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Do you have CEF’s as part of your retirement portfolio?
Ares Capital Q1 earnings strengthen from a year ago, but trail consensus (NASDAQ:ARCC)
5 Dividend Stocks with 7%+ Yield Wall Street Analysts Recommend
5 Dividend Stocks with 7%+ Yield Wall Street Analysts Recommend
Ares Capital Q4 earnings seen climbing with interest rates on the rise (NASDAQ:ARCC)
5 Dividend Stocks with 7%+ Yield Wall Street Analysts Recommend
The Coast is not clear yet! High Tech is still dropping and quickly! Better to trade safe high dividend plays! I know, it is not exciting but it will work until we see greens!
Daily plays, I hope you guys also made some money on my highlight of ALL, Lets keep it up and make money good luck!
Daily Plays, If you bought yesterday's play at my entry point you're making money! if you were lucky enough to buy my 2nd post I specifically highlighted ALLSTATE, the low was 102.55 and closed near 105! Lets keep making money!
Mentions
The question: has OWL taken enough of a beating and this is the bottom? Or is it a slow bleed to zero? The other question is: are the best names in this space, ARCC and MAIN, down around 25% from ATH of a few months ago, as screwed as OWL and are just starting to suffer, or is this a great buying opportunity? I’m going to wait and see.
The top BDCs (MAIN, ARCC) are down 25% from their peaks a few months ago. They went up today, but lagged the general market. Both pay big dividends…ARCC up to 11%. MAIN “only” 6%. Getting tempting but they might just be getting started. The first to go was OWL, now down over 50% with no end in sight.
So for my Income portfolio, I did something really risky that I don't recommend. and that was have a >50% allocation to Yeildmax funds which I'm down overall about 15% in the entire portfolio. If I had to do it all over I would do definitely include QQQI, SPYI, ADX, ARCC, HTGC etc. etc. I would try and stay away from anything greater than 15% yield. Don't expect much price appreciation as those are just spitting out income to cover my baseline expenses. You can look up Armchair Income and Income Architect on Youtube to get some ideas. Those two channeIs and reading the book Income Factory are where most of my ideas come from in regards to income investing. I learned the hard way (as I guess most of us do on this investment journey) that managing your risk vs. return is supremely important.
I'm buying quality BDCs at discount to book value (ARCC, BXSL) in tax-advantaged accounts
i cannot answer that fully right now. I am doing a mental reset and need to reevaluate the market as a whole and calculate a strategy to get back in. my mind is leaning towards dividend stocks. something like: JEPI, JEPQ, QYLD, PFFD, BIZD, ARCC, TRIN, PFLT, AGNC part of this is some aggressive high yielding with more risk attached.
Decide how long your time line is with-a percentage of your cash. If you are comfortable with 10 plus years with a percentage of it ,buy in over time in tranches.For relative safety invest in vanguard index funds as their rates are some of the lowest in-the industry. I would agree VOO is very heavily weighted with AI stocks ,therefore would buy only some and only on a dip(15% or more off from the high ) ,diversify with VT,VTI and a vanguard value stock index . Also buy in on dips of 15% or more , off the high . It’s not guaranteed it will drop this much , but all the indexes are overbought and correction time is due and with geopolitical factors being what they are , likely to drive indexes down further . Diversify. Synchrony Bank has a 4.1% cd for 14 mos . Just tied up a significant chunk that I will not worry about and can sleep at night . Will buy into the market on broader dips, 15% down from highs, and more if 20%. Buying certain stocks that are value and have fallen in the broader drop but still have good value. Looking at Canadian stocks in us index. Recently have bought BN,MAIN,NNN,VICI ,ARCC ,VZ (at 39) ,BEP (at 19). With the exception of BN have bought in retirement accounts. Others, let me know your thoughts on these. Open to discussions . I have a long watch list and waiting for fundamentals to line up to buy.
ARCC. Anyone who's into dividends could do very well buying it at this price. Unreal. Between war and getting incorrectly (imo) lumped in with the whole private equity Ai thing, its a steal. The management is stellar. Dumps are the things to chase alright.
Im all in on ARCC be better raise that shit
Watch for ARCC, MAIN & OBDC. They might start the cracks that accelerate liquidity issues.
They look like a subprime firm? Not the same as something like ARCC
So many ill informed people surrounding private credit and evergreen funds. Default rates in middle market private credit, historically have been lower than BSL or HY. The asset class benefits from smaller club (lenders) that can work strategically with the portfolio company/sponsor should the business underperform. Gates and redemption limits are explicitly detailed in offering docs and investors sign up knowing very well they are buying into funds primarily invested in illiquid assets. I’m long BX, OWL, and ARCC. Those mgmt fees aren’t going away and the underlying collateral quality seems to still be sound. AI and software disruption is real - but definitely a bit overblown as it relates to many of the businesses these PC managers lended to.
Verizon, Nvidia, Google, Amazon, SCHD, MO, ARCC and MAIN
TSLX is a BDC for high income dividend plays that pay over 10% divvies. All of the BDCs like OBDC, ARCC and MAIN are down due to the current low rate environment and to certain extent, too much exposure to software and tech lending. Imho, it’s all overblown and not all BDCs are not created equal but they sold off the same in this panicky market.
