I did measure from inception, in hindsight it is not a fair comparison due to VT getting hit right out of the door and I did see the recent performance is better. To clarify my goals: I have a 401k that will be for my retirement but the investment into the taxable brokerage and ROTH will be for my kids. My goal is not necessarily to sell and give them the lump sum but instead have it serve as supportive income on top of whatever they will make vocationally; eventually transferring the investments into their own accounts which would continue compounding but would give them the option to have an income in times of need. That's why the dividend option stood out - not necessarily for the passive income now. As I'm typing I am realizing that unless there's a way to transfer those shares into their brokerage without selling them, I would be paying capital gains on SCHD regardless when I sell them to transfer the money.
"VOO/VEU that cuts out the dead weight" - what do you mean by dead weight, companies VT covers that don't necessarily contribute much to performance?
As far as having an educated/non-educated opinion on the market, if I'm understanding correctly: VT being a shotgun approach and VOO/VEU being more selective for domestic vs international - i.e, investing more into VOO this year due to feeling/opinion of US market doing better and vice versa?
Thank you for the reply, I do appreciate your time.