Taking a closer look at OVL, its S&P 500 exposure, income strategy, performance, and the power of compounding.

One of the things I enjoy about investing is taking an ETF I’m interested in and digging deeper than just looking at the distribution rate.

In my latest research, I took a closer look at OVL — Overlay Shares Large Cap Equity ETF — and compared it with VOO, while also using a dividend calculator to explore some hypothetical long-term scenarios.

The numbers from the calculator were interesting — especially when I used my own approximately $150,000 OVL position as an example.

Let’s take a look.

🔎 WHAT IS OVL?

OVL is designed to provide exposure to large-cap U.S. equities while using a put spread option overlay strategy to generate income.

In the research I reviewed, OVL had approximately 99%+ exposure to VOO, giving it very high exposure to the S&P 500.

The fund is also targeting approximately a 10.5% distribution rate and pays distributions monthly.

In my research, the distribution rate shown was approximately 10.46%, which is right around that target.

That combination is what makes OVL interesting to me.

📊 OVL VS. VOO

I wanted to see how OVL has performed compared with VOO.

Using the Stock Analysis comparison tool, the numbers I found as of August 28, 2026 were:

OVL since inception: 204.8%

VOO since inception: 186.96%

That’s a difference of approximately 17.84 percentage points.

Over three years:

OVL: 89.16%

VOO: 81.98%

Over one year:

OVL: 23.42%

VOO: 20.39%

These are total-return figures, including distributions.

I found the comparison interesting because OVL is designed around generating income while maintaining very high exposure to the S&P 500 through VOO.

📈 OVL’S HISTORICAL RETURN

Stock Analysis showed OVL with a 23.42% total return over the past year, including distributions.

Since inception, the average annual return shown was approximately 17.18%.

That’s where I started thinking about the Rule of 72.

🧮 THE RULE OF 72

The Rule of 72 is a simple way to estimate how long it could take an investment to double based on a particular annual return.

The formula is:

72 ÷ annual return = approximate years to double

Using 17.18%:

72 ÷ 17.18 = approximately 4.2 years

That doesn’t mean OVL will actually double every 4.2 years.

It’s simply a mathematical illustration based on that historical annualized return.

📈 NOW LET’S TALK ABOUT THE CALCULATOR

I used the Stock Analysis dividend calculator to run some hypothetical scenarios.

The calculator initially used an 8.11% dividend yield, along with assumptions for dividend growth and stock-price growth.

I then changed the distribution assumption to 10.5%, which is the target distribution rate I was researching for OVL.

I also used a 5% stock-price growth assumption for the example.

Again, these are simply assumptions for the calculator.

They’re not forecasts.

💵 WHAT HAPPENS WITH $10,000?

Let’s start with a hypothetical $10,000 investment.

Using the calculator’s assumptions, after 10 years the original scenario showed approximately:

$78,694 portfolio value

with approximately:

$24,268 in annual dividend income

The calculator was using its historical assumptions, including an 8.11% initial yield.

I then changed the assumptions to use the 10.5% target distribution rate and a 5% growth assumption.

With those changes, the calculator showed approximately:

$40,590 after 10 years

Another scenario showed approximately:

$47,652

depending on the account and reinvestment assumptions being used.

The important takeaway for me isn’t that one particular number is going to happen.

It’s seeing how dramatically the results can change based on the assumptions.

🏦 WHAT ABOUT MY $150,000?

This is where I really wanted to see the calculator’s output.

I entered approximately $150,000, which is roughly the amount I had invested in OVL at the time of recording.

With the calculator’s assumptions, the hypothetical results were approximately:

AFTER 5 YEARS

$327,000 portfolio value

Approximately 4,485 shares

Approximately $34,000 in annual income

AFTER 10 YEARS

$714,760 portfolio value

Approximately $75,000 in annual income

Those are some pretty eye-opening numbers.

But again, these are calculator projections.

They assume the underlying inputs continue to behave in a certain way.

There is absolutely no guarantee that will happen.

🚀 WHAT ABOUT 20 YEARS?

Then I decided to have some fun with the calculator and extended the hypothetical projection to 20 years.

With the same approximately $150,000 starting investment and the assumptions being used, the calculator showed approximately:

$3.46 MILLION

with approximately:

$357,000 in annual income

That’s a huge number.

And it’s also exactly why I don’t want anyone looking at a calculator like this and assuming the result is guaranteed.

A 20-year projection involves an enormous number of assumptions.

The actual result could be dramatically higher or lower.

💵 WHAT IF YOU START WITH $10,000?

I also looked at a smaller starting amount.

With $10,000, the calculator showed approximately:

$227,000 after 20 years

under the assumptions being used.

Then I started adding contributions.

With $10,000 plus approximately $100 per month, the calculator showed approximately:

$381,000 after 20 years.

Then I looked at approximately $100 per week.

That pushed the hypothetical result to approximately:

$895,000 after 20 years.

That’s a great illustration of why I believe contributions can be just as important as the investment itself.

Starting with $10,000 is one thing.

Starting with $10,000 and continuing to add money over 20 years is something completely different.

⏳ TIME IS THE BIG FACTOR

Looking at these numbers reminded me that time can be incredibly powerful when you’re reinvesting income.

You have:

Initial investment

Additional contributions

Reinvested distributions

Time

And those things can potentially work together to create significant compounding.

But the assumptions matter.

A 10.5% distribution isn’t guaranteed.

The share price isn’t guaranteed to grow.

Distributions aren’t guaranteed to stay the same.

And there will be periods when the market goes down.

🎯 WHY I’M INTERESTED IN OVL

For me, OVL is interesting because of the combination of:

S&P 500 exposure

Options-based income strategy

Monthly distributions

Approximately 10.5% target distribution

That makes it something I want to continue following as part of my retirement-income strategy.

I’m particularly interested in watching how the income strategy performs over time compared with simply holding VOO.

☕ MY RETIREMENT TRADING JOURNEY

This is what I enjoy sharing here at My Retirement Trading.

I’m not trying to pretend I know exactly what the future will bring.

I’m documenting what I’m doing, what I’m researching and how I’m thinking about building retirement income.

Sometimes I use calculators.

Sometimes I compare ETFs.

Sometimes I look at distributions.

And sometimes I change my portfolio based on what I learn.

The important thing for me is continuing to learn and sharing the process.

🎥 WATCH THE FULL VIDEO

I go through all of this in my latest YouTube video.

I show exactly how I use Stock Analysis to research OVL, look at its holdings, compare it with VOO, review the performance and then run these hypothetical dividend calculator scenarios.

If you’re interested in OVL, VOO, income ETFs, monthly distributions, S&P 500 exposure or dividend compounding, check out the full video.

FINAL THOUGHTS

The calculator results were definitely interesting.

A $10,000 starting investment.

$100 per month.

$100 per week.

$150,000 invested.

Five years.

Ten years.

Twenty years.

The longer the time horizon, the more powerful the hypothetical compounding becomes.

But I think the biggest lesson is that the calculator is only as good as the assumptions you put into it.

That’s why I use these numbers as a way to explore possibilities — not as promises of what the future will look like.

For me, the real-world results are what matter.

I’ll continue watching OVL, tracking the distributions and comparing its performance with VOO as time goes on.

Thanks for following along with my retirement-income journey.

What do you think about OVL?

Would you take the distributions as income or reinvest them?

Let me know in the comments.

⚠️ DISCLAIMER

This newsletter is for educational and entertainment purposes only and documents my personal investing journey and thought process.

Nothing contained in this newsletter is financial, investment, tax or legal advice.

The calculator examples are hypothetical illustrations based on assumptions and historical information. They are not guarantees or predictions of future performance, distributions, income or returns.

Distribution rates can change. Distributions are not guaranteed. Share prices fluctuate, and investors can lose money.

Past performance does not guarantee future results.

Tax treatment can vary depending on your individual circumstances and account type. Consider consulting a qualified financial or tax professional regarding your specific situation.

Do your own research and make your own investment decisions.

Thanks for reading and being part of My Retirement Trading!

#OVL #VOO #IncomeETF #PassiveIncome #DividendInvesting #RetirementIncome #ETFInvesting #SP500 #HighYieldETF #DividendIncome

"Some of the links in this description are affiliate links, meaning I may earn a small commission if you make a purchase at no extra cost to you".

Stock Analysis Affiliate Link:
https://stockanalysis.com/pro/?ref=michael63

Discount Code: Retirement

There was plenty to talk about in this week’s portfolio update.

Between my IRA and retail accounts, I received $1,773.84 in distributions this week. Using my Friday-payday method, that brings my August income to $9,096.37.

The standout contributor this week was OVL, with $1,342.69 coming from my two accounts. I also received my first TMGN payment, continued adding to several positions, and watched NVII following Nvidia’s strong earnings report.

I also take a look at two ETFs that have caught my attention after being brought to me by viewers and readers: QVOL and GARP.

Here’s everything covered in Episode 56 of Coffee & Dividends.

💰 OVL Continues to Be a Major Income Producer

OVL by Liquid Strategies remains one of the largest income positions in my portfolio.

I currently have more than $150,000 invested across my IRA and retail accounts.

This week’s OVL distributions were:

• IRA: $900.24

• Retail: $442.45

• Combined: $1,342.69

OVL is my S&P 500-based income position, so it plays an important role in the income strategy I’m building.

When I reviewed the fund information for the video, OVL was showing a distribution rate of approximately 10.46% and approximately $423 million in assets under management.

I’ve continued adding to the position as I’ve become more familiar with the fund and its strategy.

📈 My First TMGN Distribution Arrived

This week also marked my first distribution from TMGN by TappAlpha.

TMGN is based on the Magnificent 10 and combines growth exposure with an income-focused strategy.

My first payments came to:

• IRA: $41.93

• Retail: $73.37

• Total: $115.30

At the time I recorded the episode, TMGN was showing a distribution rate of approximately 20.9%.

I also recently interviewed Si Katara, founder and CEO of TappAlpha, so if you’re interested in learning more about TMGN and TappAlpha, check out that interview on my YouTube channel.

🚀 NVII & Nvidia Earnings

I’ve been building my NVII position, so Nvidia’s earnings report was particularly interesting to me.

NVII is based on Nvidia and is designed to provide income from Nvidia exposure. One of the features that originally attracted me was its weekly payment schedule.

Nvidia reported strong earnings this week, and NVII moved higher afterward.

I’ve been increasing my position, but I also recognize that NVII is a more concentrated investment than the broad-market ETFs I own. That’s something I’ll continue to watch as the position develops.

💵 $1,773.84 in Income This Week

When I add up the distributions across both accounts, the total for the week comes to:

$1,773.84

My IRA generated $1,021.18.

My retail account produced another $752.66.

The portfolio continues to generate income from multiple sources, which is an important part of the strategy I’m building.

📅 August Income Has Passed $9,000

Using my method of counting the Friday paydays that occur during the month, I have:

Retail account: $5,180.37

IRA: $3,916.00

August Total: $9,096.37

These are distributions actually received rather than simply projections.

Income from high-yield ETFs can fluctuate, and distributions are not guaranteed. My objective is to document the results in my own accounts and show how the portfolio is progressing over time.

🛒 Recent Portfolio Moves

I’ve continued making adjustments to the portfolio this week.

One position I’ve been adding to is SSO, the 2x leveraged S&P 500 ETF.

I’ve also continued adding to:

• OVL

• TMGN

After receiving my first TMGN distribution, I’m particularly interested in watching how the fund’s income and performance develop over time.

👀 QVOL Is Now on My Watchlist

A viewer recently brought QVOL to my attention, so I spent some time researching it.

QVOL is the Infrastructure Capital Nasdaq Option Income ETF. According to the information I reviewed for the episode, it launched in May 2026, meaning it has a very limited history so far.

Some of the holdings I looked at included Broadcom, Alphabet, Oracle, Netflix, Nvidia, AMD, Microsoft and Micron.

QVOL uses option strategies intended to generate income from option premiums and equity exposure.

When I researched it, the ETF was trading around $98–$99 per share and appeared to be paying approximately $1 per month.

If that monthly distribution were maintained, it would equate to roughly 12% annually using a $100 share price.

However, QVOL is still a very new ETF, so I’m in watch-and-research mode rather than rushing into it.

📊 QVOL vs. QQQM

I also ran a comparison between QVOL and QQQM.

Because QVOL only launched in May 2026, the comparison is based on a very short period of time.

At the time I checked, QVOL had outperformed QQQM over that period.

That’s interesting, but I don’t think a short track record is enough to draw conclusions about long-term performance.

I’ll be interested to see how QVOL develops as it builds a longer history.

📈 GARP — A Different Type of Play

Another ETF that came to me from a reader is GARP, the iShares MSCI USA Quality GARP ETF.

GARP caught my attention for a different reason.

Rather than focusing primarily on high distributions, it is more of a growth-oriented position.

The fund has been around since 2020 and includes familiar names such as Microsoft, Micron, Apple, Nvidia and Visa.

The income isn’t the main attraction for me here. I’m looking at GARP as a potential way to add more growth exposure alongside the higher-income positions already in my portfolio.

📊 Tracking My Portfolio Income

I use portfolio-tracking tools to monitor my holdings, distributions and projected income.

At the time I recorded Episode 56, my retail portfolio was showing a value of approximately $371,000.

The estimated monthly income was showing in the $5,500+ range, depending on the calculation.

These figures are estimates and can change as share prices and distribution expectations change.

I primarily use these tools to help track the portfolio and understand where my projected income stands.

🧮 NVII vs. Nvidia

I also wanted to see how NVII compared with Nvidia since NVII’s inception.

The comparison I ran showed NVII ahead of Nvidia over that particular period.

That’s an interesting result because NVII isn’t simply a traditional Nvidia holding. It uses an income-focused strategy around Nvidia exposure.

Still, I don’t want to put too much weight on a relatively short performance comparison.

Markets change, distributions change, and future results can look very different.

I’ll continue watching NVII and sharing what happens in my own portfolio.

☕ Final Thoughts From Episode 56

Overall, this was another strong week for the portfolio.

The numbers that stood out to me were:

💰 $1,773.84 received this week

💰 $9,096.37 received in August

💰 $1,342.69 received from OVL this week

I also received my first TMGN payment, continued adding to OVL and TMGN, added to SSO, and continued building my NVII position.

Meanwhile, QVOL and GARP have both made their way onto my watchlist.

The purpose of Coffee & Dividends and the My Retirement Trading newsletter is to document my journey as I work toward building portfolio income.