Now is a really good time to buy BDC’s ARCC is trading 8% discount to nav, I am loading up
AI is actually affecting their software side of business Now is a good time to buy BDC’s- ARCC and BXLS are down 20% with ARCC trading under nav- just free money from the software slaughter
It really comes down to what you’re optimizing for: yield, max drawdown, or total alpha, etc. I’ve been tracking these on my [**Dividend Radar**](https://dividend-radar.azurewebsites.net/), and while **IGLD** and **IAUI** were consistent Top 5 staples for months, last week’s volatility pushed their valuations into 'Expensive' territory, so they've actually dropped off my leaderboard for now (i suspect not for long). I usually wait for that 'Cheap' signal to trigger before I pull the trigger on a new position. If you’re debating a specific list for 2026, I built a comparison mode that lets you stack them up side-by-side. You can swap in your own tickers here to see the spread: [**2026 Dividend Sector Comparison (FSCO, ARCC, PBDC, etc.)**](https://www.google.com/search?q=https://dividend-radar.azurewebsites.net/%3Fticker%3DFSCO%7CPBDC%7CARCC%7CCEFS%7CPFFA%7CWDI%7CJBBB%7CEICC%7CUTG%7CCLOZ) Just replace the tickers in the URL with whatever you're deciding between to see the current ranking.
In general as the dividend of a fund increase the growth decreases. Dividend fund in general continue to pay even whine the market price drops. So by switching your investments a bit more into dividend you are erectly switching for fixed income instead of growth and reducing your risk. Also the S&P500 index has a long term average growth rate of about 10%. There are funds and stocks that do have dividends close to 10%. So in your roth you could add commp funds that invest in companes that are not a big part of the S&P500. For example ARCC is a BDC there are no BDCs in the S&P500. ARCC has a yield of 9% which is common for BDC and since the companes founding the stock has performed a bit better than the index. When the growth index has a down year ARCC keeps paying its dividend and pulls a bit ahead. The are a number of f=good BDC so I invested in PBDC and the other is BIZD. In my roth Ihave funds like QQQI 13% yield,EIC 11%, ARDC9%, PBDC 9%, EMO 9% CLOZ 8%. So if the index is down I can use the dividend to invest in VOO or any other growth index you have. And in years when growth does very well you could sell some of the growth and lock that money into high dividends funds with have a comparable return and reduce your risk of over concentatration in the magnificent 7. For 401Ks you are limited on your fund choices so for dividend you may be limited to bond funds so you may be forced to use lower dividend yields. One other advantage having dividned funds in Roth or retirment fund is that if you become unemployed you will still have money flowing into the fund. With now I cannot depoist into my roth because my income is too high but the dividend funds are depositing 5K a month of income into my roth.
I suggest checking out the link above which lists many different portfolio strategies, and then use testfol.io with 2000 - 2010 year range to find the allocation that works for you. There are many different ways to build, and bonds may not have to be a large part as long you use other assets to balance the stock portion out. E.g. this portfolio has no long term bonds, only intermediate, but still has very good risk-adjusted returns. https://portfoliocharts.com/2018/10/01/try-a-modern-spin-on-a-classic-idea-with-the-pinwheel-portfolio/ As for SCHD, I know some people swear by it, but personally I am not a big fan. If you are curious, falling interest rates have pushed a lot of BDCs down, like MAIN and ARCC, even though they have very respectable total returns. Might be worth checking out.
Oh, if we are limiting discussion to SCHD, brute force selling VOO shares will win every time, there's no question here. SCHD is not a good investment imo. I went single company as an example of quality dividend stock. In income community both MAIN and ARCC are as well established and known as VOO or VXUS in index investing. My point was that it is not hard to create an income portfolio using BDCs, CEFs, and/or MLPs that will provide sufficient income. If you are interested, I can replace the ticker with an income CEF that will produce similar results.
Sure, took your run and changed it to 4% yearly withdrawal. Not sure why you used VYM, this is a very low yield fund, that I personally wouldn't hold in retirement. I would hold something that produces income like ARCC or MAIN. Here's the result of pure Total market vs 60 ARCC/40% bonds. https://testfol.io/?s=jOef5m7BOLF As you can see it easily beats the market and you never have to sell a single share except for rebalancing.
ARCC, AOD, AGD, ADX, CII, and if you want some aggressive growth, high yield, and a bit extra risk, you can splash some BWLP, GSL, and FLNG (not sure what their 2026 dividends will look like, but 2025 was good).
ARCC is an REIT that has paid 9%+ the past 10years.
Honest truth: >5% yield + growth + doesn't devalue is the trifecta everyone wants but rarely exists, usually you pick 2 of 3, that said, here are realistic options for $1000: Covered call ETFs (my pick for your criteria): \- JEPI - \~7-8% yield, holds large cap stocks, sells covered calls for income, some growth potential but capped upside, very popular with retirees. \- JEPQ - same strategy but tech-focused, higher yield (\~9-10%), more volatile. these give you income + some growth exposure without picking individual stocks. Dividend growth (lower yield but better growth): \- SCHD - only \~3.5% yield BUT the dividend grows 10%+ annually. In 5-7 years you're effectively getting 5%+ on your original investment, better total return over time. Higher yield options (more risk): \- ARCC or MAIN (BDCs) - 8-10% yields, invest in middle-market companies, more volatile. \- ENB (Enbridge) - \~6.5% yield, pipeline company, slow grower but stable dividend. What I'd actually do with $1000: Keep it simple, one holding. \- if you need income NOW: JEPI \- if you can wait for income to grow: SCHD Don't split $1000 into 5 positions - you'll pay more in friction and complexity than it's worth. One warning: anything yielding >7-8% usually has a catch - either growth is flat, risk is higher, or the dividend isn't sustainable. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
Business development companies (BDCs) loan money to companes. The law that governs them requires them to pay out 90% of their earnings as dividends. If they don't they get a tax penalty. So the yields for BDC is in the range of 8% to 12%. ARCC and MAIN are two very good ones. Ther are 2 ETFs that invest only in BDCs , PBDC 9% yield actively managed expense ratio 0.75%. BIZD 11% passively managed BDC index fund expense ratio of 0.4%. Bot are good. But note SEC has a rule that apples to BDC that requires them to post an expense ratio of 13%. This 13% expense is snot real. It is the estimated expenses of the BDC stock these funds hold. But the EFTs never pay BDC expenses. The expenses I listed are the real expenses fro these funds. these ETF are great in any portfolio.
