One of the things that someone looking to get into dividends has to decide is where to put their money. With so many different individual stocks and ETFs available that have dividends of various sizes, it raises the question of how to invest your money and make sizable passive income every month.
For one Redditor, this is the exact question they are now asking themselves as they have $120,000 available and want to maximize their returns for passive income every month. According to their post in r/dividends, the hope is to get the maximum return, but this should always come with a word of caution.
Be Careful Trying to Chase Maximum Returns
There is a strong word of caution here for this Redditor, as trying to chase the maximum dividend is a quick and easy way to get into trouble. If finding the maximum return every month were an easy science, everyone would be in a position to get rich quickly, regardless of how much money they are investing.
What we know for sure is that this Redditor has approximately $120,000 available that they want to invest somewhere. Beyond this, we don’t know much, which means that it’s not an exact science to help this Redditor narrow down their goals. It would be ideal if the Redditor had provided some additional context around how long they are planning to hold, and whether they are okay with some short-term volatility in favor of bigger returns. Where else are they invested that might be helpful to weather market volatility?
One such easy answer might be just to drop everything into MSTY and enjoy fantastic monthly returns. Still, the reality is that this is very risky and its dividend is one news cycle away from turning around completely.
The Risky Places to Put the Redditor’s Money
For right now, if the Redditor really wants to chase returns, and again, we don’t know with any level of certainty, but going into MSTY or ULTY might actually be the way for them to go. ULTY, in particular, is currently delivering a maximum yield with weekly dividends of around 10 cents per share.
Based on the current share price, the Redditor would be able to purchase around 19,607 shares, which, at a 10-cent dividend, would equal $1,907 in weekly dividend earnings. This kind of return won’t last forever, but for right now, it’s a fantastic way to grow some passive income and wealth quickly.
Alternatively, going into a more confident dividend option like QQQI, JEPI, or SPYI can also help deliver strong returns, with less risk than ULTY. QQQI is an r/dividend favorite for a lot of reasons, and it would currently give the Redditor around 2,317 shares based on the August 5, 2025, share price. With a dividend of around 63 cents, you’re now talking around $1,459 in earnings per month, or just over $17,500 annually.
The bottom line is that it’s worth considering investing in more high-yield dividend stocks like ULTY or dividend-focused ETFs like QQQI to maximize income.
Diversifying Can be Critical
Given the current volatility of the market based on world trade, it’s also worth considering for this Redditor to look at other, potentially safer options. This is likely going to be an argument in favor of diversifying your portfolio, so instead of dumping all $120,000 into one stock, split it up between multiple ETFs. In other words, instead of putting everything into QQQI, put $40,000 each into QQQI, JEPI, and SPYI.
The more diversified this Redditor is, the more protected they are against overall market volatility that is changing daily at this point. These high-yield dividend ETFs are strong in tech, energy, healthcare, and financial verticals, so you aren’t seeing the ups and downs of just one vertical as you might with individual stocks.
Unsurprisingly, many comments on the Reddit post reflect the belief that Redditors, who are not the average trader, should look at the riskier options like MSTY and ULTY. This can be good for this Redditor, but without an exact understanding of how much volatility this individual is willing to stomach, diversifying is probably the best way to go.