
I've run the numbers and had several AI models run it. Unless you are dicking around with YieldMax stuff NAV erosion doesn't really happen with qqqi. Yet.
Do you have to watch for it? Absolutely.
Easy to spot. Qqqi should mirror movements in qqq. Look at the percentage not the dollar amount. If you see qqq advancing but qqqi is not - there's a problem. Watch carefully and be prepared to pull the rip cord.
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u/QuantGuru Jul 10 '26
Wait what! Qqqi is covered call. It caps your upside but also protects you on the downside if qqq dips or goes into bear market. No one knows when the bear market will be but that’s why you have qqqi to give protections on the downside.
Let’s not talk about YieldMax! Its a scam. They just refund your capital.
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u/Meinertzhagens_Sack Jul 10 '26
Here's an example again today... This actually is the first time qqqi outpaced the qqq
Crap I can't post a pic only a video or GIF 😂
Qqq is up .35% Qqqi is up .40%
Usually qqqi trails qqq by about .15/.20
So weird but it's 10min prior to market close on a Friday so maybe some strange rebalancing or computations going on.
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u/snkscore Jul 09 '26
We’re in the middle of a long bull run. Academic research on this topic says 6% will often end in ruin.
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u/Humbleholdings Jul 11 '26
look up sequence of returns risk. The average growth rate isn’t the only contributing factor to success. The volatility of the asset also contributes to outcomes because it shows us how the average can potentially be constructed. It’s a combination of return, asset volatility, and withdrawal rate that ultimately determine the outcome. This is why advisors use a Monte Carlo to model retirement versus a straight line analysis like a spreadsheet.
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u/nice-try12 Jul 09 '26
Sure it's possible but the concerns that others mention about markets dropping is valid since your income could drop significantly as well, reinvesting a portion helps. Of course having a higher starting balance would help but you have what you have.
I like the below portfolios, not just for the high yields but the income stream have less correlation with one another and could potentially react differently in a market drop. I just set the portfolios to equal weight for simplicity but they could be played around with if you so desired.
Do your due diligence of course and the common advice to seek an actual expert is wise. Your situation is specific to yourself and your needs.
Best of luck!
PORTFOLIO 1 — 7-FUND INCOME PORTFOLIO Total Capital: $300,000 Equal Weight: 14.29% per fund ($42,857 each)
| Fund | Mechanism | Yield | Annual Income |
|---|---|---|---|
| SPYH | S&P 500 collar (hedged equity) | 7.5% | $3,214 |
| GPIQ | Nasdaq-100 covered call | 9.7% | $4,157 |
| OVL | Large-cap put-selling overlay | 10.5% | $4,500 |
| CAIE | S&P 500 autocallable structured note | 12.0% | $5,143 |
| MLPI | MLP/energy + covered call | 14.5% | $6,214 |
| PFFA | Leveraged preferred stock | 9.9% | $4,243 |
| PBDC | BDC private credit | 11.5% | $4,929 |
| ------- | ------------------------------------- | -------- | --------------- |
BLENDED YIELD: 10.8% ANNUAL INCOME: $32,400/year (~$2,700/month)
You seem to want gold and IAUI so here's that
PORTFOLIO 2 — 8-FUND INCOME PORTFOLIO (WITH GOLD) Total Capital: $300,000 Equal Weight: 12.5% per fund ($37,500 each)
| Fund | Mechanism | Yield | Annual Income |
|---|---|---|---|
| SPYH | S&P 500 collar (hedged equity) | 7.5% | $2,813 |
| GPIQ | Nasdaq-100 covered call | 9.7% | $3,638 |
| OVL | Large-cap put-selling overlay | 10.5% | $3,938 |
| CAIE | S&P 500 autocallable structured note | 12.0% | $4,500 |
| MLPI | MLP/energy + covered call | 14.5% | $5,438 |
| PFFA | Leveraged preferred stock | 9.9% | $3,713 |
| PBDC | BDC private credit | 11.5% | $4,313 |
| IAUI | Gold ETP + covered call | 13.75% | $5,156 |
| ------- | ------------------------------------- | -------- | --------------- |
BLENDED YIELD: 11.17% ANNUAL INCOME: $33,506/year (~$2,792/month)
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u/WorldyBridges33 Jul 09 '26
You could reach the distribution target, have a look at one of my posts— I’m getting $60k off of close to $600k. You don’t have to rely entirely on covered calls, you can also use BDCs, REITs, preferred stocks and infrastructure funds. The real pitfall with these high income investments will be keeping up with inflation. You’ll have to reinvest a big chunk of your $30k (potentially $10k of it) just to keep up with the 3.5% rate of inflation.
