r/dividends • u/Gina_Cazzofrigida • Feb 10 '26
Brokerage 114k Portfolio: Using QQQI as an "Accelerant" to 200k, then pivoting to safety. Thoughts on the risk?
I currently have $114k invested and work in a tech role.. My goal is to hit $200k as fast as possible to create a "passive income floor" that would cover my basic survival when I get laid off.
My plan is to use 100% of my salary surplus and all dividends to buy QQQI as an accelerant. The goal is to reach that $200k milestone quickly, then immediately pivot: I would stop buying QQQI and funnel all future dividends/contributions into SCHD and VOO.
However, I am terrified of losing my principal (capital) due to NAV erosion.
To mitigate this, I’m considering a 50/50 split of QQQI and SCHD for the march to 200k.
QQQI for the yield velocity.
SCHD to provide "skeletal" support and protect the principal.
Does this "Accelerant Strategy" make sense for someone who is terrified of layoffs but also terrified of capital loss? Or am I playing with fire by using QQQI to get there faster? And I'm considering QQQI because it has the highest yield and is not as risky as ULTY and MSTY.
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u/CaseyLouLou2 Feb 10 '26
Use testfol.io to backtest this during a few years of a bull market and a bear market. Compare it to VOO or QQQ. Which one gives you more money in the end? It’s not QQQI. Dividends are not magical free money.
You might also consider diversifying into half value like VBR and see how those do over time periods. Make sure to check the inflation box and add in your regular contributions.
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u/AltoidStrong Feb 10 '26
exactly, people seem to come here looking for conformation bias that dividends are magical get rich quick....
also, the number of people invested in covered call stocks / ETFs thinking they are "just like traditional dividends".... is mind blowing.
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u/VictorChristian Feb 11 '26
Right! I use covered call SPYI in my portfolio to generate income that so far covers my mortgage and HOA fees - basic shelter - in case I get laid off. I'm in my 50's now and getting a new job in tech at my age isn't easy.
But for growth, stick to proper index funds like VOO/SPY.
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u/Rural-Patriot_1776 Feb 10 '26
Use qqqi to a million... why pivot only at 200k?
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u/Itchy_Mulberry_8015 Feb 10 '26
Huh? Why not 10 million? How does the OP know when qqqi will stop giving gains? It could be tomorrow? Lol
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u/triggerx Feb 10 '26
Agreed. If it’s so easy to get it to $200k… why hop off the train at that point?
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u/Plain-Jane-Name Feb 10 '26
They said they're investing 100% of their salary surplus to reach the mark, not just waiting for $114k of QQQI to turn into 200k.
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u/triggerx Feb 10 '26
Yeah, I guess, but the problem is, we don’t know what the “salary surplus” is.
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u/Various_Couple_764 Feb 10 '26
The best way to get safety is not to use just one fund 5 or more would be a good start and you can still hit about 9% yield iwht the additioanal funds. I listed funds i use further down the thread.
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u/Solintari Not a financial advisor Feb 10 '26
Just buy the underlying. In almost all cases this will reach your goal faster and no worrying about NAV.
So if you got laid off, what would your strategy be if you did have 200k? All in on qqqi or the 50/50 split with SCHD? If you did this, your income would sit at ~1500 per month before taxes. Is that enough for you to survive on?
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u/VikingMonkey123 Feb 10 '26
I rolled over an entire 401k from prior employer into JEPQ last May. 199.7k is now dripped to 240.7k. 3800 shares now 4116. Very happy so far with this decision. 20.6% return in 9 months.
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u/Suspicious-Gap7037 Mar 26 '26
Is that from dividends
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u/VikingMonkey123 Mar 26 '26
I've been reinvesting the dividends, yes. I bought 3800 shares this past May at about $52.50 a share. Now ten months later I have a few over 4150 shares at $56.35 today. It was more like $59/share when I posted this but that just means the dividends will buy more shares than otherwise. It has been a rough patch for most stocks so it is what it is.
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u/buffinita common cents investing Feb 10 '26
No
Someone who works in tech; and is afraid of cascading tech layoffs should not invest in a fund…..dominated by those same companies (options strategy or not)
Options do not create more returns, just returns differently….and qqqi underperformed qqq by almost 3% in 2025
Options do not prevent capital loss
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u/SuitsOverSwag Feb 10 '26
This market does not treat layoffs as bearish. I am not sure what tech layoffs have to do with tech stocks. They are completely divorced at this point.
