Your ETF Strategy Is Probably Wrong | Here's What Works

Added: 2026-05-21

[00:00:00]Over the last decade, the difference between a good ETF portfolio and a great one came down to just one decision. How much growth were you willing to hold early on? Cuz the investors who leaned into growth didn't just make more. They gave themselves way more options later.

[00:00:17]I went back and looked at long-term data across multiple strategies, high income, dividend focused, and growth heavy portfolios. And the biggest surprise, the portfolio that ended up producing the most income later weren't the ones chasing yield. They were the ones that prioritized growth first. So, in this video, I'm breaking down three ETFs, one aggressive growth, one core growth, and one growth and income that together can build a portfolio that actually scales over time. So, stay tuned.

[00:01:05]Welcome back to Simply Money. So, today we're going to be looking at what if we had long-term. For those on the channel that love the income focus, stay tuned cuz there's still something in this for you. But, we're going to be looking at what if I have 30 years and what if I want to maximize my growth and then maybe later switch over to income focused ETFs. With that in mind, we're going to look at a three-fund portfolio in various levels of conservative, moderate, and aggressive within that to see how we can build our portfolio and what it would look like over a 30-year period. We're going to look at three ETFs at various allocations. Number one, the aggressive growth engine, QQQ. This is heavy exposure to innovation, AI, tech, semis. Historically, it outperforms broad market over long periods and it compounds capital faster than income-focused strategies. This is the part most income investors skip, and it's a reason they struggle to scale their portfolios. And I know a lot of you've been watching my videos, and you have to remember, I show you my income portion of my portfolio. I have a growth portion as well, and that's the engine that drives that and has enabled me to focus and begin to transition some of that into the income portion. So, keep that in mind because long-term, if you're younger especially, we're looking at what if we have 30 years to invest or maybe 20 years. ETF number two is VTI.

[00:02:34]This is core growth, stability, and scale. This works because it's the full US market exposure, large, mid, and small cap. It has lower volatility than QQQ with consistent long-term compounding. This is what keeps your portfolio grounded while still growing.

[00:02:53]You don't need to guess winners. You own the market. And ETF number three, and leave me your comments, SCHD. For me, this is the growth and income bridge.

[00:03:05]Even though we're looking for growth long-term, this still has a position in my opinion. It belongs in the growth portfolio because it has strong dividend growth, not just yield. It holds high-quality cash-flowing companies and provides income without sacrificing long-term appreciation. This is your transition piece. It grows and starts building that future income stream.

[00:03:29]Here's what most people get wrong. They start with income when the better strategy is build with growth, stabilize with core exposure, and then layer in income growth. That way, when you do want income later, you're pulling from a much bigger portfolio. Let's dive into the numbers.

[00:03:48]Here we have the Simply Money Portfolio Planner that I created to calculate these types of portfolio scenarios. If you'd like a copy of this, you can get it at the description below at buy me a coffee. All of our spreadsheets are available there. So, we have our three tickers, QQQ, VTI, and SCHD. We're going to look at a conservative, moderate, and aggressive allocation. And you may think these are not right. Maybe it should be more conservative or more aggressive.

[00:04:14]And this is just what I'm starting out with, and we can play with this a little bit to see various scenarios. What I want you to see right here is we have on conservative 40% QQQ, 30% VTI, and 30% SCHD. That should give us an average of about 11.6% appreciation. This is based on past performance, which is not indicative of future performance. So, remember, this is not financial advice. This is for informational and educational purposes only. All we have is the past data to look at the future and see what could it do if it continued to perform in a like manner. I took 10 and 20-year averages to get these numbers. Then for the moderate model, we have 60% in QQQ, 25% in VTI, and 15% in SCHD. And for the aggressive model, we'll put 70% in QQQ, 20% in VTI, and 10% in SCHD. And how we're starting this is we're going to start with $10,000 in the portfolio value. And we're going to accumulate for 30 years. Then what we're going to do is we're going to come over here to the deposit rules.

[00:05:24]We're setting up the first rule of $500 added a month starting month one for 360 months, for 30 years. And we're going to keep those allocations based on the different models that we're looking at.

[00:05:38]So, the first model we're going to do right here is the $500 a month on the conservative model, which is 40%, 30%, 30%, and that will be distributed each month into those funds that way. Come over to the forecast tab right here.

[00:05:55]We want to choose conservative. That's what we're looking at first.

[00:05:59]Then we want to come over to the forecast pro so we can see the full portfolio.

[00:06:06]We're going to come up here to year one.

[00:06:08]You can see we have 4,000 3,000 3,000 our starting value in each of those funds. Our total value of the portfolio is $10,000. It generates $13 of income. And for you that are just starting out, remember we all started out with zero. Unless you inherited money, we all started at the same place. And this is the part that gets people frustrated early. They're like, "Oh my god, I'm making $13 a month.

[00:06:37]Big deal." But watch the accumulation.