5.5% in my regular, 24% in my Roth. Roth is mainly just trading ARCC for the dividend, with a few options. For my regular, I was up 14% or so but lost it when I held the bag on BYND. Made some money back with BTC and GOOGL. Next year I'll probably focus on building a long term portfolio in my regular account, and continue the ARCC shenanigans in the Roth. With a combination of dividend (9%), the profit from buying after ex-date/selling at the peak, AND buying some contracts I shouldddd be able to replicate that 25% return next year.
Just buy a basket of quality high yield stocks (BTI, VW, VZ) some BDCs like MAIN or ARCC and a couple REITs. You should be able to get a median yield of 6 or 7% without taking on too much risk.
I have too much money in ARCC already but good call. JEPQ looks interesting. Basically Thetagang started and index fund to generate cash?
In my 401k I’m slowly rolling profits from chip and bank stocks into dividend stocks like MO, PFE, ARCC, etc. In my IRA I can trade options so I just always keep at least 50% in cash. Thats my risk management strategy.
I never cared for pancakes or waffles. I’m not a lumberjack. Have you done the returns on ARCC ( since you are cherry picking) with dividends reinvested? You are absolutely correct my picks aren’t mainstream, per se. Which is exactly where I want to be positioned. I want the deep value cuts and I want to get there early because everyone is wrong. Imho. OP asked for long term portfolios. This is mine. This portfolio is designed to weather the majority of market conditions and designed to generate income. Woof.
I don’t think you know what ‘no disrespect’ means. The stocks you listed, I imagine 90% of casual investors have never heard of. I just picked one at random, ARCC. It’s done 40% in 20 years. Why would you suggest that vs any of the unimaginative stocks that have done 40% his year?
If anyone wants a boring income play with good odds of share appreciation look into ARCC. 9% divvy.
Sold ARCC and BIZD, will take about 20 percent losses on the actual sale although the dividends were nice. I'll look at ARCC again in a year or two once the interest rate situation stabilizes.
I have a portion of capital at work in an income generation account. I will occasionally write calls or open CSPs on these HIMU - 30% allocation (Muni fund - no options chain) SNSXX - 30% allocation (I use this money market fund as collateral for CSPs) F - 10% allocation ARCC - 10% allocation SVOL 5% allocation (I actively hedge this position to protect against NAV erosion) SCHD 10% allocation - modest capital appreciation IBIT 5% yes I know. :) Vol.premium usually attractive.
If you invested the money in the S&P500 index 1.3% dividend yield 10 million will gernate $130,000 (130K a year). But dividend investors are typically not interested in yields of 1.3%. At a yield fo 5% very doable with bonds and dividend stock, and various debt obligations would generate 500K of income a year. at a yield of 10% 10 million would generate 1 million a year. the problem is that most people don't have 10 million to invest. most have less than 2 million. So you need to use higher yields to get enough income. Many people that just invest in government bonds and growth assume 10% yields are not sustainable. but in reality there are stocks and ETFs that do generate about 10% yield reliably year after year. for example business development companes pay high yield of about 8% to 12% ARCC is one such company that has been yielding about 9% for about 20 years. Coca cola company has been paying dividend for about 100 years for most of my life it has been around 3% yield. So yes it is possible to live off of dividends without working. About 3 years ago I retired at 55. but my retirment accounts won't be accessible until age 60. I invested money for dividend income in taxable brokerage account. I get 5K a month from my investments4K covers all of my living expenses and 1K is always reinvested to slowly grow my income. This helps prevent inflation from eroding my income. I am currently setting up my roth for more dividend income I want 100K a year buy age 60 and I am on track to doing it. >To add to this it is supposed to strictly be not working at all, so that would exclude day trading, real estate investing / flipping, buying a business etc. I have not done anything like that. gust moving money from my 401K to a Roth 4 times a year and once a month checking may account and using bill pay on the brokerage site to pay regular bills. I often go 2 weeks without looking at my account. And I only log in for about a hour or so at a time. Two good resources for dividend investing are the book The income factory and armchair income on youtube. Both invests for dividend with yields between 5 and 10%. Armchair income focuses on reviewing funds he adds to his portfolio. The book focuses more on building and maintaining a dividend protfolio.
401K Report: After this next pump to ATH’s I’m starting to take profits on chips and roll them into divy stocks. $MO $PFE $ARCC
Thanks! It's not sold yet but it's at the point where I'm seriously thinking "what next" Definitely don't want to sell a company that keeps me and the fam alive and dump it into equities that subsequently crater... good lord I might have to go to work or something equally horrifying I was riding ARCC for quite a while and was like man, this is awesome! Now I'm a bit skittish
I’m only a couple of years from retirement, so building my income stream. I’m loading up on midstream, with the weakness driven by lower oil prices. EPD/ET are my favorites, and yielding between 7-8% BDC Armageddon - hard to predict the bottom, but best of breed in this sector is in sale with the riskier companies. I recently bought a decent position in KBDC. I like ARCC at current price, although hoping it goes lower and keeping some spare change REITS. Decent value, I’ve been adding ARE in the $70’s. I was adding Brookfield BIP/BEP, but now waiting for them to drop 5% or so. Growth is unaffordable. I have nibbled on AMZN. Have been opportunistically selling weekly covered calls on my position. Hoping NVDA disappoints on earning. That will open up a lot of opportunity, but a gamble. It could easily beat and raise. I certainly would not short GLTA
I have taken advice but do my research. When I first started out I didn't know what a BDC was and a reditor told me about ARCC. That led me to find a great YouTube channel and now I own two BDCs.
