Dividend investing

The research was done by AI agents that open web pages. Some sites refuse them; where that happened we say so. The small numbers point to the source list at the end. Where a figure is our own sum or guess, it is marked “our estimate” or “our sum” and the basis is given. A second round of agents re-opened the main sources on 13 October 2026 and added new ones; those are sources 82 onward.

The claim

Our collection for this scheme holds one tweet¹. That is too few to say how the method is promoted on X in general, so this page rests on that one example and on how the method is described on the wider web: blogs, fund pages, sellers’ pages and regulators. The page judges the scheme, not the person who tweeted.

“I made over 5k in passive income for September 2026”

@DarthDividend23, 1 October 2026, 792 views when collected¹²

The tweet gives one figure, for one month. It does not give the amount invested, what the money is invested in, how many years it took, or whether the figure is before or after tax¹. The mirror service we read it through shows no image or video attached²; we did not look for replies or a thread.

The tweet says “passive income” and does not say dividends. The same account’s video of 4 October 2026 is titled “September 2026 Dividends were HUGE! My Dividend Portfolio Flaws Revealed.”³, so we read the figure as dividends and fund payouts. The tweet has no currency sign; we read it as US dollars. The account’s profile says “Ready to learn how to dividend invest? Click the link in bio” and links to a YouTube channel². What that channel links to is under “Who makes money from it”.

The figure is not implausible. The sections below show what it requires.

What the scheme is

A dividend is a share of a company’s profit paid out to the people who own its shares. The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) defines it as “A portion of a company’s profit paid to shareholders” and adds that companies “usually do so on a fixed schedule although they can issue them at any time”⁵⁰. A company chooses whether to pay. No rule obliges it to continue⁵⁰.

Dividend investing means buying shares, or funds that hold many shares, for these payouts. “Yield” is the yearly payout divided by the price: a share that costs $100 and pays $3 a year yields 3%. People who do this either spend the payouts or use them to buy more shares, which is called reinvesting.

The method is pitched as “passive income” because nothing has to be sold and no work is done after buying. The mechanism is real. What the pitch tends to leave out is the size of the sum that has to be invested first.

There are three versions, and they behave differently:

• Dividend growth. Shares of companies that pay and raise dividends, or a low-cost fund of them, held for many years. Yields are roughly 2% to 3.3% today⁶⁸.
• Plain high dividend. A fund of the highest-yielding large companies, with no options involved. One such fund yields about 4.5% to 4.7% today and has grown more slowly than the others⁷⁹.
• High payout. Funds that sell options on the shares they hold and pass the proceeds to investors. An option is a contract that gives someone else the right to buy a share at a fixed price; selling one brings in cash now and gives away gains above that price. These are called covered-call or option-income funds. They advertise payout rates from about 8% to over 75%⁹¹⁰. Step 4 shows what holders received.

The arithmetic

Step 1: one multiplication

Income = money invested x yield. Nothing else moves the number much. A mainstream US broker charges $0 to trade shares and funds online¹⁶. A second one states “$0 commissions for online US stock, ETF, and option trades” and “No minimums to open an account”⁸⁴. Fund fees are small beside the capital (Step 7). So a statement about dividend income is a statement about how much money the person has invested.

$5,000 a month is $60,000 a year (our sum).

Step 2: the capital needed at today’s yields

Each yield was read on the provider’s own page or a data site on 10 October 2026. Funds quote yield in two ways. The “30-day yield” is the income the fund’s holdings earned over the last 30 days, after fees, scaled up to a year. The “12-month yield” is what was actually paid over the past year, divided by the price. The table uses the first where the provider gives it and shows the second beside it. The capital columns are our sums: yearly income ÷ the yield in the second column.

Notes on the rows:

• On the 12-month measure the plain funds need more. For $5,000 a month: $2.0 million in SCHD, $2.99 million in NOBL and $1.33 million in SPYD (our sums)⁶⁸⁷⁹.
• The market itself pays little. The S&P 500’s yield of 1.04% is the lowest in the series kept by the data site Multpl; its lowest month-end before this was 1.06% in August 2026⁵. Multpl’s median over its whole history is 4.18%⁵. “Median” means the middle value: half are higher and half lower. A fund company puts the median since 1960 at 2.83%⁴⁷. Multpl estimates the current figure from dividends reported through June 2026⁵.
• SCHD charges 0.06% a year⁶. The data site Stock Analysis shows its yield as 3.19%⁷. When the fund’s page was re-read on 13 October it showed a 30-day yield of 3.34% as of 9 October, which gives $1.80 million for $5,000 a month (our sum)⁶.
• The companies with the longest records of raising dividends yield about 2%, so the steadiest payers need more capital, not less⁸.
• The higher plain yield has a price. SPYD holds 78 companies, charges 0.07% a year and returned 7.79% a year over the ten years to 30 September 2026⁷⁹. SCHD returned 12.44% a year and an S&P 500 fund 15.30% over the same ten years⁶⁴⁶.
• Government debt currently pays more than a dividend-growth fund¹⁵. Its interest does not grow the way dividends can, and it is taxed differently. We include it only to show that the tweet’s figure is about capital, not about skill at picking shares.
• JEPI’s payout is part dividends and part option proceeds. The fund charges 0.35% a year and returned 6.62% over one year, 10.05% a year over three and 7.78% a year over five⁹. Over the same one year the S&P 500 returned 15.74% with dividends¹⁰. So in the past year the payout was larger than the fund’s whole return (our reading of those figures).

A firm that sells dividend research gives the same order of size as a rule of thumb: 22 to 28 times the yearly income wanted, which is $1.32 million to $1.68 million for $60,000 a year²⁸.

The size of the sum is not special to dividends. Any plan to live on investments needs capital of this order, whether the cash comes from dividends, interest or selling shares. What the dividend pitch can suggest is that the income is free of that requirement. This paragraph is our judgement.

Step 3: what one month’s figure can hide

The month. Many US companies and funds pay four times a year. SCHD’s last four payouts were dated December, March, June and September⁶. A portfolio made only of holdings that pay in those months would receive nothing in the other eight. In that worst case, $5,000 in September would be $20,000 a year, or $1,667 a month (our estimate). We do not know whether this applies to the tweet. Its author’s channel has video titles and descriptions about funds that pay weekly or monthly, which would not show this effect³.

Tax. In the United States, “qualified” dividends, which are most ordinary dividends from shares held long enough, are taxed at 0%, 15% or 20%¹⁷¹⁸. For tax years beginning in 2026, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) sets the 0% rate up to $49,450 of taxable income for a single person and $98,900 for a married couple, the 15% rate up to $545,500 or $613,700, and 20% above that⁸². The standard deduction, the amount of income not taxed at all, is $16,100 for a single person and $32,200 for a couple⁸². A further 3.8% applies above $200,000 of income for a single person or $250,000 for a couple¹⁹. The 2025 thresholds, still shown on the IRS topic page, are a little lower: the 0% rate ends at $48,350 and $96,700¹⁷.

Two examples on the 2026 figures. A single person living only on $60,000 of qualified dividends would have $43,900 of taxable income, inside the 0% band, and would owe no federal income tax on them (our sum)⁸². A married couple in the same position would have $27,800 of taxable income and would also owe none (our sum)⁸². Someone whose salary already takes them above the 0% band pays 15% or more on each payout; at 15%, $5,000 becomes $4,250 (our sum, before any state tax). We do not know the tax position of the account quoted above.

In an ordinary taxable account, dividends are taxed in the year they are paid even when they are reinvested: “you must still report the dividends as income”²⁰. Inside a US retirement account they are not taxed when paid. For a traditional IRA, a common US retirement account, the IRS says “Any deductible contributions and earnings you withdraw or that are distributed from your traditional IRA are taxable”, and for a Roth IRA, which is paid into from income that has already been taxed, the tax on a withdrawal is “None if it’s a qualified distribution”⁷⁸. The same page says a person under age 59½ “may have to pay an additional 10% tax for early withdrawals”⁷⁸. So these accounts help build the capital and are a poor source of spendable monthly income before that age. They also have yearly contribution limits, which we did not set out.

Readers outside the US who hold US shares have up to 30% withheld at source unless a tax treaty sets a lower rate²¹. On $5,000 that is up to $1,500 (our sum). In the UK, £500 of dividends a year is tax-free outside an ISA (a tax-free savings wrapper); above that the rates from 6 April 2026 are 10.75%, 35.75% and 39.35% by income band, and dividends inside an ISA are not taxed²². The most that can be paid into ISAs in the 2026 to 2027 tax year is £20,000¹¹⁴, a small fraction of the capital in Step 2.

A dividend is not extra money on top of the share. The SEC notes that “With a significant dividend, the price of a stock may fall by that amount on the ex-dividend date”, the date after which a buyer no longer gets the payout⁵¹. A study of real investors’ trading records found that many “trade as if dividends and capital gains are separate disconnected attributes, not fully appreciating that dividends come at the expense of price decreases”⁴⁸. The study was later published in the Journal of Finance in 2019; its summary there says “Investors rarely reinvest dividends, and trade as if dividends are a separate, stable income stream.”⁹² We read the summary and the first pages, not the whole paper.