I’m sharing my own purchases, distributions, research and results — not suggesting that this approach is right for everyone.

Which ETF has your attention right now: OVL, TMGN, NVII, QVOL, GARP, or something else?

Reply to this newsletter and let me know what you’re watching.

Thanks for following along with Episode 56 of Coffee & Dividends.

☕ Until next time!

⚠️ Disclaimer

This newsletter is for educational and entertainment purposes only and is not financial, investment, tax, or legal advice.

Nothing in this newsletter should be considered a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any security.

I am sharing my personal portfolio, experiences, opinions and research. The investments discussed may not be suitable for everyone and involve risk, including the possible loss of principal.

High-income ETFs can involve significant risks, including changes in distributions, volatility and potential loss of capital. Distribution rates are not guaranteed and may change.

Past performance does not guarantee future results.

Always conduct your own research and consider consulting a qualified financial professional before making investment decisions.

Affiliate disclaimer: Some links in this newsletter, including Dividend Vision and Stock Analysis, are affiliate links. I may earn a commission if you sign up through them, at no extra cost to you. I only share tools I actually use in my own portfolio tracking, and this compensation does not influence my honest opinion of them.

Tools that I use:

Dividend Vision:

https://www.dividendvision.com/pricing?via=Retirement&promo=RETIRE20

Promo Code: RETIRE20

Stock Analysis Affiliate Link:

https://stockanalysis.com/pro/?ref=michael63

Discount Code: Retirement

A deep dive into TMGN, zero-DTE options, the Magnificent 10, income generation, TRUS, TDAQ, TSPY and TappAlpha’s growing ETF lineup

I recently had the opportunity to sit down with Si Katara, Founder & CEO of TappAlpha, for another conversation about income investing and the rapidly expanding lineup of TappAlpha ETFs.

This time, the focus was on TMGN, the company’s newest fund.

TMGN immediately caught my attention because it takes a very different approach to generating income. Rather than simply owning a traditional dividend portfolio, the strategy combines ownership of the underlying Magnificent 10 stocks with an options-based income strategy.

And the first distribution certainly got investors’ attention.

According to Si, TMGN’s first distribution was approximately 20.9% annualized.

But as we discussed during the interview, investors should not assume that a 20.9% distribution rate means future distributions will remain at that level. Si specifically emphasized that future distributions cannot be guaranteed.

That distinction is extremely important when evaluating high-income ETFs.

🚀 What Exactly Is TMGN?

TMGN is designed around what TappAlpha calls a growth + income approach.

The underlying portfolio focuses on 10 major technology and growth companies:

NVIDIA
Microsoft
Apple
Amazon
Alphabet
Meta
Tesla
Broadcom
AMD
Palantir

These companies represent what Si described as a technology-focused version of the Magnificent 10.

The idea is fairly straightforward:

Investors may want exposure to these companies because of their growth potential, but many of these companies don’t provide the level of cash distributions that income-focused investors are looking for.

TMGN attempts to address that gap by combining the underlying equity exposure with an options strategy designed to generate potential income.

📊 TMGN Actually Owns the Underlying Stocks

One of the questions I specifically wanted to ask Si was whether TMGN actually owns the underlying companies.

The answer is yes.

According to Si, TMGN owns the underlying equities and then rebalances them monthly to stay aligned with the index methodology.

That’s an important part of the strategy because the fund isn’t simply trying to replicate exposure through derivatives alone.

The equity portfolio and the options strategy are designed to work together.

⚙️ How Zero-DTE Options Fit Into the Strategy

This was one of my favorite parts of the conversation.

TMGN uses an index representing the Magnificent 10 and uses the corresponding options market to implement its income strategy.

Si explained that the availability of a zero-DTE options chain on this index was an important development that made the TMGN strategy possible.

The concept is to use these short-duration options to potentially harvest option premium while maintaining exposure to the underlying equities.

This is similar in concept to what TappAlpha is doing with its other products, but now the underlying exposure is much more concentrated.

Instead of hundreds of stocks or the Nasdaq-100, TMGN focuses on just 10 companies.

💰 The 20.9% First Distribution

This is obviously one of the biggest talking points.

TMGN’s first distribution was approximately 20.9% annualized.

That is a substantial distribution rate, but it’s important to understand exactly what that number does—and does not—mean.

It does not mean investors are guaranteed to receive 20.9% every year.

Si explained that TappAlpha is trying to find a distribution level that balances the underlying portfolio, implied volatility and the potential income available from the options strategy.

He also made it clear that there is no crystal ball when it comes to future distributions.

For me, that’s one of the biggest takeaways from this interview:

A high distribution is interesting, but sustainability and the behavior of the underlying portfolio are just as important.

🧾 Return of Capital

We also discussed one of the questions I know many income investors have:

How much of the distribution could potentially be classified as return of capital?

Si couldn’t predict the final tax characterization of TMGN’s first distribution because that determination comes later.

However, he explained that TappAlpha intends to manage TMGN using similar methods to its existing funds.

He also referenced TSPY’s historical return-of-capital experience, while making it clear that investors should not assume the same outcome will occur with TMGN.

That’s an important distinction.

Return of capital isn’t automatically good or bad. Investors need to understand why it occurs and how it affects their individual tax situation and cost basis.

🧮 The Growth + Income Philosophy

One of the bigger themes throughout our conversation was TappAlpha’s belief that investors shouldn’t necessarily have to choose between growth and income.

Si described the company’s approach as trying to combine:

Growth + Income + Tax Efficiency

The basic idea is that an investor can maintain exposure to growth-oriented assets while potentially generating income from the portfolio.

And if that income isn’t needed today, it can potentially be reinvested to continue compounding.

If the income is needed, investors can use the distributions as cash flow.

That flexibility is one of the concepts Si believes makes the growth + income category attractive.

⚖️ TMGN Is More Concentrated

Another interesting point was how TappAlpha views the risk profiles of its lineup.

Si described the progression roughly like this:

TSPY → broader S&P 500 exposure
TDAQ → Nasdaq-100 exposure
TMGN → concentrated exposure to 10 major technology/growth companies

That means TMGN is naturally more concentrated.

More concentration can mean greater volatility, but it also provides investors with targeted exposure to companies that many believe will remain important to the technology and AI-driven economy.

Si described TMGN as fitting into the lineup for investors who specifically want that concentrated Magnificent 10 exposure combined with potential income.

🔄 How TMGN Is Rebalanced

The fund is designed around an approximately equal-weighted approach.

Si explained that the underlying index starts with roughly 10% exposure to each company, although the actual weights can move significantly during the month as individual stocks rise and fall.

The portfolio is then rebalanced monthly to bring the holdings back in line with the index methodology.

He gave Palantir as an example of how quickly an individual position can move away from its starting weight after a major earnings move.

📅 TappAlpha’s Distribution Calendar

Here’s another part of the interview that I found particularly interesting.

TappAlpha is building a lineup where different funds distribute during different weeks of the month.

According to Si:

TSPY – First week
TDAQ – Third week
TMGN – Fourth week

That leaves an opening in the second week.

And that’s where TRUS could eventually fit.

🆕 What Is TRUS?

Si discussed the upcoming TRUS ETF, which is designed around the Russell 2000.

The concept is similar to the other TappAlpha funds:

Own the underlying equity exposure and use an existing zero-DTE options chain to potentially generate income.

Si explained that TRUS is already included in the same prospectus and that TappAlpha is being intentional about when it launches new products.

The company wants TMGN to establish itself and reach a sustainable level of assets before moving forward with the next product.

If the lineup eventually comes together as planned, investors could potentially have TappAlpha products distributing throughout the month.

💸 Changes to TSPY & TDAQ

We also talked about changes TappAlpha made to its existing products.

For TSPY, TappAlpha moved from SPY exposure toward Vanguard’s VOO because of its larger assets and lower expense ratio.

Si explained that this change helped reduce the overall cost of the product.

For TDAQ, TappAlpha moved from QQQ to QQQM because QQQM provides essentially the same Nasdaq-100 exposure at a lower expense ratio.

The goal was to reduce costs while maintaining the desired underlying exposure.

As an investor in TappAlpha products myself, I found this part of the discussion particularly interesting.

📈 TappAlpha’s Rapid Growth

Another major update from the interview was TappAlpha’s assets under management.

Si said that as of the close discussed during our conversation, TappAlpha had reached approximately:

$733 MILLION IN AUM

That’s a significant increase from roughly $40–$50 million about a year earlier, according to Si.

He attributed much of the growth to individual investors learning about the products, understanding how they work and figuring out how they might fit into their portfolios.

🔄 Should You DRIP Your Distributions?

I also asked Si about DRIP.

His personal approach is simple:

If he doesn’t need the income, he prefers to reinvest it.

If he needs the cash, he takes the distribution.

That flexibility is one of the reasons income investing can be useful during the transition from accumulating wealth to actually using that wealth.

Instead of having one permanent strategy, investors can potentially change how they use the distributions depending on their financial needs.

👀 Si Invests in His Own Products

I also asked Si whether he personally invests in TappAlpha products.

His answer was yes.

He explained that his investable assets are invested in TappAlpha products and that the company’s mission is personal for him because the strategy was originally created to solve a problem he experienced himself—wanting meaningful income without completely giving up growth exposure.

🎙️ Watch the Full Interview

There was a lot more to this conversation than I can cover in one newsletter.

We talked about:

✅ TMGN
✅ The Magnificent 10
✅ Zero-DTE options
✅ The first 20.9% annualized distribution
✅ Return of capital
✅ Tax efficiency
✅ Monthly rebalancing
✅ TSPY
✅ TDAQ
✅ TRUS
✅ DRIP and compounding
✅ TappAlpha’s growth
✅ Si’s personal investment strategy
✅ The future of TappAlpha’s ETF lineup

Watch the full interview on YouTube:

TMGN ETF: 20.9% Distribution?! Si Katara Explains the Magnificent 10 Income Strategy

💬 What Do You Think?

This is where I’d really like to hear from you.

Would you consider TMGN for your portfolio?

Would you rather have concentrated exposure to the Magnificent 10 with an income strategy, or would you prefer broader exposure through something like TSPY or TDAQ?

And if you already own TMGN, are you planning to DRIP the distributions or use the income as cash flow?

Let me know in the comments.

⚠️ DISCLAIMER

This newsletter and the accompanying video are for educational and entertainment purposes only and are not financial advice.

Nothing contained here should be considered a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any security. I am not a financial advisor.

Investing involves risk, including the possible loss of principal. High distribution rates are not guaranteed and may change over time. A fund’s distribution rate should not be confused with its total return. Past performance does not guarantee future results.

Return-of-capital treatment and tax consequences can vary depending on the fund and an investor’s individual circumstances. Please consult the fund’s official documents and a qualified tax or financial professional regarding your specific situation.

Disclosure: I am an investor in TappAlpha products. This interview and newsletter are intended for informational and educational purposes and do not constitute an endorsement or recommendation of any security.

This newsletter is based primarily on my interview with Si Katara and his comments during the conversation.

If you follow my investing journey, you know that I spend a lot of time researching income ETFs and looking for ways to generate passive income.

In my latest video, I decided to take you behind the scenes and show you how I actually research an income ETF.

For this example, I used NVII, the REX NVDA Growth & Income ETF, and walked through several of the research tools I use when evaluating an income investment.

This newsletter expands on that process and gives me a chance to explain what I was looking for.

This is my personal research process and not a recommendation to buy NVII.

Starting With the ETF Screener

One of the first tools I used was the ETF screener.

Since I’m primarily focused on income, I wanted to see what high-yield, weekly-paying ETFs were available.

I used a dividend-yield filter of more than 10% and started looking through the results.

This is one of the things I like about using a screener. Instead of trying to research thousands of ETFs individually, I can narrow the universe down based on characteristics that are important to me.

But finding a high yield is only the beginning.

I don’t want to buy an ETF simply because the number next to “yield” looks attractive.

I want to understand what I’m actually buying.

Looking at NVII

NVII immediately caught my attention because it’s an income ETF focused on Nvidia exposure.

I already own NVII, so I was familiar with the fund before making the video.

I wanted to look at it more closely and compare it with other investments.

One of the comparisons I made was between NVII and NVDY.

I also compared NVII with Nvidia itself.

That’s important to me because I want to see how an income-focused ETF is performing compared with the underlying investment.

A high distribution doesn’t automatically mean an investment is producing a superior total return.

That’s why I like looking at the bigger picture.

Looking Beyond the Yield

The headline yield is obviously going to attract attention with an ETF like NVII.

But there’s much more to consider.

I looked at:

• Performance

• Holdings

• Distribution history

• Total return

• Comparisons with other investments

• The underlying Nvidia exposure

• Potential compounding through DRIP

The distribution history was particularly interesting because the weekly payments have varied.

That’s something every income investor needs to understand.

A stated or annualized yield should never be treated as a guarantee that the same distribution will continue indefinitely.

The Dividend Calculator

Another feature I demonstrated was the dividend calculator.

I started with a hypothetical $10,000 investment and looked at what the results could look like over a 10-year period.

Then I turned DRIP on.

That’s where the numbers become very interesting.

When distributions are reinvested, the number of shares can increase over time. Those additional shares can then generate additional distributions.

That’s the basic concept behind compounding.

However, there’s a huge caveat.

These are hypothetical calculations.

The calculator is using assumptions.

Real-world results can be dramatically different.

The distribution can change.

The share price can decline.

The fund can experience significant volatility.

And there’s no guarantee that the yield or distribution will remain at the same level.

So I don’t look at these calculations and say, “This is what will happen.”

I look at them and say:

“What would happen if these assumptions actually held?”

That’s a very different question.

Why I Use Research Tools

This is really the bigger point of the video.

I’m not trying to find a magic button that tells me which ETF to buy.

I’m trying to gather information.

I want to be able to compare investments and understand how they have behaved historically.

For me, having access to ETF screeners, comparison tools, distribution history, holdings information, and calculators makes that research process easier.

It’s just one part of my overall research process.

My NVII Purchase

After doing the research for the video, I actually decided to add 450 shares of NVII to my IRA and put those shares on DRIP.

I already own NVII in my retail account, so this wasn’t a completely new investment for me.

I’m essentially going to treat this as an experiment.

I’m interested in seeing how the shares and distributions develop over time if I continue reinvesting the weekly income.

I don’t know what the result will be.

That’s part of the reason I’m doing it.