Im looking at CNI, Canadian National Railway. It is down significantly right now and is struggling due to tariffs hurting the Canadian economy but will probably go up once tariffs end, which will happen eventually. I want to take some of the money I've made from tech over the last few years and put it in non-tech investments. I think ARCC, ALB and COKE are good deals right now but I already own enough.
Please just buy ARCC. Or at least start a trend!
ARCC they do loans for developers who build housing projects. They pay around 9.5% right now.
Trying to figure out what is going on with ARCC. That's my quarterly money maker and it's going down. I figured if interest rates went down more people would borrow. Nope.....
Anyone else buying BDCs on this dip? $GLAD $ARCC
CAT, EOG, ARCC, CL and a little ACI
You can tell the market's peaked when Cathie Wood's ARCC ETF is up 46% this year. Serious bubble behaviour.
CTRE- senior care real estate has been making me a fortune. I am also expecting another dividend increase soon. ARCC- The biggest, best BDC in the business. Turn on the Drip and enjoy the ride. I also have a unicorn pick. These come around every once in a while and usually you can count the number of unicorns on one hand. The last unicorn pick turned out to be a ten-bagger Rolls Royce (RYCEY.).We got in at the $1-$2 range. Unicorns create life changing money. As of right now I found 1 unicorn out of 23,281 stocks. I won’t bury the lead. APA is an oil and gas play that has cash flow coming in the doors. Just as important nobody is talking about which is exactly where I like to be. I do suggest using a 25% trailing stop to protect your principal.
Dollar plummeting so good luck with that. I'd rather park it in high dividend earning multi nationals or ARCC
I have had $ARCC since 2017 and the dividend it pays out (.48/share) has served me well. On the mutual fund side, in my 401K $FADMX I’ve had since late 2013 and my cost basis now is $3.89. It only pays a monthly .04 div, but over time you can build it up to a decent monthly payout when you drip.
Just choose randomly. BAM, WPC, ARCC.
but BIZD is… thats why i said BIZD… of course ARCC isnt an etf its a closed end investment RIC!!!
ARCC is a business development corporation, an individual company that returns a portion of its revenue to investors. It’s not a high-yield ETF.
not really… BIZD is a good one but i like buying singles… ARCC is a good one.
ARCC, with drip, has done well for me
You’re 27… load up in VGT, ARCC and let it run.
I'm starting to migrate away from growth toward high yield BDCs and REITs. The dividends on these things is similar to the 20y return on the S&P500. But yeah they can be volatile and I had a tough lesson with AGNC for example. So I do watch them carefully. Now I bail at the first sign of trouble. I've ended up accumulating a lot of ARCC since it's high yield but stable pricewise with a bit of growth.
I take my 3 fav BDCs to the grave: ARCC, MAIN and HTGC... also Rocket Lab.
Invest the $500,000 in ARCC and reap over 8.51% yield. Live off the dividends at $42,550/ year. Work a part time job.
Look at UTF is pays out 7% of the share price per year. And if you purchases one share of stock 20 years go it will still pay out 7%. ARCC founded 20 years ago and has been paying 0% dividend each year since. Investing in risky growth stocks isn't the only way to make money.
There is a way to avoid buying and selling and trying to time the market. Invest assets they pay ou cash on a quarterly , or monthly schedule. These assets are known as dividend stocks and bonds. And contrary to popular belief there are stocks that pay reliable 10% earnings each year. ARCC is one example.
ARCC Ares Capital looks like it could be good coming up. NVDA Nvidia has been going up for the last couple of months.
Exactly how I feel. I’ve added some money to ARCC and OBDC also. Treading slowly right now. Good luck.
$15k? On Shares?! 1. you are getting in at or near the top. Be prepared for losses. 2. Seems like 15k is a lot of money to you so I think you should stay away from options. 3. Consider an ETF. One of my faves is ARCC, but there are others. If you want to invest in tech might also consider QQQ
Not those specific funds, but I do have money in a few closed-end funds that pay 8 and 9%: QYLD, BGY, QQQX, and BOE, and for the time being I am reinvesting the distributions. I try to buy CEFs when they are selling at a discount to their net asset values; I think that offsets the active management fees. I also have a few hundred shares of ARCC and I pocket those dividends. I wish I had bought ARCC 20 years ago and reinvested the dividends. I also should have backed up the truck and bought a bunch of ARCC back in 2020 when it briefly dropped to $7.50 a share. I'm 65 and been retired for 3 years, so my tax situation might be different from yours ;)
ARCC still payed its dividend not as much as the previous one but still substantial. That said most index funds were negative that year and most payed about 1% yeild which basically nothing. ARCC payed 9% during covid.
>Any stock that pay a 10% dividend has a good chance of beating S&P500 index funds over the long term. Assuming it does indeed consistently pay that, sure. But that's a big assumption. >ARCC is one example The company since it has been paying a dividend. it has averaged a 9% yield for about 20 years and with dividends reinvested has performed better than the S&P500 index. Yeah but [it didn't look so hot in 2008, did it](https://totalrealreturns.com/n/ARCC?end=2010-01-01)? If we only look at periods where everything's been going great, then almost any investment is a good choice.
Any stock that pay a 10% dividend has a good chance of beating S&P500 index funds over the long term. The average long term total return of S&P500 is 11% a far cry from the 20% returns we have seen in recent years. This is because a good dividend fund most of the time pays its dividend even if the index fund are returning almost nothing or or have negative returns. About 50% of the time over the last 100 years the market has been in bearish and in bearish markets growth index funds often underperform dividend funds. ARCC is one example The company since it has been paying a dividend. it has averaged a 9% yield for about 20 years and with dividends reinvested has performed better than the S&P500 index.
