That means a lot, given your experience. Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts. A stamp of approval from a financial professional makes me smile!

Heavy lies the crown ;) Thanks for such kind words of praise! You made my day.

You're most welcome!

I had a similar experience. I was trying to figure out how to create a monthly cash flow and everybody online was talking about growing the biggest pile. Thanks for your feedback and most importantly....congratulations on your approaching retirement...an exciting time!

You're most welcome. Viewers have shared many great ideas with me and I've invested in a few of those ideas. So I'm grateful too.

You are very welcome

If you learn anything new then I'm satisfied with the video :)

Haha. It takes a week to make a 13 minutes video so on my end it's a bit tricky! I'll take your comment as a compliment...so thank you :)

You're right. If I was a professor teaching theory or a financial advisor advising a client on the optimal portfolio, I would recommend diversified funds and fewer or no stocks. In reality, I like/enjoy buying some of the investments on my list so this works for me, but not for everybody.

My pleasure. Avoiding concentration risk is a logical policy. It also means you can hold fewer investments in your portfolio...easier to manage!

Thanks! I know that feeling of....oh boy...here comes the sell....

You're welcome. If I ever get long winded or start talking about random self indulgent stuff, feel free to let me know! Will try to keep it succinct.

@@armchairincomechannel😂

Thanks for watching! Hope you find it helpful for constructing your own portfolio.

Thanks for watching.

Glad it was helpful!

Thanks for letting me know. More interviews to come in 2024!

Thanks for offering such encouraging feedback. Seems like Sundays are the best day to post videos.

@@armchairincomechannel also sent you a brief email…

Agreed 💯

Hope you find some useful nuggets in there for your portfolio :)

guys just remember the the term guidelines vs shadow trading/investing.. his mix is done for his situation.. yours will be different, and the timing of his buys will be different than yours.. and his Yields will be different, as he was buying for a long time and has survived a down cycle where he was able to buy more and more because AI is very disciplined in his approach.. simply copying it will not yield the same results.. you have to work up to it.. and your percent mixes will be different.. just so you fully understand.. AI and I overlap alot b/c we are pretty close in the same situation, however he is ahead of me in this journey so my mix is quite different as is the loading.. but yet much the same in many ways.. find your way, dont simply copy at at a market high like this..or when we turn down, you will be feeling squeezed out.. thank you to AI for sharing his port ideas.. it takes alot of courage to come on YT and share what you are doing..

Can't figure out how to get your newsletter

Welcome to the cult! Just kidding. Growth and income both have their place. Generally I think the older you get, the more that income replaces growth as a priority.

Glad you enjoyed it!

Thanks for your feedback and glad you enjoyed it!

You are so welcome! Thanks for your feedback and encouragement :)

I like all of those too!

Thanks for sharing your approach. I've given up on trying to guess what the market will do. Bears successfully predicted 10 of the last 2 recessions ;)

Thanks for the suggestion. It has been through a rough patch recently. Thanks for mentioning it...I'll take another look at NEP. I agree, the dividend history is fantastic.

Great to know that its useful for you. Thanks for the feedback!

Welcome to the gang and thanks for taking the time to say nice things :)

Thanks for your feedback. A travel channel would require fancy equipment, a drone, etc and I don't think it's my thing. However, as I learn more about shooting on location (it's more complicated) I'll add a bit more travel content where applicable...mostly just in the background. I'm already planning a return trip to Vietnam for early next year. It's great!

@@armchairincomechannel my wife and I schedule an overseas vacation (roughly 6 weeks) each year. South East Asia is in our bucket list. It would be great having some idea of places to visit and associated costs to plan ahead. Look forward to getting nuggets of info on your travel experience 👍

Get over to SE Asia pronto. It's wonderful. My only general advice is to time the weather though. I don't like rain or smoke so March/April are great for Central and Southern Vietnam. Nov/Dec are great for Northern Thailand. In the past I just went to places without checking weather and paid the price!

A mix gets the best of both worlds! Thanks for sharing :)

Thanks for your encouragement! I'm back home for now but I plan to sprinkle in some more travel in the future. It won't be as much as one third, but I do want to mix up the backgrounds where possible to make it more interesting.

Glad to hear it! Thanks for watching.

Thanks! Bavaria is a little more risk tolerant than me but I like his general approach a lot! He was an early inspiration.

I appreciate you letting me know that. If anybody learns anything then it was worth the effort to make the video.

These are what we call "quality problems" :)

You could do worse than collecting 5% risk free :) Thanks for sharing your feedback!

Glad you enjoyed it. I sometimes get stuck too deep into the details and most people just want some basic ideas to tweak their portfolio.

You're most welcome!

