How Large Does Your Portfolio Need to Be to Generate $10,300 a Month?

Let’s just get the big takeaway right out of the way and say that you need about $1.97 million to pull $10,300 a month from the seven-holding portfolio below. That’s $123,600 a year, which is enough to fund a comfortable retirement without touching principal. To achieve this, the mix has a blended yield of 6.3%, based on each holding’s trailing 12-month payouts at late October 2026 prices.

Fidelity High Dividend ETF

Understandably, Fidelity High Dividend ETF (NYSEARCA:FDVV) gets the biggest piece, 20%, or about $393,000. It scores large companies on dividend yield, payout ratio, and dividend growth. It yields 2.7%, or about $10,800 a year. Of course, there is one important thing to know: it pays quarterly, and the checks swing. June’s was $0.519, and September’s was $0.362.

Invesco S&P 500 High Dividend Low Volatility ETF

Invesco S&P 500 High Dividend Low Volatility ETF (NYSEARCA:SPHD) holds 50 S&P 500 stocks that pair high dividends with low price swings. It’s a 15% weight, about $295,000. At 4.9%, it adds about $14,300. It pays monthly, but the amount varies slightly each month.

NEOS Nasdaq 100 High Income ETF

NEOS Nasdaq 100 High Income ETF (NASDAQ:QQQI) owns Nasdaq-100 stocks and sells call options on the index. Selling a call means taking cash today in exchange for giving up some future upside. Buyers pay more for options when markets get jumpy, so this fund’s income rises and falls with volatility. At 15% (about $295,000) and a 14.2% yield, it supplies about $41,800, the portfolio’s largest income stream. The 2026 monthly payouts have run from $0.6089 to $0.6589.

Watch the tax label, as the fund’s Form 8937 for the fiscal year ended May 31, 2025 classified 94% to 99% of each distribution as a return of capital. That means the payment is treated as a return of your investment, so it lowers your cost basis now and gets taxed when you sell.

Agree Realty

Agree Realty (NYSE:ADC) owns 2,825 properties leased to tenants like Walmart and Tractor Supply, and it’s 99.8% occupied. It’s 15% of the mix, yields 4.7%, and adds about $14,000. It pays monthly and just raised the check to $0.271. Its forward dividend eats about 71% of the midpoint of 2026 AFFO guidance. AFFO, a common real estate earnings metric, adds back depreciation. That’s a big non-cash charge, and it makes earnings-based payout ratios look scary for property owners.

Capital Southwest

Capital Southwest (NASDAQ:CSWC) is a specialty lender. It lends to midsize private businesses and passes most of its income to shareholders. About 99% of its loans sit first in line for repayment. At 10% (about $197,000) and an 11.2% yield, it adds about $22,100.

Net investment income hit $0.59 a share last fiscal quarter against a $0.58 regular dividend, so coverage is about 102%. That’s thin. The extra $0.06 dividend sits on top of that and isn’t guaranteed.

Janus Henderson AAA CLO ETF

Janus Henderson AAA CLO ETF (NYSEARCA:JAAA) buys collateralized loan obligations, pools of corporate loans sliced into tranches based on who gets paid first. This fund holds the top-rated slices, the ones paid first. It’s 15% of the portfolio, yields 4.8%, and adds about $14,300. Its income adjusts with short-term interest rates, so it’ll fall when rates fall. The monthly check has already slipped from $0.226664 a year ago to $0.201787.

Southern Company

Southern Company (NYSE:SO | SO Price Prediction) is a regulated utility serving about 9 million customers across the Southeast. At 10%, it yields 3.2% and adds about $6,400. Its quarterly dividend has risen from $0.56 in 2016 to $0.76, and it has a payment record dating back to 1999. It pays out about 72% of earnings, and of the seven portfolio holdings reviewed here, it’s the steadiest and slowest-growing.

Which Dollars You Can Count On

Most of these payouts move around. JAAA and Capital Southwest react directly to interest rates, while QQQI depends on option premium. The dividends from Southern, Agree, FDVV, and SPHD tend to rise over time, and together they cover about 37% of the income.

Building that payment calendar, deciding which holdings deliver which months, and setting a withdrawal order is a project in itself. We walked through the whole method in a free guide here: The Paycheck Portfolio Method.

What It Takes

So the answer is about $1.97 million, and a bit over a third of the income is the regular kind. Once a year, take each holding’s trailing payouts and run the math again. That’s how you’ll know whether the portfolio still covers $10,300 a month, especially after a cycle of rate cuts.

Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.