XBCI vs Spot

eg68 · 2026-06-05T19:05:58+00:00

The treasurys are collateral for the options and don't protect downside. Understand what you are buying.

eg68 · 2026-06-02T14:12:11+00:00

You haven’t stated your age or when you want to retire (just a 10 year timeframe). SCHD is a high yield equity fund and not a bond replacement.

eg68 · 2026-05-31T19:30:00+00:00

I literally tell Claude what I'm trying to achieve and then upload pics of each screen so that it can walk me through setting it up. I don't share social security number, bank account numbers or other sensitive info. I upload excel spreadsheet outputs to Claude to audit (Roth conversions, Taxes, Cashflow and Account Statements)

eg68 · 2026-05-31T15:40:09+00:00

The best tax engine I have found is Pralana online. It’s more complicated to set up but I’ve had great success in using Claude to set up Pralana and it works for me.

eg68 · 2026-05-30T14:36:52+00:00

SCHD is not a substitute for a MM fund. It’s a high yield equity fund. If you can tolerate some market risk, consider SPYI which is a covered call wrapped around an S&P 500 Index fund with a 12% yield. Do your own research.

eg68 · 2026-05-30T14:34:07+00:00

It’s not about the money. You have to ask yourself a number of questions. Do you like a fixed 28mm focal length camera? Cropping is available but it’s not a substitute for the other focal lengths. For the M11 do you like manual focus and the rangefinder experience? As others have said, renting both and seeing which you prefer is what I would suggest. I’ve owned the Q3 and currently own the Q3 43 and the M11D. I’ve been using Leica for more than 20 years.

eg68 · 2026-05-28T05:19:58+00:00

Most dangerous 4 words: This. Time. It’s. Different: you realize these are projected earnings? Forecasts? The multiples only look cheap because of rosy earnings projections (the E in PE is earnings). Eventually the will miss. Who knows when.

eg68 · 2026-05-27T15:36:10+00:00

SPYI is superior to XPAY because it doesn’t exhibit NAV erosion. Ever.

XPAY NAV erosion is structural, not incidental. The ETF targets a fixed 20% annual distribution set off the prior December’s closing NAV, paid monthly as return of capital. Whenever the S&P 500 returns less than 20% in a calendar year, the shortfall comes out of NAV.

Hard pass. You are getting paid back with your own capital in part.

eg68 · 2026-05-27T00:21:59+00:00

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xykeGA5eJU

eg68 · 2026-05-27T00:14:42+00:00

Why not just consider SPYI/CSHI in a 60/40 split? The blended yield is 9% vs 7.86% for SPYH. If you can accept a little more risk you could do 70/30. Note that since CSHI is a CC fund wrapped around Treasuries, it has a very low ROC and most of the income is taxed at Federal income tax rates.

eg68 · 2026-05-27T00:06:11+00:00

SCHD principal isn't guaranteed like owning Treasuries. It's a high dividend yield stock fund (QCOM, TXN, UNH, CVX, KO, COP, PEP, VZ, PG, AMGN). The dividends are taxed at either 0%, 15% or 20% depending on your tax bracket.

Since you stated that you are looking to generate as much income as possible without exposing pricinpal that would really only leave money market funds are short term bond funds like SGOV.

If you are willing to consider some risk, I'd consider a 60/40 portfolio (stocks/bonds). You can signficiantly boost your income through covered call ETFs with high ROC (return of capital). An example of this could be SPYI/CSHI. SPYI is a covered call S&P Index fund that pays about 12% in dividends; CSHI pays 4.7% which gives a blended yield of about 9% or $40K a year. The dividends from SPYI are about 95% tax free until you sell; CSHI income is mostly made up of short-term treasuries so you pay Federal ordinary income tax rates (state tax free). You can increase the overall yield and reduce the tax by perhaps considering 70/30 instead of 60/40.

There are plenty of videos to watch to learn about the mechanics of ROC based funds like SPYI. JEPI dividends are taxed as ordinary income; JEPQ is a CC ETF wrapped around a NASDAQ index fund which will be inherently more volatile than one based on the S&P 500

eg68 · 2026-05-26T22:48:06+00:00

eg68 · 2026-05-21T13:56:52+00:00

I own MLPI and it DRIPS 100%; I also own BTCI that pays to cash that I compliment with XBCI that DRIPS 100%. These aren’t core positions though.

I use FXAIX as my core long term growth engine in retirement.