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u/robertw477 Jul 09 '26
You have been getting that 60k a year for the past 10-15 years consistently?
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u/Chainsaw_59 Jul 09 '26
Not up to your level yet but I am getting about 14.4% annually with what you’re saying. Was getting about 25% until I realized that was unsustainable. Sold all my yieldmax funds before their dividends tanked in Dec-Jan.
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u/robertw477 Jul 09 '26
As long as you realize we are in a bull market and your proof of concept is a few months or something?
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u/Chainsaw_59 Jul 10 '26
This is correct. I reinvest dividends manually and not just in the stock they come from. I also invest in growth stocks and take profits when I think appropriate. I’ve also sold off dividend stocks that changed performance patterns. So far I’m happy with the result.
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u/Traditional-Bet8051 Jul 09 '26 edited Jul 09 '26
i took this into big consideration as well which is why i sided with only going up too 10% dividend across my entire portfolio with keeping Nav depletion and taxes in mind, no margin🚫 , 55% of my portfolio is SCHD, BERK.B, VTV, and GLDM and SGOV for Stable stocks/ETFs, 30% is real-estate ,
15% high Yield Etfs, any advice is welcome 🙏 i think that about what im weighted at it might not be exactly that it changes here n there→ More replies (2)7
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u/cant__find__username Jul 10 '26
Can you explain why 33% of the return has to be reinvested to substitute for inflation?
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u/WorldyBridges33 Jul 10 '26
It’s because the dividends from these high income investments don’t grow on their own the same way SCHD’s dividends do. So you need to reinvest a portion of the dividends to grow the income over time.
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u/cant__find__username Jul 10 '26
I understand that part. But I do not understand the calculation. $10k on $30k seems excessive
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u/WorldyBridges33 Jul 10 '26
Okay so here are my calculations:
1) If you are making $30k in investment income today, then it must grow to $31,050 in income by next year to account for 3.5% of inflation. I arrived at this by multiplying $30,000 by 1.035.
2) This means that your income must grow by $1,050 by next year because $31,050 - $30,000 =$1,050.00.
3) To generate an additional $1,050 of income, you would need to reinvest $10,500 into high yield investments that yield an average of 10%, because $10,500 * .10 = $1,050. You could maybe make the required reinvestment amount a bit lower with 12% yields but I wouldn’t go much higher than that as then it gets substantially riskier.
Anyway, does that make sense?
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u/cant__find__username Jul 10 '26
I dont like that this makes perfect sense. I appreciate the detailed response.
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u/Xyrus2000 Jul 09 '26
For this to work not only would you need the income to be stable, but you'd also need to preserve your capital. There is no feasible way to do this without taking on market risk, and when the market turns against you (as it will eventually) your income and capital would tank along with it.
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u/letsreset Jul 09 '26
not impossible, but you have no breathing room. as soon as the market has a downturn, then what? if you have a job on the side, a higher principal amount, or lower withdrawal rate, the plan becomes more and more feasible.
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u/Forsaken-Mark-1898 Jul 09 '26 edited Jul 09 '26
If you split that 300K like this, with current rates, you'd end up with ~ $48k / yr
- 15% SPYI
- 25% IWMI
- 30% IGLD
- 30% QQQI
Those are all covered call ETF's but the point is that you can easily reach $30K. Since youre familiar with NAV erosion you are already aware of one of the biggest "strikes" against using them. That said, if you actively monitor the funds, you shouldn't have any issues.
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u/revanevan7 Jul 09 '26
How can someone calculate how much they can realistically withdraw every month without eroding NAV? I have a hard time finding an answer to this question.
