Likewise, VOO (S&P 500) appreciation higher than VTI and VXF over the longer term:
5-years: VOO 72%, VTI 64%, VXF 29%
10-years: VOO 256%, VTI 244%, VXF 185%
17-years: VOO 556%, VTI 507%, VXF 381% Data taken from Yahoo finance. If reinvested dividends are included, the total return spreads for VOO are a bit larger. Of course, past performance no guarantee of future performance.
Andy - The following pipelines are not MLPs - KMI, OKE, ENB, AMLP ETF (includes some MLPs and diversified), and WMB (kind of expensive). I also own XOM, EOG and CNQ oils. Since I enjoy tinkering, I also juice yields by selling covered-calls on a portion of some low PE, high dividend stocks - this takes effort, caps the gains in up markets, lowers downside risk, but often adds 5-7%/year call earnings to a stock's annual dividends depending upon strike price - typically I sell out-of-the-money calls. In addition to calls on energy stocks, I have sold calls on TROW, TGT, PRU, ALL, MET, BMY and MO. Most of the calls expire unexercised, and the call money is pocketed. In a few cases, a fair bit of money is left on the table when stocks pop (TGT and EOG for example), but these trades were structured for the income. When called away, the stocks regularly provide 15+% annualized returns which is plenty for me. Calls of around three months out provide a peak of yield premium, but I often sell calls six to nine months out just to reduce the effort (churn) of this strategy. I have never been disappointed padding yield on dividend stocks by selling covered calls even when called away - this portion of the portfolio is designed for income, and the growth portion of the portfolio does the heavy lifting for gains. In other words, this income padding strategy provides comfort to maintain a higher stock allocation.
No REITs as I am with Bill C and concerned about real estate valuation pulling back, especially empty commercial buildings. For high yield (4-7.5%), I much prefer energy pipelines as US energy demand is expanding due to AI and global needs; the pipelines are nicely growing toll-takers and just like utilities, essentially agnostic about energy prices; and their stock prices have low volatility with slow increases through the bull market. For investors concerned about MLP tax reporting, half the pipeline companies and several ETFs are not structured as MLP's and have absolutely no tax prep issues. Even most of the MLPs can be held in tax-deferred accounts without annual tax reporting issues until sold, because their high depreciation creates negative UBTI which eliminates tax reporting issues.
Dick - I suspect Muni utilization may be low for many Boomer retirees because we have ended up with much larger tax-deferred account balances relative to taxable account balances. Thus, fixed-income allocations are taken within tax-deferred accounts where higher-yield fixed-income works best. Munis work best in taxable accounts.
Fantastic post providing real insights on portfolio approaches. My favorite takeaway is an increased comfort that some retirees likewise maintain limited bond allocations and many looking elsewhere for income – REITs, Dividends, Annuities, etc. Asset Allocation
50% S&P 500 & Growth ETFs (VOO, VGT, VUG, SMH)
10% individual stocks – half tech, half dividend (AAPL, GOOGL, XOM, COP largest positions)
10% Covered-Call ETFs for income & price stability (JEPI & GPIX)
10% Energy Pipelines for income & price stability (EPD, KMI, OKE, ENB, AMLP)
13% individual bonds bought in late 2023 (avg remaining maturity ~4.5 years)
4% Cash
3% Gold ETF (GLD) bought for diversification a decade ago The allocations present as 80/20 stocks/fixed income but function with 60/40 like volatility. The 20% in covered-call ETFs and pipeline stocks provides high income with relatively stable valuations (up modestly). They serve as a sort of “bond surrogate” for us since we have never loved bonds nor owned a bond fund. We landed on this basic structure nearly four years ago, and performance is bit below the S&P’s with lower volatility. The portfolio’s 3% annual income beats the S&P’s 1% and hopefully helps us see through the next sustained pullback. Tax Buckets
70% Tax-deferred, 20% Roth (100% growth ETFs), and 10% Taxable (individual stocks w/gains) We are aged 70 and aggressively Roth converting. Several investment buddies and I agree with UofODuck that the market seems stretched, and on the margin, I have (mistakenly so far) rebalanced several percent of tech ETFs to more conservative ETFs. This thread worthy of additional HD posters and perspectives.
Harold - thanks for this. Just to be clear for our family, we do not advocate that Grandparents open, manage, and remain custodians of any of these accounts on behalf of their grandchildren. We believe the parents are best positioned to manage the accounts, and our child has opened the accounts on behalf of their child - we have openly discussed with both parents on how we plan to help supplement future funding of the child accounts they are managing. We also have no concern that the grandparent fund sourcing is not separately reflected.
Bill - we agree that best to have full alignment with the parents, and we openly discussed these concepts with them. We also feel the parents are in a better position than we aging grandparents to manage the accounts for the full two decades.
Comments
Likewise, VOO (S&P 500) appreciation higher than VTI and VXF over the longer term: 5-years: VOO 72%, VTI 64%, VXF 29% 10-years: VOO 256%, VTI 244%, VXF 185% 17-years: VOO 556%, VTI 507%, VXF 381% Data taken from Yahoo finance. If reinvested dividends are included, the total return spreads for VOO are a bit larger. Of course, past performance no guarantee of future performance.
Post: What’s in your portfolio ?
Link to comment from July 5, 2026
Nice Barron's summary article yesterday on all the places to capture yield: These are the best income investments now. Where to find yields of 5% or more.
