SPYI
NEOS S&P 500 High Income ETF
stock BATS ETF

Thats a very good point & I appreciate you making it. I’ve been somewhat anti-US for a while now but that’s also made me miss out on this “historical bull market.” I recently bought a few shares of $GPIX to start but $SPYI may be more worth it.
Thanks for your feedback!

Why not go with SPYI or QQQI over MLPI? With covered call ETF's the stability of the underlying is very important (see BTCI for example). SPY and even QQQ are much more stable than the MLP space and importantly have track record of consistent capital appreciation to offset NAV erosion. You aren't getting higher distribution with MLPI but taking on more a lot more risk IMO.

The interest income is from high yield savings account. I used to keep half of my holdings in cash. But, I got tired of paying huge taxes on the interest income. Over the last two years I have been moving my cash into stocks. Focusing on stocks that pay good dividends. Somehow MO was my favorite for a while. Not only am i up on it over 50%, i also get an amazing quarterly dividend. I am also in a unique situation where i can retire from my job next year when i will be 47. I wanted to supplement what i will lose from my job through dividends (i will have a decent pension). That is when i started putting some of my new investments into SPYI. However, i am now all in on SCHD and VOO moving forward with new investments. Hopefully this makes sense.

Your portfolio is looking good to me. Can I suggest watching a chap on YT called Armchair Income? You can download a pdf of his portfolio for some good ideas. PFFA, ARCC, ADX, QQQI, SPYI, TDAQ....there's lots of good ones to choose from.

I'm twice your age, I'm 52. I just bought 1,000 shares of each SPYI, QQQI, and MLPI last week.
I'm hoping to do what you are doing and using the income to contribute to other dividend payers and continue diversifying adding some into a Roth.

The 6 months of living expenses in cash is just a starting point. for ememgencies you don't want to rely on a fixed ammount of cash. What happens when eh emergency exceeds your cash avaialable. Also maintaining the 6 month of cash becomes an additional expense on your work income.
Long term you should shift away from cash to passive income from dividends. Once your account exceeds 6 month of cash take the excess and invest it in a dividend ETF. For example SPYI 12% yield and it is tax efficient meaning you pay little in taxes. 60K in SPYI would generate about $600 a month in cash dividneds a month. IF you turn off automatic dividned reinvestment you could use that cash to keep your 6 month of evmergency cash full without using your work income. And whenever you have more than 6 months of cash invest that for more dividneds. Eventually you can have what i have now. Dividend income of 5K a month which equals my living expenses. So once you have monthly dividend income that equals your living expenses you could loose your jobe and be unemployed a year and still be able to pay your bills and and put food on the table. And if you don't need this extra income you can put some in your Roth account to help save for retirment.
Building an emergency cash dividned fund in a taxable account should be done at the same time you are building a retirement account.

SPYI is getting me there really fast!

Yes the dividned is not guaranteed. But neither is the gotrwht is the S&P500 index it is based on. If you reinvested all dividned SPYI will double in value and dividned payment in 6 years. The S&P500 index fund double in value about every 6 years.
SCHD has a yeidl of 3% plus growth but the growth will not increase the yeild. 3 years ago SCHD had about 3.8%% yeild but despite all its goth its yield is 3% This is typical of growth funds. 1 million in SCHD will generate a yield of about 30K a year and they yield will double in 24 years. Share price may double in less time but hat doesn't change the yield.

A good qualifite covered call fund would be my choice. QQQI 14% yield, SPYI 12%, IWMI 14%, and MLPI 14%.These funds have a yeidl high enough that they should be vclose to doubling in value 7 years with all dividends reinvested. And in addition to this they are very tax efficient due to tax loss harvesting and and the resulting ROC dividneds they produce.
Now the dividneds may go up and down with he market but they won't go to zero But VOO in a bad market can have negative earnings or ever zero for an extended period of time. And governmentbondds don'tprodcue any meaningful yields.