Step 4: the high-payout route

There is a way to show $5,000 a month from far less than $1.3 million: funds that advertise very high payout rates. The issuer of the funds below calls its figure the “Distribution Rate”: the latest payout multiplied up to a full year and divided by the fund’s value per share¹⁰. An ETF is a fund whose shares trade on a stock exchange. NAV is the value of what a fund holds, per share. Returns below are on NAV, with payouts included.

The rate changes with every weekly payout and with the fund’s value, so these figures date quickly. For comparison, the S&P 500 returned 15.74% over the same year, dividends included¹⁰. Since TSLY launched it has returned 8.57% a year against 19.95% for the S&P 500¹¹. MSTY is ahead of the index over its whole life: +88.13% in total against 58.76%¹⁰.

Three things explain the gap between the payout rate and the return:

• The rate is not a return. The issuer says: “The Distribution Rate represents a single distribution from the ETF and does not represent its total return.”¹⁰
• Part of a payout can be the investor’s own money. This is called return of capital. The issuer’s table gives an estimate for each payout. Of MSTY’s 28 weekly payouts from April to 7 October 2026, it labels 16 as 78% to 99% return of capital, 6 as 0% and 6 in between (our count)¹⁰. The IRS says “Distributions that qualify as a return of capital aren’t dividends”¹⁸. The issuer notes that its labels are estimates and may later be reclassified¹⁰.
• Payouts can lower the share price. The issuer warns that payouts “may decrease a fund’s NAV and trading price over time. As a result, an investor may suffer significant losses to their investment.”¹¹ In December 2025 the issuer merged the shares of 15 of these funds at ratios of 1 for 5 or 1 for 10, a step known as a reverse split¹². A reverse split does not itself change what a holding is worth; the announcement says it leaves “the total value of their investment unchanged”. It also says that “regular and substantial income distributions of high-yielding income ETFs can gradually lower share prices over time”¹².

A large US broker describes the mechanism: “If a fund pays out more in distributions than it earns in options premiums, it will begin effectively returning investors’ own principal as income.”¹³ The same broker compared a plain dividend index with a covered-call dividend index and concluded: “when an investment promises more income, it generally delivers lower capital appreciation”¹⁴. That broker runs SCHD, which follows the plain index¹⁴.

An analyst writing on his own Substack in August 2025, with charts drawn from the fund-rating firm Morningstar’s data, added up all of this issuer’s single-share option funds. He found that “Only around $0.20 of every dollar they’ve distributed to shareholders has come from earnings”: of $4.8 billion paid out from November 2022 to April 2025, $3.8 billion was return of capital⁸³. He also compared each fund with simply holding the same share plus cash. From November 2022 to August 2025 the share-plus-cash mix returned 36.2% a year against 23.5% for the funds, and 15 of 22 funds did worse than the mix⁸³. This is one analyst’s work, not a Morningstar publication, and its data is more than a year old. We have no reply from YieldMax to this analysis and did not search for one; the issuer’s own statements on return of capital are quoted above.

So a monthly income figure on its own does not show whether the holder is ahead or behind. That cuts both ways. Another YieldMax fund, CHPY, says its latest payout “contains 100.00% estimated return of capital and 0.00% income”, and the same page shows a total return of 91.40% over the year to 30 September 2026, far above the index¹¹.

We use CHPY as an example because the description of a video of 12 September 2026 on the tweet author’s channel lists it, with three other option-income funds, among the funds in one section of his portfolio³. That is the only statement about holdings we read.

The description of the 4 October video, about September’s income, says: “I reveal to you my high-yield dividends and some flaws in my dividend investing strategy that need worked on.”⁸⁵ It adds: “For this month, I am not reinvesting dividends and will be putting this money into my Traditional IRA and Health Savings Account ( HSA ).”⁸⁵ A Health Savings Account is a US tax-favoured account for medical costs. Under the text is a list headed “Keywords:”, which is repeated under other videos on the channel. It includes the names of three issuers of option-income funds (YieldMax, REX and TappAlpha) and the phrases “Net Asset Value Erosion”, “Yield Chasing” and “Tax-Efficient Return of Capital”, alongside “Dividend Growth Investing” and about a hundred fund tickers⁸⁵. A keyword list does not show what is held. The description also carries the account’s own caution: “Darth Dividend’s results are not typical”, and says the strategies shared are “solely for entertainment purposes”⁸⁵. It does not give the size of the portfolio⁸⁵. We read titles and descriptions only and did not watch the videos. We do not know what share of the September figure comes from funds of this kind, or how much of it is return of capital. The channel says it shows “my income, and my buys”, and the 4 October video is titled as covering the portfolio’s flaws³; a viewer can check there.

Step 5: who has that much invested

• What US families hold. The Federal Reserve’s 2025 survey, published in October 2026, found that 56% of families hold shares, directly or through funds and retirement accounts, and the median such family holds $77,400²³. At a 3.32% yield that pays about $214 a month (our sum). Counting only shares held directly, 19.0% of families own some, with a median of $30,000 and an average of $524,300²³. The average is about 17 times the median, which shows that a small group holds most of it. The median retirement account, among the 54.9% of families with one, is $106,000²³.
• The top tenth. The 2022 survey put the median share holding of the top tenth of families by income at $608,000, in 2022 dollars²⁴. At 3.32% that pays about $1,680 a month (our sum). The same survey put the median at $12,600 for the bottom half of families by income and $53,200 for the upper-middle group; the average for the top tenth was $2,138,200²⁴. The 2025 report gives changes by income group in its text, not medians: 97% of top-tenth families held shares, and among holders the average rose by about $367,000, “a 16 percent increase”²³. Those two figures imply an average near $2.7 million in 2025 (our estimate). So the average top-tenth family’s shares would pay more than $5,000 a month at 3.32% (about $5,900 on the 2022 average, our sum), while the middle family of that group held about a third of what is needed. A few very large holders pull the average up, so it does not say how many families are above the line.
• What US tax returns show. For tax year 2023, 33.7 million of 160.6 million returns reported any ordinary dividends, which is 21%²⁵. They reported $504.2 billion, an average of $14,954 each, or about $1,246 a month²⁵. Returns with income of $500,000 or more were 1.6% of all returns and reported 52% of all dividend dollars²⁵. Returns with income under $200,000 were 74% of the returns that reported dividends; they received 27% of the dollars, an average of $5,453 a year²⁵. Returns under $100,000 were 45% of them and received 12% of the dollars, an average of about $3,940 a year²⁵. Among returns that reported dividends, the average by income band was:

The shares and averages are our sums from the IRS table. Limits: the table leaves out dividends inside retirement accounts, and it gives averages, which a few large holders pull up²⁵. No source we found counts how many people receive $1,000 or $5,000 a month in dividends.

On these figures, $60,000 a year in dividends is about four times the average for returns that report any (our sum). It is the average only where income is above $1 million²⁵.

Step 6: how long it takes to build the capital

This step is our estimate, not a sourced figure. Assume money is added every month, payouts are reinvested and the whole grows 8% a year. Reaching $1.81 million then takes about 32 to 33 years at $1,000 a month, or about 25 years at $2,000 a month. The 8% is our assumption; SCHD’s own record is 12.44% a year over ten years before tax and 11.49% after, and past returns may not repeat⁶.

The sums are in future dollars and ignore inflation. If prices rise 2.5% a year, $5,000 in 25 years buys what about $2,700 buys now (our estimate).

$2,000 a month is about 29% of the median family’s income before tax, which the Federal Reserve puts at $82,200 for 2024²³.

Two reference points show what ordinary savers put away. Both sums assume 7% growth a year and ignore tax and inflation.

• The national saving rate. The US personal saving rate was 4.1% in August 2026⁷⁶. It is a share of after-tax income and an average over all households, including those that save nothing or are spending their savings. It is not the rate of a typical investor. On the median household’s after-tax income of $76,060 it comes to about $3,120 a year, or $260 a month (our sum)⁷⁶. That reaches the $361,000 needed for $1,000 a month in about 32 to 33 years, and the $1.81 million needed for $5,000 a month in about 53 to 55 years (our estimate).
• The average saver in a workplace retirement plan. The magazine Money, reporting figures from the fund firm Fidelity, says: “The average employee contribution rate reached a record 9.6% in the second quarter, while employer contributions averaged another 4.8%, bringing the average savings rate to 14.4%.”⁹⁸ On pay equal to the $82,200 median income, 14.4% is about $11,800 a year, or about $990 a month (our sum)²³⁹⁸. That reaches $361,000 in about 16 to 17 years and $1.81 million in about 35 to 36 years (our estimate). A third of that money is the employer’s, and it sits in a retirement account, which Step 3 shows is a poor source of spendable income before age 59½.

Step 7: the costs

The method is cheap to run. Trading is $0 at a mainstream US broker¹⁶. Yearly fund fees run from 0.06% (SCHD) and 0.07% (SPYD) to 0.35% (JEPI, NOBL) and 1.03% to 1.40% (the YieldMax funds)^689101179. Tools and newsletters are optional and are priced under “Who makes money from it”. The cost that matters is the capital.