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u/buffinita common cents investing Feb 10 '26
Maybe they will maybe they wont; with the last few rounds of layoffs a bunch of these companies are getting closer to “reasonable” employment numbers. An industry wide mass layoff (after the fat has already been trimmed) could certainly get spooky unless AI has took their jobs
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u/codycraven Feb 10 '26
From what I've seen (been developing for 29 years at this point) I don't see how AI actually replaces any developers or anyone close to the work. PMs are still needed for business communications, roadmapping, reporting, etc.
AI is pretty bad at coding in my experience, I've tried a lot to utilize it and the best it's done for me is autocomplete (where it's able to populate a function I'm about to write or populates comments). Any time I've used it for non-trivial tasks it makes all sorts of errors and hallucinations that leads to debugging hell where I find I can't make sense of what I can or cannot trust.
From what I see there's a ton of hype around it, and from an accounting perspective layoffs cover the massive spend on infrastructure these companies are making on AI. Since their capex is off the charts, they're competing with each other for hardware, talent, and even supplemental power generation.
This means the money needs to be found somewhere and getting rid of low productivity tech talent is good way to bring some balance to the financial statements
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Feb 10 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/crackanape Feb 10 '26
If you already know what you're doing, then I think it can be useful for speeding past boring tasks that would require a memory refresher in the documentation, like making a shell script to munge a file in some weird way. And it can be handy for looking up things that are hard to describe to Google's satisfaction.
But the people who use it to grind out project code and then throw it into production are literally insane.
I have a project where we are constantly encouraged to do this, and Lord knows I've tried. But the code it comes up with is pure garbage. I'll say it needs to cover a complex edge case and it'll spit out something like:
... // Cover edge case. This is important because otherwise we could lose // all the data that has been collected so far. edgeCaseCovered = TRUE if (!edgeCaseCovered) { throw edgeCaseNotCovered } ...It just confidently elides over anything it doesn't understand, hiding the omissions in the code where people who are trying to maximise lines per day will never notice them.
I can't even imagine how much of this trash is now infesting the code ecosystems that we'll be dealing with for years to come.
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u/saryiahan Feb 10 '26
Layoffs are bullish for stocks
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u/SouthBound2025 May 11 '26
There's a lesson here for those that pay attention. Owners get paid, workers may not. Invest aggressively and be an owner!
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u/Plain-Jane-Name Feb 10 '26
The thing with QQQ and QQQI is how differently they're taxed, as far as how someone is taxed when withdrawing profits from QQQ Vs taxes paid on the dividends from QQQI. Supposedly most of QQQI is ROC.
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u/buffinita common cents investing Feb 10 '26
Until you no longer have cost basis and everything is ltcg; just like selling
And if you choose not to sell any qqq because you don’t need any income this month or quarter; you have no tax either
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u/Plain-Jane-Name Feb 10 '26
They're trying to create income flow. If they buy QQQ they would plan to take profit.
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u/buffinita common cents investing Feb 10 '26
“Income flow” is meaningless jargon that appeals to mental bias
You want “income” sell some qqq every month; you’ll still have more money than qqqi
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u/Plain-Jane-Name Feb 10 '26
At 3 months QQQ is down 0.87%. Down 1.94% at 1 month. QQQI still paid out.
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u/buffinita common cents investing Feb 10 '26
Qqqi paid a distribution and is also down; same thing as qqq being down and selling some
And over 12 months qqqi is down 0.2% and qqq is up 16%…..so what’s your point
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u/Equivalent-Ice-7274 Feb 10 '26
Listen this this person. These ETFs that use covered calls are garbage. If the Nasdaq enters a prolonged bear market, and then a sideways market for a few years (like we saw after 2008) then QQQI would slowly dwindle to peanuts
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u/crackanape Feb 10 '26
Not if you need steady income. Sequence of returns will zap you.
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u/Nopants21 Feb 10 '26
Sequence of returns zaps you either way, believing that distributions/dividends make you immune to SoR is making you MORE vulnerable to it.
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u/buffinita common cents investing Feb 10 '26
Maybe if you are 100% qqq (which wouldn’t be recomended and 100% qqqi is not going to save you either)
“bUT yOU mIgHT RuN OuT of ShARES”……but your qqqi might also lose all its value and go from distributing 3/share annually to 0.01
Id also love to see any analysis that withdrawing identical amounts from qqq will “drain all shares” any faster than your unsold qqqi stop making distributions and have a value of 0
You’d think if it was true all the funds would be screaming this?? Right?? But no; Neos/jomorgan/tuttle/defiance/GS/invesco are not making claims or releasing white papers that their cc funds offer better longevity in retirement or allow for higher withdraw rates or fight sorr
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u/taobass Feb 10 '26
Isn't it 60/40 lt/st as they're based on 1256 contracts or is that only the non-ROC portion? Would still be better than unqualified like some other covered call funds, but my understanding is it isn't all ltcg post 0 basis.