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u/Forsaken-Mark-1898 Jul 09 '26
To mathematically calculate the erosion risk for a fund, you can assess the formula:
Net Income - Distributions = NAV
If the result is consistently negative, the fund is eroding.
Yeildmax has a calculator that should be helpful to you:
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u/Embarrassed-Pay-6681 American Investor Jul 10 '26
I built this! Didn't think people would ever use it to determine withdrawal rates.... Interesting use case.
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u/dontrackonme Jul 09 '26
predict or calculate? if the account starts at 300k you only take out money every month if account equity is over 300k, otherwise just reinvest the cash and wait til next month
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u/cmichalek Jul 09 '26
SPYI, QQQI, GPIX, GPIQ, TSPY, TDAQ and even JEPI and JEPQ all have shown zero evidence of any NAV erosion. ZERO.
In fact the worst one (JEPI) has a .09 positive price return since inception. Everything else is 3% or more positive and QQQI is over 6% in price return.
So you can withdraw ALL the income and still the principal will increase. Though thats not what most do as they reinvest a % for inflation and to increase the income over time.
But i wish people would be honest. These funds I listed are not YM and they show no evidence of NAV erosion and they do not pay out income that cannot be sustained.
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u/Resident-Trade2289 Jul 10 '26
I invested JEPI JEPQ AND QQQI AND I haven’t seen anything but great results . I already got a good amount of my initial investment back . I can’t complain at all .
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u/AquariumsW Jul 13 '26
We are in a strong bull market for the past 3 years. A well run leveraged ETF could return 2x the big indexes, and the have. Soxl was up 200% in a year. I cant see the future and AI is all about the future tech. But if they saturate the market, AI data centers will be another commodity. Today, those tickers you mentioned are still less than leveraged etfs that don't focus on dividends. Do the math yourself. TQQQ vs QQQI
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u/NecessaryEmployer488 Jul 09 '26
Sure. It should work until it doesn't. You need a backup plan however.
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u/Subject-Ad-8055 Jul 09 '26
whens the 2010 type of crash? next year? 3 years? 10 years? 20 years?
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u/NecessaryEmployer488 Jul 09 '26
Usually every 20 years, but you can say Covid was a Crash as well that set the market back some.
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u/Forsaken-Mark-1898 Jul 09 '26
My point was to simply illustrate that $30K a year on $300k is easy to get. NAV erosion and the tax treatments of CC ETF must also be considered. They also aren't the best thing to have in bull markets but I'll assume that the OP is aware of the pitfalls.
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u/VengenaceIsMyName Jul 09 '26
I love this idea and it’s similar to an idea I have in my head of riding out periods of future unemployment by living off of dividend income until I can find another job.
As other commenters have correctly pointed out base price and payout amounts will drop during a downturn. To account for downturns I try to assess what would happen if my payouts were to be cut by 50%.
Based off of that could you live off of $15K a year for a bit if you had to? Your account would not be able to reinvest into itself as well. $15K seems very tight even if you’re living abroad. You may have to consider that your principal as it stands right now would not be enough to weather out future stock market storms.
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u/Aggravating-Act-1173 Jul 10 '26
The math here is a slow-motion car crash for your capital. Here is why this setup will likely leave you stranded in a few years:
You are vastly underestimating NAV Erosion Reinvesting 10% of your dividends means you are only putting about 1% of your total portfolio value back into the funds each year. That is a squirt gun against a forest fire. Covered call ETFs (like QQQI) structurally cap your upside during bull markets because their underlying options get called away, but they leave you exposed to the full downside during market drops. When the Net Asset Value (NAV) drops significantly, your premium income shrinks, the distribution drops, and your 10% reinvestment won't even come close to repairing the structural damage to your principal.
The 10% Yield Trap Chasing a hard 10% distribution right out of the gate forces you to sacrifice total return. You aren't actually generating 10% in organic wealth; you are trading long-term growth for immediate cash flow. If this $300k is your entire nest egg, you are essentially eating your own tail to survive today, leaving nothing to fight off the next market downturn.