What people who tried it report

We found no dataset of what happens to people who follow a dividend-teaching account, and no survey of how many dividend investors reach a given income. What exists is a set of long-running public logs. Every figure in this section is the person’s own statement. None showed brokerage statements.

The longest log we found. The Canadian blog Tawcan has reported its dividend income for every year since 2011; the blog began in August 2014 and marks the earlier years “Pre-blog era”²⁹. Figures are in Canadian dollars, with US dividends counted one for one²⁹.

The 2025 figure, in the log’s 15th year, is about C$5,400 a month. At the exchange rate of 9 October 2026, 1.4271 Canadian dollars to one US dollar, that is roughly US$3,800 a month, about a quarter under the tweet’s figure (our sums)²⁹⁸⁰. Because the blog counts its US dividends one for one, the true US-dollar figure is a little higher. Passing C$50,000 a year, about US$35,000, came in the 13th year²⁹⁸⁰. Months vary a great deal: July 2026 brought C$9,091.60 and August C$4,400.40³⁰.

The authors say what drove it: “For now, the key driver for our dividend growth comes from the injection of new cash”³¹. They write that “The early years were slow”²⁹. They hold 35 companies and 2 index funds, do not disclose the portfolio’s value, and expect to need “about a $1.5 million portfolio” for $60,000 a year, which is a 4% yield³¹. One of their holdings cut its dividend by 55% in 2026³⁰.

In September 2026 the blog asked whether this is enough to stop working. It reports C$39,758.50 for the first half of 2026 and projects about C$79,517 for the year, which is about US$4,640 a month (our sum)⁸⁶⁸⁰. Against that it sets its first-half spending doubled, C$81,291, or about C$90,000 once it adds “a 10% buffer”⁸⁶. The gap is about C$1,800 without the buffer (our sum) and C$10,483 with it⁸⁶. Its answer: “So no, we don’t have quite enough to retire early and live off purely from dividends just yet, but we’re getting REALLY close!”⁸⁶ The post also says “Last year our dividend income covered 120.9% of our core expenses”, and that “there’s a good chance we can achieve the dream of completely living off dividends before 2030”⁸⁶. The author still works full time⁸⁶.

Other logs.

• The US blog Dividend Diplomats has two authors. One reports that he and his wife received $1,780.70 in January 2026, up 5% on a year earlier³⁴. The other received $1,742.78 in April 2026³⁴. The second post’s headline growth of 80% partly reflects a payment that moved from March to April; growth for the year to date was 39.7%, mostly from new purchases (our reading of the post)³⁴. Portfolio values are not given in these posts. The first author’s December 2025 report shows how much months differ: “we (my wife and I) received a dividend income total of $8,010.54”, in a month when many quarterly payers pay⁸⁷.
• The Canadian blog My Own Advisor says its author has invested this way since 2008. For 2026 “dividend and distribution income”, it says, “we might get close to $90,000 per year”³⁵. That is about US$63,000 (our sum)⁸⁰. It is the only log here that may be at the tweet’s level, after about 18 years. The portfolio’s size is not disclosed³⁵.
• A dividend writer on Substack reports investing at least $500 a month since 2019 and receiving an average of $3,000 a month from 44 holdings, some yielding over 10%³⁶. The post does not reconcile those two figures. It tells new starters that they will not match this and that first payouts can be under a dollar³⁶.
• A Canadian household writing on Substack reported C$7,795.83 a month from two investment accounts in early 2025, without stating the capital or naming the funds³⁷.
• Posts on Reddit retold by the news site Benzinga describe about $5,100 a month on $632,000 and $5,500 a month on about $1.1 million⁴³. Those imply yields of about 9.7% and 6% (our sums). Both sites refused our tools, so we saw these only in search summaries.
• A newsletter that discloses its capital, Dividend Data, reports that its account went from $201,000 to $291,000 during 2025, of which “just under $50,000” was new money, and that dividends “grew by 57%, crossing $7,000 for the year”⁹⁶. That is about $583 a month on about $291,000, a yield near 2.4% (our sums). The author sells a data product⁹⁶.
• A paid newsletter, MaxDividends, tracks its founder’s portfolio in public. At month 26 of a 120-month plan it showed “Dividend Income (Today): $1,166 / month” against a goal of $12,000 a month⁸⁸. The capital behind it was not visible to us.
• Two “$10,000 a month” stories carried by news sites rest on screenshots posted to Reddit, which the articles repeat and we could not open. In one, a poster with about ten years of regular investing and a portfolio of “about $1 million” showed about $12,400 a month⁸⁹. That is a payout of about 15% a year (our sum), and the article lists covered-call funds among the largest holdings⁸⁹. In the other, the screenshots “showed his monthly dividend income stood at $10,097 per month”; the article lists a $581,000 holding in one low-yield technology share, $200,000 in a money market fund (a cash-like fund), and two YieldMax funds with stated payout rates of about 38% and 64%⁹⁰. It gives no total and no timeline⁹⁰. In both, the large monthly figure comes with option-income funds, and in the second the wealth appears to have come from a share that pays almost nothing (our reading).

One person who stopped. Robb Engen, a financial planner and blogger, ran a portfolio of 24 Canadian dividend shares and property trusts from 2009 and sold it at the start of 2015 for two index funds that together hold the shares of 8,381 companies³⁸⁹¹. He writes that his dividend shares had “actually outperformed the market”, and that he changed because dividends are not extra return and a small set of shares is less diversified³⁸. Three years after the switch he reported a return of 41.43% from January 2015 to January 2018, against 15.01% for a Canadian dividend fund he used as a stand-in for his old portfolio and 25.35% for the Canadian market; he wrote that he “would be a lot poorer had I stayed the course”⁹¹. The comparison uses a fund in place of his actual old holdings and covers three years in one country.

How the method did against a plain index fund. The data site Total Real Returns compared funds from 10 October 2013 to 9 October 2026, after inflation and with payouts reinvested⁴⁵. $10,000 became $39,847 in an S&P 500 fund, $31,064 in SCHD and $24,584 in NOBL⁴⁵. Over the ten years to 30 September 2026, before inflation, an S&P 500 fund returned 15.30% a year, SCHD 12.44%, NOBL 9.45% and SPYD 7.79%⁴⁶⁶⁸⁷⁹. All made money. The dividend funds made less. This period favoured large growth companies; an earlier period, shown below, went the other way. Over the single year to 30 September 2026, SCHD was ahead: about 23.3% against 15.74% for the S&P 500⁶¹⁰.

A longer view from the same data site starts at SCHD’s launch on 20 October 2011 and runs to 12 October 2026. After inflation and with payouts reinvested, SCHD returned 10.27% a year, two other large dividend funds 10.01% and 9.60%, and an S&P 500 fund 12.18%¹¹³. In total that is +333% for SCHD and +460% for the index fund¹¹³. A long-running dividend blog says of the index of companies with 25 years of rising dividends, which has 69 members for 2026: “Over the past three years, it has trailed S&P 500 significantly.”⁹³

Other periods look different. The same data site lets the comparison start earlier, using two older Vanguard funds: one that tracks the S&P 500, and an equity-income fund whose managers pick dividend-paying shares. The second is a stand-in, not a dividend index. From 3 January 2000 to 31 December 2012, after inflation and with payouts reinvested, $10,000 became $9,056 in the index fund and $15,350 in the equity-income fund¹¹⁶. Over the two funds’ whole shared history, from November 1988 to 12 October 2026, the index fund led by 8.48% a year to 7.56%¹¹⁷.

Dividend funds also fell less in the two worst recent years. In 2022, after inflation, the S&P 500 fund lost 23.15%, SCHD 9.13% and another large dividend fund 6.49%; in 2008 the S&P 500 fund lost 36.85% and two dividend funds 26.76% and 31.98%¹¹³. The fund company’s long-run study described under “The upside” points the same way: companies that raised or started dividends had a beta of 0.89 and a standard deviation of 15.97%, against 1.00 and 17.55% for an S&P 500 in which every company counts equally⁴⁷. Beta measures how far a share moves when the market moves; standard deviation measures how widely returns vary.

So the record is: behind over the last 10 to 15 years, ahead in 2000 to 2012, behind by about one percentage point a year over 38 years on one pair of funds, and smaller falls in bad years.

Dividends get cut. FINRA, the US brokerage industry regulator, tells investors that a company “may pay dividends, but it doesn’t have to. If it does, the amount of the dividend isn’t guaranteed, and the company can cut the amount of the dividend or eliminate it altogether.”⁹⁹ Across a broad basket, cuts have been the exception: the S&P 500’s dividend fell in three calendar years out of 37 from 1989 to 2025 (2000, 2001 and 2009, the worst at -21.07%), and 2025 was its 16th yearly rise in a row (our count from a data site’s table)⁹⁴²⁶. S&P Dow Jones Indices, which runs the S&P 500, counted 2,293 dividend increases and 176 decreases among US shares in 2025²⁶. In 2020, it says, “43 S&P 500 issues suspended their dividends”; “issues” here means companies’ shares²⁶. In the 2008 crisis the dividends of the whole S&P 500 fell about 23% after inflation between the end of 2008 and the end of 2009 (our sum from Multpl’s table), and had not recovered by the end of 2011²⁷. A dividend research firm counts 16 of the 60 longest-record dividend raisers of 2007 as having cut or suspended in that crisis; we did not check its count²⁸.