With only 2 distributions so far, that one is a bit new for me to analyze, but I'll keep an eye on it. Thanks for the suggestion! Also, thanks for your encouraging feedback. I'm glad you enjoy the videos :)

Glad you like them, I appreciate you taking the time to let me know!

The 13% comes with some risk so there's always a possibility of a cut despite its impressive distribution history. Can't promise I'll do a PDI video. It's challenging to cover it in a comprehensive way so I don't blame other KZfaqrs for struggling with it. Also, I want the information to be interesting....a story, something unexpected, something unique...not just dry numbers and facts. I'll keep trying!

@@armchairincomechannel yep, could not agree more.. I hold PDO and recently drew down PDI when it ran up just lowered weighting in piMCO since it was doing so well.. Im waiting for a reasonable volatility event to occur when PDI will be a add to candidate..

That's great to hear (read)! Yes, here's a link to my portfolio: armchairinsider.beehiiv.com/subscribe

I appreciate that!

Thanks for your feedback. My goal isn't to maximize total return. I did that most of my adult life to create the largest nest egg possible for retirement. While earning a paycheck that works quite well. It also involves 1/ Volatility. Some years you watch your portfolio drop (eg 2022). When you're working that doesn't matter. 2/ The requirement that you constantly sell some of your assets to pay the bills, ideally at the "right" time. I don't like doing that. I don't know when the market will drop and how to avoid selling when its about to drop (nobody does). Therefore, in retirement, I optimize for income...not for Total Return. Income is less volatile, more consistent, and pays the bills. Maximizing total return (eg SPY) and selling when its "high" to pay bills works well in hindsight, but in reality it doesn't fit most personalities.

Great to hear that. Comments like this are very motivational when I'm sitting there editing and listening to my own voice go on and on and on ;)

I'm glad you find it useful. Thanks for watching!

Thanks for watching!...as always :)

We follow some of the same people. I'm more in a preservation mode than a growth mode now, but you're right, I re-invest some to cover 1/ Inflation and 2/ The occasional dividend cut.

Thanks! So far I'm loving every minute of it :)

That's a good question. I haven't tracked my numbers that far back but generally my portfolio has grown since retirement, not withstanding a disasterous 2020 of course. Interestingly, there were few dividend cuts during that massive correction. The relatively small amount that I reinvest easily covers inflation (although inflation is lower in Asia). I've also experienced some growth from BDCs.

@@armchairincomechannel thanks for sharing ! Looking a good way to improve retirement income long term vs the 4% rules! 👌👌 keep up the good works !

Thanks for watching and shout out to beautiful Brazil!

Thank you.Beautiful,cheap and dangerius.

You summed it up perfectly!

GPIX looks interesting so far but still a bit young for me. I plan to do more travel in the future and include any interesting backdrops on the channel, but no plans for a "travel" video. Plenty of others are better at that than me.

@@armchairincomechannel GPIX is new, so does fepi, and qqqi... i believe they are pretty much close to each other on their inception date.

BTW: Would love to see you interview Stephen Bavaria (Seeking Alpha) on his Income Factory approach to investing. You both have similar strategies.

I'm a fan of Bavaria too. He's on my list to reach out to with an interview request.

Glad you enjoyed it!

Thanks for your question, but unfortunately I don't think an army of 1,000 economists working with 1,000 analysts could give you an accurate answer. A recession and reduction in interest rates are 2 separate events with very different effects. Nobody can numerically predict how those effects will translate into stock prices. In broad terms, a recession would lead to defaults for fixed income and BDCs and the Fed cutting rates would increase valuations for equities, while reducing expenses for REITs.

Thanks for watching!

Thanks for your feedback :)

You are so welcome!

If I was a financial advisor, I'd tell my client to have a few diversified funds....ie fewer than 37! I have that many because 1/ I just like some stocks so buying them is fun and 2/ Diversification does mitigate some of the risk. If any one investment tanks, the impact is quite minimal.

@@armchairincomechannel finding the right ETF isnt easy, as far as i see, there's less than 10 ETF i like after researching over 100s of ETF.

True! However, I have far less conviction in my smallest positions as you correctly assumed.

Thanks for your kind words of encouragement. I haven't taken a deep look at CSHI because the yield is less than what I'm typically looking for. Thanks for the suggestion, I'll check it out.

Thanks for your feedback! SCHD is an example of a fund that would require less diversification for me because the holdings are both high quality and diversified. I don't currently hold it because I want more yield but its a low risk investment. My holdings are higher risk and diversification mitigates some of that risk. For example, even though covered call funds hold all the stocks in an index, the covered call strategy has its own risk if there's a sharp decline followed by a sharp recovery.