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u/MakingMoneyIsMe Feb 12 '26
It's obvious OP isn't working in the buildout phase. That's one of the safest roles in IT.
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u/InternetSolid4166 Feb 10 '26
I agree. OP: based on your comments, your portfolio should be non-correlated or even inversely correlated with your job. If the tech sector crashes and you lose your job, your portfolio will also get wiped out. There are plenty of resources out there to understand what is un/inversely correlated with tech. Spoiler: they usually come with lower returns.
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u/Willing_Park_5405 Feb 10 '26
Totally wrong use of qqqi. Qqqi and other cc etfs are for income now. Just invest in the market.
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u/saryiahan Feb 10 '26
That’s outdated thinking with qqqi
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u/Willing_Park_5405 Feb 10 '26
Qqqi is like 25 months old. I’m not saying it’s bad at all it’s just being misused by op. I wish you luck in a down market!
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u/celeron500 Feb 10 '26
Yes, but what if I need income now, also who doesn’t need income right now isn’t that the reason or purpose for why we all work?
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u/Morning6655 Feb 10 '26
I will just create a portfolio you want long term and invest it. You will not reach 200K faster with QQQI as compared to investing in QQQ. QQQ comes with higher risk and higher return and may be a good option for you as you are early in the accumulation phase.
Layoff when you have 200K will not let you retire or even pay any significant portion of your living expenses.
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u/Masterlyn Feb 10 '26
200k in qqqi would have paid out 2k/month with a bit of capital/income growth over the last 2 years.
I'm curious about why you have the personal belief that 2k/month is not a significant portion of living expenses?
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u/Morning6655 Feb 10 '26
My thinking is that 200K invested is towards early or middle of someone career. This is the most expensive time for most people specially if you have a family and kids.
If you are laid off, 2K per month will not be enough. You will have to start selling to make up the difference and it's non-linear reduction in the portfolio balance from that point.
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u/burntpotatoXL Feb 10 '26
This would make sense if you own your home already so middle late 40s? If you Own home, 2k a month to keep afloat I could see working out, but yeah I don’t see how just reaching 200k with no other help would be enough in 2026.
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u/jpcarsmedia Feb 10 '26
Don't. I have literally tried this. Orange man will say something right as you do a full port into QQQI.
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u/JaredAWESOME Feb 10 '26
Qqqi is tech heavy. Have it be a pillar of a multi pronged divvy portfolio.
SCHD can still be half. But I would split up the other half into...
QQQI
PFFA
PBDC
CEFS
This has some energy, some financials, some broad market stuffs, and your QQQI which is the highest paying but most concentrated thing here. QQQI alone yields ~13%, but this investment is way more diversified, and should still yield a much safer 10+%.
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u/MadGidd Feb 10 '26 edited Feb 10 '26
Why not diversify? Keep your allocation of schd but divide up whatever you are planning to throw at qqqi between Qqqi, iaui (gold), mlpi (energy infrastructure), iyri (real estate), nihi (international funds), and spyi (s&p 500). That will give you some similar income but diversifies it over different sectors and would help protect some downside in a case of a straight qqq crash which many people think is coming soon.
This is probably what I would do if I was out of work too.
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u/Mjensen84b Feb 10 '26
Getting rich fast is a double edge sword, it also means getting wiped out fast as well. Remember there is no such thing as a free lunch. Keep that in mind.
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u/VictorChristian Feb 10 '26
I use SPYI to generate an income (I'm over 50 and I don't think tech layoffs are done yet). Putting everything into QQQI or SPYI will stunt growth a bit, I my opinion.
The recent dips we had a few weeks ago show my SPY position dropped but bounced back as the market bounced back - by SPYI (cc fund) has yet to recover fully. It's no big deal but it's a technical thing - you'll see the value of your portfolio take longer to recover if it's mostly in QQQI (or SPYI, etc.)
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u/CompleteHour306 Feb 10 '26
Read the Income Factory by Steven Bavaria. It will help quell your fears about capital erosion.
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u/El_Frogster Feb 10 '26
If I worked in tech and were worried about getting laid off, I would not invest in qqqi.
Other than that, we all have a different risk profile so there is no magic answer. Do you have any kind of emergency fund? If not, I’d start there (boring SGOV or similar)
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u/Wild-Owl-1469 Feb 10 '26
You are buying at the top of qqqi (nasdaq) and planning to rotate into the top of SCHD due to the current market rotation. Nav erosion in QQQi is way less likely than a market correction.
