Prices, distributions and returns as of the Oct 13, 2026 close; fund holdings from the latest issuer files. Federal tax only, married filing jointly. This is educational analysis, not tax or investment advice.
Most income portfolio builds you see online assume a Roth or traditional IRA, where tax doesn't matter. But a lot of the money retirees actually spend sits in a regular brokerage account. There, the same $1 of income can be taxed at 0% or at 35.8% in the brackets modeled here, depending on what kind of income it is.
This piece builds a $600,000 book for a taxable account from five funds. Two are option-income funds (QQQI and SPYI), two are dividend-stock funds (SCHD and DGRO), and one is a municipal bond fund (VTEB). Over the past 12 months the book paid about $3,944 a month. After this year's federal tax, it keeps $3,800+ a month in the 12%, 22% and 32% brackets.
The Book: Five Funds, $600,000
SCHD pulled ahead in January and led for the rest of the year. The stock and option funds moved with the S&P 500 through the spring selloff, and VTEB slid from July as muni yields rose.
Performance and yield figures are historical and may change. Total return includes price movement and distributions where available. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Yield is not the same as total return.
To make the tradeoffs easier to see, the examples below use a hypothetical portfolio. These are not suggested allocations. They are simplified illustrations of how different mixes could change income profile, growth exposure, and concentration risk.
Hypothetical income-tilted example ($600,000, taxable account)
| Holding | What pays you | How it's taxed (calendar 2025) | Weight | Capital | Price (Oct 13) | Trailing yield | $/yr | Avg $/mo |
| QQQI | Option premium on the Nasdaq-100 | 99.3% return of capital | 25% | $150,000 | $55.88 | 13.67% | $20,511 | $1,709 |
| SPYI | Option premium on the S&P 500 index | 94.8% return of capital | 25% | $150,000 | $54.11 | 11.72% | $17,578 | $1,465 |
| SCHD | Dividends from ~100 dividend payers | 98.5% qualified dividends | 20% | $120,000 | $33.37 | 3.16% | $3,791 | $316 |
| DGRO | Dividends from dividend growers | 100% qualified dividends | 10% | $60,000 | $77.58 | 1.93% | $1,155 | $96 |
| VTEB | Interest on municipal bonds | Federally tax-exempt; 0.0% subject to AMT | 20% | $120,000 | $47.65 | 3.57% | $4,288 | $357 |
| Total | 100% | $600,000 | 7.89% | $47,324 | $3,944 |
Yields are trailing 12-month distributions divided by the Oct 13, 2026 price. They are past payouts, not promises. Line items are rounded, so they may differ from the totals by $1.
These examples are simplified illustrations. They are not recommended allocations and do not account for state taxes, risk tolerance, income needs, time horizon, or broader portfolio holdings.
As a rough scaler, the book paid about $657 a month per $100,000 before tax. That works out to roughly $1,970 a month on $300,000 or $6,570 a month on $1,000,000.
VTEB's trailing yield trails its current 30-day SEC yield of 4.37% (Vanguard, Oct 12, 2026) because muni yields rose this year. Its duration is 7.2 years.
What each fund costs and holds
| Fund | Expense ratio | What it holds |
|---|---|---|
| QQQI | 0.68% | Nasdaq-100 stocks plus index options; top three NVDA 8.4%, AAPL 7.6%, MSFT 6.0% (Oct 14) |
| SPYI | 0.68% | S&P 500 stocks plus index options |
| SCHD | 0.06% | 102 dividend stocks tracking the Dow Jones U.S. Dividend 100 Index |
| DGRO | 0.08% | 390 dividend-growth stocks (Oct 12); largest sectors Financials 19.5%, Information Technology 18.3% |
| VTEB | 0.03% | About 10,700 municipal bonds (Aug 31); 0.0% of income subject to AMT |
| SPY (benchmark) | 0.0945% | S&P 500 |