I’ll be able to watch the position and see what actually happens rather than simply relying on a hypothetical calculator.

What I’ll Be Watching

Going forward, there are several things I’m going to pay attention to.

Distribution

How consistent are the weekly payments?

Share Price

What happens to the underlying value of the investment?

Total Return

How does NVII perform when distributions and price movement are considered together?

Comparison With Nvidia

Does NVII continue to perform competitively against its underlying exposure?

DRIP

How quickly does the share count grow when distributions are reinvested?

Those are much more important questions to me than simply looking at the advertised yield.

Final Thoughts

I think one of the biggest mistakes an income investor can make is focusing exclusively on yield.

A huge distribution can certainly be attractive.

But I want to know where that income is coming from and what is happening to the investment underneath it.

That’s why I like to research the fund from several different angles.

NVII is an interesting example because it combines Nvidia exposure with an income strategy, but that doesn’t make it risk-free.

For me, this is an ongoing experiment.

I’ll continue tracking the position, the distributions, the share price, and the total return.

And I’ll share what I learn along the way.

Watch the Full Video

I put everything together in my latest YouTube video, including a live walkthrough of the StockAnalysis.com tools I use to research income ETFs.

Watch here:

🎬 Video Sponsorship Disclosure

The YouTube video referenced in this newsletter is sponsored by StockAnalysis.com.

StockAnalysis.com sponsored the video and provided compensation for the sponsorship.

I am also a StockAnalysis.com affiliate and personally use the platform for my investment research.

If you use my affiliate link, I may receive compensation at no additional cost to you.

Discount Code: RETIREMENT

https://stockanalysis.com/pro/?ref=michael63

The sponsorship applies to the YouTube video, not this newsletter.

⚠️ Disclaimer

This newsletter is for educational and entertainment purposes only and is not financial, investment, tax, or legal advice.

Nothing in this newsletter should be considered a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any security or ETF.

I own NVII and my positions may change at any time.

High-yield ETFs can involve significant risks, including loss of principal, share-price volatility, changes in distributions, and the possibility of losing money.

Past performance does not guarantee future results.

Any projections, calculator results, DRIP examples, or hypothetical scenarios discussed are illustrations only and are not guarantees of future income or returns.

Do your own research and consider consulting a qualified financial professional before making investment decisions.

What do you think about NVII?

Is it an underrated income ETF, or does the high yield come with too much risk?

Let me know what you think.

Coffee & Dividends Episode 55

This was another big week for my passive-income investing journey.

Across my taxable retail account and IRA, I received $3,672.35 in distributions this week.

The payments came from:

TDAQ • QQQI • NVII • BLOX • ISSB • TDAX

But the income was only part of the story.

I also made several portfolio moves, including a much larger position in NVII, added growth exposure through SSO, added more XQQI, continued testing XSPI, and added to TMGN.

The biggest move was NVII.

I added 467 shares in total, with 450 shares going into my IRA, where I placed the position on DRIP. The idea is to see what happens if I allow the distributions to compound over a long period of time.

As always, this is my personal investing journey—not a recommendation.

💰 $3,672.35 in Passive Income This Week

Let’s start with the income.

This week’s payments came from six different positions:

TDAQ
QQQI
NVII
BLOX
ISSB
TDAX

Across my taxable retail account and IRA, those distributions totaled:

$3,672.35

My taxable retail account generated:

$2,189.61

My IRA generated:

$1,482.74

That brought the total to:

$3,672.35

in distributions for the week.

The taxable account is particularly important to me because that’s the account I may eventually attempt to live from for at least part of my retirement.

And the income is starting to become meaningful.

At the time of recording, the account had already generated approximately $4,427.71 for the month, with additional payments expected.

What I like about this approach is that I’m not relying on just one fund to generate income.

This week’s payments came from a combination of income strategies and underlying exposures.

That diversification of income sources is an important part of how I’m building my portfolio.

📊 My Portfolio Is Around $370,789

I also reviewed my portfolio using my tracking tools.

At the time of recording, the portfolio was approximately:

$370,789

with projected annual income of approximately:

$66,365

That works out to a projected monthly income of roughly $5,530.

These are projections, not guarantees.

Distribution amounts can change. Fund prices can change. Strategies can change. And some of the funds I own are relatively new.

That’s why I view these numbers as a snapshot of where the portfolio is today rather than something I can count on in the future.

📈 My Portfolio Moves This Week

I made several changes this week.

SSO

I added more SSO for growth exposure.

SSO provides leveraged exposure to the S&P 500, so this isn’t being used for the same purpose as my high-income ETFs.

This is part of the growth side of my portfolio.

My overall approach is what I consider a hybrid strategy: I want income-producing positions, but I also want exposure to long-term growth.

XQQI

I also added a few more shares of XQQI.

This is another position I use primarily for income.

I’m continuing to build my portfolio around a combination of income-producing ETFs and growth-oriented investments rather than trying to make every position do the exact same thing.

XSPI

Another interesting position is XSPI.

This is still essentially a tester position for me.

I only have a relatively small number of shares, but I’ve been watching the distributions closely.

The payments have been interesting enough that I’m continuing to monitor it and see how the strategy develops.

TMGN

I’ve also been adding to TMGN.

There’s a lot of speculation and discussion around what the future distributions could look like, but I don’t want to build a position based solely on predictions.

I’m watching the actual distributions as they happen.

If the fund performs the way I’m hoping, I could potentially build the position into something much larger.

But I’m taking a measured approach.

🚨 The BIG Move: NVII

This was the most important portfolio move of the week.

I added 467 shares of NVII in total.

Of those shares, 450 went into my IRA.

And I’ve placed those 450 IRA shares on DRIP.

Why?

Because I want to experiment with the power of reinvesting the distributions.

NVII is particularly interesting to me because it gives me exposure to Nvidia while also pursuing an income strategy.

I’m not someone who normally likes making huge bets on individual stocks.

But Nvidia is a company I believe has significant long-term potential, and NVII gives me a different way to gain exposure while targeting income.

📊 NVII vs. Nvidia

One of the tools I used in the video was the comparison functionality on StockAnalysis.com.

I compared NVII with Nvidia.

According to the data I reviewed in the video, NVII had outperformed Nvidia on a total-return basis over the period I was looking at.

The comparison showed approximately:

NVII: 69.51%

versus

Nvidia: 58.69%

for the figures shown in the video.

That’s a difference of roughly 11 percentage points.

Of course, that’s historical performance.

It doesn’t mean NVII will outperform Nvidia going forward.

That’s an important distinction.

Past performance is not a guarantee of future results.

🤖 Why NVII Interests Me

The basic attraction for me is simple:

Nvidia exposure + income.

NVII uses a strategy designed to provide weekly distributions while targeting exposure to Nvidia’s share-price performance.

According to the information I reviewed in the video, the fund seeks to provide weekly distributions through a synthetic covered-call strategy while targeting a range of Nvidia’s daily share-price performance.

That’s a very different proposition from simply owning NVDA.

With Nvidia itself, you’re primarily looking for capital appreciation.

With an income-oriented strategy, I’m accepting a different risk/reward profile in exchange for distributions.

That’s the trade-off I’m interested in exploring.

🔄 My 450-Share DRIP Experiment

This is probably the most interesting part of the whole experiment for me.

I put 450 NVII shares in my IRA on DRIP.

The goal is not to assume that some calculator projection will actually happen.

Instead, I want to watch what happens when distributions are continually reinvested.

The calculator I used in the video produced some extremely large long-term projections.

For example, when I entered the 450-share position and enabled DRIP, the model showed a potential value of approximately $796,000 after 10 years under its assumptions.

It also projected extremely large future income numbers.

Those numbers are interesting.

But I want to be very clear:

I don’t expect anyone to treat those projections as promises.

They depend on assumptions about distributions, yield, share price, reinvestment and future performance.

Those assumptions can change dramatically.

For me, the calculator is a way to visualize the mathematics of compounding—not a crystal ball.

₿ Bitcoin Makes a Comeback

Another major part of the week was Bitcoin.

Bitcoin-related positions in my portfolio had been under pressure, particularly ISSB.

But this week brought a significant rebound.

In the video, I looked at the recent performance of ISSB compared with IBIT and XBCI.

ISSB had fallen significantly before recovering.

That kind of move is a good reminder of just how volatile these investments can be.

I own Bitcoin-related investments because I want exposure to the asset class, but I’m also aware that volatility can be significant.

📈 ISSB vs. Other Bitcoin Exposure

I compared ISSB against IBIT and XBCI.

The results varied depending on the time period.

That’s important.

A fund can look great over one month and poor over three months—or vice versa.

ISSB is particularly interesting to me because it combines stock and Bitcoin exposure with an income component.

The distributions have been smaller recently than at some points in the past, but I’m continuing to watch the fund.

My hope is that both the underlying assets and distribution strategy can contribute to the portfolio over time.

Again, that’s my personal thesis—not a prediction.

🧩 My Overall Strategy

The bigger picture is that I’m not trying to build a portfolio where every position serves the exact same purpose.

I think about my portfolio in different buckets.

Income

QQQI, TDAQ, OVL, XQQI and other income-focused positions are designed to help generate cash flow.

Growth

SSO and other growth-oriented investments are there because I don’t want to completely sacrifice long-term appreciation for current income.

Thematic / Alternative Income

NVII, ISSB, XBCI, TMGN and similar positions give me exposure to different themes and strategies.

The goal is to create a portfolio where multiple positions contribute to the overall objective.

☕ Another Week of Coffee & Dividends

When I started tracking this journey, the goal was relatively simple:

Build an income-producing portfolio that could eventually help support my retirement.

I’m still working toward that goal.

I’m not claiming to have it figured out.

I’m testing strategies.

I’m making mistakes.

I’m learning.

And I’m sharing the results along the way.

This week was especially encouraging because of the combination of:

$3,672.35 in weekly distributions

Payments from TDAQ, QQQI, NVII, BLOX, ISSB and TDAX

~$370,789 portfolio value

~$66,365 projected annual income

and

467 additional NVII shares, including 450 shares in my IRA on DRIP.

The NVII position will be particularly interesting to watch over the coming years.

Will the distributions remain attractive?

Will Nvidia continue to grow?

Will NVII outperform or underperform its underlying exposure?

Will DRIP make a meaningful difference?

I don’t know.

That’s exactly why I’m doing the experiment.

🎯 Final Thoughts

This was another exciting week for my retirement investing journey.

The income is growing.

The portfolio is changing.

Bitcoin recovered.

And I made one of my larger recent moves into NVII.

But the biggest lesson for me is that income isn’t the entire story.

I want to understand where the income comes from, what risks I’m taking to generate it, and whether the underlying investments can continue to support the strategy.

That’s what I’ll be watching as I move forward.

Thanks for following along with My Retirement Trading.

And if you watched Episode 55 of Coffee & Dividends, thank you for being part of the journey.

Until next time, keep investing and keep learning.

⚠️ Disclaimer

This newsletter is for educational and entertainment purposes only and is not financial, investment, tax, or legal advice. Nothing contained here should be considered a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any security.

I am sharing my personal portfolio, opinions, experiences, and research. My investments and risk tolerance may be different from yours.

Investing involves risk, including the potential loss of principal. High-income ETFs, leveraged ETFs, covered-call strategies, cryptocurrency-related investments and other alternative income strategies can involve substantial risk.

Distribution rates can change, share prices can decline, and past performance does not guarantee future results.

The projections and calculator examples discussed in this newsletter are hypothetical and depend on assumptions that may not occur.

Do your own research and consult a qualified financial professional before making investment decisions.

#PassiveIncome #DividendInvesting #HighYieldETFs #IncomeInvesting #NVII #Nvidia #Bitcoin #ISSB #ETFInvesting #RetirementInvesting #MyRetirementTrading #CoffeeAndDividends

Affiliate disclaimer: Some links in this newsletter, including Dividend Vision and Stock Analysis, are affiliate links. I may earn a commission if you sign up through them, at no extra cost to you. I only share tools I actually use in my own portfolio tracking, and this compensation does not influence my honest opinion of them.

Tools that I use:

Dividend Vision:

https://www.dividendvision.com/pricing?via=Retirement&promo=RETIRE20

Promo Code: RETIRE20

Stock Analysis Affiliate Link:

https://stockanalysis.com/pro/?ref=michael63

Discount Code: Retirement

My latest portfolio update is live, and this time I wanted to give a more complete look at how I’m approaching both passive income and long-term growth.

My portfolio is currently around $370,000 and is projected to generate more than $63,000 in annual income, or roughly $5,400 per month based on current estimates.

Of course, projections can change, distributions aren’t guaranteed, and this is my personal strategy—not financial advice.

My Income Strategy

The foundation of my income strategy continues to revolve around what I call my Four Horsemen:

QQQI / XQQI
GPIQ
TDAQ
OVL

These positions make up the foundation of my income-focused portfolio.

One of the biggest changes I’ve made recently is moving more of my QQQI position into XQQI. In the video, I compare the recent distributions and total returns of the two funds and explain why I decided to make the change.

It’s not about saying one fund is permanently better than the other. I’m simply looking at the income, performance and role each position plays in my portfolio and making adjustments based on my own goals.

Adding More Diversification

I’ve also been adding several smaller satellite positions.

Some of the positions I’ve been building or holding include:

TMGN — Magnificent 10 exposure
XLEI — energy exposure
XSHP — SpaceX exposure
EGGY — additional diversification

These positions are smaller than my core holdings, but they give me exposure to areas that are different from my main income ETFs.

TMGN

I’ve been adding more TMGN because I wanted additional exposure to the Magnificent 10 while also targeting income.

This is one of the newer positions in my portfolio, and I’m looking forward to seeing how the distributions develop.

XSHP

I’ve also added a smaller position in XSHP for SpaceX exposure.

This is a more specialized position in my portfolio, so I’m keeping it smaller than my core holdings. So far, the payments have been great, and I’m interested to see how this position develops over time.

For me, this is simply another way to add some diversification and exposure to an area I find interesting while also targeting income.

EGGY

I’ve also been holding EGGY as a smaller satellite position. What caught my attention was the exposure to companies in areas like technology, semiconductors and data centers, including Seagate, Bloom Energy, Lumentum, Vertiv, AMD, Alphabet, SK hynix, Coherent and Micron.

The income has also been attractive so far, which is another reason I’ve kept it in the portfolio.

I’m keeping EGGY smaller than my core holdings while I watch how the income and performance develop.

