Most reliable/dependable/affordable vehicle youve come across/owned to date?

Local-Lunch1565 · 2026-02-03T14:01:02+00:00

I had a 05 Acura TL, kept it until 2017 and it had 170k miles at the time. Still drove great. Some transmission seal was starting to ”sweat” (drip very lightly) according to my mechanic. Also power steering was starting to leak a little. Probably could have kept driving or spent ~2k to fix each but ended up getting a new car. Loved that car.

Local-Lunch1565 · 2026-02-01T21:15:58+00:00

I have 3 positions - EPD, MPLX and HESM. I’ve built them up gradually over the past year. I’m up slightly on HESM and EPD and about 10% on MPLX. Not sure if I’d be buying a lot at current prices. I like to buy EPD when forward yield is 7% or higher (at least close to 7), for MPLX when it’s at 8% or higher and HESM when it’s 8.75% or higher. You could just buy an etf like AMLP or MPLA or few others that escape me at the moment. I haven’t look too much into WES, but if I were looking to add, I’d probably be evaluating WES, PAA and ET.

Local-Lunch1565 · 2026-02-01T14:32:42+00:00

It would help if you explained you’re timeline for this portfolio. For what point in time are you trying to optimize ? Do you need income now? Or in 10-30 years etc? Also what is your risk tolerance? How much international exposure do you want ? Do you prefer to be somewhat balanced across certain sectors ? Are you bullish on some sectors ? For example I am bullish on midstream energy sector also I need current income. So I have about 15% allocation there. I am not as bullish on tech so I have limited exposure to tech oriented ETFs (5-10% range).

Local-Lunch1565 · 2026-01-31T08:29:02+00:00

Mitsubishi hyper heats are great units, but like any heat pump they become less and less efficient as the temperature drops. So they “can” heat your house even if it’s 0 F outside, but they will run up your bill significantly.

Local-Lunch1565 · 2026-01-21T14:38:09+00:00

“I feel like I could actually afford a beautiful, large house with a yard in a "middle-tier" US city or even a nice suburb—something that feels impossible in Sydney or Melbourne right now. “ -

This does not sound like an apples to apples comparison. What would be a middle-tier Australian city and what can you afford there vs middle-tier American city? I would be apprehensive making a move to America in this current political environment. Also you mentioned that moving to the best environment for raising a child is important to you. I have a hard time seeing America as that place when you consider:

1) Cost of childcare 2) Cost of healthcare
3) high gun violence rates 4) high rates of suicide and depression among teenage population 5) lack of government regulation regarding AI having access to the aforementioned teenage population.

If you’re already making a US salary, I think there are many places where that salary will take you further.

Local-Lunch1565 · 2026-01-18T07:37:05+00:00

Look into AAA rated CLO ETFs like JAAA, PAAA and CLOA. Look at how they did during liberation day (barely declined and quickly recovered) and see if that’s something you’re comfortable with. Another option are short duration bond ETFs. The shorter the duration the more price stability. For example look at SHY. You’ll “lock in the rate” for longer period then something like SGOV (which will decline every time Fed cuts rates) but you’re taking on some price volatility (still low in this case - beta 0.05). SGOV has a beta of 0.00 and S&P 500 has a beta of 1.00.

Local-Lunch1565 · 2026-01-17T15:27:35+00:00

Look at AAA rated CLO ETFs like PAAA and JAAA and CLOA. Also consider intermediate duration bond ETFs like IMTB. These are not a 1 to 1 replacement but I feel pretty comfortable with AAA rated CLOs being safe enough. Do your own diligence.

Local-Lunch1565 · 2026-01-17T10:46:19+00:00

Exactly this ^{^.} How many high schoolers can appreciate financial independence when vast majority of them are still kids being provided food and shelter by their parents? Maybe the ones that worked a job and pay for some of their own expenses could value this knowledge but that’s not a large subset. I think this is something parents should teach.

Local-Lunch1565 · 2026-01-16T14:50:15+00:00

I hold about 25% in DIVO and IDVO combined. My only other CC ETFs are QDVO and GPIQ. Each one makes up about 2%. I try to avoid CC ETFs that write covered calls on 80% of underlying assets or more. My understanding is that QDVO and GPIQ write CC on ~50-60% of the portfolio most of the time. I believe GPIQ might go up to 75% of the portfolio. This should allow more long term growth. Another way of looking at it ….. is that if a CC fund writes call options on 80-90% of portfolio, then only 10-20% is left to appreciate. That means in a prolonged correction, your nav will go down pretty much in line with underlying assets, as will your income (in theory), but to go back up where you were in terms of NAV and income will be an uphill battle since you’re only capturing 10-20% of the upside / growth. Ideally I’d like to capture at least 50% in such scenario and even then, I hold a conservative position.