ARCC started paying a dividned around 2004 and through most of the last 20 year the dividend has been 9%. It has done better than the S&P500 index funds during that period. Its growth is about 2% per year or less so it high dividend accounts for most of its total return.
So nobody here holding ARCC who voted? I voted no
Anyone here holding ARCC? How did you vote?
I have some in ARCC and PSEC. super boring, but reliable dividend earners.
Some stocks you almost know for certain will dip at some point. This could even apply to certain ETFs. For example, if you want to start a position in ARCC then just wait for some event that hits BDCs and jump in. If you want to get into natural resources wait for NDIV to drop (it will at some point). If it was more typical stuff then I would just lump sum on in.
O pays a monthly dividend and has increased for like 25 plus years, ARCC is pretty much the top BDC company out there and pays like $0.48 dividend like 8% , and SCHD is like the top dividend growth ETF if your wanting dividends look at these, cuz I did like quick math for SELF and to hold 100 shares is going to cost like $536 with a $0.073 dividend so it pays about $7 a quarter you’ll get maybe 4/5 shares extra per year but $536 into ARCC @ $22.50 is about 23.7 shares with a $0.48 divided that’s $11.37 per quarter and in O for the same price you’ll get 9.4 shares that pay a monthly dividend of $0.269 so about $2.42 x 12=$29.05 but it’s a top REIT you may want to look into them but SELF doesn’t seem bad for like extra cash maybe also look in NAT
I’d rather go with O or ARCC, or SCHD
ARCC is the best stock to own.
Keep in mind VOO doesn't grow when the market does badly. And the same applies to the NASDAQ 100 index QQQI uses. But covered calls do very well when the market is dropping or the market is mainly flat with minimal gains and losses. So o er a long period QQQI or its sister fund SPYI (same index as VOO) have a good chance of doing better in the long term. For example take the stock ARCC. by law it has to return most of its earning to shareholders. So its dividned is a high 9% and it has been paying for 20years. IF you compare VOO with ARDC, easily done at [totalrealreturn.com](http://totalrealreturn.com), with all dividends reinvested over the last 20 years ARDC comes out ahead. ARDC performed better than VOO. Why? from 2000 to2002 there loses every years. Then the for next 4 the market was basically flat and then the 2008 crash. The current bull market didn't start until about 2014. But all the goth since 2014 has not been enough for VOO to catch up with ARCC.
30% of your portfolio is in straight up cash (money market), so yes - that's got to be invested at least in something with higher yield and less susceptibility to rate cuts. But with that aside: Withdrawing is more nuanced than accumulating for sure. There are so many ways to structure it. And you ask fundamental questions about your allocation that again, are so open ended that you'll just get a pile of random opinions. It's important to research the asset classes you mention, understand them, and decide what you are comfortable with. The transition from pure growth to a more diverse portfolio consisting not only of stock index funds, but also dividend growth and dividend income securities (these are categories), plus bonds, is a journey - not a simple step. This being said, I'm retired 4.5 years and here's what I do. My portfolio is about 71% equities and 29% bonds, mostly corporate and high yield. There's 4% cash embedded in the 30%. My equities are comprised of 40% growth - index funds and tech - plus 19% dividend growth (classics like JPM, XOM, PG, JNJ, SCHD, numerous others) and 12% higher yielding dividend income (JEPI, ARCC, PFFA, etc.). I have 75 individual securities which is a lot, but I am an active investor who enjoys this as a "pragmatic hobby." I've set up my portfolio so that the total dividend and interest yield approaches a full 4% withdrawal. At this writing it's at 3.75%. In other words, I can pay for my expenses without selling shares. My highest yielding assets are kept in IRAs so that I can decide when and how much to withdraw. My taxable accounts hold a blend of growth and dividend growth. I take all dividends there as cash and have them deposited into a money market fund from which I pay bills. There's so much more to talk about, and I don't want to be overly verbose so I'll leave it here. If you want to explore some good intelligent content on income investing, check out Armchair Income and DividendBull on YouTube. These are mature, articulate investors (not Gen Z influencers).
Anyone else here investing in ARCC and getting calls from them? I think it’s a scam so I don’t let them speak much before hanging up on them mid sentence. Are these calls legit?
Buy what you like and don't be afraid to make changes. I like Verizon and it has a high dividend yield so it was my first stock purchase. Next was ARCC which is a solid BDC. The largest in the US with a high yield. I agree if you aren't having fun you are not doing it right.
ARCC has beeen paying a yield of 9% for about 20 years. They have never missed a dividend payment.and the share price is consistent. UTG is just as old and pays 7% and agin has never missed a payment. This is just an example to show that yield higher yields are possible at minimal additional risk.
Diversification is part of risk management and risk takes various forms. Market risk, risk of default and risk from inflation are your main ones. Lower credit rated bonds have higher risk of default, long term bonds lose value if interest rates increase and dividend and other equity based income has market risks in addition. Short term bonds and money markets are the safest and should be held to cover your short term cash needs, equity based income has market risk but if you can hold for two to five years then you can ride out market swings. I am retired and keep about two years of withdrawals in my safe income bucket, I have most of my income bucket in riskier things like SCHD, JEPI, O, ARCC and smaller amounts in SPYI, QQQI and JEPQ. Tiny amounts in BTCI and MSTY to watch and learn these newer types of investments. I feel the diversity mitigates the risk and my small pension and SS also function as low risk fixed income. Spend some time learning about any investment, don’t just rely on internet self described experts.
