ARCC
Ares Capital Corporation
stock NASDAQ

This is for a taxable account. I have ARCC for my BDC exposure currently.

I retired a couple of years ago, we had most in traditional IRA/401k accounts. I have basically gone to a 60/40 portfolio but my 40% bucket is not fixed income but income with more dividends including SCHD and VIG plus higher yield like JEPI, SPYI, JEPQ, O, and ARCC. Only about 10% in actual bonds and MMA. In addition I have been filling the 24% bracket with Roth conversions. Like you we are well prepared for a downturn and no need to sell during a correction.

High yield doesn't mean lower total return. ARCC 9% yield over the last 20 years has done slightly better than S&P500 index funds like VOO. ARCC has ver little share price appreciation, VOO is mostly share price apreciation. VOO is also much more volatile than ARCC.
For example the long term total return average for QQQ is s10% since the funds inception QQQ has tiny yield of 0.6%. QQQI invests in the same index and has a yield of 13% with some of the growth of the QQQ index. In good years QQQ does better than QQQI. In bad years the opposite is true.
So if you focus on dividend funds with a yield close to 10% ther is no reason to focus only on growth index funds.

ARCC started paying a dividned around 2004 and through most of the last 20 year the dividend has been 9%. It has done better than the S&P500 index funds during that period. Its growth is about 2% per year or less so it high dividend accounts for most of its total return.

I see. Are you investing into local private companies or larger Lending markets like Cadre and Yieldstreet? I do currently have BDC’s like MAIN and ARCC. Debated on all the others as they’re usually illiquid.

ARCC is crushing both though.

Quick math lesson.
Find the last dividend from the stock or ETF you are thinking about. Let's assume monthly first. For example QQQI's last dividend was .6282 per share.
Divided the amount you want per month by that dividend amount. So 500/.6282=795.925
Multiply that by the price per share. So for QQQI as of now $52.81\*795.925=$42,032.799

For a quarterly dividend, like ARCC, which has the last dividend as .48 a share, divide that by 3, since there are 3 months in a quarter of a year. .48/3=0.16
Now treat this as if it was a monthly dividend as per the above, so 500/.16=3,125
3125\*$23.24=$72,625

Creating a portfolio with QQQI / ARCC / CSWC / VICI. Curious on thoughts of that mix. Goal is to maximize yields while still offering some diversification/stability. Not wanting to chase yield traps. My thinking was the allocation of those 4 funds would be 30/30/30/10 Any suggestions are helpful!

I have about 6% in MAIN, even though I generally limit individual stocks to 5% of portfolio.
Nice dividends with usually an extra bonus dividend every month, plus almost 25% gain in 3 months by my chart. Historical performance not indicative, not investment advice, etc.
I also have a big chunk in ARCC and PBDC, even given PBDC's. obvious overlap.

All produce income. Individual stocks include BDC'S (MAIN, ARCC), a BDC PDF (PNDC), Individual preferred stocks, individual IG corporate bonds, other CC'S, and dividend ETF'S.

Hey yall, I’ve got about $2k parked between CLM and CRF right now and I’m not sure what to do with them. Specifically, my cost basis is 6.53/6.23 for each so I think I bought them when the dip happened. Now these two are only about 5% of my portfolio and as a late 20 year old, I feel like the smart move is to sell them off into something better, but I’m not sure. Majority of my holdings are MAIN, SCHD, and SCHG. I’d almost rather drop this into ARCC or VOO (I have some of both) or into KO.
Thoughts?

I have SGOV (short-term treasury bills) as my cash position. Then I have some covered call ETFs. Then, things like ARES, PBDC, VOO, QQQ, ARCC, TSLA, MAIN. Little bit of diversification. I also have some crypto, BTC and etc.

Not more than 5% in any one holding, invest across various sectors and types of investments (REITS, CEF, MLP, Equity, Bonds, covered call etfs, etc). Some examples; JEPI, BND, BST, RLTY, CEFS, CLOZ, QQQI, FSCO, BALI, ADX, IDVO, IBIT, BTCI, BSM, MPLX, ARCC, PBDC, PFFA, etc. I like to hold RSP,SCHD, and VOO also. I don’t drip, I look at my portfolio a couple times a month and buy whatever is the best value at the moment. If nothing looks interesting I’ll park money in TLT or BND until I need it. Understand what you own, keep educating yourself constantly. Good luck on your journey

I stay away from that Yieldmax stuff.
I'm referring to MO, AGEPX, ARCC. Ya know, things that pay actual dividends lol.

lol Can't lie - dividend day I am so happy!!! Always a nice bump from my ARCC!

ARCC

I agree that there is no guarantee that those equities will continue performing as they currently are. ARCC is pretty solid, though. It has been around since 2004, before the '08 housing market crisis, and is still growing and paying hefty dividends. It has a strong, established history. Even though things like PBDC and JEPQ that I mentioned are very young and don't have much history to evaluate.
OP doesn't seem to be trying to do it with his entire portfolio? He posted his portfolio in another comment on this thread, and it's very diversified. He has a lot of his portfolio in cash equivalents and bonds, which pay 4.5%+ reliably, just 1% shy of the dividend yield in his screenshot.
If OP really wants 8%+ reliably, he could invest into apartment complexes in growing cities and cashflow more than 8%, and then have growth as well from the properties appreciating and rents growing. That's a little more hands-on than just buying equities through brokerages, though.
I do agree that 8% overall yield on a large portfolio probably isn't the greatest move unless it's 8% yield on cost that has been achieved from investing consistently over a longer time frame. OP can hit his $120k annual dividend goal by 2028 just by DRIPing and continuing contributions, and his current yield is 5.5%.

I have 4 BDCs. ARCC and SAR are my current favorites.

MAIN, ARCC and HTGC just cuz they’re considered the quality ones by everybody

ARCC, OBDC, BXSL, CSWC, TSLX, HTGC, FDUS