If your marriage lasted at least a decade before it ended, the Social Security Administration may hand you a check based on your ex-spouse’s earnings record, worth up to half of their full retirement benefit. You don’t need their permission. You don’t even need to talk to them. But that check, layered on top of a 2.8% 2026 cost-of-living adjustment, still won’t cover a full retirement on its own. That’s where three low-cost funds do the heavy lifting: the Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF (NYSEARCA:VTI), the Invesco S&P 500 High Dividend Low Volatility ETF (NYSEARCA:SPHD), and the Schwab U.S. Dividend Equity ETF (NYSEARCA:SCHD).
The Gap Social Security Leaves Behind
Ex-spousal benefits are one of the least-claimed pots of money in the retirement system. Half of your ex’s primary insurance amount sounds generous until you run the math against rent, groceries, Medicare premiums, and a decade or two of inflation. You need three things the government check can’t provide on its own: long-term growth to outpace inflation, monthly income to smooth cash flow, and a quality tilt that keeps paying you when markets get rough. Each of these ETFs handles one of those jobs.
VTI: The Growth Engine
Vanguard’s total-market fund is the simplest way to own essentially every publicly traded U.S. company in one ticker. It’s the growth engine because it captures whatever the broad economy delivers, no stock-picking required. Over the past ten years, VTI returned 240.61%, and it’s up 21.91% over the last year alone. At $381.63, one share buys you a slice of the entire U.S. market.
Additionally, it pays a quarterly dividend, most recently $1.0437 per share on June 30, 2026, with a trailing 12-month total of $3.8999. The point here is growth, not yield. You own this fund so that ten years from now your portfolio has grown enough to make the Social Security check feel like a bonus rather than a lifeline.
SPHD: A Monthly Paycheck to Layer on Top
Social Security provides one deposit per month. Your bills come more often than that. SPHD screens the S&P 500 for the highest-yielding, lowest-volatility names and pays distributions monthly (twelve times a year). The July 2026 payment was $0.21473 per share, and the annualized forward estimate sits at $2.57676 on a $52.24 share price.
The monthly cadence matters for a single-income household because you can time distributions to hit right when the mortgage or the Medicare Part B premium clears. SPHD is up 14.36% over the past year and 100.94% over ten years. The low-volatility screen means it typically drops less when the market sells off, which matters more when you’re drawing income than when you’re still accumulating.
SCHD: Quality Dividend Growth
SCHD is the middle ground between VTI’s growth and SPHD’s high yield. It tracks the Dow Jones U.S. Dividend 100 Index, which demands a decade-long dividend history, strong balance sheets, and consistent cash flow. The top holdings read like a list of companies that pay you no matter what the economy is doing: QUALCOMM at 6.74%, Texas Instruments at 5.90%, UnitedHealth at 5.09%, Coca-Cola at 3.96%, and Chevron at 3.83%.
The fund holds $94.95 billion in net assets, so liquidity is not an issue. SCHD returned 31.8% over the past year and 235.23% over ten years, with quarterly distributions currently running around $0.25 per share. Because most holdings raise their dividends yearly, your income stream tends to rise with inflation on its own.
The Trade-Off
These three funds are equity funds and therefore exposed to equity risk. When stocks fall 20%, they fall too. SPHD’s low-volatility screen softens the blow but does not eliminate it, and SCHD’s dividend focus tilts you heavily toward energy, healthcare, and consumer staples, which can lag when technology sharply moves higher. VTI carries the full weight of the market, up and down.
However, for a divorced retiree collecting an ex-spousal benefit, the combination works because each fund serves a different purpose. VTI provides overall growth exposure. SPHD pays the monthly bills. SCHD raises your paycheck a little every year. The Social Security check covers the floor. These three cover everything above it.
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