XLEI

I’ve also been adding a smaller position in XLEI to give the portfolio some additional energy exposure and diversification.

I’ve been watching this one for a while, and I recently decided to start building a position. I’m keeping it smaller than my core income holdings, but I like having some exposure outside of my primarily technology-focused positions.

For me, XLEI is another satellite position that can potentially add both diversification and income to the portfolio.

I’m going to continue watching it and see how it develops over time.

Adding Bitcoin Exposure

Another area where I’ve added some diversification is Bitcoin exposure.

I currently have three smaller positions:

BLOX
ISSB
XBCI

These give me additional exposure to the Bitcoin theme while also fitting into my broader interest in income-focused ETFs.

Again, these are satellite positions, not the foundation of my portfolio. I keep them smaller because Bitcoin-related investments can be much more volatile than my core holdings.

For me, the goal is to have some exposure without allowing any one of these positions to dominate the overall portfolio.

The Growth Side of My Portfolio

Income isn’t the only part of my strategy.

I also have a separate group of positions that I’m using primarily for long-term growth:

VOO
VGT
AOTG
SSO

I’ve recently been adding more SSO.

SSO provides 2x leveraged exposure to the S&P 500, so I understand that the risk is significantly higher than simply owning an S&P 500 fund. Leverage works both ways, and I consider this part of my portfolio to be higher risk.

My thinking is that the income portfolio can potentially provide cash flow while the growth portfolio continues working toward long-term appreciation.

Why I Like Having Both Income & Growth

This is really the bigger picture of my strategy.

I want one portion of my portfolio focused on generating income, while another portion focuses more heavily on growing the overall portfolio.

Eventually, I may use some of the growth assets to increase my income-producing investments, depending on where the market and my financial situation are at that point.

I’m not trying to predict exactly what the portfolio will look like five years from now. I’m trying to build something that gives me options.

What Am I Buying Next?

For now, I’m continuing to watch SSO closely and plan to add on down days when it makes sense for me.

I’m also continuing to build TMGN and keep an eye on my core income positions.

I’ll continue watching XSHP as well, especially after seeing the payments I’ve received so far.

I’ll also continue monitoring my Bitcoin-related positions, but I’ll keep them as smaller satellite holdings.

And if we get a significant market selloff, I may consider additional leveraged growth exposure.

The important thing for me is staying within my own risk tolerance and continuing to build the portfolio over time.

The Bigger Picture

Right now, my goal is simple:

Build income. Build growth. Keep investing.

The portfolio is around $370K and currently projected to generate more than $63K in annual income, but those numbers will change as markets move, distributions change and I make additional investments.

I’m sharing this because I want to be transparent about what I’m actually doing with my own portfolio.

If you’d like to see the full breakdown, including all of the positions and my reasoning behind the recent changes, check out my latest YouTube video.

And as always, I’d love to hear from you:

Are you focused more on income, growth, or a combination of both?

⚠️ DISCLAIMER

This newsletter is for informational and entertainment purposes only and represents my personal opinions and experiences.

This is not financial advice or a recommendation to buy or sell any security.

Investing involves risk, including the potential loss of principal. Distribution rates and projected income can change and are not guaranteed. Do your own research and consider your individual financial situation before making any investment decisions.

Thanks for following along with My Retirement Trading!

Affiliate Disclaimer: Some links in this newsletter, including Dividend Vision and Stock Analysis, are affiliate links. I may earn a commission if you sign up through them, at no extra cost to you. I only share tools I actually use in my own portfolio tracking, and this compensation does not influence my honest opinion of them.

Tools that I use:

Dividend Vision:

https://www.dividendvision.com/pricing?via=Retirement&promo=RETIRE20

Promo Code: RETIRE20

Stock Analysis Affiliate Link:

https://stockanalysis.com/pro/?ref=michael63

Discount Code: Retirement

I’m back from more than a week in Poland, and while I was enjoying the food, scenery, and time with family, something important was happening in the world of income ETFs.

My passive income portfolio didn’t take a vacation.

The payments continued to roll in, and I also came home to some interesting news:

Goldman Sachs Is Acquiring NEOS

One of the biggest topics I saw while I was away was the acquisition of NEOS by Goldman Sachs.

As someone who owns a significant position in both QQQI and XQQI, this obviously caught my attention.

My initial reaction?

I think it could be a good thing.

NEOS has built a name for itself in the high-income ETF space, and being acquired by a much larger financial institution could potentially provide additional resources and scale.

Congratulations to the entire NEOS team on building a successful company and reaching this incredible milestone with the acquisition by Goldman Sachs—truly a great example of the American dream in action!

Of course, nobody knows exactly how everything will develop over time, so I’m going to continue watching it.

For now, I’m holding my NEOS positions.

QQQI vs. XQQI

Another thing I’ve been doing is gradually moving some of my QQQI position into XQQI.

The reason is pretty simple: XQQI offers leverage, and its distributions have been higher.

That comes with additional risk, and I recognize that.

I’m personally comfortable with that level of risk based on where I am in my investing journey and what I’m trying to accomplish with my portfolio.

This isn’t something I would recommend to someone else. It’s simply what I’m doing with my own money.

When I compared the two funds, XQQI had a higher total return over the period I was looking at, although QQQI had a slight advantage when looking strictly at price change.

The bigger attraction for me has been the potential income.

What About My Four Horsemen?

My original Four Horsemen were:

🐎 OVL
🐎 GPIQ
🐎 QQQI
🐎 TDAQ

With my move from QQQI into XQQI, technically XQQI could become one of the Four Horsemen and replace QQQI.

But I decided not to do that.

For my purposes, I’m counting QQQI and XQQI as one position because I view XQQI as the leveraged version of the same basic strategy.

So, for now, my Four Horsemen remain the same.

But I’m curious what you think.

Would you count QQQI and XQQI as one Horseman, or would you replace QQQI with XQQI?

Let me know in the comments.

My Portfolio Kept Paying While I Was Gone

One of the things I love about building an income-focused portfolio is that I don’t have to be sitting in front of my computer every day for it to generate income.

While I was traveling, the distributions continued.

My retail account generated approximately $271.14 for the week.

Some of the payments included:

• ISSB: $6.49

• BLOX: $47.15

• NVII: $181.48

• TDAX: $36.02

It wasn’t my biggest income week, but that’s okay.

These smaller payments add up over time.

If I could consistently generate roughly that amount every week, it would represent more than $14,000 in annual income.

And that is the entire idea behind what I’m trying to accomplish.

My Projected Income

According to the numbers I reviewed in Dividend Vision, my portfolio was showing approximately $66,536 in projected annual distributions, with a forward distribution rate of about 17.78% at the time of recording.

These numbers can change significantly because many of the ETFs I own have variable distributions.

So I don’t look at the projected number as guaranteed income.

It’s simply a snapshot of what the portfolio is currently projecting.

My personal goal is to eventually have enough passive income to support the lifestyle I want while hopefully continuing to compound at least some of the income.

Back From Poland

The trip itself was fantastic.

I’ve never been to Poland before, and I was impressed by the country, the food, and the overall experience.

One thing that really stood out to me was the difference in the cost of living.

We were able to have some very large meals with multiple people, appetizers, entrees, drinks, dessert and a tip for what would have cost considerably more in the United States.

It was a great reminder that financial independence isn’t just about how much money you make. It’s also about what that money can actually buy and the lifestyle it can provide.

And that’s really what this entire investing journey is about for me.

Not just numbers on a spreadsheet.

Freedom.

What’s Next?

I’m continuing to build my income portfolio and recently added some more TMGN.

I’m interested to see how that position develops and what kind of distributions it produces over time.

I’m also going to continue watching the NEOS/Goldman Sachs situation and monitoring QQQI and XQQI closely.

I’m not claiming to have all the answers.

I’m simply sharing what I’m doing, what I’m learning, and how I’m building my portfolio toward my long-term goal of financial independence.

Thanks for following along with me.

And as always, I’d love to hear what you think.

Would you count QQQI and XQQI as one of the Four Horsemen?

⚠️ Disclaimer

This newsletter is for entertainment and educational purposes only and is not financial advice or a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any security.

I am sharing my personal investing journey, opinions, portfolio, and risk tolerance. Your financial situation, goals, and risk tolerance may be different from mine.

High-income and leveraged ETFs can involve significant risk, including loss of principal and reduced total returns. Distributions are not guaranteed and may change over time.

Always do your own research and consider consulting a qualified financial professional before making investment decisions.

Thanks for reading My Retirement Trading! If you enjoyed this post, consider sharing it with someone interested in passive income and high-income ETFs.

Affiliate disclaimer: Some links in this newsletter, including Dividend Vision and Stock Analysis, are affiliate links. I may earn a commission if you sign up through them, at no extra cost to you. I only share tools I actually use in my own portfolio tracking, and this compensation does not influence my honest opinion of them.

Tools that I use:

Dividend Vision:

https://www.dividendvision.com/pricing?via=Retirement&promo=RETIRE20

Promo Code: RETIRE20

Stock Analysis Affiliate Link:
https://stockanalysis.com/pro/?ref=michael63

Discount Code: Retirement

I am writing this newsletter from Poland, and it feels a little surreal. I left the US last Friday and landed here Saturday, then took a bus from Warsaw to my in laws place. My wife and I have been staying with them for a few days now, and it has been a really eye opening experience. Their whole lifestyle here is built around family rather than work, and there is something to that.

This trip is not just a vacation. It is a test run for what early retirement could actually look like for me. I am 55 right now, turning 56 in February, and I have said many times that I need about $5,000 a month to travel comfortably and cover my basic living expenses, or around $3,200 a month if I am just staying home. Being here, actually spending money in a different economy and watching my portfolio keep paying me, is the closest thing I have to proof of concept.

Some quick price comparisons that stood out to me. I got a haircut here for about $13.50 total including tip. Back home I usually pay $31 plus a $5 to $10 tip. My wife and I split a chicken kebab lunch for $8. I also picked up some ponczki, the famous Polish donuts, just walking around the neighborhood. The dollar is going a long way here, and it has me rethinking what retirement abroad, even part time, could look like financially.

Now for the money side of things. This past week I took in just under $2,000 in passive income, including a $47.15 payment from BLOX that landed while I was already in Poland. I am expecting more payments this week from ISSB, NVII, and TDAX. Some weeks are bigger than others, and this looks like it will be a lighter one, but the income kept showing up regardless of where I was standing when it hit.

I checked in on Dividend Vision, which is the tool I use to track projected income across my accounts. Right now my retail account is projected at around $68,000 over the next 12 months, which works out to roughly $5,674 a month. That is above my target number, which gives me some breathing room even accounting for taxes and market swings.

I also made a move while traveling. I added to my existing position in TMGN by TappAlpha. This is the TappAlpha CBOE Magnificent Ten Growth and Daily Income ETF, which takes a Mag 7 approach and adds a few additional names on top, including Palantir, Broadcom, and AMD. It just launched in July 2026, so the track record is short, but so far it has outperformed both the Mag 7 and the Nasdaq in that small window. I am treating this as a satellite position for now and will keep watching how it develops.

None of this is financial advice or a recommendation. I am simply sharing my own journey, and this trip has been a fun and honestly encouraging experiment so far. The income keeps coming in whether I am at home or halfway across the world, and that is exactly the kind of proof I was hoping to see before I fully commit to possibly retiring this December.

My Retirement Trading will likely be a little late next week since I will be traveling back to the States, so keep an eye out for it.

If you are traveling, living abroad, or working toward early retirement yourself, I would love to hear about it. Just reply to this email or leave a comment.

Talk soon, Mike

Not financial advice. I am not a licensed financial advisor and nothing in this newsletter should be taken as personalized investment advice or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Past performance and distribution rates are not guarantees of future results. Everything I share here is simply documenting my own personal investing journey toward early retirement, and my decisions are based on my own goals, risk tolerance, and circumstances, which may not match yours. Please do your own research and consult a licensed financial professional before making any investment decisions.

Affiliate disclaimer: Some links in this newsletter, including Dividend Vision and Stock Analysis, are affiliate links. I may earn a commission if you sign up through them, at no extra cost to you. I only share tools I actually use in my own portfolio tracking, and this compensation does not influence my honest opinion of them.

Tools that I use:

Dividend Vision:

https://www.dividendvision.com/pricing?via=Retirement&promo=RETIRE20

Promo Code: RETIRE20

Stock Analysis Affiliate Link:

https://stockanalysis.com/pro/?ref=michael63

Discount Code: Retirement

I am writing this newsletter from Poland. I flew in today, I am jet lagged, and I am on vacation thanks to my passive income investing portfolio. This week I brought in over $3300 in passive income across my IRA and retail accounts, and I want to walk you through every single payment, plus three new positions I added this week.

IRA Account

Two payments hit my IRA this week for a total of $1,412.68. GPIQ by Goldman Sachs paid $1,063.70, and XQQI by NEOS paid $348.38.

Retail Account

The retail account had a busy week. ISSB paid $6.49. BLOX paid $45.90. NVII paid $192.38. XQQI by NEOS paid a much larger $1214.81, which reflects the swapping I have been doing out of QQQI and into XQQI. XBCI by NEOS paid $102.57. GPIQ by Goldman Sachs paid $218.77. SGOV paid $46.02. XSHP paid $104, my second payment from this SpaceX linked fund on 200 shares. TDAX by TappAlpha rounded things out, bringing the retail account grand total to $1966.96.

Combined between both accounts, that is over $3300 in passive income for the first week of August.

I am 55 right now, turning 56 in February, and I have been talking for a while about whether retiring soon actually makes sense with the numbers. Checking my forward projection on Dividend Vision, my retail account is currently showing a forward 12 month estimate of around $67,774 a year, or roughly $5,648 a month. I have said before that I really only need somewhere between $32,000 and $60,000 a year to live comfortably and travel, so at $5,000 a month that puts me right around $60,000 a year, which would still leave money left over to reinvest. That number moves around constantly, but that is where things stand right now.

New Position: XLEI by State Street

I added a brand new position this week, XLEI, the State Street Energy Select Sector SPDR Premium Income ETF. I picked up 100 shares across a few purchases this week, though I bought in after the ex date so I will not get a distribution from it this month. XLEI holds roughly 100 percent of XLE, the State Street Energy Sector SPDR ETF, and then sells covered calls against it to generate income. The payments have been a bit inconsistent, ranging from 31 cents up to 54 cents, but I like the diversification this adds to my portfolio. Using the rule of 72 against its average annual return of 28.44 percent since inception, that works out to roughly 2.53 years to double your money if that rate were to hold, which is exciting to think about even though past performance does not guarantee anything going forward.