Is the intent here to sell after circa 7 years, or to get a dividend or dividend like payout continuing after 7 years of DCA contributions, if the idea is to hold and get payout until you pass it along at inheritance with step up, I would look of OVL combined with SPYI, and maybe MBOX, just be aware since these return money as ROC which the IRS does not count as income so does not count towards AGI much until the basis runs out in 10+ years there are tax implications both positive and negative, with the basis and capital gains resetting when you die and pass it on.
Of course VOO, VT, VTI, VXUS, etc is probably the safer bet

Dividned investing is much better strategy. I currently get enough dividneds to cover my 5K a month living expenses and with excess I can reinvest to compensate for inflation, I am not selling any shares for this income.
The problem with the 4% rule is your are selling stock for income. Which means you willl eventually run out of stock to sell ieven in good market conditions. In bad market conditions like 2000 to 2010 the average S&P500 return for eac of these 4 years was less than, 4?% Factoring Sequence of return risk from selling shares at a loss for 10 years, inflation, and the yearly increase in sales to adjust for inflation 4% rule is just bleading your money away. Now many address this issue by adding bonds , typically government bonds to the portfolio. When these are very safe they only returned about 3% during that period. So they didn't stop the bleeding. They just slowed it down a little bit.
With dividned investments you can easily get a dividend of 6%. Double the long term inflation rate And safe yields of 8 to 10% are also available. I have income from QQQI 13%, SPYI 11%, KGLD 11%, EMO 8%, UTF 7%, UTG 6.8%, PFF 6%, CLOZ 8%, PBDC 9%. And only 50% ion my portfolio is invested in these funds. The rest is in growth index funds. I live off the dividneds and reinvest any excess invome to compensate for inflation. The growth will also be used to compensate for inflation buy selling 4% once every 4 years. this is 1/4 the 4% rule and all that income will be reinvested for more dividneds.
There are dividend investsthat have been paying dividned for a very long time ADX 8% yield is 97 years old. FAGIX 5% for 45 years. But wait isn't the maximum safe yield 4%, No. yields depend on the company and how they make money. Oil companes classivfied as MLP routinely generate 6 to 7% yields, BDC 9% and unlike most companes mLP and BDCs are required by law to pay a dividned. investment funds that invest in loan obligations or corperate bond preferred stock routinely pay 6 to 7%. or more.

I have relative 90 years hold still in good health She retired with a pension. However last year they cut the healthcare benefit and the income has not been keeping up with inflation. A reverse home mortgage has helped and her kids are also helping out.
Morral of the story is you don't want to rely on the Pension. You likely don't have enough money for SCHD to help you oer your kids much. Its yield is actually lower than the interest , from money market funds and current inflation rate Yes SCHD has growth but at this point in your life you want supplemental income EMO 8% yield, CLOZ 8% , UTF 7%, UTG 6.8. And PFFA 8.5% are all good steady sources of income and they all earn more than the rate of inflation right now. And you can add covered call funds like IWMI 14% yield, QQQI 14%, SPYI,12% for your kids. Add money to these funds and if needed you can use the income to support yourself or let it compound for your kids. And you can leave some money in growth index funds for emergencies

XYLD sells 100% of the upside since it sells at the money calls on 100% of the portfolio. It's just about the worst option strategy you could possibly implement if you want to still capture some of the upside in a covered call fund. It's a horse and buggy days option strategy. Put SPYI or any other out of the money strike price S&P 500 index covered call fund in you total retuen comparison and SCHD doesn't shine so bright, at least during the last 4-5 years (fund inception for SPYI).
SCHD is a great fund, but let's not compare it to worst of breed.

I have all 3 in my taxable account which serve as the core income funds. SPYI and QQQI NAVs are up \~10% while MLPI NAV is slightly down. I am building up my MLPI position to counter the heavily tech dominated SPYI and QQQI. I also hold a sizable BTCI position which is down but kicking out great income. I am not retired, just stacking the positions. Good luck