Hi all,
I’m at a point where my corporate job isn’t fulfilling, and I want to start treating my capital as if I might need it to live on long-term. I currently have $1.8M, and I’d need roughly $4k/month to live comfortably in Europe. Im 36 fyi.
I’m wondering how others would approach this:
Should I stay all in a broad world ETF (like VT) and live off occasional dividends and selling shares, or
Should I focus on cash flow with dividend-paying ETFs, maybe keeping 1–3 years of expenses in a high-yield savings account?
If the latter, would you favor dividend growth ETFs (SCHD, DGRO) for long-term rising income, or also allocate to high-yield / income ETFs (VYM, DIVO, covered call funds) for more immediate cash flow?
The goal is to generate enough cash to cover living expenses while keeping the capital growing and protected against inflation.
Curious to hear how people in similare situations structure their portfolioss.
Seeking Advice: Living Off $1.8M Portfolio, Growth vs Dividend ETFs
byu/Helpful-Staff9562 ininvesting
Posted by Helpful-Staff9562
7 Comments
Depends. That much, if you don’t want stress, go straight to someone like Canaccord or Brewin Dolphin, get them to talk over your requirements and aims with you, and save yourself the hassle. If you really want to manage it yourself, you could go with half and half managed to self managed.
It’s more expensive but active is winning out already this year, and wealth managers have access to research and info that retail investors just don’t.
There’s nothing stopping you doing it yourself, and the allocation depends entirely on your risk appetite. There’s 100 different implications like Tax liabilities, efficient rebalancing and cost analysis. ETFs are expensive to retail investors, with that sort of money you could get access to cheaper fund units.
Congrats on early semiretirement 🙂
Optimize for cash flow. You have to separate what’s needed in the short term from the market. If you prefer to keep as much money in the market as possible, yes, peel away some to sit in high-yield savings for the shorter term. I would also build a bond ladder to generate income for the intermediate term and keep rolling it over as issues mature.
omg i wish i had your problems lol. but seriously, i’d probably go with a mix of both – keep some in growth etfs for the long run and have some in dividend stuff for actual income. best of both worlds.
What country in Europe are you considering?
https://www.reddit.com/r/financialindependence/wiki/faq
Growth and flexibility versus steady income. It’s up to you. Personally, I balance by mixing both, and I’ve kept Fundrise exposure in my portfolio since it compounds steadily and diversifies away from market noise. It makes me more comfortable drawing income without worrying about timing every equity move.
Despite the shorter history, DIVO’s total return (dividend reinvested) was close to that of DGRO and SCHD since DIVO’s inception, and at the same time offers attractive yield, so it’s kind of a combination of growth and yield. You can compare DIVO vs other dividend ETFs under your watchlist here:
[https://alphabetaetf.com/etfinfo/DIVO/](https://alphabetaetf.com/etfinfo/DIVO/)