Think the base case is too high a dividend can simply be returning principal to the investor ARCC has been paying a dividned of 9% for 20 years and it is worth more today than it has ever been Dividends are not a return of principle Thy are return of small portion of the profits. So a well run company or fund will not see a principle erosion. A poorly run fund or company wills NAV erosion and may eventually go bankrupt.
Well dividends do not always equate returns , a stock could pay dividends but keep loosing value False, ARCC has been paying a dividned of 9% for 20 years. And it is worth more today than when the company started paying a dividend. Also KO has been paying a dividend for 100 years and it is worth more today than it has ever been. And additionally all the index funds you have in your acount pay a dividned.
For Starters the equity market is the the stock market some stocks pay dividends and other do not. Would BANK not outperform XEQT assuming both are using DRIP? Yes it can however there are two things that result in growth dividends, and an increases in share price. Total return is dividends +share price appreciation Now for much of the stock markets history the the best way to get a good total return was to literally invest in everything. So the best investments were index funds that buy all the stocks in an index like the S&P500. it you have 500 stocks you get he average performance of 500 stocks which is about an average of 11% total return. Howeer the market has been changing slowly over time. dividend for many companies are smal which made dividend less attractive due to ther lower total return. But over time new assets have come on the market. 40 years ago there was no options trading. Business development cooperations or llon obligations. These are now available to the avers investor through ETF (exchange traded funds or Close end funds. And these trade on the stock market. And many of these fund or BDC actually pay dividends to be high enough to have a total return of competitive with index funds. Many inv esters don't realize this has happened. For example ARCC is a BDC that started doing business about 20 years ago It has a a9% dividend and not much capital gains. Since its founding it has performed slightly better than the S&P500 market IF all the market corrections (2008 market crash, Covid, and this years correction had not happened the S&P500 would likely be ahead. The only way index funds can stay ahead of ARC is by a sustained continuous Bull market. But that had not occurred in the entire history of the market. And in the last 10 years there have been a number of new covered call funds, these funds use an option known as covered calls to generate income. with these funds you can get yield o 5% or more. There are a couple near 100% dividend yield. then there is OXLC a collateral loan obligations fund that is yielding about 25% Now my personal opinion is that anything with a dividned of 20% may not last form many decades but if you restrict yourself to funds with a dividend of 15% or less you should have a dividend portfolio competitive with growth index fundsAnd since dividend funds tend to do better in bear markets verses bull market i would devote 50% of a regiment portfolio to dividends and the rest growth index funds.
Actually when the market crashes MOST dividned stocks don't cut the dividned. When Covid hit the market lost 50% and my dividned fund lost a lot of value. But my dividends continued to come in unchanged. Same with the most recent drop in april. My dividned income 5K a month and still is 5K a month. You need a really bad market to see a lot of company cutting dividned. I our life the worst year was 2008. If you were a bank you had to stop paying a dividend. But even then a majority of companes still kept paying a dividend. Studies have found the mean dividend drop was only 2% in a recession. While the overall market can drop 30% or more. ARCC is an excellent example. By law it is required to pay a high yield (about9% now. It payed right through the 2008, covid and any bd years since the company was fouded and stated paying dividneds about 24 years ago.
Many people of reddit assume two thing about investing. * People only invest for retirment * that the best return possible is always index funds which pay almost nothing in dividends. which have an average retune of about 10% per year. Both of these assumptions are not true. There are dividend investments that produce returns of 10% or more ARCC is one example. The company has been paying a 9% total return of about 9% for about 20 years. OXLC pays dividned off 24% since 2011. And you can make money trading covered calls indefinitely. SEC only recently started allowing ETF that focus on using covered calls for income. SPYI has 11% yield, QQQI 13%.BTCI 20% Now granted some of these funds have not been around long enough so we don't know if they will last as long as the index funds many prefer. So some dividned ingvestor assume that some of there funds will fail. So they have 20 fund or more for income that way if one fails or has problems it represents only 5% or less of the investments. Fortunately fund failures are very rare. Also not everyone is investing for retirement. So they put their money in taxable accounts so they can access the money at any time. Some people want supplemental income in case they loose their jobs. Others may want enough income to cover bills mortgage payments or other things. Funds like SPYI and QQQI are very useful in these cases because the high yield lower the amount of money needed to reach the goal and these funds take extra steps to lower the tax on the dividends you receive. So the recomendation to use growth funds until you are old is totally outdated advice. Use dividend income whenever it suits your needs better than growth investing. IN my case I was burned out from work and had a healthy retirment fund and had a lot of growth in taxable account. So I reworked the taxable for dividends for income using dividneds I now generate 4K of income to cover all of my living expenses. With another 1K of income that is reinvested to allow my account to adjust for inflation. I retried at age 55. but others have done this at age 40.