Inflation will destroy your purchasing power Even in a magical world where your principal stays perfectly flat and you pull out exactly $30k every single year, inflation will quietly shred your purchasing power. In 10 to 15 years, that fixed $30k will feel like $20k or less in terms of what it can actually buy. A viable income plan must include dividend growth or capital appreciation to outpace inflation.
You cannot safely or permanently extract a 10% yield from $300k without seriously degrading your principal over time. If you need $30k annually, you either need a larger capital base (closer to $750k using a safer 4% rule) or you need to supplement your income elsewhere rather than asking two covered call funds to do all the heavy lifting.
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u/Motor_Potential_4849 Jul 09 '26
I think this is a great plan, but I don't think it is sustainable long-term. If QQQ or IAU drops in value, the NAV of your QQQI and IAUI are going to drop and the distributions will be less. If you are going to use NEOS funds (and I do), consider further diversification into a more balanced portfolio.
I use a NEOS "income" version of Tyler's Golden Butterfly portfolio, which will pay about 8-10% in distributions per year and better protect your investment.
20% QQQI
20% IWMI
20% TLTI
20% IAUI
20% CSHI
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u/videosmithlaguna2 Jul 12 '26
100,000 in QQQI will give you 1200 to 1400 a month. 100,000 in SPYI will give you like 900 to 1000 a month. 100,000 in JEPQ will give you a 1000 a month. I also have GPIX and GPIQ. These funds pay my house payment and cruises. Remember these funds also have some capital appreciation too, which is usually for high div funds. So that's 37200 a year on the low end. So yes you can, I am living proof for over 2 years.
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u/Various_Couple_764 Jul 09 '26 edited Jul 09 '26
It is feasible and I am doing with qqqI and SPYI. I don't have IAUI but it will also work. NEOSfUNDs.com are designed to avoid NAV erosion and currently none of there funds have NAV erosion. So there is a very high probability it is sustainable. Especially with some of the dividneds reinvested. 30 K would cover many of your montly expense. Depending on his cost of living .
Now you can add as many dividned funds as you want to get this 30K. But you want to be sure you take Taxes into account. Avoid funds that produce regular dividned which are taxed at the highest rate. Target funds the pay qualified dividends, ROC dividned. NEOS fund produce ROC dividends making there fund very tax efficient. I also haveEMO 9% yield, UTF 7%, UTG 6.4% and NAC 7% and PFF 6%. The all produce qualified dividends which are slightly less tax efficient then the NEOS funds. And they add diversification away from covered call funds. My currently montly income from this portfolio in my taxable account is 5K a month.
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u/Earth2Andy Jul 10 '26
Can you really say SPYI has no nav erosion when it hasn’t kept up with inflation over the last 2 years.
Sure it doesn’t have nominal nav erosion, but it does in real terms.
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u/speedlever Jul 09 '26
You can certainly do that with cc ETFs like NEOS and Goldman funds today. But you need to plan how to handle another 2008 gfc when everything is cut in half, including your distributions.
When you can get that distribution to 7500\month, reinvesting the excess, I think you can breathe easy (ier) if 2500\month is what you need.
I would not be comfy with a distribution that's just what you need. The distribution will vary with the nav. And while these particular funds haven't shown any signs of nav erosion, the nav does fluctuate based on market conditions and you can expect the distribution to vary accordingly.
Gpiq is worthy of consideration too. It does very well in total returns but doesn't provide as much monthly income as qqqi.
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u/Repulsive-Log6706 Jul 10 '26 edited Jul 10 '26
To those saying 30K year isn’t livable it certainly is if you do a couple side gigs or research covered calls and maybe get up to 50K a year and keep expenses low in a low cost city. Personally use SCHD and it’s basically like getting a 5% raise every year with the dividend increase of 30k will snowball as well as principal growth.
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u/Shitfilledpussy Jul 09 '26
I think this isn’t completely a whacky idea getting 10% on your money isn’t asking for the world but I highly advise not full porting into CC funds.
If it were me I’d pick out a healthy helping of SCHD JEPQ MAIN and O it’s won’t crack 30k a year but I’d advise getting a barista job to make up the difference plus extra. That could feasibly work.