@@armchairincomechannel Thanks so much for the feedback! That was very helpful. You basically described my investing strategy. I'm 62 and retired but my Soc Sec and Mil Ret. don't quite cut it for my expenses. I have a $385K nest egg and need $3K/mo. of steady income to pay the mortgage. SCHD divs don't even come close. I don't really care about growth just protecting the nest egg so I don't have to cannibalize it to pay the mortgage. With $220K or 53% in Roth taxes aren't an issue. For the other 47% in my brokerage account I figure the mortgage interest deduction on my taxes should be a wash with the divs paid out: 20K mortgage interest vs $19.6K SPYI divs paid out. I'm currently all in on SCHD and ready to go all in on SPYI. Is that too risky? Have I missed anything else in my analysis? If you were advising your son what advice would you give him?

I haven't, and its complicated. I switched to Snowball last year to keep track of everything and it does a great job but I haven't had one tracking system since retiring. Also, the amount I reinvest/withdraw varies each month and I don't think any tracker can allow for that in their calculation. If I just bought X stocks and sat on them for 10 years it would be easy to calculate! In general my portfolio doesn't deliver returns as high as the market (at least not during bullish phases) but it delivers consistent income through all market phases, or at least it has so far. Some of the investments grow their income but most of the income growth comes from reinvesting a portion of the income.

Great minds/income investors think alike.

Once SPYT has been around long enough to get a sense of its performance I'm open to it.

That's like booze and cocaine mixed together! Yieldmax funds and short funds are outside my wheel house but I'll take a look. Thanks for send a suggestion my way :)

The preferred portion of the video was bar far the longest so I didn't have time to cover that topic. I agree, cumulative preferred shares add notable value and that should be weighed into the buying decision. Thanks for sharing your experience with Ford.

I like UTF even though I don't currently hold it. I probably should have picked some up during the 2023 Q4 dip. I usually compare it to UTG. At various points they've switched the lead in total return. I haven't followed it recently but there are plenty of articles on Seeking Alpha that examine the holdings and the future outlook for UTF.

I recommend having at least 2 brokers as sometimes they have issues and I don't want to be dependent on just 1.

Other than a few small growth buys for fun, I'm almost completely in income. I was in growth when I was working, for the purpose of accumulation. Now that I'm retired, I'm in preservation mode. There are plenty of great growth investments available but if I pursued them seriously, my goal would be capital gain, then sell to buy something that produces income because I don't want to live off my principal. My opinion is that growth works best with a long time horizon. Many people do a hybrid of growth and income during retirement and that makes sense too. A gradual shift in weight from growth to income would probably be the most logical strategy.

It's the first link in the description. You're right, it is heavy in those areas. Lower risk would be to spread across more sectors, but that would probably lower the yield. A fund like PBDC or BIZD does a decent job of covering BDCs. Owning them individually is more for the sport/enjoyment than out of necessity.

Glad to hear that it was useful. Thanks for letting me know.

JEPI is great! I just love SPYI more for now :) I may add some more JEPI again in the future. It will do well during a correction (relative to other funds).

Signup here to receive the current portfolio, and future updates: armchairinsider.beehiiv.com/subscribe

Haha. I try to stay away from all that 50% yield craziness. Saw your sins video today, hilarious stuff! Might wanna stay indoors for a week or two until the coast clears...just sayin.

that's too aggressive, it takes years to make your money and only takes minutes to lose it all... lol

I've chosen them because I think they are less likely to cut than most investments. No guarantees of course. If the market pulls back because its overvalued then I don't think these funds will cut, with possible exception of covered call funds if the correction is lengthy. If there's a major recession (ie the economy rather than just the market is in trouble) then the risk is higher. Debt funds would have to deal with defaults and generally earnings will drop. Under that scenario then I would expect a few cuts but nothing catastrophic. I diversify based on the assumption that some stocks and funds will face difficulties but they won't all stop producing income simultaneously. Historically that has been the case. For example, if a stock or fund made a major cut during the covid crash I generally am not interested in it. I'm also assuming that if we have a recession (there's always a recession around the corner!), it won't be as bad as 2008. That's a long winded way of saying, yes...I will sit tight.

@@armchairincomechannel You may be right I was also thinking that even if covered calls reduce dividends it is likely the return on the 10 year treasury will also decline and hopefully the difference between the two will be maintained In which case I would consider myself still “ahead “ of the crowd Thanks for the thoughtful response My hope for your continued success And wish you the best Joel

Yes, we're on the same page. I wanted to focus on income when I was working but my job put me in a high tax bracket so it wasn't practical to pay so much tax (although real estate investing helped). Growth is a better way of accumulating a nest egg. During retirement the focus generally shifts from making the biggest nest egg to "how to pay the bills" regardless of whether the market is soaring or crashing.