With only 4 stocks, hard to grade, but I'll give it a go. I recommended against SPY given the budget, but not because it's bad. It's fantastic, and I'd still take it over Vanguard and Blackrock's offerings in the same space despite the enormous ground those 2 have made. Solid pick even in fractionals, but it doesn't fit your growth needs or make up for that with dividend accruals. Don't sell it now that you have it, of course, but if the budget is the same for 3-5 years, don't let it dominate your portfolio. NVDA is NVDA. Easy pick to throw money at any time between now and 2035. Only up over time, stock of the decade, no notes. ATOS is an interesting value pick. I definitely think it's a bit undervalued. If you REALLY like them, maybe get 3-28 more shares, and hold for a few years. Even if it's a better value play then I give it credit for, there's better opportunities in pharma over the next year that merit more attention. For sub dollars, ELTP is a gold mine as long as stays under 1.50 (ripe for a buyout in 6-18 months is why), but you need a different brokerage (which you're too new for realistically, but you'll want a better one at some point if you don't flame out) because only the big boys like Schwab and Fidelity will let you take a crack at it. And over in Robinhood land, well, I already recommended PFE. It probably won't stay below 30 but for a year or 2 more. AFRM is....there's really no way to sugarcoat, it's a mistake. Some companies, you don't give a damn that they suck on the consumer end - you're trying to make a buck. Others, them being dookie eventually bites their investors in the ass. Affirm is in the latter camp. They suck, AND there's better BNPL plays if you're high on that specifically. Affirm is capped for the future. Hold it for a year, 2 at the most, then dump it for whatever gains you can lock in. Don't get trapped in this one. If you take nothing else away from this: you're on a fine enough start. A safe bet in SPY, a smart megacap growth play in NVDA, and 2 rolls of the dice, one of those being a penny stock. Until you're proven horribly wrong a shit ton and bevome proof of Dunning-Kruger, try to believe in your gut a little bit. That's how the best investors discover over time what they're good at picking, and the sectors where they don't know shit from apple butter. Side note, I actually forgot to mention in my earlier reply what is probably one of the best stocks you could pick up as a budget investor: ARCC. They're a middleman loan company for businesses that's selective about their clientele, have a very good history, solid fundamentals, a sub-25 dollar stock price, and a jaw dropping 8 percent quarterly dividend. They're a bonkers good stock that won't tank, and should basically be to you for your first 3 or so years what SPY is to seasoned investors with bigger budgets. Ares Capital is a phenomenal way to hold money as a broke boy investor and get some value while you sit on it.
ARCC for long term dividend play.
I am thinking of doing the same. I just have normal ETFs and equities in my IRA anyway, VOO, VTI, SCHD, ARCC. I don't touch them that often... except when I get nervous about ARCC and I have been wrong every time. Might as well just make $15k for having them sit at WeBull.
QYLD at these levels adding to already overweight position held covering expenses and RMD along with ARCC,STWD,ABR,OXLC,AGNC. Key point is buying these on dips as dividends paid out melts the NAV . At age 76, retired, willing to take risk in view of reward, I am enjoying the ride. All traded in IRA,dripping and constantly vigilant for opportunities. The power of compounding and the rule of 72 work very well for me!
The rest are long-term/stable holds like BRK/B, EXE (rising energy company), and ARCC (for those good dividends next month).
How can I really have this many swings and misses? Obvious answer you are not good cat evaluating the stocks you invest in. Less obviousis is that you are only investing for captial gains. and very little deversification in your investments. investing in index funds isn't going to help much because you are still investing for captial cains. Have you ever thought about investing for dividneds using ETF orCEF. Dividend funds typically are professionally managed to identify the good and the bad an invest in many stocks. Alos if you reinvest the dividend your money will grow even if the stock price doesn't move. So you don't have to worry about shar price as much. How long a stock needs to double in value is determined by the law of 72. so you take 72 and divided by the yield7.2. So for a fund with a yield of 10%. your money would double in 7.2 years. For exaple ARCC, a BDC. This stock and its shares price has been constantly around 20 dollar with major drops in 2008(The bank crisis) and 2020 (Covid) 52 week high and low is 23.8 and 18.3So other than the market crashes the price is stable. So not much capital gains. However ARCC pays a yield of 9% and they have payed quarterly for about 20 years. Sao if you just bought it and held it for 8 yours you would have doubled your money. Which means they parted the dividend through each market crash. Yield does very a little bit nut not a lot. I have this stock but I am not buying any more. Why it is only one stock. Instead I am buying PBDC that invest in the Best BDCs it can find. It has about 20 BDCs in its holding and pays a yield of 9% this speads out the risk over 20 stocks so it one goes bad you might not notice. I also Have SPYI 11% it invests in the S&P500 and writes covered calls..to convert market volatility. into dividnends. The target yield is 11% but can very a bit. 9% to 13% yields are normal. I now make 1000 a month off of my investment in that und. I have no interest in seeing my dividend stockSs or funds. Yes the protfolio value dropped a lot during covid and dropped some since aapril. But I am making 50K a year of income from dividends. So that is not enough to encurage me to [sell.So](http://sell.So) I will hold them for as long as possible. I will only sell if there is really bad new related to one fund or stock
But the ETFs all have fees attached, which eat into your bottom line if you want dividend income… I tend to avoid ETFs. My fave is DUK, VZ. Am looking into ARCC once this market stabilizes.
Check out Dividend Bull videos on YouTube. Look at the dividend calculator on tipranks and pick a high yield dividend stock like ARCC and see what numbers you get with drip on over two years. You'll be building up alot of passive income. Safer bet is SCHD. I think if you are ok with risk and taxes then consider building passive income. Leave Bogle to your 401k. Just my 2c. It's whar I'm starting to do.
I wouldn't use any of the fund you have listed in your roth. All a very low yield. You could put those in a taxable account and pay almost no taxes. You are wasting the capabilities of the Roth account. I would use funds like PBDC yield 9%, QQQI 13%, and ARCC 12%, PFFA 8% I f all your money in the roth is invested in funds like this the money value of the fund would double every 6.5 year. It could be worth almost triple its current value by the time your retire. And the dividned income it generate couple help you cover most of your living expenses without selling any shares or paying any taxes. Basically at this point in time you should be setting the account to generate passive income to cover your living expenses using dividends fund and bond funds.
I’m not going to post my core shorts for 2 reasons: 1.) they’d look absolutely degenerate if you don’t fully buy into my thesis, so you’d lack the conviction to hold (some 5s rated funds, safe haven’s, etc) and 2.) I bought them cheap in march, they’re expensive now and tbh.:. i’m not confident they’ll payout even if I’m right at this point, fraud is rampant. XLRE/XLF/XRT naked short, regional banks (IAT/KRE), holding companies (BX/ARCC/etc.)… tbh, open the prospects for SCHD, or similar… they’re full of shit co’s I expect to default. Others would take too much explanation, and if you hood a similar belief you’re already most likely in them. dyor, not advice, but enough people upvote I figured I’d throw a bone… but I must emphasize: you need convection in the underlying structural thesis rooted in the credit markets, or else you’ll paper hand these and lose. if it was easy, everyone would be in it. Whatever you do, stay safe.