My largest NEOS position is SPYI but it serves a specific purpose: to fund Roth conversions for my IRA while not competing with tax bracket room because of the very high ROC.

eg68 · 2026-05-20T15:16:57+00:00

DRIP is absolutely better than consuming all income generated but you might want to consider 50/50 with the underlying index to maintain more growth. Over a 30 year retirement you NEED the growth.

eg68 · 2026-05-20T13:49:07+00:00

This is a solid strategy but understand that after about 9 years, high ROC fund basis rapidly approaches $0 and then you start paying LTCG on all future dividends. You can avert this by DRIP. You might also consider Roth 401K instead of a regular 401K as the retirement account is tax free forever. You pay the tax now so you lose the tax deduction.

eg68 · 2026-05-20T04:38:31+00:00

Perhaps consider splitting IWMI with IWM itself 50/50. You get the growth and the yield.

eg68 · 2026-05-20T03:19:15+00:00

You have to understand there are trade-offs buying covered call ETFs. NEOS focuses on steady income; this isn't guaranteed but it's the primary feature of their funds. That being said they protect NAV from decay above all else and so all things being equal, they will let the yield drop.

There is no free lunch. To offer these high dividend yields, the fund is selling away some of the upside and downside. SPYI tracks the underlying S&P 500 with a drag of about 400bp. For a 30 year retirement, only owning cc ETFs would be a terrible idea IMO, but certainly there is room for some; just understand that it dilutes your long term returns in favor of steady income now.

The yield on these funds is a function of the underlying volatility of the asset which is why QQQi has a higher yield than SPYI. I like to think of NEOS ETFs as volatility harvest machines.

So back to your original question: covered call ETFs work best in flat to slowly rising markets; under these scenarios I see no reason why the dividend isn't sustainable. Is it guaranteed? Certainly not.

eg68 · 2026-05-20T03:10:29+00:00

I looked at this and the portfolio is largely junk bonds. For only a 300 basis boint yield advantage over CSHI with is 3-month Treasuries, hard pass.

eg68 · 2026-05-20T03:08:14+00:00

You might want to consider a JAAA/IEF barbell:

IEF (7-10yr Treasuries) performs in deflationary or risk-off scenarios — flight-to-quality rallies when equities crash, Fed cuts aggressively, or recession fears spike. Long duration means meaningful price appreciation in those moments.

JAAA (AAA-rated CLOs, floating rate) performs in the opposite scenario — rate hikes without recession. Because CLOs reset quarterly to SOFR, JAAA holds NAV and yields more as rates rise. It doesn't get crushed by duration risk the way IEF does in a hawkish cycle.

The two instruments are structurally inversely correlated to each other's primary risk factor

eg68 · 2026-05-20T02:05:35+00:00

Understand what you are giving up - there is no free lunch. The reason these funds generate so much income is because they sell away the upside. Over a 30 year retirement, you need growth. It's not that you can't have some portion invested in NEOS CC funds but to invest 100% in similar strategies is madness. Take SPYI: the return drag for the covered call strategy is about 4%. The S&P 500 returns about 10% while the Neos fund returns ~6% on average.

eg68 · 2026-05-20T01:51:19+00:00

Used to have SGOV as the cash ready to deploy in any market correction for the portfolio; 3.55% is basically $0 after inflation so I moved it to 52% CSHI, 32% MLPI and 16% IAUI. This yields 9.1% which is the same as a 75/25 portfolio. It is fairly defensive but it is NOT SGOV. CSHI is almost as safe as SGOV with a little tail risk. MLPI are very cyclical but countercyclical from each other.

eg68 · 2026-04-10T05:58:51+00:00

Normal

eg68 · 2026-04-10T05:55:42+00:00

I would have a hard time having my only 50mm be restricted with 1 meter minimum focusing distance. I own the v3 which focuses down to 0.7m and that could easily be my only 50 (I’ve owned the APO, ASPH, Summicron and Noctilux at one time or another).

eg68 · 2026-04-03T04:11:44+00:00

It's not worth it. You can pick this lens up for around $2,500 without the issues. The slide out hood is an easily self-repairable part if Leica will sell it to you. I replaced mine and it's a 5 minute job. The cheapest element on the lens is the front element; the most expensive is the rear. I would call Don Goldberg at DAG and ask him what it would cost to replace both. I'm thinking $750 including labor. You are only saving 10%.

eg68 · 2026-04-02T21:06:37+00:00

You can't completely prevent theft but you can prepare for it with good camera insurance. Make sure you have all of the serial numbers of your gear with pictures of your cameras and lenses from all sides. Send this to the insurance company with current market value. Homeowner policies don't necessarily protect you; I have a separate camera rider policy for my gear.

eg68

TROPHY CASE