What the rules allow now

Owning dividend shares is lawful and needs no licence. We found no rule that restricts it. The risks are financial, and the legal duties fall mostly on people who teach or promote it for pay.

No safety net for the main risk. If a US broker fails, the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC), the industry’s protection scheme, restores up to $500,000 of missing shares and cash; it “does not protect against the decline in value of your securities”⁵³. The limit applies to each “separate capacity”, such as an individual account, a joint account or a retirement account, at each firm, so a large portfolio can be spread⁸¹. The point here is that no scheme covers falling prices or cut dividends.

Borrowing to buy more. Brokers lend against a portfolio; this is called margin. The SEC warns: “You can lose more money than you have invested” and that a broker “may sell some or all of your securities without consulting you”⁵². This is the one route by which a dividend investor can lose more than they put in.

The lower US tax rate has a holding rule. The shares must be held “for more than 60 days during the 121-day period that begins 60 days before the ex-dividend date”²⁰. Buying just before a payout and selling just after does not get the lower rate.

Rules for those who teach it. In the US, a person who “for compensation, engages in the business of advising others” on securities is an investment adviser and must register, but “the publisher of any bona fide newspaper, news magazine or business or financial publication of general and regular circulation” is excluded⁵⁴. So general newsletters and courses are the permitted form, and paid personal advice without registration is not. The US Supreme Court drew the same line in 1985, finding that newsletters fell outside the adviser law because “they do not offer individualized advice attuned to any specific portfolio or to any client’s particular needs”¹⁰⁰. How any one account falls is a legal question we did not assess.

Australia is stricter. Its regulator gives this as an example of a post that is “likely to be financial product advice”, which needs a licence: “I’m going to share with you five long-term stocks that will do well and which you should buy and hold.”¹⁰¹ It adds that the law “imposes significant penalties, including up to five years’ imprisonment for an individual”¹⁰¹.

Paid promotion must be disclosed. US law makes it unlawful to publicise a security for pay from its issuer or a dealer “without fully disclosing the receipt” and the amount⁵⁵. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) says responsibility for disclosing a paid connection “rests with the influencer and the brand – not the platform”⁵⁶.

Enforcement on record. These items concern only the companies named in them, and none is about dividend investing as a method.

• FINRA fined the broker M1 Finance $850,000 in March 2024 over its paid influencer programme⁵⁷. FINRA says “more than 39,400 new accounts were opened and funded with the help of approximately 1,700 influencers”, who were paid a flat fee per account, and that some posts were not fair or balanced⁵⁷. The settlement document says M1 “paid approximately 1,700 influencers over $2.75 million” between January 2020 and April 2023⁵⁸. That is about $70 per funded account and about $1,600 per influencer on average (our sums). M1 settled without admitting or denying the findings⁵⁷. The findings name no individual influencer.
• FINRA’s settlement with Robinhood, accepted in March 2025, is the nearest to this scheme. It says Robinhood Financial paid about 75 influencers at least $2.7 million from November 2019 to March 2023, for at least 25,000 funded accounts¹⁰⁶. As an example of a post it judged promissory (promising a result) and misleading, FINRA quotes an unnamed influencer’s video on high-dividend shares: “[the] dividend income is just going to continue increasing and increasing and increasing to where eventually it will be able to pay all of your costs so you could live financially free.”¹⁰⁶ The settlement, a censure (a formal reprimand) and a joint $26 million fine, covers several unrelated violations as well, and Robinhood consented without admitting or denying the findings¹⁰⁶.
• FINRA’s settlement with the broker Moomoo Financial, accepted in November 2024, says the firm “paid approximately 400 influencers to promote the firm on social media platforms”, by the account or by the post, and that more than 29,000 accounts were opened and funded through their links¹⁰⁷. The sanction was a censure and a $750,000 fine, which also covers other violations; the firm consented without admitting or denying¹⁰⁷.
• In the UK, promoting financial products without authorisation can be a criminal matter. In a week of action in June 2025 with other regulators, the Financial Conduct Authority made 3 arrests and issued 50 warning alerts; it also says of influencers that “Many are acting legitimately and not breaking any laws”⁶⁰.
• In the EU, the markets regulator says a social-media post giving “advice or ideas” on buying a financial instrument or composing a portfolio “may constitute an investment recommendation”, which brings a duty to disclose conflicts of interest⁶¹.

The SEC’s general advice is to “never make investment decisions based solely on information from social media platforms or apps”⁶³. FINRA’s 2024 investor survey found that 60% of investors under 35 use social media as a source of investing information, and FINRA advises: “consider that person’s qualifications and potential conflicts of interest”¹⁰³.

X’s own rules. X’s help pages refused our tools directly and through a reader service, so we read archived copies, which may differ from the text in force today. The copy of X’s Paid Partnerships Policy saved on 10 October 2026 covers posts about products that “generate a commission for you from sales, for instance, through affiliate links or discount codes” and requires such posts to carry a paid-partnership label¹⁰². It does not allow paid partnerships for “Financial products, services, or opportunities” aimed at the EU, the UK or Australia¹⁰². An older copy of X’s authenticity policy, saved in August 2025, bars deceptive tactics for obtaining money; nothing in it restricts posting one’s own investment results¹⁰². So the kind of tweet in our collection is within the rules we could read, and the labelling duty applies to posts that carry paid or affiliate links.

All of these settlements say how brokers paid promoters. None says how the customers’ investments did. Apart from them, we found no regulator or court action against dividend investing as a method, against the account quoted on this page, or against any guide or tool seller mentioned on it, and we do not suggest any connection between them and the items above.

Who makes money from it

The trail from the one tweet. The tweet has no link¹. The profile links to a YouTube channel with 19.6K subscribers and 1,904 videos, whose description says: “I show you my passive income journey, my income, and my buys.”²³ The channel links to a page of links³⁴. On 10 October 2026 that page showed no course of the account’s own. Among its links were the free channel, eleven links to other sellers’ guides on the shop platform Gumroad, written in Gumroad’s affiliate address format (gumroad.com/a/…), a link to the broker M1 Finance titled “Get Free Money Creating a Stock Portfolio!”, a referral link to the startup-investing platform StartEngine, and one merchandise listing⁴. An affiliate or referral link pays the person who shares it when someone buys or signs up. Recent video descriptions repeat three of these: one of the Gumroad links, labelled “Investing Bundle Pack”, which leads to a $97 bundle of guides; a link introduced with “Use my affiliate link to join Stock Analysis”; and the M1 link, introduced with “Create a M1 Finance Portfolio (We both get MONEY Per M1 Finance)”³⁶⁴. The Stock Analysis link is labelled as an affiliate link in plain words. The Gumroad links are not labelled, and the M1 link says both sides get money. We do not know what the account earns from any of these.

When the pages were re-read on 13 October 2026, the channel showed 1,906 videos and 2,414,927 views in total since it joined YouTube in September 2018⁸⁵. The StartEngine link led to a page saying “Referral Code Unavailable!”⁸⁵. Three short links to books in the video descriptions lead to Amazon addresses that carry an affiliate tag; Amazon’s published rate for physical books is 4.50%, about 45 cents on a $10 paperback (our sum)¹⁰⁵. YouTube pays creators “55% of net revenues from ads” shown on their videos and keeps the rest¹¹¹. We found no figure for the advertising income of a channel this size.

The guides. Nine of the eleven guides are about investing or dividends. Their sellers’ pages show prices of $5, $7, $10, $10, $14, $20, $25, $30 and $97⁶⁴. The other two are a $30 guide to crypto and a C$299 guide to reselling on Amazon⁶⁴. Two guides on selling covered calls, from one seller, each describe themselves as “Very conservative risk level (up to 99% success rate)”, which is the seller’s claim and is not checked⁶⁴. Gumroad takes 10% plus $0.50 of each direct sale⁶⁵. The affiliate’s share is set privately by each seller, and is lost if the buyer is refunded⁶⁶. Only one of the eleven pages shows a sales count: a $5 guide with 3,206 sales¹¹⁵. If every sale was at $5, that is about $16,000 before fees over the product’s life (our sum). None of the eleven pages showed a formal refund policy; one seller offers a refund on request¹¹⁵.

The broker. The account’s M1 link leads to M1’s sign-up page at an address that contains “signup/referrals” and a referrer code; the page showed our tools no terms, so we could not read what this particular link pays⁸⁵. M1’s standard customer referral offer, on its own page, pays $75 to both sides when the new customer funds an account “with at least $10,000”, with “Up to 10 referral bonuses per year”, which is $750⁶⁷. If the link is that standard offer, both sides are paid only when the newcomer brings $10,000. M1 says it earns from lending customers’ cash and shares, from margin loans, and from a payment of “$0.002 per share” from the firms that carry out its customers’ orders⁶⁸. It charges $3 a month to clients “with less than $10,000” on the platform, waived for clients with an active M1 personal loan⁶⁸. On a $1,000 account that fee is 3.6% a year, about the size of a dividend yield (our sum). M1 has also run a separate paid influencer programme, which is described under “What the rules allow now”; we do not know which arrangement applies to this link.