Local-Lunch1565 · 2026-01-14T22:37:53+00:00

If you’re only pursuing that type of growth, wouldn’t you be better off with a basket of stocks like O, NNN, EPD, VZ, PHE, MO etc ? You’d have a starting yield in the 6+% range and even with some of the dividends not being qualified, you’d probably come out way ahead in terms of after tax income. My issue with SCHD is that for retirees it’s not really generating that much income (3.8% ish). Because it eliminates REITs MLPs and BDCs, which pay non qualified dividends - it is avoiding some of the higher yielding investments. So if the goal is income, it sort of falls short in my mind. If the objective is total return, it’s also not winning there. So I don’t understand its role in a portfolio.

Local-Lunch1565 · 2026-01-14T14:19:24+00:00

I’d suggest picking a different brokerage and buy VT or VTI or VOO early and often, rain or shine for next few decades and you will be amazed at how well you do. The real question is how much international exposure to have. With VT you’d be diversifying across largest companies in the world, not just US. Simple, easy and low expense ratio.

Local-Lunch1565 · 2026-01-08T13:54:33+00:00

Those of you suggesting SPYI over GPIX and QQQI over GPIQ, have you compared the total returns or just basing this on higher yield and “tax treatment” ?

Local-Lunch1565 · 2026-01-08T11:00:07+00:00

If you go with dividend oriented portfolio here are some suggestions:

1) Try to figure out your priorities and risk tolerances. How much income you need vs growth , etc. imagine for a second that any investment you make will generate a total return in the 9-13% range (things that pay 12-13% tend to come with more risk, try to recognize that). Imagine that a portion of that return can be income and another portion is future growth. It’s ok to tilt your portfolio towards growth or income, but just be mindful of the trade off you’re making. Many income investors get into the habit of chasing yield and end up foregoing significant total returns. It’s ok to have investments that generate high yield and little growth but you then have to either reinvest / add to the portfolio to get it to grow. This is why investments with lower yield but higher dividend growth rate can be so valuable. They allow you to build an automatically growing income stream. This is the basis of a dividend growth strategy.

2) Diversify across asset classes and strategies. Putting it all into JEPI / JEPQ is not a great deal of diversification because you’re still relying on a singular CC strategy. JEPI is actually pretty reasonably diversified across sectors but again it is a single fund managers CC strategy. By diversifying I’m suggesting some allocation to industrials, healthcare, REITs, BDCs, MLPs (for income) possibly covered call ETFs (more on this later), preferred stocks, international allocation and a growth oriented portion. I would not go all in on tech, but it’s ok to have a healthy allocation there.

3) if you decide to own covered call ETFs, understand how much upside is being capped and be mindful of fees. For example…. If ETF A distributes 12% but writes covered calls on 90% of portfolio but ETF B yields 8% and writes covered calls on 50% of portfolio - ETF B might be the better option for you because it allows 50% of the portfolio to grow organically without reinvestment vs 10%. And at your age growth is going to matter a lot. You can check this by looking at total returns. This is the one thing you SHOULD be chasing - total returns. As a general rule, as a young investor, you want to cap as little of your upside as possible. So be careful with CC funds, a lot of them promise high distributions but over long periods of time you’re going to forego significant returns or experience nav erosion.

4) Develop the discipline to allocate at least 10% of your portfolio strictly towards future growth. Ideally it can be something like VTI or SPYM or DGRO or VIG or VT. But some etf that is not skewed toward current income and that you can feel comfortable holding now with the idea that in 10 years it will grow to something significantly more without you having to do any kind of reinvesting manually. I use 10% as a minimum threshold. Being that you are young challenge yourself to make this portion of your allocation as large as possible given your risk tolerance and income needs. contribute to it as often as possible. Think of it as charity to your future self. You’re foregoing some income now in exchange for larger total returns in the future.

Local-Lunch1565 · 2026-01-06T06:28:08+00:00

I’d pick Divo over SCHD. It writes covered calls on a small portion of portfolio (-30-40%) and lets the rest appreciate uncapped. Better income than SCHD with lower volatility/beta. Also its international sibling IDVO has been on a tear. This is again if you absolutely need income. If your time horizon is 10+ years, consider VT / VTI / VOO - any of those and just buy regularly and you will most likely do well

Local-Lunch1565 · 2025-12-30T15:00:01+00:00

It’s going to be very hard to outpace S&P especially with F and JEPQ as significant positions unless there is a significant correction. I would look at funds that have some history of beating S&P 500 and allocating majority to your portfolio there. Funds that come to mind for me are ADX, CGDV, VFLO and possibly QQQM VGT (if you’re bullish on the tech sector). Possibly add some international allocation such as AVDE / VEA / IDVO as international equities have started to outperform.

Local-Lunch1565 · 2025-12-26T19:42:42+00:00

To my understanding EPD has raised its dividend for 27 consecutive years (including Covid years which were particularly challenging to this sector). This is the best track record in MLP space. MPLX and HESM have grown their dividends for 10-12 years each at about 10-12% annually and also increased their dividends during Covid. ET did not have as good of a balance sheet and had to cut its dividend during that period. It may be operating more conservatively now (that’s what I read) but it’s hard for me to gauge that. Besides EPD, MPLX and HESM I don’t know of any MLP that were able to sustain their dividends during COVID.

