Vanguard Intermediate-Term Corporate Bond ETF

VCIT

Market cap $65.3B

The three-bucket approach spreads $1,100,000 across dividend equities, bonds, and REITs.

AI-driven electricity demand is forcing a decade of infrastructure spending into five years. The municipal bond market is becoming a primary financing channel for that buildout, creating income opportunity.

A $60,000 annual salary is roughly what a U.S. household needs to cover essentials in most metro areas, and it is the income many early retirees aim to replicate without touching principal.

The portfolio is built around one anchor (a covered-call equity income fund), two real estate sleeves, one corporate bond sleeve, and one business development company.

April showers came in the form of more inflows raining down on the exchange-traded fund (ETF) market last month. Assets under management (AUM) have now grown to a staggering $14.7 trillion for the year.

Not understanding the difference between similarly named funds can be costly

Anchored in dividend growth funds like the Schwab U.S.

VCIT charges the same ultra-low expense ratio as VGIT but offers a higher yield. Over the last year, VCIT delivered a stronger total return but with greater risk, with a deeper five-year drawdown.

Investors who have used the “buy the dip” strategy are learning the hard way that it may not work this time. Now is the time for retirees to find safe and dependable income

In May, 2025, rampantly unrestricted congressional spending caused Moody's to downgrade US debt from Aaa to Aa1. This was a seismic shift that showed that the debt levels being generated were so unsustainable that an independent US credit rating agency cut their rating on US sovereign debt.