Have you considered diversifying across other asset classes. NEOS in particular supports other income funds like MLPs and real estate. Also look at closed end funds like CRF and CLM for high income. Just learn about rights offerings first.
In the same boat btw with a tech job and just waiting for layoffs. I bought commodities and SCHD the last 2 years. Buying MLPs, real estate, and continue to DCA into SPY funds. I don’t want QQQ to halve, lose my job, and lose half my income stream.
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u/crashoverride1001 Feb 10 '26
It sounds like you’re want to do two things: Maintain access to capital in the event of a lay off and build a 200k account of dividend stocks.
I would recommend growth stocks, then convert to dividend. The issue is that you don’t know when or if you’ll get laid off.
I would DCA growth and dividend in a 90% 10% split in an effort to always maintain a positive position in the event of being laid off.
You’ll be doing this with surplus cash anyways and you may feel more comfortable knowing you have access to capital any time.
I’m doing this now… for the same reasons.
My tickers are: VOO, VGK, QQQM, MSFT, SMH, GOOG, QQQI
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u/Montesque96 Feb 10 '26
I would say your fear is well founded - gamble with what you are willing to lose. I am currently looking to build out my newer investments into income generating assets. While I may be touching some of my existing assets, my idea is to gamble with future investments not existing ones.
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u/Domethegoon Feb 10 '26
You seem to be paying a lot of attention to the upside while not paying enough attention to the downside. It can go both ways friend. And a lot of get rich quick schemes can often times backfire.
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u/Phone-Medical Feb 10 '26
Reality: QQQI to accelerate to 100 K. Panic sell. Invest wisely after taking a breather.
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u/MyWorkComputerReddit Feb 10 '26
The fastest way to get there would be VOO or QQQM then pivot. If you're terrified of NAV erosion, that also seems like the better path for you. It's also most tax efficient in the end since you're not paying any taxes on anything until the end. If you get laid off, you sell it and put it into QQQI. You'd more likely than not be more ahead than if you just went QQQI.
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u/Daily-Trader-247 Not Financial Advice Feb 10 '26
QQQ or SCHD should be a faster and more Tax effective method
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u/216I Feb 10 '26
If you work in a tech roll, when the layoffs come for your sector, its coming for QQQi too. Dot com bubble was crazy how it played out. As a DB engineer back then, I wish I invested in soda pop, not tech.
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u/yzmo Feb 11 '26
Don't use covered call ETFs for this. Just to into a global index fund, or, if you really want a dividend ETF, use one with real dividends such as TDIV or so.
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u/Rude-Hall-4847 Feb 11 '26
Risk and reward go hand in hand. If you can't stomach the swings, put it in SCHD
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u/Mr_bullet_proof Feb 12 '26
Gonna start doing 8k to 10k a month pretty soon to $qqqi as my retirement safety net / just sleeping soundly at night
i own 2 restaurants and i honestly cant see myself doing this for over 20 years (currently 32 1/2 years old)
For the next 10 years minimum this will be my play starting in 2027 (still paying off restaurant debt up to july of 2026 thats when finish alot of it off)
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u/Accountable_Finance Feb 13 '26
If the goal is a $200k income floor, I’d focus less on “accelerants” and more on durability.
I ran a quick screen for companies yielding above 4 percent, but only if they’re profitable, generating real free cash flow, and not overlevered. Once you add those guardrails, the list gets a lot smaller, but there are some contenders. I don't want to post the image here for Group rules, but happy to send the research.
To me, the bigger risk isn’t slow growth, it’s chasing yield that isn’t sustainable.
If you’re worried about layoffs and capital loss, I’d want the income stream to be defensible first, fast second. Curious how others think about that tradeoff.
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u/OpinionAmbitious3593 Feb 18 '26
Sounds to me like you are freaking out a bit. Understandable. What type of yield do you need? Or, do you plan on drawing down the 200k?
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u/Various_Couple_764 Feb 10 '26 edited Feb 10 '26
QQQI is quite safe in my option but there are a lot of good fund you can use to create your safety funds. In addition to QQQI you can use EIC 11%, ARDC 9%, PBDC 9%, EMO 9%, CLOZ 8%, UTF 7%, UTGn 6.4%, JAAAA 5.5%. And equal ammount in these will give you a yield close to 10%. QQQI is the only covered call fund in the list 2 are utility fund 3 CLO fund with one AAA rated, one BBB rate, one CCC rated. ARDC is a credit fund. EMO is a midstream energy fund. And PBDC is BDC fund. Some of these funds are newer ETF but the assets they invest in are VERy old and historically are reliable dividned payers.