Tools and newsletters. Prices on the sellers’ own pages:

A directory listing says Stock Analysis pays affiliates 60% of a referred subscription⁷⁰. The programme’s own sign-up page, read through a reader service on 13 October, confirms it and sets the limit: “Earn 60% of referred-customer revenue during the first 12 months.”¹⁰⁴ That is about $47 on a $79 yearly plan (our sum)⁶⁹¹⁰⁴. On a $10,000 portfolio yielding 3%, a $468 subscription costs more than the $300 of dividends (our sum).

Courses and communities. This market is cheap beside other schemes on this site. The highest-priced dividend course we found on Gumroad is a video course at $97, whose page says “Soon, it goes to $697”; its seller presents a $1.8 million dividend portfolio as the credential, which is the seller’s own statement⁷³. The page’s refund policy reads “No refunds allowed”⁷³. On the community platform Skool, a search for “dividend” returned a different number of results on each of three visits (58, 226 and 49), which seems to depend on where the visitor is⁷⁴. On the first page we saw last, the investing groups ran from free to $200 a month, with one at $799 a year and one at $1,400 a year; several are in Spanish or German⁷⁴. That $1,400 group is the dearest community we saw in this market. On a fourth visit, on 13 October, the search returned 228 groups; of the 30 on the first page, 27 showed no price and the two priced investing groups were $10 and $12 a month¹¹⁰. Skool charges a group’s owner $9 a month plus 10% of payments, or $99 a month plus 2.9%¹¹⁰.

On the course marketplace Udemy, the dividend investing page showed most courses at a sale price of $11.99, against list prices of $19.99 to $109.99¹⁰⁹. Udemy says instructors “receive 97% of the revenue” when the buyer arrives through the instructor’s own link¹⁰⁹. We found no dividend course priced in the high hundreds or thousands of dollars.

The bloggers. The long-running logs also earn from their readers. Tawcan offers coaching at $325 for one hour and $589 for two, with the note “Please note I am not a certified financial coach.”³² The blog Dividend Growth Investor says other sites copy its work, and: “I just post for my premium readers these days on my substack”⁴⁴. Simply Safe Dividends, quoted above, sells research⁷¹. Dividend Diplomats promotes its own share screener and links to a broker sign-up offer (“Sign up For SoFi – Receive FREE Stock!”)⁸⁷. My Own Advisor is free to read and links to a paid projections service³⁵. The author of the “stopped” case offers financial advice for a fee⁹¹. MaxDividends and Dividend Data are themselves products⁸⁸⁹⁶. Most of the named publishers of income records on this page sell or promote something tied to the subject. The anonymous Reddit posters appear to sell nothing, and their figures are the least checkable.

Fund issuers earn a yearly fee on whatever is invested, from 0.06% to 1.40% in the funds on this page⁶¹¹. Assets in option-income funds grew by $33 billion in 2024 and $56 billion in 2025, according to a fund company citing Morningstar data⁷⁷. One example of the scale: the YieldMax fund TSLY shows a gross yearly fee of 1.07% on net assets of $694.79 million, about $7.4 million a year (our sum)¹¹. The fee is charged whatever the holder’s result.

Regulators on paid investment teaching. The FTC cases on investment training that we read concern sellers of trading courses and trade-alert services, not dividend products⁷⁵¹¹². We found no FTC or SEC action against a seller of dividend courses, guides or newsletters; our search was limited.

The upside

The mechanism works, and some people have built large incomes with it. This section sets out the best cases we found, each marked by who checked it.

The best documented outcomes

How to read this:

• These are the people who published. They show what success looks like, not how likely it is.
• Time and new money do most of the work. The no-new-money case is the clearest measure: $46,783 grew to about $630 a month of dividends after 16 years (our sum), an eighth of the tweet’s figure³⁹. He writes: “I have never added a dime of new money since then.”³⁹
• The largest case had high saving behind it. The reader couple report early saving rates “generally in the 50-65% range of total income” and salaries of about $110,000 and $90,000 in today’s money³³. The total they put in is not known.
• The one case that anyone can check is a company’s. Berkshire Hathaway’s 2022 letter says of its Coca-Cola shares: “The total cost was $1.3 billion” and “The cash dividend we received from Coke in 1994 was $75 million. By 2022, the dividend had increased to $704 million.”⁹⁵ By 2022 each year’s dividend was about 54% of the original cost (our sum). The same letter adds a caution: “it takes just a few winners to work wonders. And, yes, it helps to start early and live into your 90s as well.”⁹⁵ It is one winning holding chosen by a professional, not an average.
• The log that discloses its capital shows the scale. About $291,000, with about $50,000 added in a year, pays roughly $600 a month, about a ninth of the tweet’s figure (our sum)⁹⁶.
• The three estate cases took 50 to 75 years, and one rests on a single company’s shares⁴¹⁴²⁹⁷. The New York Times reported that Anne Scheiber, a retired tax auditor, built her $5,000 into holdings “worth about $22 million” by her death at 101⁹⁷. They show compounding, not a plan.
• A weekly log on the investing site Seeking Alpha is titled “Dividend Harvesting Portfolio Week 292: $29,100 Allocated, $3,382.93 In Projected Dividends”⁴⁰. That is about $282 a month (our sum). We read the title only.

What the long-run data says in its favour

• A fund company’s study, using research-firm data from 1973 to 2025, found that companies that raised or started dividends returned 10.22% a year, against 9.20% for all payers, 4.21% for non-payers and 7.74% for an S&P 500 in which every company counts equally⁴⁷. Companies that cut or stopped dividends returned -0.96%⁴⁷. Caveats: the company sells dividend funds, and the study re-sorts shares every month with no trading cost or tax, which no investor can do⁴⁷.
• The same study says: “Going back to 1960, 85% of the cumulative total return of the S&P 500 Index can be attributed to reinvested dividends and the power of compounding”⁴⁷. That shows the value of reinvesting. It does not show that choosing shares for their dividends beats the index.
• Payouts tend to rise. The S&P 500 paid a record $78.92 a share in 2025²⁶. SCHD’s payout per share grew about 9% a year from 2020 to 2025, but only about 5% in 2025 and about 2% over the latest four payouts against the four before (our sums from the fund’s payout table, adjusted for its 2024 share split)⁶.

What the top tenth and top hundredth get

No source gives dividend income by rank among people who invest for dividends. The nearest measures are in Step 5: the 1.6% of US tax returns with income of $500,000 or more collect 52% of dividend dollars, and the average passes the tweet’s $60,000 a year only in the bands above $1 million of income²⁵.

A realistic good result (our estimate)

Assume a plain dividend fund yielding 3.3%, payouts and prices growing 4% to 6% a year, everything reinvested, no tax (as in a retirement account), and no adjustment for inflation.

These are future dollars. If prices rise 2.5% a year, the 20-year column is worth about 61% of the figures shown in today’s money and the 30-year column about 48%: the $1,780 to $2,680 a month after 30 years buys what about $850 to $1,280 buys now (our sums). The table also starts from the fund’s 30-day yield; at its 3.00% 12-month yield every figure is about 9% lower (our sum)⁶.

For a competent person adding $500 a month, a good result after two years is about $35 a month in dividends, and after ten years about $250. Reaching $5,000 a month in about 15 years needs roughly $4,700 to $5,600 added every month (our sum, scaling the $2,000 row). That is $56,000 to $67,000 a year, or 69% to 82% of the $82,200 median family income before tax²³. The 4% to 6% growth is our assumption; S&P Dow Jones Indices expects “a mid-single digit payment gain for 2026”²⁶.

What it takes to compete

There is no competition here in the usual sense. Nobody’s dividends reduce anyone else’s. The line runs between those who have or can build the capital and those who cannot.

What the people who succeed have

1. A large surplus to invest, for a long time. The best log says new cash was the main driver³¹. One of the Dividend Diplomats authors aims to save 60% of his income³⁴. The reader couple saved 50% to 65% of income early on, for 36 years³³. For comparison, the national saving rate of 4.1% is about $260 a month on the median household’s after-tax income, and the average saver in a Fidelity workplace plan puts in 14.4% of pay with the employer’s share, about $990 a month on the median income (Step 6, our sums)⁷⁶⁹⁸.
2. Or a large sum to begin with. About $1.3 to $2 million in the higher-yielding plain dividend funds, or nearer $3 million in a dividend-growth fund, pays the tweet’s figure from the first year (Step 2).
3. Fifteen to eighteen years of adding new money, in the two long public logs. Tawcan reached about US$3,800 a month in its 15th year and projects about US$4,640 for its 16th²⁹⁸⁰⁸⁶. My Own Advisor, which describes its approach as “hybrid investing” in dividend shares and growth funds, says it may be near the tweet’s level after about 18 years³⁵. Neither discloses its capital or how much was added. Other reports differ: one Reddit post retold in the press describes about ten years to roughly $1 million⁸⁹. The capital itself is a common result of long, high saving: the magazine Money reports a record 769,000 workplace retirement accounts of $1 million or more at the fund firm Fidelity in mid-2026, and says “The average 401(k) millionaire was 58 years old and had been saving for 25 years”, at 25.8% of pay including the employer’s share⁹⁸. A 401(k) is a US workplace retirement account. At 3.3%, $1 million pays about $2,750 a month, a little over half the tweet’s figure (our sum). We read this in the magazine, not on Fidelity’s own page.
4. The nerve to hold through falls and cuts. Tawcan’s authors report a large fall on paper in 2020 and kept publishing rising income afterwards²⁹. In that year 43 S&P 500 companies suspended dividends²⁶.
5. Acceptance of possibly trailing a plain index fund. Dividend funds trailed over the last 10 to 15 years; an equity-income fund led in 2000 to 2012^4546113116.
6. For the stock-picking version, skill and time. The documented individuals held 24 to 95 separate shares³¹³⁸⁴¹. The fund version needs neither.