Adding More TMGN

I also added more TMGN by TappAlpha this week. This fund has not made a distribution yet, but it dropped as low as $21.97 and has since climbed back close to an all time high, likely helped by strength in Palantir along with Broadcom and AMD. TMGN is built around a Mag 10 style strategy with an options overlay on top, and I liked the resilience it showed, so I added to my position.

Adding More SSO

Lastly, I added more SSO this week. Looking at the five year chart, it has been a fairly steady climb up and to the right. I ran a comparison against VOO using the tool on Stock Analysis, and over the max time frame SSO is up around 3,308 percent compared to 836 percent for VOO. Over 10 years it is 741 percent versus 318 percent, over five years 132 percent versus 87 percent, and over three years 149 percent versus 80 percent. I use this comparison tool constantly.

Testing My Retirement Numbers in Real Time

The bigger picture here is that this trip to Poland is really a test. I have been pulling some money from my covered call and option income portfolio to pay for this trip instead of reinvesting all of it, and I want to see what that actually feels like heading into retirement. I have mentioned before that I need roughly $3,200 a month to cover my base bills, and closer to $5000 a month if I want to travel on top of that. Right now, the numbers are looking like this could genuinely work, or at the very least, allow me to slow down my burn rate significantly.

That is it for this week. Over $3,300 in passive income, a new position in XLEI, and additions to both TMGN and SSO. I will be heading to Warsaw later this week and will keep you posted on how the trip and the portfolio are going.

If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions, hit reply, I would love to hear from you.

Not financial advice. For entertainment purposes only.

Not financial advice. I am not a licensed financial advisor and nothing in this newsletter should be taken as personalized investment advice or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Past performance and distribution rates are not guarantees of future results. Everything I share here is simply documenting my own personal investing journey toward early retirement, and my decisions are based on my own goals, risk tolerance, and circumstances, which may not match yours. Please do your own research and consult a licensed financial professional before making any investment decisions.

Affiliate disclaimer: Some links in this newsletter, including Dividend Vision and Stock Analysis, are affiliate links. I may earn a commission if you sign up through them, at no extra cost to you. I only share tools I actually use in my own portfolio tracking, and this compensation does not influence my honest opinion of them.

Tools that I use:

Dividend Vision:

https://www.dividendvision.com/pricing?via=Retirement&promo=RETIRE20

Promo Code: RETIRE20

Stock Analysis Affiliate Link:

https://stockanalysis.com/pro/?ref=michael63

Discount Code: Retirement

I have been making a change in my Four Horsemen portfolio over the last few days and I wanted to walk you through my thinking.

I have been swapping some of my QQQI position from NEOS into the leveraged version, XQQI. I did not sell out of QQQI completely, but I have been moving a portion over and building XQQI into a larger position. This is not a decision I made overnight. I have been watching both funds for a while now, and I finally decided the numbers made sense to start making the move.

Here is why. Looking at recent payments, XQQI has been paying in the 82 cent range per share while QQQI has been paying in the 60 cent range. That is roughly an 18 to 19 cent per share difference. Based on my share count of 1898 shares, that works out to about $358 a month, or over $4300 a year, if that payment rate holds. Of course, distributions vary month to month and none of this is guaranteed. Payments have moved around before and they will likely move around again, so I am not treating this as a fixed number, just a helpful estimate of where things stand right now.

I also compared total return since XQQI launched in February 2026. As of market close, XQQI showed about a 4 percent higher total return than QQQI over that stretch, and even held up slightly better on down days. I know it is a short track record so far since the fund is still fairly new, but so far the numbers have been leaning in favor of XQQI, both on the income side and on the total return side.

Another factor was price. QQQI was trading around $55 a share while XQQI was trading around $50. That meant I could sell shares of QQQI and buy more shares of XQQI with the same money, which increases the payment even further. It is a small detail, but when you are trying to maximize income, these small details add up over time.

I currently hold about 1200 shares of QQQI and now have 1898 shares of XQQI across my accounts. I plan on continuing to build this position, especially on red days, since I like adding to positions when prices dip.

After making this move, I checked my projected annual income on Dividend Vision, which now shows $71,991 a year, or about $5,999 a month. My goal has been to get to $5,000 a month, so if this holds, that would leave an extra $999 a month to reinvest. Market conditions change, so this is a rough estimate, not a promise. Still, it felt good to see the projection climb after making this adjustment, and it reinforced why I wanted to make the swap in the first place.

As a bonus, I also made a small move in my growth portfolio. I sold a little of my VOO to start a position in ProShares Ultra S&P 500, ticker SSO, which is a 2x leveraged S&P 500 fund. My thinking here is a little different than the income side of my portfolio. I am adding SSO for potential growth, not for income, since it is not a covered call fund and does not pay the kind of yield that QQQI or XQQI does.

I now hold about 118 shares and I looked at how SSO has performed against VOO over different time frames. Since VOO has been out, SSO shows almost four times the return. Over the last 10 years it is more than double, and over the last 3 years it is also more than double. Year to date the gap is smaller, around 10 percent. Leverage works both ways, so on down days SSO will fall further than VOO, and I am fully aware of that risk. I am treating this as a long term growth position, not something I plan on touching for income anytime soon, and I plan on adding to it gradually over time, especially on red days, the same approach I am taking with XQQI.

The reason behind all of this comes down to one thing, I am getting closer to retirement and I need the income. I turn 56 in February and I am trying to maximize what these funds can produce for me now, with the goal of bridging the gap until Social Security becomes available at 62. Every adjustment I make right now is with that timeline in mind, and I want to be as intentional as possible about how I position my portfolio heading into retirement.

This is simply what I am doing on my own journey, and I share it so you can see my thinking and decide what makes sense for you. I appreciate everyone who has followed along so far, and I will keep sharing these updates as I continue making adjustments along the way.

Thanks for reading, and I will catch you in the next one

Not financial advice. I am not a licensed financial advisor and nothing in this newsletter should be taken as personalized investment advice or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Past performance and distribution rates are not guarantees of future results. Everything I share here is simply documenting my own personal investing journey toward early retirement, and my decisions are based on my own goals, risk tolerance, and circumstances, which may not match yours. Please do your own research and consult a licensed financial professional before making any investment decisions.

Affiliate disclaimer: Some links in this newsletter, including Dividend Vision and Stock Analysis, are affiliate links. I may earn a commission if you sign up through them, at no extra cost to you. I only share tools I actually use in my own portfolio tracking, and this compensation does not influence my honest opinion of them.

Tools that I use:

Dividend Vision:

https://www.dividendvision.com/pricing?via=Retirement&promo=RETIRE20

Promo Code: RETIRE20

Stock Analysis Affiliate Link:
https://stockanalysis.com/pro/?ref=michael63

Discount Code: Retirement

If you are new here, burn rate is simply how long it would take to burn through the money I have saved before I run out, using that money to actually live on. As I get closer to walking away from my job, this is the number that keeps me up at night, so I wanted to be completely honest about my process and share it with you.

Where I Am Starting From

I track everything on Dividend Vision, and I pulled up both my retail account and my IRA to get a full picture. Between the two, I am sitting at a portfolio value of about $354,712, with an estimated annual income of $64,919. That is the number the platform projects going forward, but projections are just that, projections. I wanted to know what I have actually collected in real cash.

My Real Numbers, Not Just Projections

So I went back through my last three months of actual payments. My most recent month, which had five weeks in it, brought in $6,229.80. The month before that, with only four weeks, brought in $4,458. And the month before that was $5,453.85. Add those together and I collected $16,140.09 over three months, which averages out to about $5,380 a month.

Compared to the projected $64,919 a year, or about $5,409 a month, my real world results are landing almost exactly where the projections said they should. That matters to me. It is one thing to look at a projected yield on a screen, it is another thing to watch it show up in your account month after month and see it hold up. This gave me some real confidence going into the rest of this exercise.

A quick note on where this income is coming from. My core holdings driving this are OVL, GPIQ, TDAQ, and QQQI, along with satellite positions like XQQI, NVII, EGGY, ISSB, BLOX, XBCI, and XSHP. Each of these funds has a different structure, some are covered call strategies, OVL uses a put spread overlay on VOO instead of covered calls, and XQQI adds leverage on top of the Nasdaq exposure. I will not go deep into fund mechanics in this newsletter since I have covered that elsewhere, but I wanted you to see the actual engine behind these numbers, not just an abstract yield figure.

The Two Numbers That Matter Most, Base Bills Versus The Life I Actually Want

Here is where it gets personal. My base bills, just living life without any traveling, come out to about $3,200 a month, or $38,400 a year. That is the bare minimum, the number that keeps the lights on and nothing more.

But that is not really the retirement I am working toward. My wife and I want to travel, we want to spend real time away from home, and to do that comfortably I need closer to $5,000 a month, or $60,000 a year. That gap between $38,400 and $60,000 is really the gap between surviving retirement and actually living the retirement I have been working toward.

Running The Burn Rate Math Three Different Ways

Scenario one, flat money, no growth. If I take $60,000 a year out of my current $355,000 and assume it does not grow at all, just sitting there completely flat, that money lasts about 5.91 years. That would carry me to around 62 years old, which happens to line up with when I could start drawing social security, and I would also gain access to my IRA at 59 and a half along the way. So even in the worst case scenario where growth is zero, the timeline still lines up reasonably well with other income sources kicking in.

Scenario two, growth factored back in. If my portfolio continues producing around $65,000 a year in income and I withdraw $60,000, I could actually come out slightly ahead on paper, since the income generated is roughly covering the withdrawal. This is obviously the more optimistic case, and it assumes the market cooperates and the funds continue producing at a similar rate. There are a lot of variables that could shift this in either direction, so I do not treat this as a guarantee, more like a best case reference point.

Scenario three, a real market pullback. This is the one that actually worries me the most. If the market dropped 30 percent and the income from these funds dropped along with it, I would only be pulling in about $45,000 instead of $65,000. That is a $20,000 shortfall against my $60,000 target. In that scenario I would either need to adjust my lifestyle for a period of time, or I would need to start drawing down the actual net asset value of the accounts rather than living purely off the income they generate. That is the scenario I am trying to plan around, not the rosy one.

Why This Is Weighing On Me So Heavily Right Now

I am 55 right now, and I turn 56 in February. The real milestone I am counting down to is 59 and a half, since that is when I can access my IRA without a penalty, and it is also roughly when the earlier of my two withdrawal timelines lines up with social security eligibility. Every one of these numbers is really pointing toward the same window, which gives me some comfort, but the unknown still feels heavy some days.

I had a conversation recently that stuck with me. A neighbor told my wife about some relatives who retired early, in their fifties, as police officers and firefighters, and they got to travel and really enjoy those years. But she also mentioned another couple who worked until 65, and by the time they got there, their health had already started to decline, both dealing with diabetes and other issues, and now they mostly stay home. That contrast is exactly why I am pushing to figure this out now instead of waiting. I do not want to work until the years I have left to enjoy retirement start shrinking.

What Comes Next In This Series

This burn rate breakdown is one piece of a bigger puzzle I am working through in real time. I am also figuring out ACA marketplace coverage for my wife and me here in Alabama, and working out a Roth conversion strategy that could help manage my taxable income during these transition years. My wife and I are also planning to spend three to four months a year outside the country once we retire, in places with a lower cost of living, so our money stretches further while we keep a home base here in the States. I will have a full episode on that soon.

In conclusion, I shared my real numbers this week trying to figure out what my true burn rate would be, stress tested against a flat market, a growing market, and a real pullback. It looks doable, especially if the market stays on an uptrend, but I am also being honest with myself that once you give up a steady paycheck, that is not something you can easily get back if the numbers do not hold up. It is a lot to think about, but I am not getting any younger, and I really want to start living life on our terms.

If you want to follow along as I work through the rest of this series, ACA coverage and my Roth conversion strategy, subscribe to the newsletter and the channel. And I would genuinely love to hear from you in the comments, are you working through this same calculation for your own retirement, and how are you thinking about it.

Not financial advice. I am not a licensed financial advisor and nothing in this newsletter should be taken as personalized investment advice or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Past performance and distribution rates are not guarantees of future results. Everything I share here is simply documenting my own personal investing journey toward early retirement, and my decisions are based on my own goals, risk tolerance, and circumstances, which may not match yours. Please do your own research and consult a licensed financial professional before making any investment decisions.

Affiliate disclaimer: Some links in this newsletter, including Dividend Vision and Stock Analysis, are affiliate links. I may earn a commission if you sign up through them, at no extra cost to you. I only share tools I actually use in my own portfolio tracking, and this compensation does not influence my honest opinion of them.

Tools that I use:

Dividend Vision:

https://www.dividendvision.com/pricing?via=Retirement&promo=RETIRE20

Promo Code: RETIRE20

Stock Analysis Affiliate Link:
https://stockanalysis.com/pro/?ref=michael63

Discount Code: Retirement

I still cannot believe it, but Coffee and Dividends just hit its one year anniversary, and this episode, number 52, could not have come at a better time to celebrate. This week alone brought in $1,900 of passive income, and for the full month of July 2026 my combined accounts paid out $11,723.32.

The Breakdown

I split my tracking between two accounts, my IRA and my retail account, and I count paydays by the Fridays in the month. July had five Fridays, which gave things a nice boost.

My IRA brought in $5,493.52. The usual names showed up here, GPIQ from Goldman Sachs, OVL by Liquid Strategies, and TDAQ from TappAlpha, which has now become my largest passive income position at over 6,700 shares. I have also been steadily adding XQQI from NEOS, which is essentially a leveraged version of QQQI, and that position alone contributed $365 this month.

My retail account paid $6,229.80. This is the account I can actually touch before age 59 and a half, so it carries a little extra weight for me right now. Payments came in from EGGY, QQQI, TDAQ again, ISSB from Quantify Funds, BLOX, NVII, more XQQI, XBCI, GPIQ, OVL by Liquid Strategies, XSHP, and the newer weekly payer TDAX from TappAlpha.

Add it all together and that is the $11,723.32 for the month.

Looking Ahead With Dividend Vision

I use Dividend Vision to track projections across my portfolio, and right now my retail account is valued at roughly $354,770. Their forward twelve month income estimate puts likely annual distributions somewhere between $64,518 and $77,470, with a industry standard projection landing around $70,962, which works out to about $5,914 a month or $1,365 a week.