Post: What’s in your portfolio ?
Link to comment from June 27, 2026
Andy - The following pipelines are not MLPs - KMI, OKE, ENB, AMLP ETF (includes some MLPs and diversified), and WMB (kind of expensive). I also own XOM, EOG and CNQ oils. Since I enjoy tinkering, I also juice yields by selling covered-calls on a portion of some low PE, high dividend stocks - this takes effort, caps the gains in up markets, lowers downside risk, but often adds 5-7%/year call earnings to a stock's annual dividends depending upon strike price - typically I sell out-of-the-money calls. In addition to calls on energy stocks, I have sold calls on TROW, TGT, PRU, ALL, MET, BMY and MO. Most of the calls expire unexercised, and the call money is pocketed. In a few cases, a fair bit of money is left on the table when stocks pop (TGT and EOG for example), but these trades were structured for the income. When called away, the stocks regularly provide 15+% annualized returns which is plenty for me. Calls of around three months out provide a peak of yield premium, but I often sell calls six to nine months out just to reduce the effort (churn) of this strategy. I have never been disappointed padding yield on dividend stocks by selling covered calls even when called away - this portion of the portfolio is designed for income, and the growth portion of the portfolio does the heavy lifting for gains. In other words, this income padding strategy provides comfort to maintain a higher stock allocation.
Post: What’s in your portfolio ?
Link to comment from June 25, 2026
No REITs as I am with Bill C and concerned about real estate valuation pulling back, especially empty commercial buildings. For high yield (4-7.5%), I much prefer energy pipelines as US energy demand is expanding due to AI and global needs; the pipelines are nicely growing toll-takers and just like utilities, essentially agnostic about energy prices; and their stock prices have low volatility with slow increases through the bull market. For investors concerned about MLP tax reporting, half the pipeline companies and several ETFs are not structured as MLP's and have absolutely no tax prep issues. Even most of the MLPs can be held in tax-deferred accounts without annual tax reporting issues until sold, because their high depreciation creates negative UBTI which eliminates tax reporting issues.
Post: What’s in your portfolio ?
Link to comment from June 25, 2026
Dick - I suspect Muni utilization may be low for many Boomer retirees because we have ended up with much larger tax-deferred account balances relative to taxable account balances. Thus, fixed-income allocations are taken within tax-deferred accounts where higher-yield fixed-income works best. Munis work best in taxable accounts.
Post: What’s in your portfolio ?
Link to comment from June 24, 2026
Fantastic post providing real insights on portfolio approaches. My favorite takeaway is an increased comfort that some retirees likewise maintain limited bond allocations and many looking elsewhere for income – REITs, Dividends, Annuities, etc. Asset Allocation 50% S&P 500 & Growth ETFs (VOO, VGT, VUG, SMH) 10% individual stocks – half tech, half dividend (AAPL, GOOGL, XOM, COP largest positions) 10% Covered-Call ETFs for income & price stability (JEPI & GPIX) 10% Energy Pipelines for income & price stability (EPD, KMI, OKE, ENB, AMLP) 13% individual bonds bought in late 2023 (avg remaining maturity ~4.5 years) 4% Cash 3% Gold ETF (GLD) bought for diversification a decade ago The allocations present as 80/20 stocks/fixed income but function with 60/40 like volatility. The 20% in covered-call ETFs and pipeline stocks provides high income with relatively stable valuations (up modestly). They serve as a sort of “bond surrogate” for us since we have never loved bonds nor owned a bond fund. We landed on this basic structure nearly four years ago, and performance is bit below the S&P’s with lower volatility. The portfolio’s 3% annual income beats the S&P’s 1% and hopefully helps us see through the next sustained pullback. Tax Buckets 70% Tax-deferred, 20% Roth (100% growth ETFs), and 10% Taxable (individual stocks w/gains) We are aged 70 and aggressively Roth converting. Several investment buddies and I agree with UofODuck that the market seems stretched, and on the margin, I have (mistakenly so far) rebalanced several percent of tech ETFs to more conservative ETFs. This thread worthy of additional HD posters and perspectives.
Post: What’s in your portfolio ?
Link to comment from June 24, 2026
Harold - thanks for this. Just to be clear for our family, we do not advocate that Grandparents open, manage, and remain custodians of any of these accounts on behalf of their grandchildren. We believe the parents are best positioned to manage the accounts, and our child has opened the accounts on behalf of their child - we have openly discussed with both parents on how we plan to help supplement future funding of the child accounts they are managing. We also have no concern that the grandparent fund sourcing is not separately reflected.
Post: Saving for Grandchildren
Link to comment from May 7, 2026
The IRS says generally the parents are responsible: Topic no. 553, Tax on a child's investment and other unearned income (kiddie tax) | Internal Revenue Service but there certainly could be special guardianship, dependency or other cases.
Post: Saving for Grandchildren
Link to comment from May 3, 2026
Bill - we agree that best to have full alignment with the parents, and we openly discussed these concepts with them. We also feel the parents are in a better position than we aging grandparents to manage the accounts for the full two decades.
Post: Saving for Grandchildren
Link to comment from May 3, 2026
AI is too low, as the marginal tax rate can be as high as 28,000 percent on the next dollar: https://humbledollar.com/2023/04/that-28000000-tax/
Post: Hidden Surcharge
Link to comment from April 22, 2026