Quick Read
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Generating $9,200 a month without selling shares requires roughly $1.86 million split equally between DVY and ETY, yielding a combined 5.9%.
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ETY supplies $6,650 of the monthly income at an 8.6% distribution rate, but some payouts may be return of capital, not earnings.
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Watch ETY’s monthly distribution closely, as a cut hits the budget hardest and income above $109,000 raises Medicare Part B premiums to $284 a month.
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Imagine yourself at 64 with Medicare more than a year away, and one question keeps coming back: what would it take to cover $9,200 a month without ever selling a share? Using payout figures pulled in late October 2026, a portfolio split equally between two income funds needs about $1.86 million. That portfolio yields a combined 5.9%, which makes $110,400 a year.
First, about “for life.” Neither fund guarantees its payout. The income can rise, and it can fall. Here, “for life” means a portfolio designed to keep paying from its distributions alone, with no promise attached (the same never-sell-a-share idea behind our free dividend ladder guide). Each fund gets half the money, roughly $932,000.
iShares Select Dividend ETF
iShares Select Dividend ETF (NASDAQ:DVY) is an index fund that holds high-dividend U.S. stocks. It tracks the Dow Jones U.S. Select Dividend Index, which picks about 100 of the highest-yielding U.S. stocks, leaving out REITs.
It makes up 50% of the portfolio. Over the past year, it paid $5.34 per share. With shares near $163, that’s a trailing distribution yield of 3.3%. Its expense ratio is 0.38%, the percentage of assets the fund keeps each year for running costs.
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The fund’s fact sheet also lists its 30-day SEC yield, a standardized income figure after fees, plus its sector weights. Check both before buying. High-dividend indexes often lean hard on a handful of sectors, and that concentration shows up when one of them hits a rough patch.
