ECCF
Eagle Point Credit Company Inc. 8.00% Series F Term Preferred Stock due 2029
stock NYSE

It doesn’t matter how old you are or how much you have to execute – you need to have a plan. If you only have $100, build a plan, then start to invest into the plan.
Rather than asking, do I invest in A or B – design a plan, then invest in it. So, how do you go about it? Here is what I’m doing.
Sir Isaac Newton said, “Stand on the shoulders of giants". They might not be giants, but they offer an excellent starting point.
Here are two YT channels that put out investing and portfolio information. There are a ton of others, but here are two that appeal to me.
• Armchair Income – provides his portfolio for free, returning 11% - 35 securities --- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euiJbHyrz4Y Here is his portfolio securities in FinViz screener --- https://finviz.com/screener.ashx?v=111&p=w&t=UTG,PBDC,BITO,HQH,TSLX,CSWC,TRIN,FDUS,MAIN,QQQI,JEPQ,SCHD,ARCC,GOF,GAIN,DUN,MLPX,ET,HESM,EPD,WES,PAA,USAC,DNP,PDT,MCI,PTY,PFAA,HDT,MPV&o=-dividendyield Now his portfolio list has an associated YT video on each security, which provides a starting point for your own due diligence. The list also has a percentage that he is putting into each security.
• Income Architect – provides his portfolio in his videos, and it appears to currently yield around 14% --- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTUNjiDNVSA Again, here is his income portfolio in the FinViz screener --- https://finviz.com/screener.ashx?v=181&t=SPYI,QQQI,IWMI,SPYT,GIAX,GEPI,AIPI,TSPY,GPTY,GPIX,GPIQ,PBDC,BIZD,ARCC,TRIN,BXSL,FSK,MAIN,OBDC,EIIA,PFFA,OXCLI,ECCF,ECCD,SPMA,TRINL,BTCI,LFGY,IYRI,HYBI,BNDI,CSHI,FIAX,EIC,FSCO,OXLC,JBBB,SPMC,CLOZ,JAAA Now this list is further broken down into 5 categories – covered calls, BDC, Alternatives, CLOs and Preferred stocks.
I highlighted and cut each portfolio from FinViz and pasted them into their own spreadsheet tabs (I don’t subscribe to FinViz currently) – use Google Spreadsheets if you don’t have MS Excel. On a third tab, I combined each portfolio together, sorted, and then only kept the securities that were in each portfolio. This was my starting point: to do due diligence on each name so I could decide if I liked it or not. Yes, it takes some time and effort on your part on this.
• Now, Income Architect does not like the JEPI and JEPQ in that JPMorgan, a while ago, listed the bank they were using as their custodian, and the bank was not doing so well, and now they have just deleted that item of information. I need fewer problems, so I decided not to use JPMorgan ETFs.
* Also, CC ETFs using synthetic positions tend to experience NAV depreciation; thus, I only want to use CC ETFs that hold the actual underlying stock positions.
* I also categorized the funds into regular and tax-efficient (IRS Section 1256 60/40 tax treatment), which should reduce my tax bill by about 30%. Based on this, I would like to have the tax-efficient funds outside IRAs, and the non-tax-efficient ETFs within IRAs. Right now, all I have found are NEOS offerings that are 1256 tax-efficient. I have not found a really good list from anyone on this topic --- https://finviz.com/screener.ashx?v=111&t=BNDI,CSHI,HYBI,IWMI,QQQI,SPYI,TLTI
* You also don’t want to have 3 different funds that essentially hold the same stocks. You can use this tool to do some evaluation --- https://www.etf.com/tools/etf-comparison
* Now, on the flip side, you may want to hold similar funds, eg, SP500 SP500-based funds, if they use different option overlay approaches. You are going to have to investigate this yourself, but the Armchair Income provides individual video links to help you determine this, while also reading the ETF disclosure documents.
* You should also probably compare the total return of each proposed ETF to each other. Here is a tool to use --- https://testfol.io/
* Personally, I like oil and gas, across royalties, production, and midstream. Here is a YT video on midstream ETFs and an approach ---- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lohcSCa922c Here is the FinViz screener on these --- https://finviz.com/screener.ashx?v=111&t=AMLP,MLPD,MLPR,MLPX,BSM,DMLP,KRP
* Keep notes on each of the ETFs/securities as to your findings, for future reference. Positives and negatives, strengths and/or weaknesses, Likes and dislikes. Word document, spreadsheet, etc. – whatever suits your needs. Also, keep bookmarks in your browser for easy reference.
* How many ETFs/securities do you need? Well, it depends on how much you have to invest. I’m going to go out on a limb and no more than $10K in any one and probably no more than 5% in any one. There are lots of portfolio theory on this – but you need to understand what you are doing and also not have so many that it becomes confusing.
* You also should not be using all of the dividend income. You need to take some amount of the income and reinvest it back into the portfolio, in order to keep things growing.
These are just my thoughts and how I am parsing the problem. The bottom line is that you need a plan to follow. Even starting out with $100 and $20/month - that's executing the plan.