Seeing those numbers is part of what has me thinking seriously about burn rate, which I define simply as how fast you spend down your savings once you start living off them. My hope is that these income funds can slow that burn rate down significantly once I retire.

New Names on My Radar

A fund I have been watching but have not bought yet is XLEI from State Street, the Energy Sector Premium Income ETF. It has only been out since July of 2025, but it has put up a 32.99 percent total return over the past year by holding XLE and selling shortdated call options against it. I am not committing to anything here, just keeping an eye on it.

I use Stock Analysis for research like this every single day, comparing funds side by side and digging into holdings and payment history.

What I Have Been Adding

XQQI continues to be a big focus for me. Since launch it has outperformed QQQI in total return, 6.74 percent versus 4.97 percent, and the monthly payments have consistently come in higher too, often in the 76 to 92 cent range compared to QQQI typically sitting in the low 60s. I recently crossed over 1,000 shares in this one and I have genuinely thought about selling my QQQI position and rotating into XQQI, but the capital gains I would trigger on QQQI are holding me back for now. Instead I am just directing new distribution money into XQQI, especially on red days.

I also started a small position in TMGN from TappAlpha, which tracks the Magnificent 10, essentially the Mag 7 plus Palantir, Broadcom, and AMD. No payment yet, so I am still watching how that develops.

Lastly, I have been adding to SSO on especially red days in my IRA. This is a 2x leveraged S&P 500 fund from ProShares, and unlike everything else I hold, I am buying this purely for growth, not income. Looking at a 10 year window, SSO has returned roughly 693 percent compared to 306 percent for VOO, though obviously that leverage cuts both ways. I plan to keep adding here opportunistically using distribution cash.

The Four Horsemen, Still Standing

Through all of this, my core four positions remain GPIQ, OVL by Liquid Strategies, QQQI, and TDAQ. I am still debating whether XQQI eventually earns a spot in that group, replacing QQQI outright, or whether I just end up counting the two of them together as one horseman since they track so similarly. Time will tell.

Thank You for a Year of This

I genuinely mean it when I say this channel and this show would not be anything without the people watching every week. Thank you for the comments, the support, and for sticking with me through 52 episodes now. There are some big decisions ahead as I work toward my December 2026 retirement target, and I am glad to have you along for it.

If you have not already, subscribe to the channel and consider signing up for this newsletter, which is still free for now.

Not financial advice. I am not a licensed financial advisor and nothing in this newsletter should be taken as personalized investment advice or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Past performance and distribution rates are not guarantees of future results. Everything I share here is simply documenting my own personal investing journey toward early retirement, and my decisions are based on my own goals, risk tolerance, and circumstances, which may not match yours. Please do your own research and consult a licensed financial professional before making any investment decisions.

Affiliate disclaimer: Some links in this newsletter, including Dividend Vision and Stock Analysis, are affiliate links. I may earn a commission if you sign up through them, at no extra cost to you. I only share tools I actually use in my own portfolio tracking, and this compensation does not influence my honest opinion of them.

Tools that I use:

Dividend Vision:

https://www.dividendvision.com/pricing?via=Retirement&promo=RETIRE20

Promo Code: RETIRE20

Stock Analysis Affiliate Link:

https://stockanalysis.com/pro/?ref=michael63

Discount Code: Retirement

The Edge Report founder breaks down early fund blowups, OVL, ISSB, currency debasement, and where he sees Bitcoin heading

I am back with another episode on My Retirement Trading, and this time I brought Jesse Franklin from The Edge Report back on the channel for a follow up conversation. If you caught his first appearance, you know Jesse was not always a fan of income and covered call funds. This time I wanted to dig into why that is starting to change.

Jesse runs The Edge Report, his own publication covering stocks, ETFs, macro data, and market breadth, with a heavy focus on options. He told me the plan is to expand from a weekly issue to two or three issues a week going forward, and he mentioned there will be more coverage of income ETFs, closed end funds, and autocallables in upcoming issues.

We started with the honest version of why Jesse was skeptical in the first place. His biggest concern was always about the people who get into income products who do not actually need income. He does not see it as a wealth building tool for someone in their early twenties still trying to grow a portfolio. Beyond that, he pointed to the early wave of funds that launched chasing huge headline yields, some as high as fifty or sixty percent, often built on synthetic positions rather than the actual underlying stock. His concern was simple. One bad trade could put a fund down six, seven, even ten million dollars, and the only way to keep those advertised distributions flowing was to pull straight from net asset value in the form of return of capital. He also contrasted his own conservative options approach, roughly ten delta and thirty to forty five days out, with the weekly at the money strategies a lot of early funds were running, which he said can get crushed in just a couple of bad days. He specifically referenced a fund tied to MicroStrategy that got assigned shares through cash secured puts and never recovered.

What changed his mind is seeing better designed products enter the space. He pointed to OVL as a standout example, using put credit spreads rather than straight covered calls. As an options trader himself, that structure made sense to him immediately, since it defines both the upside cap and the downside protection rather than leaving a fund fully exposed. I mentioned that I hold a large position in OVL myself, that the fund has been around since 2019, that it shifted its distribution target from around 3 percent up to 10.5 percent in 2026, and that it has outperformed its underlying, Vanguard VOO, over the long term. Jesse picked OVL as one of his entries in the Dividend Vision Fantasy Income ETF Challenge.

We also talked about Quantify Funds, the team behind BTGD, a stacked Bitcoin and gold ETF using futures. Jesse said their income focused products have managed to keep distributions steady by actively adjusting option contracts based on volatility, even while the underlying Bitcoin and gold exposure has been down. That kind of active risk management is exactly what he wants to see more of.

A recurring theme in our conversation was manager transparency, specifically whether the people running these funds actually have their own money in them. Jesse tied this back to how I approach the Four Horsemen on the channel, showing real positions and real results rather than just talking up a fund from the sidelines. He thinks the funds that survive long term will be the transparent ones, and the ones built purely on marketing hype are more likely to eventually liquidate or reverse split.

From there we moved into currency debasement, a concept Jesse credits to David at Quantify Funds. The short version is that continued money printing makes the dollar worth less over time, and hard assets like gold, silver, and Bitcoin cannot simply be printed into existence. Jesse’s approach is to hold uncorrelated hard assets like gold and Bitcoin together as a hedge, which is part of why funds like BTGD interest him.

We closed on Bitcoin. Jesse said he remains firmly bullish, and pointed to real world adoption signals like Walmart accepting Bitcoin payments through its OnePay platform, a move he says was driven by potential savings of several billion dollars a year in credit card processing fees. He also walked through why he thinks Bitcoin trading in a tighter range this year, roughly the fifty seven thousand to seventy thousand range, is actually a healthy sign of a maturing asset rather than a warning sign. He does expect new all time highs eventually, once the dollar and bond yields start to soften.

If you want to follow more of what Jesse is doing, he publishes The Edge Report for free on Substack, and you can find him on X at EdgeReport91 and on Blossom Social under Pinnacle Wealth.

As always, I want to hear from you. Are you leaning toward OVL, ISSB, or something else entirely for your income sleeve. And where do you think Bitcoin is headed from here. Let me know in the comments.

Not financial advice. I am not a licensed financial advisor and nothing in this newsletter should be taken as personalized investment advice or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Past performance and distribution rates are not guarantees of future results. Everything I share here is simply documenting my own personal investing journey toward early retirement, and my decisions are based on my own goals, risk tolerance, and circumstances, which may not match yours. Please do your own research and consult a licensed financial professional before making any investment decisions.

Affiliate disclaimer: Some links in this newsletter, including Dividend Vision and Stock Analysis, are affiliate links. I may earn a commission if you sign up through them, at no extra cost to you. I only share tools I actually use in my own portfolio tracking, and this compensation does not influence my honest opinion of them.

Tools that I use:

Dividend Vision:

https://www.dividendvision.com/pricing?via=Retirement&promo=RETIRE20

Promo Code: RETIRE20

Stock Analysis Affiliate Link:

https://stockanalysis.com/pro/?ref=michael63

Discount Code: Retirement

Good morning everybody and welcome back to My Retirement Trading.

Today I want to do something a little different than my usual fund breakdowns. I want to talk about my own retirement, where I actually stand right now, and the checklist of concerns that has been on my mind lately. This might turn into a small series because there is a lot to unpack, but I wanted to start getting my thoughts down and out in the open.

So let me give you a little background. I am 55 years old and I will turn 56 in February of 2027. I have a retail brokerage account with about $355,000 in it, and that account is projected to pay over $60,000 a year in income from my covered call and option based income ETFs. My base monthly bills come out to around $3,200 a month, so without doing anything extra like traveling, that $60,000 a year comes out to about $5,000 a month, which covers my bills with room to spare. I am also married, so that factors into the whole picture as well.

I also have a larger IRA account, but I cannot touch that until I am 59 and a half, so that is still three and a half years away from being an option.

With all that as the backdrop, I put together a little checklist for myself. The first item on it is simple, can I actually afford to retire financially. The second item is healthcare, and this is where things get complicated.

I have been digging into the ACA marketplace, the Affordable Care Act healthcare exchange, and what I have learned is that there is a window based on your MAGI, or modified adjusted gross income. You have to make at least a certain amount to qualify for subsidies, but you cannot make over a certain amount either, or you risk losing those subsidies. My concern here is that a lot of my income comes from funds that are very efficient with return of capital, which is not taxable in the same way as regular income. If a large percentage of my $60,000 in income is classified as return of capital, my actual taxable income could come in well under the MAGI minimum, and that could disqualify me or reduce the subsidies I am counting on.

Based on my math, I believe my MAGI minimum sits somewhere over $21,000, and depending on how high my return of capital percentage runs, I could be short anywhere from $6,000 to $11,000 of that minimum. That is a real problem I have to figure out.

On the flip side, there is also a ceiling. If I make over roughly $80,000, I could be required to pay back the subsidies I received, and that is a scenario I am trying to avoid entirely.

One option I am weighing is a Roth conversion to help manufacture enough MAGI to clear that minimum threshold. If I convert $20,000 and pay somewhere around 12 percent in federal tax, that is about $2,400, plus another $1,000 or so in state tax, that puts me out of pocket somewhere around $3,400 just in taxes on the conversion. The other option on the table is simply taking an early withdrawal from the IRA and eating the penalty, which would give me extra cash for things like travel, but comes with its own cost.

Beyond the tax and healthcare questions, there is also the burn rate to think about. I only have about $20,000 in cash in my retirement account, plus another $20,000 set aside as a cushion, so about $40,000 total. That might sound like a decent amount, but when I think about potentially needing that money to stretch over 20 or 30 years, it does not feel like nearly enough of a buffer.

And then there is the question of what I actually do with my time. My wife and I love going out to eat and we love traveling. We do not want to sit around eating ramen noodles just to make the numbers work. I would love to have a travel budget somewhere between $10,000 and $15,000 a year, and I have thought about stretching that budget further by spending extended time in more affordable places, like Thailand or Malaysia, or even Poland, where my wife is from, so we could stay with family for a while.

Honestly, I would retire today if I could. I am burned out from the day to day grind, and I think about how many good, healthy years I actually have left to enjoy life. I do not want to wait until I am 70 to start living, only to find out my body will not let me enjoy it the way I want to.

I have no pension and no other income outside of my job and my covered call fund income, so this channel and my content could become a bigger part of the picture if I have more time to invest in it. That is something I will be thinking about as well.

So that is where I stand right now. Financially close, but with real open questions on healthcare, taxes, and how far my cash cushion will actually stretch. I would genuinely love to hear from you all if you have gone through this ACA and MAGI puzzle yourselves, or if I am missing something in my thinking. Reply to this newsletter or drop a comment on the video, I read every one.

Not financial advice. For entertainment purposes only. This newsletter reflects my own personal journey and thinking, not a recommendation for anyone else.

Until next time, I will catch you all soon.

Michael My Retirement Trading

Good morning everybody. Welcome to Episode 51 of Coffee and Dividends. This week I want to share something a little different. I am going over my My Retirement Trading retail account payments for July 2026, and I am also taking a step back to look at my full two plus year history with QQQI by NEOS, which has been one of my original Four Horsemen anchor positions since I first bought it back in June of 2024.

Let us start with this weeks payments. I count my paychecks by the Fridays, and there were five paydays this month. On Friday, July 24th, I received a total of $1,396.45 in my retail account. Here is how that broke down.

QQQI by NEOS paid me $1,135.63, which was the bulk of the total. This is a monthly payer and it has consistently been one of my biggest contributors.

ISSB by Quantify Funds paid $6.38. This one is based on stocks and Bitcoin.

BLOX by Xfunds paid $48.90.

NVII by Rex Shares paid $169.52. This one is based on Nvidia.

TDAX by TappAlpha paid $36.02 for the week.

That brings the total to $1,396.45, which I call a pretty good week.

Now let us get into the main theme of this episode, which I am calling QQQI Payday. This is one of my original funds, the one I started with when I first got into covered call income investing. I looked back and I first purchased QQQI on June 11th, 2024, so I am now over two years into holding this fund. My very first purchase was made at $51.38 per share.

I pulled up Stock Analysis to take a closer look at where things stand today. QQQI, the NEOS NASDAQ 100 High Income ETF, is currently sitting at $52.77. That means I am positive on NAV since my original purchase price of $51.38. I thought that was worth sharing since a lot of people assume these covered call funds always erode in value over time, and mine has not, at least not from my personal cost basis.

Looking at the top holdings, QQQI is currently weighted toward Nvidia, Apple, Microsoft, Micron, Amazon, AMD, Google, Meta, Tesla, and Google again. The monthly payments have been fairly consistent, mostly in the 60 cent range over the last six distributions.

I also wanted to see how QQQI stacks up against QQQM, which covers the same Nasdaq 100 index without the covered call overlay. Year to date, there is roughly a 5 percent difference in total return between the two. Going back to the max time frame available, that gap widens to about 11 percent. So yes, QQQI does underperform QQQM over the long run, which is expected with a covered call strategy like this. I am not upset about that underperformance because I have been collecting substantial income the entire time I have held it.

I did sell some of my QQQI position inside my IRA and moved that into TDAQ, since TDAQ has actually outperformed QQQI and tracks closer to QQQM. However, in my retail account, I have decided to keep my QQQI position as is. Part of the reason is tax related. I am up on this position, so if I sold it, I would owe capital gains. Since it has been profitable for me, I am comfortable continuing to hold it for now unless something changes.