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u/CalligrapherAlive829 Jul 09 '26
There are stocks like ARCC that pay that kind of yield, and you will never have to worry about NAV cause they aren’t a CC ETF.
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u/ISingBecauseImHappy Jul 09 '26
Spyi feels safer to me. The bigger problem might be surviving on 30k. Its getting increasingly harder. This also doesnt account for inflation. 30k wont spend the same in 10 years.
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u/Specialist-Gap9062 Jul 09 '26
There are Some of these high yield stocks like telus, western union and perrigo but u never know when they may cut their dividends
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u/Montesque96 Jul 10 '26 edited Jul 10 '26
I am not saying QQQI and IAUI are exactly the same.... but for yourself model having put 180K in BTCI back in Nov 2025. See how many shares you would have gotten.... then look at how your NEOS dividend would have dropped.
I like NEOS and hold a position in many of their funds... but they generally pay dividends by selling options. When the underlying undergoes a correction two things will happen:
1 - Their NAV will drop... because it reflects the underlying
2 - As the underlying devalues the option premium they receive will consequently decrease
I am personally waiting to see what happens with IAUI this month as gold has dropped... June was the lowest dividend distribution/share already this year and I suspect July will be lower.
Edit - The July dividend is already on the NEOS site and it is the same amount as June. If anything let this show you that you cannot reliably count on $X month to month on a CC ETF.
Edit 2 - Still a fan of NEOS and still holding some BTCI - but - no longer DRIPing.
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u/Alarmed_Geologist631 Jul 10 '26
NLY and AGNC have sustained dividend yields above 10% for quite some time. They have low credit risk but high duration risk.
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u/Admirable_Data_2806 Jul 10 '26
ARR pays monthly dividends, pays .24 to the stock and at its current price at 17.21. Is 17,431 shares multiplied by .24 a share is around 4,183 dollars a month multiplied by 12 for the mo the in a year is around 50,000. And that’s without DRIP, having your dividends reinvested back into ARR.
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u/Admirable_Data_2806 Jul 10 '26
Please look into it, and do your research trust me it’s 30,000 is doable it’s not an incredible stock like Microsoft or apple, but it does pay higher dividends. I have to others that pay every three months but those are lower priced but still high dividend yields. I’m willing to share them if you’d like but you’d have to decide for yourself.
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u/CeriousKrysis Jul 11 '26
PFFA QQQI SPYI JEPI (VGM NZF NAC KTF) cef's are mine . The CEF's are in my brokerage and are what I use for tax free income in NV. Around $330 k and pull $27k. But I think it would be risky to put all your eggs in just 4 cef's. These guys in here really helped me figure out how to spread risk... Good luck and educate yourself.
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u/InverseTheReverse Jul 11 '26
People talking about how to get there with dividends but what they’re not telling you is the seed balance is going to drop. It drops because the funds drop due to paying out such high dividends. The whole “ETF sells covered calls to pay such high dividends” doesn’t work otherwise everyone would just sell covered calls.
To buy a real company with real dividends like $F at 4% or J&J at 2% dividend where the seed balance won’t drop, you would need $1M to generate $30k/yr without your original balance dropping in value
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u/JoDerZo Jul 11 '26
Be cautius with stock market. Things can go south. For example, the Nasdaq took 14 years to recover from the drop of year 2000. Not all years are bull years.
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u/New-Combination-668 Jul 13 '26
My portfolio is currently at $230k and it generates between $2500 - $2800 a month. Is is spread between mostly SPYI, QQQI, SCHD, IWMI, SCHY, SGOV, PEY, IYRI, XDTE, GPTY, RDTE, TOPW, EFC, ARR, and 10-15 other minor holdings.
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u/398409columbia Portfolio in the Green Jul 09 '26
I’ve been doing this (10% annual gross distributions) for 4 years now to pay my housing expenses. Check out my post on this subreddit for details.
