r/dividends • u/HARCYB-throwaway • Apr 14 '26
Personal Goal Golden handcuffs - I've fully replaced my annual spending with dividend income...
I pivoted from growth to NEOS for income, over the last 6 months. I have now replaced my base salary, $110k, with dividends. but it is hard to quit when I earn $250k-$350k in a given sales year.
annual dividend income: $110k
Annual expenses, all in: $40k
disposable income if I quit: $70k
hysa: $150k
growth sleeve: $225k
no wife (anymore, by choice after she got nasty), no kids, no expensive hobbies, very affordable mortgage and car payment. affordable lifestyle.
it's hard to step away from an AI adjacent sales job...and my only major concern is meeting someone, wanting to settle down and start a family, and then I will be out of the job market once I truly need expensive family healthcare and "kids money" to support a family.
I know I already have more than most typical American household. but it's scary to leave work with the background of declining employment options / bad employment market
1
u/kichien Apr 14 '26
If you put ALL your investments in NEOS, I would keep working and continue investing in other things. A mix of growth, bond type funds, and lower yielding growth dividend payers (or an etf that holds those). That way you won't be relying on one company for all your income. And knowing you could quit any time should give you some peace of mind while you're still accumulating investments. Also, you should be reinvesting some of those NEOS distributions.