I'm of the growing opinion that MMs are manipulating it so there isn't a considerable drawdown, which would spook "normal" investors into cash. They can't allow this for a few reasons: 1. Panic selling triggers a crash. No institution was positioned for the 10% drop from initial tariffs—Jane St. had to take out a term loan last week. Now, bid/ask spreads on everything are insane—thousands on each side at every single price point. Every intraday "dip" over 40bps is immediately bought into a reversal. 1. On this point, realized vol > implied vol.... Does a negative GDP print, empty ports, mass layoffs, rising withdrawals from 401ks (all documented, Google), and absolute chaos about anything, even near or mid-term.... Does VIX @ 25 seem optimistic here? Those dip buyers look more concerned about keeping VIX low than their DCA, lmao. 1. There is a massive disconnect from basic data points, such as foreign capital having fled US markets by 15%+ over the past few weeks (Google, a lot of coverage). So, where is that capital outflow being reflected in prices? It isn't. The outflows are documented, but where is their market reflection? 1. Privates (equity, credit, real estate) are distressed due to rising default rates and forced liquidations by endowments. It's so bad that [APO/BX/CG/ARCC](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-04-30/apollo-carlyle-buy-first-srt-tied-to-loans-to-private-debt-bdcs) and [D.E. Shaw](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-05-01/d-e-shaw-raises-1-3-billion-for-fund-targeting-risk-transfers) are raising capital for SRTs. This can't possibly be interpreted as anything other than banks being in serious trouble. Are those car loans and credit card balances with record missed payments [starting to catch up](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-05-01/rent-the-balance-sheet-banks-seek-ways-to-skirt-capital-rules)? Meanwhile, DFS/COF at ATHs....k. 1. You have a syndicated leveraged loan market - private loans held @ 50:1 [leveraged CLOs](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-04-14/clo-market-poised-to-freeze-raising-risk-to-us-leveraged-loans), with a default rate of \~5.6% in Dec'24 (COVID low was \~4.4% for reference), showing further [record distress](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-04-14/clo-market-poised-to-freeze-raising-risk-to-us-leveraged-loans) in April. Managers of these assets “print and sprint” the non-securitized/warehouse secondaries they hold because AAA traded below 1:1. Totes normal. 1. It is not getting enough coverage, but [Endowments ](https://www.reuters.com/world/us/harvard-university-exploring-1-billion-private-equity-stakes-sale-bloomberg-news-2025-04-24/)are forced to sell PE holdings due to Trump's tax threats. This is not getting the coverage it deserves because it will force liquidity and price discovery events to cascade across the private markets. So the.... you'd think, bad news listed above.... not priced in? Absolutely none of it? OK... let me continue.
Tin foil hat, I know... but here me out: I'm of the growing opinion that MMs are manipulating it so there isn't a considerable drawdown, which would spook "normal" investors into cash. They can't allow this for a few reasons: 1. Panic selling triggers a crash. No institution was positioned for the 10% drop from initial tariffs—Jane St. had to take out a term loan last week. Now, bid/ask spreads on everything are insane—thousands on each side at every single price point. Every intraday "dip" over 40bps is immediately bought into a reversal. 1. On this point, realized vol > implied vol.... Does a negative GDP print, empty ports, mass layoffs, rising withdrawals from 401ks (all documented, Google), and absolute chaos about anything, even near or mid-term.... Does VIX @ 25 seem optimistic here? Those dip buyers look more concerned about keeping VIX low than their DCA, lmao. 2. There is a huge disconnect from basic data points, such as foreign capital having fled US markets by 15%+ over the past few weeks (Google, a lot of coverage). So, where is that capital outflow being reflected in prices? It isn't. The outflows are documented, but the market reflection of them... where? 3. Privates (equity, credit, real estate) are distressed due to rising default rates and forced liquidations by endowments. It's so bad that [APO/BX/CG/ARCC](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-04-30/apollo-carlyle-buy-first-srt-tied-to-loans-to-private-debt-bdcs) and [D.E. Shaw](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-05-01/d-e-shaw-raises-1-3-billion-for-fund-targeting-risk-transfers) are raising capital for SRTs. This can't possibly be interpreted as anything other than banks being in serious trouble. Are those car loans and credit card balances with record missed payments [starting to catch up](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-05-01/rent-the-balance-sheet-banks-seek-ways-to-skirt-capital-rules)? Meanwhile, DFS/COF at ATHs....k. 4. You have a syndicated leveraged loan market - private loans held @ 50:1 [leveraged CLOs](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-04-14/clo-market-poised-to-freeze-raising-risk-to-us-leveraged-loans), with a default rate of \~5.6% in Dec'24 (COVID low was \~4.4% for reference), showing further [record distress](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-04-14/clo-market-poised-to-freeze-raising-risk-to-us-leveraged-loans) in April. Managers of these assets “print and sprint” the non-securitized/warehouse secondaries they hold because AAA traded below 1:1. Totes normal. 5. It is not getting enough coverage, but [Endowments ](https://www.reuters.com/world/us/harvard-university-exploring-1-billion-private-equity-stakes-sale-bloomberg-news-2025-04-24/)are forced to sell PE holdings due to Trump's tax threats. This is not getting the coverage it deserves because it will force liquidity and price discovery events to cascade across the private markets.
ARCC is not closed end fund. It is a business.