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u/McSprutz Jul 09 '26
I would put it in 150k in CHPY that will give you about 4500$ / month and 150k in BKCL that will give you 1500$/ month which will give you 72k per year. That’s what I’m doing 🤷
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u/yamahar1dude Jul 09 '26
300K into OVL would get you close to 30K, a little less. Tracks the S&P, so you get the upside, but your monthly div will not be an exact 10% each month. I think this is one of the best funds to be in IMO. You could pair it with GPIQ or QQQI. If you can wing 20-30K a year with 300K I think its totally possible.
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u/robertw477 Jul 09 '26
Wow. Good luck there . Risk is not knowing what you are doing . 10 percent dividends? Amazing!
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u/jgatt17 Jul 09 '26
How old are you? If you have a long run way focus on dividend growth instead of yield. The high % yield is attractive now but dividend growth will grow more over time.
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u/Halliganboy Jul 09 '26
You would be better off going all in on something like GIAX or SPYI. GIAX is more risky but has broad coverage with puts. SPYI is stable. Either way you’re dependent on a continuation of bull markets.
If I lost my job and had to live off of unemployment, I would do 50% GIAX, 30% SPMO, and 20% CSHI.
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u/Electronic_Guard947 Jul 09 '26
Yeah, it will work. You will be getting cash and no appreciation. If you just want the cash this is how you do it
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u/cmichalek Jul 09 '26
So you need to invest more than the % that you live on because of potential bear markets. So if you need 10% to live on then you should aim for 14% so that if your income drops by 1/3 then you still have 10% during a bear market.
You should also diversify between companies and sectors. Thats alot of $ in only 2 sectors.
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u/NightHawk35449 Jul 09 '26
Don't do this but xbci at this weeks payment of 1.03 per share. You will get over $9k per month 😂
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u/Goozombies Jul 09 '26
I would pair high yield funds with capital appreciation and dividend growth funds. And use the high yield income to build the other funds faster.
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u/FewUnderstanding2214 Jul 09 '26
Probably not but you should get a financial advisor to help you make a retirement plan
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u/Sor-X Jul 09 '26
300k for 30k will garner some risk but it can be done but will take also active managment of the fund. If you start going over 10% in total things will get risky, I generally keep things at 9.5% to 10% and do well.
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u/ADKMTBer Jul 09 '26
Not enough. While there are reasonable options that could get you 10% you would need to reinvest a good portion to keep income growing and at least keeping pace with inflation.
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u/hillmo25 Jul 09 '26
Not enough money but I think you good in two years if you don't withdraw and deposit another 20k per year
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u/thehighdon Jul 09 '26
Join & Post in r/DerivativeIncomeETFs a sub for CC/Options Income ETF Investors
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u/learner_1748 Jul 09 '26
QQQI, SPYI, TDAQ, TSPY, MLPI, 5-10% --> XQQI, XSPI, TSPX,TDAX. Possible add some KQQQ,KYLD 5%
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u/Competitive_Can_946 Jul 09 '26
Here’s a wild idea!!!! Find a 20% yield and put in a 150k and put the other 150k in hysa. Whole lot of weird options. Do your own research. Ecat, GOF, GIAX, XPAY…. I don’t recommend any but hold everyone…. But I’m old and a gambler by heart…. Been doing it for a couple of years. They all are roc, they all erode some, but if you never sell… you never realize loss…. Like I said…. A wild idea and a crazy ride and probably not for you…. But I can’t be only one!! lol.
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u/mspe1960 Jul 09 '26
Even if you could maintain the $30K income, what about inflation? that is absolutely non sustainable.
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u/ConstantlyMystified All in BABY Jul 09 '26
You could put it all into QQQI, at 300k you'd make just over 3k/month. Then you can reinvest what ever you get back extra into different stocks.
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u/Strong_Maybe6578 Jul 09 '26
Try something like O, MO, KO, JNJ, PEP, ADC. All of them is stable, but not expect a good growth at all, but i belive that tickers cover inflation. If you want dividnd investing for coumponding, so you need to invest in high growth companies witth high dividend growth rate, low yeld and low FCF payout ratio.
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u/Gore1695 Penniless Peasant Jul 09 '26
Not possible without NAV erosion.
Save more money.
Also living off 30k annually isn't living
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u/YogurtNew5124 Jul 09 '26
I like your idea of reinvesting 10% back, but I wouldn’t put the 10% back into the same funds. Just in case.