If i may ask, what size of nest egg are you living off of with your current investment portfolio?

12 to 1....But's just my guess. I've requested an interview twice but I haven't targeted the new manager yet. Will pursue that this week!

@@armchairincomechannel much appreciated!

Good question. I like EPD. The answer is the K-1. Currently discussing this with my accountant to see if its an issue.

@@armchairincomechannelI especially like that if I reinvest the distributions, the taxes are deferred.

You're welcome. I don't believe in market timing so I would dollar cost average in regardless of whether the market is "up" or "down".

Thank you, could you do a total return video sometime in the future so we could see how that type of portfolio does during a bowl and beer market which both just happened very recently as a dividend investor would be interesting to see the upward and downward movement during those scenarios thank Kfz

I'm not a US tax resident so...neither. You're right, ordinary income is the most common tax treatment (SPYI, QQQI etc are exceptions). For that reason, growth investing is more tax efficient while you have a job. A tax deferred account would make sense where possible for ordinary income.

Try this: armchairinsider.beehiiv.com/

My tax residency is outside the US so my tax situation is not useful for US tax residents. As a foreigner, there's no such thing as a tax deferred account. However, foreigners are taxed differently...some might argue, favorably.

No K-1's!!! If I every buy something with a K-1 it will come with an obvious disclosure.

If you're talking about Yieldmax funds in general...NAV erosion. Some of their funds have NAV growth, which is great. eg CONY. However, that's because the underlying stock has been a massive superstar performer recently. I'm not good at picking which stocks will be superstar performers. If you're asking specifically about the YMAX fund, it's off to a decent start. That's probably the only one I'd consider because it offers more diversification than the single stock funds. It's too early for me though. Will keep an eye on it.

Yes. It’s an ETF PFFA holds multiple preferred stocks. Just like AMPL holds multiple MLPs. Best wishes

Yes, they buy and sell them based on the various factors affecting value...interest rates, call dates, market price, etc.

@@armchairincomechannel what's the chance of PFFA not getting dividend cut again? as far as i see, PFFA has drop 15% on their price since inception. im having a little doubt about that lol

I'm not familiar with ZIVB but I don't see any VIX protective calls so if the VIX spikes it will take a large loss. You could create your own hedge of course...

ZIVB doesn't need 'protection' because it's NOT short the first 2 months vix futures like SVOL (that are the most 'vulnerable' in a vix spike). ZIVB is short 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th months vix futures - those are much less effected in a vix spikes. Yes, simulation shows that in a COVID style crush, ZIVB would lose 62% of value. BUT it would recover very fast - look what SVXY did before/during/after COVID (ZIVB would perform similar)

Everything you need to know about ZIVB is in this article: " How Does Volatility Shares’ -1X Medium Term ZIVB Work? August 27, 2023 by Vance Harwood " You can find it online

Everything you need to know about ZIVB is in this article " How Does Volatility Shares’ -1X Medium Term ZIVB Work? August 27, 2023 by Vance Harwood " You can find it online

@@armchairincomechannel Everything you need to know about ZIVB is in this article "How Does Volatility Shares’ -1X Medium Term ZIVB Work? August 27, 2023 by Vance Harwood " ZIVB doesn't need to buy calls

Appreciated!

I've been through the 1989 crash, the 2001 crash, and the 2008 crash. I'm familiar with the concept. Covid crushes stock prices from growth and income. The income kept flowing for the quality stocks and funds, but the lower quality ones suffered cuts. You're correct that drawdowns are a risk for every investor that buys any form of equity. The single worst investment decision I ever made was going to cash during Covid. Won't make that mistake again.

@@armchairincomechannellol the big difference you had a paycheck than and could make the losses back as we did. As you should know at every crash the sectors rotate in the market and those first will be last. The problem is the market had forever humans not so much. Why is there so many High Yield today, Covid sectors rotated, principal crashed. Low Beta let's one sleep at night when not if the swan comes. I got about . 5 beta by design.

That's a good point. The paycheck provided a margin of error. Feel free to share your favorite investments.

@@armchairincomechannel USAC is our biggest cash cow. We took 1/2 of our IRA money and bought a lifetime income annuity that is just cooking now. The annuity money payouts go to satisfies RMDs, will payout about 10% when regular income is turned on. Heirs get what ever left that is not payed out. What's best it's not in the market and I do not have to manage it.

Thanks for subscribing. You should be able to access it here: armchairinsider.beehiiv.com/ If that doesn't work, email me at armchairincomechannel@gmail.com and I'll send you a pdf directly.

Glad you enjoyed it

Thanks for the encouraging words :) I don't give financial advice. I own some QQQI but I'm old! Generally, younger investors are better off with pure growth to maximize total returns.