[00:06:41]This is the power of compounding. That's why we do these videos to encourage you to stick with it. Be consistent and know it's the power of time as compounding does its magic. So we come over here, you can see the deposit of $500 a month.

[00:06:58]200 goes into fund one, which is QQQ, 150 into VTI, and 150 into SCHD. And that does that every month for 360 months. Now we're going to come down.

[00:07:11]We're going to skip down here to year 30. Look at your portfolio balance. By being consistent and letting time do its magic, you have a portfolio of $2.4 million and it's generating almost $3,000 a month. And if that income is going to be reinvested so it continues to grow. And then you can see that it gets turned off and you begin to take that income. But we're not looking at taking the income. This video is focused on growth and the potential.

[00:07:44]That is the power of the growth and that's the conservative model. Let's go back over here. We're going to change this to moderate and we have to come to the deposit rules. We're going to put this at zero because I have it set up here for ease that the next model is right here conservative. So, it's going to rule number two, which down here says 60% goes to QQQ, 25 to VTI, and 15% to SCHD. But when we come back over here, you can see the deposits has gone to 300 to QQQ, 125 to VTI, and 75 to SCHD. Our total portfolio again starting at $10,000, your income dropped $3 a month because you're focused more on growth and a little less on the income of SCHD.

[00:08:32]Again, this is long-term what we're looking for.

[00:08:36]So, once again, let's see what happens after 30 years. The end of 30 years, now you're looking at $2.7 million.

[00:08:44]Your income is slightly less, but that's what we're looking at. At this point or sometime in this time frame, you could say, "Okay, I have a portfolio now of $2.7 million. Now I want to switch over to some of these income ETFs like SPYI or QQQI, JEPQ." All of those wonderful yields that you can look at getting income, but you want to maximize your growth. Now again, how conservative or aggressive do you want to be? I am a big proponent of don't be so conservative that you're only a saver. Be an investor. Even if you're a conservative investor, be an investor. Even if you go all something like the S&P 500 or SCHD and very little high-tech and volatile markets, still be an investor because you're not going to outpace inflation by simply putting it in the savings account. You have to look at ways to make your money work for you.

[00:09:42]Now, that's the moderate model. We're going to come back over here once again, we're going to go to the aggressive model. We have to go back to deposit rules and have this set up. So, now rule number three is going to be the aggressive model. That means out of that 500 a month, 70% QQQ, 20% VTI, 10% SCHD.

[00:10:05]Come back to the forecast pro. Now, you can see again, lost a little bit of that income. So, you went from $13 a month to $10 a month to $8 a month. Anyway you can look at it, starting out, the income is not the focus. The focus is the growth. So, now each month you're putting 350 into QQQ, 102 VTI, and 50 into SCHD. Come down to the 30-year mark, now you're looking at $2.8 million. dollars. And again, you've lost a little bit of that income, but you have over $100,000 more that you could now sell and put into those high income type of ETFs and start building some income. So, maybe you take 500,000 or 800,000 and put it into a higher income and take another 300,000, put it in more moderate income, and you build your income portfolio cuz you've maximized your growth. Again, you can come over here, you can use different tickers. The drop down right here, you can pick the tickers you want. If you order this and the ticker you want's not on there, just email me and I will add those for you.

[00:11:14]And then you can put the allocation you want and be more conservative, be more aggressive, however you find is most beneficial to you. Now, I'm not saying to do this, but let's just say we go to a super aggressive model where we go 90% QQQ and 5% VTI, 5% SCHD, come back here. Now you're looking at 2.871.

[00:11:42]You could get even more aggressive. You could pick one of these funds in here that is much more aggressive right now. Again, I don't recommend being so aggressive and putting all your eggs in one basket, but you do want to have, especially if you have long-term like 30 years, you're going to have volatility, but that's great because as you're dollar cost averaging, as you have those roller coaster dives, as the market crashes, as you spend 2 years in a bear market and you're dollar cost averaging on sale, you're getting more and more shares. What you want is to continue to be consistent. And so you can be more aggressive when you have more time. As you get closer to retirement or you're in retirement, that's where you need a little bit more of that stability, a little less volatility, but if you play it right, if you stay focused, you stay consistent long-term, you can be seeing this growth and then transition into the income portfolio that you want. And for those that watch the channel consistently, you see my income portfolio and that's what I've been doing. I've been growing my portfolio and over the last few years I've gone from some of my growth and I've transitioned it into more aggressive income. And now as you can check it out on the videos, on the monthly updates, where I show you what my actual income is just from my income portion and it's amazing how it's growing and getting me ready for my retirement to use that. And I'm doing it transition. I'm not just selling it all at once. I'm kind of dollar cost averaging chunks here and there and making sure that I don't get it when the market's too high or too low on various things. So, that is how I'm doing it.

[00:13:29]This is my opinion. This is just an example, and this shows you how you can build a portfolio, test different scenarios, and see what your future can look like, and prepare yourself for a strong income in retirement. That's it for today. Thank you for joining me.

[00:13:45]We'll see you next time on Simply Money.

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