As workers hang up their hats and plan for their golden years, retirees are browsing through exchange traded funds to meet their income needs, and there are a lot of yield-producing options to choose from.
For instance, there are over 500 ETFs that offer better yields than 10-year U.S. Treasuries, and investors can breakdown the categories into equity, fixed-income and alternatives, writes Grant Engelbart, portfolio manager at CLS Investments, for InvestmentNews.
Among equity income options, investors will likely look at dividend-paying stock ETFs. While equity yields have been historically lower than fixed-income payouts, equities offer more attractive long-term capital appreciation. However, potential investors should be aware that stocks are typically more volatile than bonds, but dividend stocks are typically less volatile than the overall equities market.
Dividend investors can consider some high-quality paying stocks that have a history of raising dividends. For instance, the Vanguard Dividend Appreciation ETF (NYSEArca: VIG) tracks U.S. stocks that have increased dividends for at least 10 consecutive years. The Schwab US Dividend Equity ETF (NYSEArca: SCHD) includes 100 stocks that showed consistent dividend payouts for at least 10 consecutive years. The SPDR S&P Dividend ETF (NYSEArca: SDY) holds firms that have a minimum dividend increase streak of 20 years. Looking at yields, VIG has a 2.14% 12-month yield, SCHD has a 2.69% 12-month yield and SDY has a 2.25% 12-month yield. [Retirees May Need More Stock ETFs to Meet Income Needs]
Potential investors should be aware the tax consequences as well. Dividends are passed through to ETF investors and may be taxed as qualified and ordinary income. The providers will publish the percentage of dividends paid that were qualified at the end of the year. ETFs that rebalance semi-annually or annually will lower the chance of non-qualified dividends.