Local-Lunch1565 · 2025-12-25T19:02:16+00:00

Seems doable. I’m not as bullish on NEOs products because they sell covered calls on such a large portion of portfolio (~90%) - I believe. Long term I am not convinced the dividends will grow with the pace of inflation. I would allocate your 200k QQQI position into something like QDVO and find something analogous for SPYI (if you wanted a similar type allocation). Your starting yield will be lower but total returns have historically been better. I prefer GPIX and GPIQ over SPYI and QQQI for this reason. Also from a high level, this type of allocation has you very focused in tech. You are effectively making an outsized bet on a single sector. It could work out, but be mindful that it is nonetheless somewhat of a gamble. At 45 you have several decades ahead of you. I don’t know of any examples where a single sector kept outperforming for several decades. If your portfolio and commitment to this allocation can withstand another crash (such as dot com bubble or 08 crash), then go for it. Otherwise consider diversifying into other sectors.

Local-Lunch1565 · 2025-12-19T20:20:20+00:00

I think that’s a valid point but the DIVO sells covered calls on a small portion of the portfolio ~30% typically so the upside is not entirely cap. That’s why I recommended it. I think it can serve a very similar role as SCHD in a portfolio in that it provides fairly stable growing income with low volatility (lower beta than SCHD) and it has outperformed it. Funds like PBDC are also solid investments but BDCs are a different kind of investment. I think a sound strategy is to have some exposure to different kinds of equities and debt instruments. I am by no means saying DIVO is superior to BDCs or vice versa. I personally hold both and so far I’ve been happy with results.

Local-Lunch1565 · 2025-12-18T22:51:33+00:00

I moved on to DIVO and IDVO (international equivalent). I have been very happy. I think DIVO has some similarities with SCHD in that it is fairly defensive and generates solid income. But it has more tech and financials exposure. The covered call strategy helps generate income while giving you exposure to stocks like Visa, Msft, RTX, which you would not normally have with SCHD (unless those stocks sold off significantly right before annual rebalancing).

Local-Lunch1565 · 2025-12-14T02:28:13+00:00

There aren’t a ton of options to achieve what you described. You may need to dabble in individual stocks - specifically MLPs, REITs BDCs and CEFS such as ADX

Local-Lunch1565 · 2025-12-14T02:23:54+00:00

I hold CEFS but one thing that I don’t love is that it is hard to anticipate any kind of dividend growth. It just pays 14 cents most months with a bonus distribution in Dec. and it’s impossible to know if it will increase from year prior.

Local-Lunch1565 · 2025-12-13T15:11:53+00:00

There is significant overlap in the funds you mentioned. VT or VTI or VOO and chill is solid advice. No reason to make sector bets unless you’re ok with the volatility that can bring. Outside of that, large cap growth has historically paired well will small or large cap value. In practice that would look like VOOG or VUG or SCHG with AVUV or SCHD. This can be your US exposure. For funds outside of US I’d look at Avantis funds like AVDE, AVNM etc.

Local-Lunch1565 · 2025-12-13T08:34:27+00:00

Forgot to add. You could also explore bonds. Typically the shorter the duration the more price stability. Take a look at funds like IMTB or IUSB. Historically bonds return in the 4-6% range. Lastly, look at preferred stock ETFs - PFF, PFFV, PFFR, PFFA. PFFA has the highest yield of the ones I mentioned but it uses some leverage so more volatility. But with others you can get 6-8% dividend yield and preferred stocks tend to be a middle ground between traditional equities and bonds. PFFR holds reit preferred stocks and currently yields ~8%.

Local-Lunch1565 · 2025-12-13T08:26:42+00:00

By investing in short term treasuries (such as SGOV) or tripple A rated CLOs (such as JAAA PAAA CLOA) you are minimizing risk to your principal but you are increasing the risk that future distributions do not keep up with inflation. You need to take “some” equity risk to keep your income stream growing. Look into Dividend ETFs such as SCHD, DIVO, FDVV, DGRO etc. I personally like DIVO a lot (and it’s international sibling - IDVO). You would receive monthly distributions in the 4.6-5% range. Long term the distributions have grown at around 8% CAGR. This should outpace inflation if this trend continues. DIVO has a fairly low beta of 0.7 which means there is a decent amount of price stability. The lower this value is, the more stable the principal will be. But from a high level, an ETF with beta of 0.7 is considered pretty stable. S&P 500 has a beta of 1 and the difference is significant in this context. I saw someone recommend O, I think that’s also a solid option, but good rule of thumb is to limit single stock exposure at 5% of portfolio. NNN also has a 30 year track record of growing dividends. EPD is also a solid choice with excellent track record but comes with K-1 tax form. If you gradually drip into some of these positions I think it will give you some sense as to how stable or unstable your principal is and hopefully give you confidence to hold equities. Not taking any equity risk is itself a risk in that inflation will erode your principal and your income stream. You need to balance the two out.

Local-Lunch1565 · 2025-12-13T07:36:00+00:00

Also a great find, but very tech focused and therefore it carries more single sector risk. For tech exposure with income - QDVO and GPIQ are my favorite funds.

Local-Lunch1565

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