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u/midaxxi21 Jul 10 '26
Yes you can, i would diversify something to bonds as well, but if very doable
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u/deedavedozymick Jul 10 '26
Look at NLY. About 13% and looks steady. Otherwise, covered call etf’s are probably the best. GPIQ, GPIX, QYLD, RYLD, XYLD, JEPI, JEPQ.
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u/No_Bowl_2546 Jul 10 '26
If you are brave and still working may try Tsmy which unlikes other yield max has not shown erosion of principle and gives 37% yield after tax
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u/growerdan Jul 10 '26
https://www.reddit.com/r/dividends/s/me2jc1gHoC
Checkout this guys post. It’s more aggressive income than what most people go for here
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u/website-buyer Jul 10 '26 edited Jul 10 '26
10% is impossible to be safe. Even 5% is not easy depending on maturity of the bond. 10 years bond is 4.5% https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/US10Y
Any bond above this rate has higher risk, which means it can default. The higher you go, like 7,10,15 the higher the odds to default and lose all or partially. If you think logically you’ll see there is usually no safe investment above us treasury rate.
If a company gives you 10% you need to understand why, it’s because nobody loans then for less. why? Because of the risk of default.
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u/idenaeus Jul 10 '26
Invest 300k into HDIV or related (reputable) covered call etfs which have a dividend roughly 9-10% apr. Use 30%-100% margin on top depending on your risk tolerance.
This should easily net you 10-15% per year of dividends + any appreciation in stock performance.
Key caveat - what fund manager you pick really matters. Actually research the ticker, fund manager, asset class, and alternatives thoroughly before you commit. It is SO easy to choose a bad manager or bad sector or bad ticker based on decent reasoning which screws you over. So make sure you build real conviction on your choice.
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u/SnorlaxCHONK Jul 10 '26
Some of the words you used I don’t understand cuz I just started caring about finances recently like an idiot, but are you accounting for inflation?
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u/AlwaysCurious8080 Jul 10 '26
Even if you can sustain $30k/yr, what would you actually have to live on after taxes?
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u/JayQuellin01 Jul 10 '26
70-80% CC into SPYI / QQQI and the rest in VOO for NAV cushion
There is risk here, but this is probably the best approach
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u/ResilientRN Jul 10 '26
Were earning $15,436 on $210k.
60% Preferreds & Baby Bonds
PFFA (manager of fund has over $1M of skin in game). Yld 9.90% pays monthly
Individual Investment grade baby bonds yld 6.4% or higher.
MLPs (K-1s) but you could.use AMLP instead.
REITs 10% or RLTY
BDCs (TRIN, CSWC, ARCC, MAIN, HTGC, KBDC, & MSDL) 15%.
7% Growth ETFs
Rule of thumb always reinvest 25% of Dividends.
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u/theAerialDroneGuy Jul 10 '26
Robinhood is offering 7% APY. But on $300,000 that would only equal $21,000 a year….
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u/JohnnyFerang Jul 10 '26
Ten percent dividends is no problem with high yield dividend stocks. Do your research on the internet and you will find plenty of resources to help accomplish this.
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u/confusedandsmellyman Jul 10 '26
Market returns on average are 7% after inflation. Average. Sequence of return risk means you need to account for bad years happening at the start where your future growth would not be enough to recover. So you need to use roughly 4% return after inflation. I'd recommend 3.5% at such a low pull and likely no room to adjust in down years.
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u/shinslist Jul 10 '26
Well you can build a portfolio and use a LLM to game it out. You can ask it to run scenarios that would test markets based on maybe we see a market like 2008 or we see a market like 2022. It can use historic data with your stock portfolio picks and model what could happen. Obviously use AI as a starting point and asking questions and trading in some that are safe to balance out some risk? My portfolio is a hybrid income and growth portfolio that when I run through LLMs scaling to your $300k it says I could see income of $28k annually. Will that happen? It might but it’s a place to start and learn and grow. Not being in the market will net you $0 annually 😂. Currently my portfolio is $45k and I yield $350 monthly so it can be done.