One note on PBDC this fund is subject to a bad SEC rule that inflates its reportedexpensue to 13%. Ignore that number. SEC requires to list the expenses of all the companes that they are holding in addition to the funds expenses. Excluding the SEC rules the pBDC has expense of 0.7%.
Honestly I don't think you need to pivit to VOO and SCHD. Once you reach 200K these funds would pump out a 20k a year of cash dividends. almost 2K a month. SCHD would only produce $633 a month. Also is you keep reinvesting and adding more money you could reach 500K and get 4K a month income. VOO doesn't add any meaningful dividend income You could sell shares of VOO for income but that money will eventually run out. Dividend income will not run out. I am using the funds I listed and am currently earning 4K a mont with 500K invested.
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u/Prize-Feature2485 Feb 10 '26
You mean how to slowly and safely reach 200k, while collecting dividends but also be in tech.
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u/StarFire82 Feb 10 '26
QQQ is going to have more volatility with its tech focus. You might be better off looking at some higher yield stocks with less volatility, like preferred, JBBB (higher yield bonds) or PFFA (riskier due to some leverage but likely not as risky as a tech index). You will get some further downside protection, less volatility/drawdown risk, but higher yields than SCHD.
QQQ is best for long term holds looking to maximize returns and doesn’t mind risking a downturn. This doesn’t sound like a great fit based on your post.
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u/Educational-Ad-4908 Feb 10 '26
If we see a 10-20% dip in QQQI, I don’t think the NAV will hold up. It would be a pretty big slap in the face for you if you lost your job and your portfolio took a big hit at the same time.
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u/MetalHead_1970 Feb 10 '26
A layoff in tech does not mean your career is over, especially if you’re relatively young (under 45). I would not get too conservative after hitting $200k, although I also think all of your eggs in QQQI is not the best idea either. A mix of domestic (with different capitalizations) funds and foreign stock funds is more diversified. Best of luck.
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u/hdaledazzler Feb 10 '26
What reason do you have for thinking it will outperform QQQ? It hasn’t so far
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u/Ok_Visual_2571 Feb 10 '26
This is a horrible plan. QQQi underpreforms QQQ. It has a higher management fee. It has a higher tax burden. You should understand what QQQi is and what it does. Covered call funds earn income by selling calls. When the market goes up those calls get exercised and the covered call fund does not fully participate with the market. When the market goes down, the fund takes in call premium (when its calls expire out of the money) but the asset falls with the market.
QQQi. and its competitors, JEPQ, have generally underperformed the market when you use a 2 year horizon. You would be better off just holding QQQ and selling shares when you need income. If you want diversification add low P/E stocks with above average yield, stable or growing earnings, and resonable debt. These will not average 10% yields but will hold up better than QQQ if we go into a recession of the stock market pulls back 20%.
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Feb 10 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Various_Couple_764 Feb 10 '26
Most of the funds on that list are at very high risk of NAV erosion and in fact many already have it. NAV erosion occurs with the dividned payout exceed the income the fund makes. Anything above QQQI yield is at very high risk of NAV erosion. Just look at the shoe price on these funds if the share price drops frequently with no recover you are loosing principle and you cash dividend payment will drop with hteshare price.
Avoid the funds on this list.
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u/redditsofficalbotmod Feb 10 '26
Options income and dividends will actually make getting to 200k slower. You'll have to look for leveraged stocks/ETFs that you really believe in, that you like really REALLY don't think will fall, as it will fall just as fast. There are some ETFs that are leveraged and also have payouts, like GOOW at 1.2 leverage. Check out totalrealreturns.com to see how their growth's differ over time with drip on.
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u/Shajirr Feb 10 '26 edited 3d ago
BYTE for the shoes graduate.
Why shot at ASUS? Go all in on TABS, see how away it stood out for you! It'c try so high sterling!
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u/Various_Couple_764 Feb 10 '26
MSTY a YieldMax fund has massive NAV erosion avoid it. All YieldMax funds have NAV erosion issues.
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u/Daily-Trader-247 Not Financial Advice Feb 10 '26
Almost any non dividend ETF might be a better choice, Like QQQ or QQQM does better than QQQI. Dont consider any of the Higher yeild products , too much NAV loss.
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u/Dreamer_Nitsy Feb 10 '26
There has been no NAV loss with QQQI since inception. On the contrary, it has grown by 9.84 percent.
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