No course, tool or paid community appears in what these cases describe as the cause of their results.

What it costs

Running costs are close to zero (Step 7). Optional tools and newsletters cost $79 to $999 a year⁶⁹⁷¹⁷²; one investing site’s top tier renews at $2,400¹⁰⁸. The real cost is the capital in Step 2.

How to tell early which side you are on

These checks are our judgement, built from the figures above.

• Do the multiplication for your own numbers. Amount invested x yield ÷ 12 is the monthly income. $10,000 at 3.32% is about $28 a month (our sum).
• Look at what you can add each month. The table above shows what $500 and $2,000 a month become. Adding $260 a month, the amount the 4.1% national saving rate gives, comes to about $125 to $140 a month after ten years on the same assumptions (our sum). Adding about $1,000 a month, near the average workplace-plan saver with the employer’s share, comes to twice the $500 row.
• When someone shows a monthly figure, ask for four things: the amount invested, what it is invested in, the total return including price changes, and how much of the payout is return of capital. Rates of 4% to 5% are available from plain high-dividend funds, which have grown more slowly⁷⁹. A payout rate above about 5% usually comes from something else: single high-yield shares, option proceeds or return of capital (compare Steps 2 and 4).
• Compare with doing nothing special. Over the last ten years a plain index fund grew faster than the dividend funds on this page⁴⁶. Its yield is about 1%, so income from it has to come from selling shares. That is a difference in how the money is taken, not in how much capital is needed. Whether rising cash income matters more to you than total growth is a preference, not a fact.
• Check whether the plan needs you to buy something first. The arithmetic here is free to check. No seller we found publishes what share of buyers reach any income level.

What we did not verify

• The tweet’s figure. We saw no portfolio, holdings or statement behind it. X refused our tools directly and through a reader service; the tweet and profile were read through a mirror service. The channel’s videos were not watched; we read titles and descriptions. We do not know whether the $5,000 is ordinary dividends, option-fund payouts or something else, whether it is before tax, or whether it is in US dollars.
• How representative one tweet is. The collection holds one tweet. Larger dividend accounts on X were not surveyed, so what promoters link to rests on a single account. Other links on the account’s link page, such as shopping offers, were not examined.
• How many dividend investors reach any income level. No dataset was found. The IRS table gives averages by income band, covers taxable accounts only, and is for 2023. The Federal Reserve’s raw survey data could answer this; we did not analyse it.
• Every blogger’s income. All are the writers’ own statements. Tawcan, My Own Advisor and the Substack household do not disclose portfolio value or money added, so their yields cannot be worked out. Canadian figures were converted at one day’s exchange rate, which moves; the currency of Tawcan’s coaching prices is not stated.
• Second-hand items. The Benzinga stories and the Reddit posts behind them could not be opened. A third story of $5,000 a month on $320,000 came from a summary of a page that no longer exists and is not used. The Ronald Read and Grace Groner cases are press reports; the Wall Street Journal report and the college’s page were not read, and the CNBC page could not be reopened during review. David Van Knapp’s article was readable only to its summary, and the Seeking Alpha log by title only. The two “$10,000 a month” stories are news articles about Reddit posts; Reddit refused our tools, so we did not see the screenshots, and the publishers do not say they checked them. The Fidelity figures come from a magazine report. A statement on Wikipedia that Anne Scheiber’s executor thought her skill was overstated was not traced to its source and is not used.
• The study figures. The fund company’s long-run figures, and its 2.83% median yield, come from other firms’ data we did not open. A figure of 2 to 4 percentage points a year lower returns for dividend shares when demand for them is high comes from a university magazine’s summary of the investor study, not from the paper, and is not used above⁴⁹. The research firm’s counts of dividend cuts were not checked.
• The performance comparison. The fund-by-fund comparisons with dividend index funds start in 2011 and 2013. The earlier periods use one actively managed equity-income fund as a stand-in, which is not a dividend index. The yearly returns for 2008 and 2022 are after inflation. S&P’s own long-run figures for its dividend indexes were not read.
• The Fed’s 2025 figures for the top tenth. The 2025 average near $2.7 million is our estimate from two figures in the report’s text; the 2025 median for that group was not found.
• Replies from companies. We did not search for a reply from YieldMax to the Substack analysis in Step 4.
• Fund pages. Schwab’s SCHD page refused us directly and opened through a reader service; its payout file refused us, so SCHD’s payout growth uses the payouts shown on the page and our adjustment for the 2024 share split. J.P. Morgan’s JEPI page gave a reader service only an empty shell during review; its figures were confirmed in the provider’s data feed. One Schwab article (source 14) could not be reopened during review. Return-of-capital labels are the issuer’s estimates.
• Tax. The IRS topic page shows 2025 thresholds; the 2026 ones come from the IRS’s revenue procedure. Retirement account contribution limits and withdrawal rules were not set out. Whether option-income fund payouts get the lower rate was not checked. State taxes, treaty rates by country, and rules outside the US, UK and EU were not covered.
• Dividend cuts in 2026. The S&P release for the third quarter of 2026 was not found. The 23% fall in 2008 to 2009 is from a data site’s inflation-adjusted series.
• What the promoter and sellers earn. No figure was found for the account’s income from links, adverts or merchandise. Gumroad commission rates are private. Stock Analysis’s affiliate terms beyond the one headline sentence (payout threshold, what happens after 12 months) were not read; the company’s own page refused us. M1’s separate affiliate programme terms were not opened. The account’s M1 link showed our tools a sign-up page with no terms, so we do not know whether it is the customer referral offer or a paid arrangement. That the Gumroad links pay the account a commission is inferred from their address format; no page says so. Advertising income for a channel of this size was not found.
• Other prices. Patreon prices were not read. Udemy’s page was read at sale prices during a promotion; a few courses showed sale prices above $11.99. Udemy’s article on instructors’ revenue share could not be reopened in review, so the 97% quote rests on the first reading. MaxDividends’ subscription price was behind a paywall. Skool’s results differ by visit and only a first page was read each time, so its price range is what we happened to see. Gumroad prices are the starting prices shown; one guide’s page data shows $7 in one place and $10 in another.
• Regulators. Trade-press reports of two further FINRA settlements over influencer marketing, and a 2022 SEC case about share promotion on Twitter, were dropped from this page: the first were not read in FINRA’s own documents and none concerns dividends. The share of the Robinhood and Moomoo fines that relates to influencers is not broken out in the documents. X’s rules were read only in archived copies, one of them from August 2025. The FTC’s endorsement page was read through a summarising tool, not as raw text. No bulletin from the SEC or FINRA on option-income funds was found. Our search for actions against dividend sellers was limited and is not proof that none exists.
• Vanguard’s dividend fund page did not load, so no Vanguard yield is given.
• The second round of reading. On 13 October some pages (SCHD, Tawcan, Fidelity, the Substack analysis, IRS topic pages) were read through a tool that summarises a page, not as raw text. The YieldMax payout rates did not load on that day, and a reviewer could not confirm them either; the rates in Step 4 are those read on 10 October and change weekly. The year-by-year dividend series comes from a data site and was not checked against S&P’s own file. The analysis of YieldMax funds in Step 4 ends in 2025 and no later update was found. Two figures for dividend cuts in 2020 and a Morningstar figure on investors’ timing were seen only in search summaries and are not used.
• Our estimates. The years-to-build figures, the newcomer table and the September worst case are our own sums in future dollars with assumed growth rates. They ignore tax, inflation and bad runs of years.
• Whether the people named have seen this page. The people and companies named here were not contacted before publication.

Sources

“Read at source” means we opened the page itself on 10 October 2026, or on 13 October 2026 for sources 82 onward. “Through a reader service” means a service fetched the page for us because the site refused our tools directly. “Secondary” means we read an article or summary about the source, not the source itself. “Estimate” means our own sum.