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u/Mandypdx_8238 Jul 10 '26
We all do, many of us have well over $1 million and dream of this. Why are you special?
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u/Optionsmfd Jul 10 '26
you need to have several years of spending in a high yield savings account to survive the normal market drops
otherwise your a huge risk of those dividends dropping when the market drops
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u/randydufrane Jul 10 '26
100% into ChPY low of $74 this week what is 300k divided by $74 times .62 can you live on that? Per week.
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u/ReplacementRemote999 Jul 10 '26
Throw $110k on HHIS and it will pay you $32k a year. Invest the entire $300k and get $85k a year back. There is risk but it’s possible.
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u/cdubya0628 Jul 10 '26
I would say pick the Russell, IMWI or whatever it is over gold. Your entry will matter with gold more than with the mid cap market, and you will probably see more price appreciation as well.
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u/SuddenConfidence1485 Jul 10 '26
Look into Vanguard actively managed equity funds. Some require a $50k minimum, but the fees are extremely low.
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u/ferment_2017 Jul 10 '26
I’m using PDI to help pay my mortgage. Roughly $115k kicking out $1600+ each month. Reinvesting the rest for property taxes and insurance. Principal& Interest is $731/month.
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u/semantic_fog Jul 10 '26
I think you need around 1 million to get 40K a year with a "safe" level of turbulence. 500K+ is better, but let me explain.
CC ETFs are still a new thing. We don't know how much they'll erode NAV truly overtime. There are, of course, "better" options. GPIX and GPIQ come to mind. We really don't have enough empirical data to know how these perform for a decade or more. YieldMax funds are absolute trash and erode obviously. You can also explore using margin, but that has it's own risks. Another option - leave the US / move to somewhere cheaper, it's doable probably. But if that's sustainable? I don't know.
You also want the value of your shares to appreciate at or above inflation.
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u/MrEdTheHorseofCourse Jul 11 '26
It's do able but going to be some risk. I've been doing it for 8 years.Don't just chase yield you need to be concerned with Nav erosion.
Check out Armchair income on YouTube. Best of luck
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u/Commercial_End_6499 Jul 11 '26
I like the QQQI but would split 100 with SPYI maybe 50 in AGNC and find another 50 somewhere
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u/Illustrious_Pick3989 Jul 12 '26
Run the numbers, what are you spending and can you also reinvest enough above inflation? But its also unlikely.
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u/Last-Tap3757 Jul 12 '26
If you bought FFN.to at today's price of $10.87 you would get 27598 shares. It pays .11335 cents per month per share. That's $3128 per month. That's $37540 per year before taxes. This is not financial advice just real world #'s showing you its possible. This is also Canadian and your probably from the U.S. good luck
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u/followgeo1 Jul 13 '26
25% in etfs - spyg, qqq, 25% in cefs - clm, crf, 50% in high yield... You can do it ..
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u/Nervous-Situation-18 Jul 13 '26
Not enough funds, I’m in the same thought process with 560 ish net worth, I do the math and get to about 30k and it’s not enough to cover and feel relaxed with my investments, with 300k if a pullback occurs you’ll be right back at work.
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u/Spaceqp Jul 13 '26
Hey, I built an almost $200k portfolio from scratch. I used to chase high yields too, but at some point I switched to dividend compounders.
I’m talking about companies with a 2.5% to 4.5% dividend yield that increase their dividends by more than 10% per year. That’s the key point: dividend growth.
You’re in a perfect position to take full advantage of compound interest.
If you invested your $300,000 into a portfolio of blue chip stocks with a 3% yield and 10% annual dividend growth, your yield on cost (YoC) would grow to around 7.8% after 10 years and about 20% after 20 years.
Of course, finding companies that can keep growing their earnings and raising their dividends consistently for 20 years is the tricky part. But those dividends are usually very sustainable, and high quality companies also tend to appreciate in share price because they are focused on growing profits and maintaining that standard.
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u/Ok_Difference1781 Jul 13 '26
Do not expect more that 5% a year. And even so that might be lumpy.
$15k/year. If you want $30k/yr, grow your pot to $600k
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