TDAQ by TappAlpha is actually my largest income position overall and it is also one of the Four Horsemen. It has outperformed QQQI in total return during the period I have owned both. GPIQ by Goldman Sachs, another one of the Four Horsemen, has also outperformed QQQI in total return.

Even with that, I am still planning to hold QQQI at this point. Here is why. My original cost basis on this position is $77,207.47. If I were to sell today, I would receive approximately $94,361.53. That is a gain of about $17,154.06, or roughly 22.22 percent, in a little over two years. I used to have this fund set to drip automatically, but I have since turned drip off and I am now taking the distributions as cash and using them to buy other securities as I see fit.

Looking at the income side specifically, last months payment was $1,176 and this months payment was approximately $1,141.95. If I annualize this months payment by multiplying by 12, since this is a monthly payer, that comes out to roughly $13,703.40 a year. Based on my original cost basis of $77,207.47, that works out to a distribution rate, or APR, of about 17.75 percent.

So between the price appreciation and the income, I have no complaints about how QQQI has performed for me personally. I know there are other funds in my portfolio that have outperformed it, and there probably will continue to be others that outperform it going forward. But I feel like I made a good choice sticking with this one as one of my core positions.

I also want to mention that I have been adding lately to XQQI, which is essentially a leveraged version of QQQI. It has only been out since February of 2026, so there is not much of a track record yet. Interestingly, in the short time it has been available, it has not performed as well as TDAQ or GPIQ. That is a pretty small window of time though, so I would not read too much into it yet.

To get a sense of what a leveraged product might look like over a longer stretch, I also compared against QQCL, which is a Canadian leveraged product that has been around longer. Over that longer period, it has actually outperformed QQQM, which is an interesting data point even though it is not a direct comparison to XQQI.

In conclusion, this episode was really about showing what it looks like to hold one of these covered call income strategies for an extended period of time. Two plus years of real data with QQQI by NEOS. I cannot sell this position right now without triggering capital gains, and honestly I am fine with that. I have made meaningful income throughout, and while I probably could have earned more in a different fund, I still came out ahead compared to parking that money in something like a money market account.

As always, I would love to hear your thoughts. Drop a comment and let me know what you think. Next week is a big one, it will be the one year anniversary of Coffee and Dividends, Episode 52. I am also considering starting a new series where I share more personal details about my plans to retire at 55. I turn 56 in February and I am starting to get serious about figuring out whether the numbers actually work. If that is something you would be interested in following along with, let me know in the comments.

Thanks for reading, and I will catch you next time.

Not financial advice. I am not a licensed financial advisor and nothing in this newsletter should be taken as personalized investment advice or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Past performance and distribution rates are not guarantees of future results. Everything I share here is simply documenting my own personal investing journey toward early retirement, and my decisions are based on my own goals, risk tolerance, and circumstances, which may not match yours. Please do your own research and consult a licensed financial professional before making any investment decisions.

Affiliate disclaimer: Some links in this newsletter, including Dividend Vision and Stock Analysis, are affiliate links. I may earn a commission if you sign up through them, at no extra cost to you. I only share tools I actually use in my own portfolio tracking, and this compensation does not influence my honest opinion of them.

Tools that I use:

Dividend Vision:

https://www.dividendvision.com/pricing?via=Retirement&promo=RETIRE20

Promo Code: RETIRE2

Stock Analysis Affiliate Link:
https://stockanalysis.com/pro/?ref=michael63

Discount Code: Retirement

Special Sale during the month of July 2026
1 free month of Stock Analysis Pro or Unlimited and 20% off their first year after the free month. If you use code CHARTS with my affiliate link
https://stockanalysis.com/pro/trial/?ref=michael63

This week on My Retirement Trading I sat down with Paul Santori from Better Call Paul on YouTube, and this conversation turned into one of the more useful comparisons I have done in a while. Paul made a real move in his own portfolio recently, and I wanted to walk through the reasoning with him on camera because I think a lot of you are wrestling with the same decision.

The headline is this. Paul took twenty six thousand dollars out of TDAQ and moved it into TDAX. Both are TappAlpha funds, both track the Nasdaq 100 in some form, but TDAX runs leverage on top of the strategy. That is not a small decision, and I wanted to know why he made it and whether it actually makes sense.

Why Paul Made the Move

Paul has been running the covered call ETF strategy for a while now, and his logic came down to output. He is not chasing leverage for the thrill of it, he is chasing the higher income that leverage produces when the underlying index is trending up. TDAQ has been a strong holding for a long time, in fact it is currently my own largest position in the Four Horsemen, but TDAX is TappAlpha’s light leverage version of it, built through a partnership with Tuttle Capital Management under what they call the T squared Lift series. TDAX runs about thirty percent more exposure than TDAQ using the same daily options overlay strategy, and unlike TDAQ, which pays monthly, TDAX pays out weekly.

We pulled up stockanalysis.com and went line by line comparing the two funds. The distribution history, the total return, and the drawdown profile all tell a story here. TDAX pays more, but it also swings harder in both directions. If the Nasdaq is ripping, TDAX captures more of that on the way up. If the Nasdaq pulls back hard, TDAX is going to feel that pullback more than TDAQ does. This is the tradeoff in a nutshell, and it is the same tradeoff that shows up across every leveraged versus non leveraged pair we have talked about on this channel.

TSPY vs TSYX, the Same Question with the S&P 500

We did not stop at the Nasdaq 100 pair. Paul and I also went through TSPY versus TSYX, which is the same TappAlpha and Tuttle light leverage decision but applied to S&P 500 exposure. Like TDAX, TSYX runs about thirty percent more exposure than TSPY and pays out weekly instead of monthly. The payment comparison here followed the same pattern as TDAQ and TDAX. TSYX pays a similar yield because of the added exposure, but the ride is rougher, drawing down faster than its non leveraged counterpart in weaker periods.

We also touched on QQCL, which is a Canadian leveraged option covering similar Nasdaq 100 exposure, mostly as a point of comparison for anyone north of the border looking at this same leverage question.

Going Global with OVF

Paul mentioned he has been thinking about adding OVL to his own portfolio, even though it pays monthly rather than weekly like TDAX. From there we pulled up OVF, the international version, on stockanalysis.com. Since inception, which is close to seven years now, OVF has returned around eighty percent. Year to date it is sitting closer to thirteen percent, which compares favorably to the S&P 500 over the same stretch.

Paul’s Retirement Withdrawal Case Study

The part of this conversation I think is most valuable for anyone approaching retirement is the case study Paul is running on himself right now. He is retired, and he has started pulling one thousand dollars a month out of his portfolio as a real world test of whether his income strategy can actually support a withdrawal, not just look good in a spreadsheet.

This matters because there is a real difference between a portfolio that generates income on paper and a portfolio that can sustain a withdrawal through both up markets and down markets. Paul is tracking his burn rate against the distributions coming in, and he is being honest about what happens if he needs to sell shares in a down month to hit his number instead of relying purely on distributions. We talked through his approach to reinvesting the surplus in strong months to build a buffer for the weaker ones, which is the kind of tracking his particular test is built around.

The New TMGN Fund and the Mag 10 Index

Paul has interviewed Si Katara from TappAlpha a number of times on his own channel, and he had gotten an early heads up from Si that TMGN was about to launch, which let Paul get a video out the day before it went live. He bought in on day one, and it turns out I did too, since I had a large TDAQ distribution land that same day and put it straight into the new fund. We compared notes on TMGN, which runs on an index some are calling the Mag 10, built around the Magnificent 7 names plus Broadcom, Palantir, and AMD. Unlike some of the other funds we cover, TMGN actually holds the individual stocks directly rather than using an ETF wrapper, which comes with a slightly higher management fee. We pulled up the current holdings together, which line up with Apple, Palantir, Nvidia, AMD, Microsoft, Broadcom, Amazon, Google, Tesla, and Meta.

Margin Accounts and Selling Puts

Toward the end of the conversation Paul and I shifted gears into his plans for building out a margin account, and he shared his actual experience selling puts on names like SoFi, ASTS, and NVDA. If you are newer to options, we walked through what rolling a position actually means in practice, since that term gets thrown around a lot without much explanation.

I want to be clear here, a margin account changes your risk profile in ways that are very different from a straight cash account, especially in a bear market. Paul and I talked through what that risk actually looks like, not to talk anyone into or out of using margin, but so you understand what you are taking on if you go down this road.

Wrapping Up

If you want to follow more of what Paul is doing, go check out his YouTube channel Better Call Paul, and you can also find him building a following over on Blossom.

As always, none of this is a recommendation to buy or sell anything. This is a breakdown of what Paul and I are each doing in our own portfolios and why, so you can take the parts that make sense for your own situation and leave the rest.

Thanks for reading, and I will catch you all in the next one.

Not financial advice. I am not a licensed financial advisor and nothing in this newsletter should be taken as personalized investment advice or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Past performance and distribution rates are not guarantees of future results. Everything I share here is simply documenting my own personal investing journey toward early retirement, and my decisions are based on my own goals, risk tolerance, and circumstances, which may not match yours. Please do your own research and consult a licensed financial professional before making any investment decisions.

Affiliate disclaimer: Some links in this newsletter, including Dividend Vision and Stock Analysis, are affiliate links. I may earn a commission if you sign up through them, at no extra cost to you. I only share tools I actually use in my own portfolio tracking, and this compensation does not influence my honest opinion of them.

Tools that I use:

Dividend Vision:

https://www.dividendvision.com/pricing?via=Retirement&promo=RETIRE20

Promo Code: RETIRE20

Stock Analysis Affiliate Link:

https://stockanalysis.com/pro/?ref=michael63

Discount Code: Retirement

Special Sale during the month of July 2026

1 free month of Stock Analysis Pro or Unlimited and 20% off their first year after the free month. If you use code CHARTS with my affiliate link

https://stockanalysis.com/pro/trial/?ref=michael63

Before I get into it, I do want to be transparent that I am an investor in OVL myself, so keep that in mind as you read through this.

Eric’s Background

Eric shared a great story about how he got into this business. He learned about options trading from his father, a retired UPS driver who became a self taught option trader after ending up with a lot of UPS stock when the company went public. That unconventional introduction sparked Eric’s interest in options long before he ever set foot in the industry professionally.

From there, Eric worked as a financial advisor in Richmond, Virginia, then moved to Dorsey Wright, a company owned by Nasdaq that specializes in technical analysis. After that he joined Simplify ETFs very early on, back in 2020, and got to help build that business from the ground up alongside some of the best people in the industry on product and trading. He met the team at Liquid Strategies a few years later, became friends with Sean Gibson, the CIO and co-founder who is also based in Richmond, and eventually found the opportunity to join them.

How OVL Is Built

OVL starts with a core position in the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF, ticker VOO, which makes up about 100 percent of the fund. On top of that, Liquid Strategies layers an option overlay designed to generate additional income as well as additional total return on top of the underlying beta.

Here is the part I found most interesting. Instead of selling covered calls like most income funds do, OVL sells put spreads using SPX index options. Eric explained his team looked at the majority of options based income products out there and noticed that almost all of them use a covered call strategy, either purely for income or to help pay for downside protection. His view is that while covered calls have a place in a portfolio, the equity sleeve is usually the piece of your money that you actually want the most upside from, so capping that upside while still eating most of the downside in a selloff did not sit right with the Liquid Strategies team.

So instead, they sell a put option roughly two to three percent below the current market level, with about a two week expiration, and simultaneously buy another put option slightly below that short strike to create a defined risk spread. They collect income on that trade, and since markets tend to go up, stay flat, or drift down only slightly most of the time, they win the majority of these trades. If markets do sell off hard, the loss is capped by the width of the spread rather than being open ended.

Eric also explained the concept of skew, which is the tendency for put options to carry a richer volatility premium than call options at an equivalent distance from the current price. This happens because investors are naturally more willing to pay up for downside insurance than they are to buy calls speculating on further upside, while at the same time a lot of covered call sellers are pushing down the price of calls. That combination of extra buying pressure on puts and extra selling pressure on calls creates a persistent skew that Liquid Strategies is essentially harvesting as a source of return.

Distribution Rate and the 2026 Strategy Change

At the time of our conversation, OVL was targeting a distribution rate of about 10.5 percent, paid out monthly. One thing Eric shared that I do not think a lot of investors realize is that Liquid Strategies has actually been running this exact overlay strategy in separate accounts since 2013, more than six years before the OVL ETF itself launched. So while the ETF shows a track record going back to 2019, the underlying strategy has over a decade of live history behind it.

Prior to 2026, the fund paid distributions quarterly and only passed through roughly 2 percent of additional income on top of whatever the underlying VOO dividend was, meaning most of the return showed up as price appreciation in the fund’s NAV rather than as a cash distribution. Eric said the team did not originally prioritize income as a use case, since to them returns were returns regardless of how they were delivered. Over time though, they recognized that investor demand for income based products is essentially insatiable, so starting in January of 2026 they switched to a monthly distribution schedule. Importantly, the underlying strategy and trades did not change at all, only the frequency and structure of how those gains get distributed to shareholders.

As for how they landed on the 10.5 percent target specifically, Eric said the team looked back across the full history of the strategy from 2013 through today, examined the range of option cash flow generated on an annualized basis, and essentially picked a number that represented a healthy average, enough to be compelling to income investors without overpaying relative to what the strategy has historically produced.

OVL launched in September of 2019, which actually makes it older than a number of the newer income funds people tend to compare it against.

Taxes and Return of Capital

Eric was upfront that he is not qualified to give tax advice, but he did share some helpful context. The expectation is that a large portion of the OVL distribution will be classified as return of capital. He acknowledged that this is a bit of a sensitive topic among income investors, since some funds have historically paid out distributions that exceed their total return, effectively handing investors their own money back. In this case though, he explained that Liquid Strategies uses specific ETF trading mechanisms, including what is called a heartbeat trade, to produce more tax efficient outcomes and pass returns back as return of capital rather than ordinary income.

Beyond the return of capital piece, a smaller portion of the distribution is expected to come from qualified dividends off the underlying VOO position, and an even smaller slice comes from realized gains on the SPX options themselves. Because those are Section 1256 contracts, any net profit gets the favorable 60/40 tax treatment, meaning 60 percent is taxed as long term capital gains and 40 percent as short term capital gains. Liquid Strategies posts the return of capital breakdown on their website after every single distribution, and they issue a 1099 at year end confirming the final numbers.