It doesn’t matter how old you are or how much you have to execute – you need to have a plan. If you only have $100, build a plan, then start to invest into the plan.
Rather than asking, do I invest in A or B – design a plan, then invest in it. So, how do you go about it? Here is what I’m doing.
Sir Isaac Newton said, “Stand on the shoulders of giants". They might not be giants, but they offer an excellent starting point.
Here are two YT channels that put out investing and portfolio information. There are a ton of others, but here are two that appeal to me.
• Armchair Income – provides his portfolio for free, returning 11% - 35 securities --- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euiJbHyrz4Y Here is his portfolio securities in FinViz screener --- https://finviz.com/screener.ashx?v=111&p=w&t=UTG,PBDC,BITO,HQH,TSLX,CSWC,TRIN,FDUS,MAIN,QQQI,JEPQ,SCHD,ARCC,GOF,GAIN,DUN,MLPX,ET,HESM,EPD,WES,PAA,USAC,DNP,PDT,MCI,PTY,PFAA,HDT,MPV&o=-dividendyield Now his portfolio list has an associated YT video on each security, which provides a starting point for your own due diligence. The list also has a percentage that he is putting into each security.
• Income Architect – provides his portfolio in his videos, and it appears to currently yield around 14% --- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTUNjiDNVSA Again, here is his income portfolio in the FinViz screener --- https://finviz.com/screener.ashx?v=181&t=SPYI,QQQI,IWMI,SPYT,GIAX,GEPI,AIPI,TSPY,GPTY,GPIX,GPIQ,PBDC,BIZD,ARCC,TRIN,BXSL,FSK,MAIN,OBDC,EIIA,PFFA,OXCLI,ECCF,ECCD,SPMA,TRINL,BTCI,LFGY,IYRI,HYBI,BNDI,CSHI,FIAX,EIC,FSCO,OXLC,JBBB,SPMC,CLOZ,JAAA Now this list is further broken down into 5 categories – covered calls, BDC, Alternatives, CLOs and Preferred stocks.
I highlighted and cut each portfolio from FinViz and pasted them into their own spreadsheet tabs (I don’t subscribe to FinViz currently) – use Google Spreadsheets if you don’t have MS Excel. On a third tab, I combined each portfolio together, sorted, and then only kept the securities that were in each portfolio. This was my starting point: to do due diligence on each name so I could decide if I liked it or not. Yes, it takes some time and effort on your part on this.
• Now, Income Architect does not like the JEPI and JEPQ in that JPMorgan, a while ago, listed the bank they were using as their custodian, and the bank was not doing so well, and now they have just deleted that item of information. I need fewer problems, so I decided not to use JPMorgan ETFs.
* Also, CC ETFs using synthetic positions tend to experience NAV depreciation; thus, I only want to use CC ETFs that hold the actual underlying stock positions.
* I also categorized the funds into regular and tax-efficient (IRS Section 1256 60/40 tax treatment), which should reduce my tax bill by about 30%. Based on this, I would like to have the tax-efficient funds outside IRAs, and the non-tax-efficient ETFs within IRAs. Right now, all I have found are NEOS offerings that are 1256 tax-efficient. I have not found a really good list from anyone on this topic --- https://finviz.com/screener.ashx?v=111&t=BNDI,CSHI,HYBI,IWMI,QQQI,SPYI,TLTI
* You also don’t want to have 3 different funds that essentially hold the same stocks. You can use this tool to do some evaluation --- https://www.etf.com/tools/etf-comparison
* Now, on the flip side, you may want to hold similar funds, eg, SP500 SP500-based funds, if they use different option overlay approaches. You are going to have to investigate this yourself, but the Armchair Income provides individual video links to help you determine this, while also reading the ETF disclosure documents.
* You should also probably compare the total return of each proposed ETF to each other. Here is a tool to use --- https://testfol.io/
* Personally, I like oil and gas, across royalties, production, and midstream. Here is a YT video on midstream ETFs and an approach ---- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lohcSCa922c Here is the FinViz screener on these --- https://finviz.com/screener.ashx?v=111&t=AMLP,MLPD,MLPR,MLPX,BSM,DMLP,KRP
* Keep notes on each of the ETFs/securities as to your findings, for future reference. Positives and negatives, strengths and/or weaknesses, Likes and dislikes. Word document, spreadsheet, etc. – whatever suits your needs. Also, keep bookmarks in your browser for easy reference.
* How many ETFs/securities do you need? Well, it depends on how much you have to invest. I’m going to go out on a limb and no more than $10K in any one and probably no more than 5% in any one. There are lots of portfolio theory on this – but you need to understand what you are doing and also not have so many that it becomes confusing.
* You also should not be using all of the dividend income. You need to take some amount of the income and reinvest it back into the portfolio, in order to keep things growing.
These are just my thoughts and how I am parsing the problem. The bottom line is that you need a plan to follow. Even starting out with $100 and $20/month - that's executing the plan.