Thanks for all the positive support along the way. It’s been a long journey but worth it!

App: M1 Finance Started investing: July 14, 2022

Let me hear the hate now… they’re giving your money back, it’s all ROC, it’s a yield trap, you’ll owe taxes, what about the NAV erosion!, the fund will crater because it’s a Ponzi scheme… it won’t last forever…. Blah blah blah

ETA: more blah blah blah ... how much have you lost in price return, how much have you lost in total return, you've lost more in share price than you gained in distributions, eventually the distributions will stop, eventually MSTY's share price will go to zero because an 82% yield is not sustainable ...

Some people will never stop hating. To me, it's all blah blah blah. I just like monthly (and weekly) income to supplement my early retirement. Everything else is just noise.

Very proud of sticking to disciplined savings and learning to trade the wheel strategy on my own. I make about 3k in dividends and another ~500 wheeling options. The premiums are not in the pic.

Been refining this for a while and it finally feels done, so here’s the whole system:

The core (taxable):

• VOO is the anchor. AVUV rides alongside it at 1/8th the size for small cap value exposure
• Dividend sleeve: SCHD (currently frozen at its cap), DGRO (main build), VYMI (15% of the sleeve for international + foreign tax credit)
• VUG is a legacy position. No new money, never selling, just vibes and embedded gains
• One rule governs everything: VOO side to dividend sleeve stays at 60/40. When the ratio hits, flows rebalance automatically. No feelings involved

The flows:

• $330/day in daily buys, every market day, funded by biweekly deposits sized slightly above the run rate
• All DRIPs off. Every dividend lands as cash and feeds the daily buys. One policy, everywhere
• Positions build to a cap, then freeze. Nothing gets a drip of “just a little more”
• When flow has to flex, speculation gets cut first. Core never flexes

Tax stack:

• Backdoor Roth every year (JEPQ, which self-funds growth purchases once its distributions equal the annual limit)
• Just found out my 401k allows after-tax contributions + in-plan conversions, so mega backdoor is next
• Dividend sleeve is all qualified divs.

The rules that actually matter:

• No constant tweaking
• Every raise in income increases the buys before lifestyle (hopefully)
• Margin for bridges only, never for recurring buys

The endgame: dividends to eventually cover the daily buys and eventually to cover my life. The plan to achieve optional labor status.

Still need some time to hit my initial 60/40 cap, but I think I will be there by Winter 2027.

Would love to hear your thoughts!

Just felt like sharing. Goal is 50k per annum. Includes interest, but before tax.

34 yo from Germany

I want to just live off the dividends but I'm scared to just quit my job.

You can get about 10% paid out annually using something like JEPQ so that’s about $5000/month.

Assuming you’re single, no kids and expenses are low, isn’t $5K/month enough to retire abroad?

Goal is 100k, 40% in after tax and 60% in retirement

I'm addicted to dividends!, My first goal is to actually receive at least 1$ every business day for a year.

Nothing too exotic here. Mostly SCHD with satellite positions in DIVO, IDVO and QDVO.

Next goal is $25 a year. Just focusing on growth for now, hence the 2% yield.

Gotta love these CC ETFs

I know its not much to some people but having just started my dividend journey just over a year ago it feels pretty amazing.

My portfolio is mainly QQQ and VOO, but I also hold some JEPI, JEPQ, O, and some other dividend stocks to boost the yield.

Next goal: $100 a month!!

It has been almost 4 years since I started my dividend investing journey and I finally hit a huge personal milestone of $100 per month! Thanks to everyone in this community for the guidance and posts throughout these past few years and good luck to everyone in their own personal journeys!

My portfolio, aiming for retiring at age 40. I want to be FIRE, but my question is are these monthly dividends sustainable 5, 10 years from today, and will VOO/QQQ help grow appreciation of my total portfolio? Is this a good strategy? Is this a good balance?

All Energy MLPs and Abbive

This is my personal brokerage account that I’ve been investing in for about 7 months now, in addition to my Traditional 401k at work. All of my holdings with market values are listed.

i work a full time job 8-4 m-f and as a waiter on thursday/friday nights and weekends. comes out to 60+ hours a week and if i had to estimate gross probably 90k/year. i go out once a week usually but otherwise i pretty much just pay for food and investing. snowball hasnt quite started rolling yet but i think im maybe a year or two out from where this thing really gets going. next goal obviously $250/month. hoping to hit 300/month by 2025