1. Does It Pay collection of 1 tweets on this scheme, collected 2026-10-06. Read at source (our own file).
2. X profile and tweet of @DarthDividend23, read through the mirror service api.fxtwitter.com. https://api.fxtwitter.com/DarthDividend23/status/2105715565054812494 . Tweet dated 2026-10-01. Read on 2026-10-10 through a mirror; x.com refused us.
3. YouTube, channel @DarthDividend: about page, video list and video feed. https://www.youtube.com/@DarthDividend/about and https://www.youtube.com/feeds/videos.xml?channel_id=UC-c3WJwfZD2YBFtttnT5g7w . Video titles and descriptions dated 2026-09-12, 2026-10-04 and 2026-10-06. Read at source on 2026-10-10.
4. Linktree page linked from that channel. https://linktr.ee/darthdividend . Undated. Read at source on 2026-10-10 (directly and through a reader service).
5. Multpl, S&P 500 dividend yield. https://www.multpl.com/s-p-500-dividend-yield . Data to 2026-10-09. Read at source on 2026-10-10 (a data site using S&P figures, not S&P itself).
6. Schwab Asset Management, Schwab U.S. Dividend Equity ETF (SCHD). https://www.schwabassetmanagement.com/products/schd . Yields as of 2026-10-08 and 2026-08-31; returns as of 2026-09-30. Read on 2026-10-10 through a reader service; payout growth is our estimate from its payout table.
7. Stock Analysis, SCHD overview. https://stockanalysis.com/etf/schd/ . 2026-10-09 close. Read at source on 2026-10-10.
8. ProShares, S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats ETF (NOBL). https://www.proshares.com/our-etfs/strategic/nobl . Yields as of 2026-08-31; returns as of 2026-09-30. Read at source on 2026-10-10.
9. J.P. Morgan Asset Management, JPMorgan Equity Premium Income ETF (JEPI). https://am.jpmorgan.com/us/en/asset-management/adv/products/jpmorgan-equity-premium-income-etf-etf-shares-46641q332 . Yield as of 2026-10-09; returns as of 2026-09-30. Read on 2026-10-10 through a reader service; figures confirmed in the provider’s data feed.
10. YieldMax, MSTY fund page. https://www.yieldmaxetfs.com/our-etfs/msty/ . Payout rate as of 2026-10-07; returns as of 2026-09-30. Read at source on 2026-10-10; the count of payouts is our estimate from its table.
11. YieldMax, TSLY, CHPY and ULTY fund pages. https://www.yieldmaxetfs.com/our-etfs/tsly/ , https://www.yieldmaxetfs.com/our-etfs/chpy/ , https://www.yieldmaxetfs.com/our-etfs/ulty/ . Rates as of 2026-10-06 (ULTY, CHPY) and 2026-10-07 (TSLY); returns as of 2026-09-30. Read at source on 2026-10-10.
12. YieldMax, reverse split announcement. https://yieldmaxetfs.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/YieldMax-ETFs-Reverse-Stock-Split-Announcement.pdf . 2025-11-26. Read at source on 2026-10-10.
13. Charles Schwab, guide to options-income ETFs. https://www.schwab.com/learn/story/investors-guide-to-options-income-etfs . Date not captured. Read on 2026-10-10 through a reader service.
14. Charles Schwab, covered-call and dividend ETFs compared. https://workplace.schwab.com/story/income-generating-etfs-covered-call-vs-dividend . Chart data as of 2026-02-15. Read on 2026-10-10 through a reader service.
15. US Treasury, daily Treasury yield curve rates. https://home.treasury.gov/resource-center/data-chart-center/interest-rates/TextView?type=daily_treasury_yield_curve&field_tdr_date_value_month=202610 . 2026-10-09. Read at source on 2026-10-10.
16. Charles Schwab, pricing. https://www.schwab.com/pricing . Undated. Read on 2026-10-10 through a reader service.
17. IRS, Topic no. 409, Capital gains and losses. https://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc409 . Reviewed 2026-09-24; thresholds for tax year 2025. Read on 2026-10-10 through a reader service.
18. IRS, Topic no. 404, Dividends. https://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc404 . Reviewed 2026-10-08. Read at source on 2026-10-10.
19. IRS, Topic no. 559, Net investment income tax. https://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc559 . Reviewed 2026-09-24. Read at source on 2026-10-10.
20. IRS, Publication 550 (2025), Investment Income and Expenses. https://www.irs.gov/publications/p550 . 2025 edition. Read at source on 2026-10-10.
21. IRS, NRA withholding. https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/nra-withholding . Reviewed 2026-03-14. Read at source on 2026-10-10.
22. GOV.UK, Tax on dividends. https://www.gov.uk/tax-on-dividends . Rates for 6 April 2026 to 5 April 2027. Read at source on 2026-10-10.
23. Federal Reserve, Changes in U.S. Family Finances from 2022 to 2025 (Survey of Consumer Finances). https://www.federalreserve.gov/publications/files/scf26.pdf . October 2026. Read at source on 2026-10-10 and 2026-10-13; the 2025 top-tenth average is our estimate from its text.
24. Federal Reserve, Changes in U.S. Family Finances from 2019 to 2022. https://www.federalreserve.gov/publications/files/scf23.pdf . October 2023. Read at source on 2026-10-10.
25. IRS Statistics of Income, Table 1.4, Tax Year 2023. https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-soi/23in14ar.xls . Tax year 2023. Read at source on 2026-10-10; shares and averages are our estimate from the table.
26. S&P Dow Jones Indices, press release on 2025 dividend payments. https://press.spglobal.com/2026-01-07-S-P-Dow-Jones-Indices-Reports-U-S-Common-Indicated-Dividend-Payments-Increase-of-13-1-Billion-in-Q4-2025-and-46-4-Billion-for-2025 . 2026-01-07. Read at source on 2026-10-10.
27. Multpl, S&P 500 dividend by year (inflation-adjusted). https://www.multpl.com/s-p-500-dividend/table/by-year . Latest row 2026-06-30. Secondary (a data site using S&P and Shiller data); the 23% is our estimate from it.
28. Simply Safe Dividends, How to live off dividends. https://www.simplysafedividends.com/world-of-dividends/posts/1-how-to-live-off-dividends-and-how-much-you-need-to-retire . 2026-09-12. Secondary for its own counts of dividend cuts.
29. Tawcan, Dividend income history. https://www.tawcan.com/dividend-income-history/ . Current to August 2026. Read at source on 2026-10-10.
30. Tawcan, monthly dividend updates for July and August 2026. https://tawcan.com/?p=24433 and https://www.tawcan.com/dividend-income-aug-2026-update/ . 2026-08-31 and 2026-09-21. Read on 2026-10-10 (the first through a reader service).
31. Tawcan, Dividend income and portfolio. https://www.tawcan.com/dividend-income/ . Updated May 2026. Read at source on 2026-10-10.
32. Tawcan, Coaching. https://www.tawcan.com/coaching/ . Undated. Read at source on 2026-10-10.
33. Tawcan, Living off dividends (reader case). https://www.tawcan.com/living-off-dividends-tax-free/ . February 2026; figures as of 2021-04-30. Read at source on 2026-10-10.
34. Dividend Diplomats, January 2026 and April 2026 income reports. https://www.dividenddiplomats.com/dividend-income-summary-lannys-january-2026-summary/ and https://www.dividenddiplomats.com/april-2026-dividend-income-report-an-insane-80-dividend-growth-rate/ . 2026-03-22 and 2026-05-18. Read at source on 2026-10-10.
35. My Own Advisor, Dividends. https://www.myownadvisor.ca/dividends/ . Undated; refers to 2026. Read at source on 2026-10-10.
36. Substack post on earning income with dividends. https://thegamingdividend.substack.com/p/how-to-earn-passive-income-with-dividends . 2025-02-05. Read on 2026-10-10 through a reader service.
37. Substack post on living off monthly dividends. https://myfreedomdiaries.substack.com/p/how-we-live-off-monthly-dividend . 2025-02-26. Read at source on 2026-10-10.
38. Boomer & Echo (Robb Engen), on changing his mind about dividend investing. https://boomerandecho.com/thinking-changed-around-dividend-investing/ . 2016-09-04. Read at source on 2026-10-10.
39. Seeking Alpha, David Van Knapp, 2024 review of the Dividend Growth Portfolio. https://seekingalpha.com/article/4750017-2024-review-of-dividend-growth-portfolio-real-money-real-time-decisions-since-2008 . 2025-01-17. Read on 2026-10-10 through a reader service (summary and background only).
40. Seeking Alpha, Dividend Harvesting Portfolio Week 292. https://seekingalpha.com/article/4951867-dividend-harvesting-portfolio-week-292-29100-allocated-3382-93-in-projected-dividends . October 2026. Secondary (title only).
41. CNBC, on Ronald Read’s estate. https://www.cnbc.com/2016/08/29/janitor-secretly-amassed-an-8-million-fortune.html . 2016-08-29. Secondary (quotes a 2015 Wall Street Journal report); read through a reader service.
42. NBC News, on Grace Groner’s bequest. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/wbna35729174 . March 2010. Secondary.
43. Benzinga, articles retelling Reddit posts on $5,000 a month in dividends. https://www.benzinga.com/markets/25/02/43897884/dividend-investor-making-5-000-per-month-with-632-000-reveals-portfolio-it-takes-time-but-its-doable . February 2025 and September 2024. Secondary (search summaries only; the site refused us).