Performance Since Inception

Since inception, Eric said OVL has outperformed the S&P 500, with a stated goal of generating roughly 1 to 2 percent of outperformance annually. He was careful to point out that outperformance is not guaranteed every single year, and that there is no free lunch in markets. The tradeoff for the high win rate on these put spread trades is that during severe market selloffs, OVL is likely to lag the benchmark slightly. That said, since the fund’s 2019 launch it has lived through three separate bear market environments, and across that full stretch it has still outperformed the S&P 500 relative to its stated goal.

The Sister Funds, OVS and OVF

Liquid Strategies runs two additional funds using this same overlay concept. OVS applies the strategy to a small cap S&P 600 ETF from iShares, running the exact same put spread trades on top of that exposure. OVF effectively replicates the ACWI ex-US index, which is roughly 80 percent developed market equity and 20 percent emerging market equity, again with the same SPX based overlay layered on top.

Eric noted that all three funds use SPX options specifically, even though the underlying holdings differ across large cap, small cap, and international exposure. The reasoning comes back to liquidity and tax treatment, since SPX remains the deepest and most liquid options market available, along with the favorable 1256 tax treatment that comes with index options.

What Was Next for Liquid Strategies

Back in April, Eric hinted at a couple of ideas the team was exploring, though he was careful about what he could disclose given industry disclosure rules. One concept that intrigued him is essentially flipping the traditional covered call trade on its head, buying call options instead of selling them, since his team already views selling calls as a suboptimal trade for the reasons discussed earlier. He also mentioned they had been fielding investor questions about a possible Nasdaq focused product, as well as interest in something tied to semiconductors, though at the time nothing was confirmed and the team wanted to see how the market responded to their current lineup first. It will be interesting to see whether any of that has materialized since we spoke.

As for the overall size of the business, at the time of the interview Liquid Strategies managed and advised around 1.65 billion dollars. That figure spans their in house ETFs, some products they subadvise for external managers, a legacy separate account business dating back over a decade, and a handful of semi liquid interval funds that offer quarterly liquidity.

You can find more information directly at lsfunds.com or overlayshares.com.

Wrapping It Up

I really enjoyed revisiting this conversation with Eric. It covers OVL from just about every angle, from how the put spread overlay actually works, to the tax treatment, to what might have been coming next from the Liquid Strategies team back when we spoke. Given how many of you have been asking about this fund lately, I hope this recap gives you a clear picture of what is going on under the hood.

Thanks for reading, and I will catch you all in the next one.

Not financial advice. I am not a licensed financial advisor and nothing in this newsletter should be taken as personalized investment advice or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Past performance and distribution rates are not guarantees of future results. Everything I share here is simply documenting my own personal investing journey toward early retirement, and my decisions are based on my own goals, risk tolerance, and circumstances, which may not match yours. Please do your own research and consult a licensed financial professional before making any investment decisions.

This week I brought in over $2,800 of passive income across my retail and IRA accounts, and one fund alone was responsible for over $2,600 of that. That fund also became my largest holding in my passive income investing portfolio this week. I want to walk through exactly where the money came from, a new fund I added, and something new I tried this week that felt a little scary if I am being honest.

Starting with the numbers

I track everything over at Dividend Vision, and right now my portfolio there is showing $357,266 of value. The forward 12 month income estimate is $67,791 or $5,649 a month. Daily income is showing $185 with a forward yield of 17.94 percent. The top earners in that account right now are QQQI, followed by TDAQ, then NVII, XQQI, and OVL, with GPIQ rounding things out.

Breaking down the income by account

In my retail account this week, ending Friday July 17th, TDAQ paid $1,141.95, ISSB by Quantify Funds paid $6.38, BLOX paid $49.35, NVII by REX Shares paid $153.77, and TDAX paid $362 , bringing that account to $1,387.47 for the week. Month to date I am at $3,819.50 in that account alone.

In my IRA account, the only payment this week was from TDAQ, which came in at $1,472.47.

Add those two accounts together and this was a $2,859.94 week.

A new fund I added

I added a new fund this week called TMGN, the TappAlpha CBOE Magnificent 10 Growth and Daily Income ETF. This one is brand new, so I do not have a long track record to share yet, but here is what I know. The expense ratio is 0.88%. The fund pairs exposure to 10 of the most influential growth companies with TappAlpha’s option based daily growth and income strategy, writing call options each trading day that expire the same day to try to capture maximum time decay from zero DTE options.

The 10 companies are the Magnificent 7, Nvidia, Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, and Tesla, plus Broadcom, Advanced Micro Devices, and Palantir. Looking at the holdings, it looks like they hold the individual stocks directly, keep some cash, and then sell call options against the Mag 10 basket. This one is going to be a monthly payer and I genuinely do not know what the distributions will look like yet, but I am excited to track it.

TDAQ becomes my largest holding

I also trimmed some QQQI by NEOS this week and that move, combined with TDAQ’s growth, made TDAQ my largest holding(6702 shares) in my passive income investing portfolio. My cost basis in TDAQ is now over $175,838 across two accounts. A lot of you have told me over time that I should buy TDAX instead, and I do hold about 400 shares of TDAX as well, and I may add to that over time.

Since TDAX and TDAQ have similar inception points back in January, I compared the two. They have tracked pretty closely with each other, though TDAX has run just a bit ahead of TDAQ overall. You can see the gap widen at certain points too, like a nearly 3 percent spread on June 18th when the market really took off, since TDAX carries slight leverage. It is a good reminder that the leveraged version can pull ahead fast in strong up moves, but that same leverage cuts both ways.

Testing a real withdrawal

The other thing I did this week is something I have not done before. I took $3,000 out of the account to cover an expense I had. I need about $3,200 a month to cover my base bills, so this is going to be an ongoing experiment in what it actually feels like to draw down income instead of just watching it accumulate. The market has been a little red lately, so pulling money out during a pullback felt uncomfortable if I am honest. But that is exactly the kind of scenario I need to get comfortable with if early retirement is the goal, so I am treating it as a real test run rather than something to avoid.

Wrapping up

This week I brought in $2,859.94 of passive income, the bulk of it from TDAQ, which is now my largest holding and is projected to produce somewhere around $32,000 a year in income. I added a new fund, TMGN by TappAlpha, and I took my first real withdrawal from the portfolio to start testing what retirement income actually feels like in practice.

As always, this is just my journey, and none of this is financial advice or a recommendation. It is for entertainment purposes only.

Thanks for reading, and I will catch you in the next one.

Michael

Not financial advice. I am not a licensed financial advisor and nothing in this newsletter should be taken as personalized investment advice or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Past performance and distribution rates are not guarantees of future results. Everything I share here is simply documenting my own personal investing journey toward early retirement, and my decisions are based on my own goals, risk tolerance, and circumstances, which may not match yours. Please do your own research and consult a licensed financial professional before making any investment decisions.

Affiliate disclaimer: Some links in this newsletter, including Dividend Vision and Stock Analysis, are affiliate links. I may earn a commission if you sign up through them, at no extra cost to you. I only share tools I actually use in my own portfolio tracking, and this compensation does not influence my honest opinion of them.

Tools that I use:

Dividend Vision:
https://www.dividendvision.com/pricing?via=Retirement&promo=RETIRE20
Promo Code: RETIRE20

Stock Analysis Affiliate Link:
https://stockanalysis.com/pro/?ref=michael63

Discount Code: Retirement

Special Sale during the month of July 2026
1 free month of Stock Analysis Pro or Unlimited and 20% off their first year after the free month. If you use code CHARTS with my affiliate link
https://stockanalysis.com/pro/trial/?ref=michael63

I made a big move in my income portfolio this week and I wanted to walk you through the numbers behind it. TDAQ by TappAlpha has officially become the largest position I hold, and the largest of what I call my Four Horsemen. Right now I am sitting on 6,702 shares.

For those who are new here, my Four Horsemen are the four anchor positions in my income portfolio. That is GPIQ from Goldman Sachs, TDAQ from TappAlpha, QQQI from NEOS, and OVL from Liquid Strategies. These are the funds I lean on most heavily to generate passive income as I work toward early retirement.

Why TDAQ

TDAQ is the TappAlpha Innovation 100 Growth and Daily Income ETF, founded and led by Si Katara. The fund seeks current income while still maintaining prospects for capital appreciation, and it does that by holding QQQM, the Invesco NASDAQ 100 ETF, and writing zero days to expiration options on the NDX index each day to generate income from time decay.

At the time I filmed this, the fund had approximately 257 million dollars in assets, an expense ratio of 0.83 percent, and a distribution rate close to 17 percent. The most recent distribution declared came in at $0.39002 per share, and with my current share count that put me in line for a payment of roughly $2,613 between my two accounts.

If that rate held for a full year, that is over $31,366 annually just from this one position. Based on my actual cost basis of $175,838.46, that works out to an APR on cost basis of about 17.83 percent.

Why I chose TDAQ over XQQI

I was originally leaning toward putting more into XQQI, the leveraged version of QQQI. But when I pulled up the numbers on Stock Analysis comparing TDAQ, QQQI, GPIQ, and XQQI side by side, TDAQ held up well against the others, and it has the highest distribution rate of any of my income funds that are not leveraged. That combination of strong income and lower leverage risk is what pushed me to make it my largest position.

Since TDAQ launched on September 4th 2025, it is up 24.36 percent in total return, with a price return of 9.43 percent. Year to date it is up 14.2 percent. And here is the part I found most encouraging. Even after collecting every distribution along the way, if I sold today I would still be sitting on a $7,496 gain. That tells me the fund is not just paying out and eroding value underneath, at least not so far.

I still hold TDAX as well, the leveraged version of TDAQ, with about 400 shares, and I may add to that position over time.

Where I track all of this

I use Dividend Vision for tracking my projected annual income across all my holdings, and it currently projects around $32,288 a year in income from TDAQ alone. If you want to check it out, use code retire20 for 20 percent off.

I also use Stock Analysis for comparing fund performance side by side, and they are running a sale for the entire month of July. Use code retirement at checkout.

Wrapping up

This was a big allocation decision for me, and I wanted to share the full reasoning and the real numbers behind it rather than just saying I made a change. If you hold TDAQ, or if you would have gone a different direction with GPIQ, QQQI, or XQQI, I would love to hear about it. Leave a comment and let me know.

Until next time.

Michael

Not financial advice. I am not a licensed financial advisor and nothing in this newsletter should be taken as personalized investment advice or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Past performance and distribution rates are not guarantees of future results. Everything I share here is simply documenting my own personal investing journey toward early retirement, and my decisions are based on my own goals, risk tolerance, and circumstances, which may not match yours. Please do your own research and consult a licensed financial professional before making any investment decisions.

Tools that I use:

Dividend Vision:
https://www.dividendvision.com/pricing?via=Retirement&promo=RETIRE20
Promo Code: RETIRE20

Stock Analysis Affiliate Link:
https://stockanalysis.com/pro/?ref=michael63

Discount Code: Retirement

Affiliate disclaimer: Some links in this newsletter, including Dividend Vision and Stock Analysis, are affiliate links. I may earn a commission if you sign up through them, at no extra cost to you. I only share tools I actually use in my own portfolio tracking, and this compensation does not influence my honest opinion of them.

This week my accounts brought in $2,910.05 in passive income, and I wanted to use this issue to slow down and dig a little deeper into two of the positions that made this a strong week, XQQI by NEOS and TDAX by TappAlpha.

The numbers first. In my retail account the weekly total came in at $1,408.58. The largest single payment there came from XQQI at $615.79, alongside my usual weekly payers ISSB, BLOX, and TDAX at $46.55, plus NVII, and monthly payments from XBCI, GPIQ, SGOV, and XSHP, including the first payment on my new 200 shares of XSHP at $138. Over in the IRA I collected $1,135.68 from GPIQ and $365.79 from XQQI, bringing that account to $1,501.47 for the week. Add both accounts together and you get $2,910.05, right in line with what I mentioned at the top of this weeks video.

Now for the part I wanted to spend more time on. Both XQQI and TDAX are what I call slightly leveraged versions of funds I already hold heavily in my Four Horsemen framework, QQQI and TDAQ. XQQI is issued by NEOS and pays monthly. It launched January 29th 2026 and currently holds about 216 million dollars in assets. It invests mostly in large cap NASDAQ 100 equities and uses call spread and covered call strategies to boost income, aiming for roughly 50 percent leverage relative to the standard QQQI approach. TDAX is issued by TappAlpha and pays weekly. It launched January 7th 2026 with about 35 million dollars in assets, and it is designed to deliver 130 percent of the daily performance of TDAQ using swaps and, at times, call options. It resets its exposure daily, which matters because it means the fund is not trying to track 130 percent of TDAQ over weeks or months, only over each individual trading day.

I pulled up stockanalysis.com to compare total returns since inception. XQQI is ahead of QQQI by about 4.64 percentage points, which works out to roughly a 45 percent relative difference. TDAX is ahead of TDAQ by about 2.62 percentage points, or about 17 percent relative. Lined up against each other, TDAX is currently the leader at 17.44 percent, followed by XQQI at 14.9 percent, then TDAQ at 14.82 percent, and QQQI at 10.26 percent. What stood out to me is how close the unleveraged TDAQ has been running to the leveraged XQQI in this particular window.

The tradeoff is worth saying plainly. Leverage cuts both ways. On days the NASDAQ is down, these funds tend to fall harder than their unleveraged counterparts. What I am watching right now is a favorable stretch, not a guarantee. I try to buy on red days when I can, and this week the only new purchase I made was adding more shares of XQQI.

Zooming out to the full portfolio, Dividend Vision has my total value at roughly 373,612 dollars, with an estimated monthly income of 5,518 dollars, a forward twelve month estimate near 66,000 dollars, and a forward yield of 17.54 percent. The top earners across the portfolio right now are QQQI, TDAQ, NVII, XQQI, OVL, EGGY, BLOX, and GPIQ, which lines up closely with how much weight the Four Horsemen carry in my overall strategy.

If you want to see the full walkthrough with the account screenshots and the fund comparisons on screen, this weeks Coffee and Dividends episode covers all of it.

As always, let me know in the comments or by replying to this email whether you are holding XQQI or TDAX, or if you are sticking with the unleveraged versions. I would love to hear how you are thinking about leverage in an income portfolio.

Not financial advice. For entertainment purposes only. This is my personal journey and what I am doing with my own money, not a recommendation for anyone else.