What Is VYM? The largest U.S. high-dividend ETF — 570 blue-chip stocksfiltered by yield, weighted by market cap. $85B in assets · 0.06% fee · ~2.4% yield · Quarterly dividends $10,000 in VTI ten years ago turned into $37,899. That same $10,000 in the VYM ETF? $29,235. An $8,663 gap — and growth investors love … Read more
What Is JEPI? An actively managed income machine — S&P 500 stocks+ options overlay targeting 7–9% yield. $43.9B in assets · 0.35% fee · ~7–9% yield · Monthly dividends $10,000 in JEPI five years ago turned into $15,676. The same $10,000 in SPY? $19,546. That’s a $3,871 gap — and JEPI investors knew it was … Read more
A fire number calculator answers the one question every aspiring early retiree asks: how much is enough? Someone earning $70,000 a year and saving 10% of it will work for over 50 years before reaching financial independence. Bump that savings rate to 50%, and the timeline drops to 17 years. Same income. Same city. Same … Read more
Here’s a number most “how to start investing” guides won’t lead with: $100 per month, invested consistently for 30 years, has historically grown to over $226,000 — based on the S&P 500’s long-term average return. Your total out-of-pocket? Just $36,000. That $190,000 gap is compound growth doing the heavy lifting. And the barrier to entry … Read more
What Is VUG? Pure large-cap growth at 0.03% — 155 U.S. companies with faster-than-market earnings growth in a single fund. ~$350B AUM · 0.03% ER · 0.43% Yield · Quarterly $10,000 in VUG ten years ago turned into roughly $49,900. The same $10,000 in VOO — the S&P 500 — reached about $39,800. That’s a … Read more
$10,000 in VTI ten years ago turned into roughly $38,000. The same amount in VOO — the S&P 500 — reached about $39,800. The gap is smaller than most investors expect from a fund holding 3,530+ stocks versus 500. That near-parity is the point. VTI captures the entire U.S. stock market — large, mid, small, … Read more
An ETF holds dozens, sometimes thousands, of stocks inside a single ticker. You buy one share, you own a slice of the entire basket. But “what is an ETF” is one of those questions where the simple answer doesn’t go far enough. Understanding what an ETF is — and isn’t — requires looking at how … Read more
VYM and SCHD are the two most popular dividend ETFs in the United States. VYM charges just 0.04% after Vanguard’s February 2026 fee cut; SCHD charges 0.06%. Both pay quarterly. Both target high-quality dividend stocks. And both show up in every “best dividend ETF” list on the internet. This VYM vs SCHD comparison breaks down … Read more
QQQ has beaten the S&P 500 in 8 of the last 11 calendar years. In 2023 alone, it returned over 55% while VOO managed 26%. In the decade ending 2025, $10K in QQQ turned into roughly $61,000 — versus $42,000 in VOO. This QQQ ETF review covers 26 years of real performance data — including … Read more
$10,000 invested in VOO at launch in September 2010 is worth roughly $75,000 today. No options trades. No earnings calls at 4 a.m. No “conviction picks” that cratered 60%. Just one ticker, held for 15 years, compounding at about 14.5% annually with dividends reinvested. VOO — the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF — is the most … Read more