44. Dividend Growth Investor. https://www.dividendgrowthinvestor.com/ . Latest post 2026-09-12. Read at source on 2026-10-10.
45. Total Real Returns, SPY, SCHD, NOBL and VYM compared. https://totalrealreturns.com/s/SPY,SCHD,NOBL,VYM . Data to 2026-10-09. Read at source on 2026-10-10.
46. iShares, Core S&P 500 ETF (IVV). https://www.ishares.com/us/products/239726/ishares-core-sp-500-etf . Returns as of 2026-09-30. Read at source on 2026-10-10.
47. Hartford Funds, The Power of Dividends. https://www.hartfordfunds.com/insights/market-perspectives/equity/the-power-of-dividends.html . 2026-04-30; data as of 2025-12-31. Read on 2026-10-10 through a reader service.
48. Hartzmark and Solomon, The Dividend Disconnect (conference copy). https://conference.nber.org/conf_papers/f91734.pdf . 2017-03-09. Read at source on 2026-10-10 (first pages).
49. Chicago Booth Review, summary of the same study. https://www.chicagobooth.edu/review/dividends-are-not-free-money-though-lots-investors-seem-think-they-are . 2017-03-06. Secondary.
50. SEC, Investor.gov glossary, Dividend. https://www.investor.gov/introduction-investing/investing-basics/glossary/dividend . Undated. Read at source on 2026-10-10.
51. SEC, Investor.gov, Ex-dividend dates. https://www.investor.gov/introduction-investing/investing-basics/glossary/ex-dividend-dates-when-are-you-entitled-stock-and . Examples dated March 2026. Read at source on 2026-10-10.
52. SEC, Investor Bulletin: Understanding Margin Accounts. https://www.investor.gov/introduction-investing/general-resources/news-alerts/alerts-bulletins/investor-bulletins-29 . 2021-06-10. Read at source on 2026-10-10.
53. SIPC, What SIPC protects. https://www.sipc.org/for-investors/what-sipc-protects . Undated. Read at source on 2026-10-10.
54. 15 U.S.C. 80b-2(a)(11), definition of investment adviser. https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/15/80b-2 . As shown 2026-10-10. Read at source on 2026-10-10.
55. 15 U.S.C. 77q(b). https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/15/77q . As shown 2026-10-10. Read at source on 2026-10-10.
56. FTC, Endorsement Guides: What People Are Asking. https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/resources/ftcs-endorsement-guides-what-people-are-asking . Undated. Read on 2026-10-10 through a reader service.
57. FINRA, news release on M1 Finance. https://www.finra.org/media-center/newsreleases/2024/finra-fines-m1-finance-850000-violations-regarding-use-social-media . 2024-03-18. Read on 2026-10-10 through a reader service.
58. FINRA, Letter of Acceptance, Waiver and Consent no. 2021072581101 (M1 Finance). https://www.finra.org/sites/default/files/2024-03/m1_awc_no_20210725811.pdf . 2024-03-18. Read on 2026-10-10 through a reader service.
59. InvestmentNews and WealthManagement, on two further FINRA settlements. https://www.investmentnews.com/independent-broker-dealers/finra-penalizes-another-bd-for-social-media-miscues/260683 and https://www.wealthmanagement.com/regulation-compliance/finra-fines-cobra-trading-for-not-supervising-influencers-ads . 2025-05-28 and 2024-04-04. Secondary. No longer cited: the passage was removed in review on 2026-10-10; the number is kept so later numbers do not change.
60. Financial Conduct Authority, press release on action against finfluencers. https://www.fca.org.uk/news/press-releases/fca-leads-international-crackdown-illegal-finfluencers . 2025-06-06, updated 2026-02-20. Read at source on 2026-10-10.
61. ESMA, warning on social media and investment recommendations. https://www.esma.europa.eu/sites/default/files/2024-02/ESMA74-1103241886-912_Warnings_on_Social_Media_and_Investment_Recommendations.pdf . 2024-02-06. Read at source on 2026-10-10.
62. SEC, press release 2022-221. https://www.sec.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2022-221 . 2022-12-14. Read on 2026-10-10 through a reader service. No longer cited: the passage was removed in review on 2026-10-10; the number is kept so later numbers do not change.
63. SEC, investor alert on social media and investing. https://www.investor.gov/introduction-investing/general-resources/news-alerts/alerts-bulletins/investor-alerts/social-media-and-investment-fraud-investor-alert . 2022-08-29. Read at source on 2026-10-10.
64. Gumroad product pages for the eleven guides linked from source 4, for example https://thebudgetdog.gumroad.com/l/XFjYw , https://businessfamous.gumroad.com/l/turbocharge and https://fmarciano.gumroad.com/l/dividendmillionaire . Undated. Read at source on 2026-10-10.
65. Gumroad, pricing. https://gumroad.com/pricing . Undated. Read on 2026-10-10 through a reader service.
66. Gumroad, affiliate FAQ. https://gumroad.com/help/article/249-affiliate-faq . Undated. Read on 2026-10-10 through a reader service.
67. M1, referral offer. https://m1.com/promo/referral/ . Undated. Read at source on 2026-10-10.
68. M1, How M1 makes money, and home page. https://m1.com/blog/how-m1-makes-money/ . 2026-02-24. Read at source on 2026-10-10.
69. Stock Analysis, Pro pricing. https://stockanalysis.com/pro/ . Undated. Read at source on 2026-10-10.
70. Affpaying, directory listing for the Stock Analysis affiliate programme. https://www.affpaying.com/stockanalysisaffiliates . Undated. Secondary (the company’s own affiliate page refused us).
71. Simply Safe Dividends, Snowball Analytics and Qualtrim pricing. https://www.simplysafedividends.com/pricing , https://snowball-analytics.com/pricing , https://www.qualtrim.com/ . Undated. Read at source on 2026-10-10 (Qualtrim through a reader service).
72. Sure Dividend, newsletter pricing and refunds. https://www.suredividend.com/newsletter-differences/ . Undated. Read at source on 2026-10-10.
73. Gumroad, a dividend investing video course. https://dividendempire2000.gumroad.com/l/DividendInvestingg . Undated; refund policy updated 2025-11-12. Read on 2026-10-10 through a reader service and at source on 2026-10-13.
74. Skool, search results for “dividend”. https://www.skool.com/discovery?q=dividend . Undated. Read at source on 2026-10-10 (first page only, three times; results differed each time).
75. FTC, press release on the Online Trading Academy settlement. https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2020/09/ftc-settlement-requires-online-trading-academy-forgive-consumer-debt-principals-turn-over-millions . 2020-09-15. Read on 2026-10-10 through a reader service.
76. US Census Bureau, Income in the United States: 2025, and FRED, personal saving rate. https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2026/demo/p60-289.html and https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/PSAVERT . 2026-09-15 and 2026-09-30. Read on 2026-10-10 through a reader service; the $260 a month is our estimate.
77. First Trust, An update on covered call returns (citing Morningstar Direct). https://www.ftportfolios.com/blogs/MarketBlog/2026/3/24/an-update-on-covered-call-returns . 2026-03-24. Secondary.
78. IRS, Traditional and Roth IRAs. https://www.irs.gov/retirement-plans/traditional-and-roth-iras . Undated. Read at source on 2026-10-10.
79. State Street, SPDR Portfolio S&P 500 High Dividend ETF (SPYD), and Stock Analysis, SPYD overview. https://www.ssga.com/us/en/intermediary/etfs/spdr-portfolio-sp-500-high-dividend-etf-spyd and https://stockanalysis.com/etf/spyd/ . Yields as of 2026-10-08; returns as of 2026-09-30. Read at source on 2026-10-10.
80. Bank of Canada, daily exchange rate, US dollar to Canadian dollar. https://www.bankofcanada.ca/valet/observations/FXUSDCAD/json?recent=3 . 2026-10-09. Read at source on 2026-10-10; the conversions are our estimate.
81. SIPC, Investors with multiple accounts. https://www.sipc.org/for-investors/investors-with-multiple-accounts . Undated. Read at source on 2026-10-10.
82. IRS, Revenue Procedure 2025-32 (2026 capital gains thresholds and standard deduction). https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/rp-25-32.pdf . 2025-10-09. Read at source on 2026-10-13; the worked example is our estimate.
83. Jeffrey Ptak, Smoke and mirrors (personal Substack). https://jeffreyptak.substack.com/p/smoke-and-mirrors . 2025-08-22. Read at source on 2026-10-13 through a summarising tool.
84. Fidelity, commissions and margin rates. https://www.fidelity.com/trading/commissions-margin-rates . Undated. Read at source on 2026-10-13 through a summarising tool.
85. Re-read of sources 3 and 4 on 2026-10-13, with the description of the channel’s video of 2026-10-04, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5g8bnWr6J6Y , the StartEngine page reached from the link page, and the page the M1 link leads to. Read at source on 2026-10-13 (descriptions, read in the channel’s feed, and page text; videos not watched).
86. Tawcan, Do we have enough to retire early and live off dividends? 2026 analysis. https://tawcan.com/do-we-have-enough-to-retire-early-and-live-off-dividends-2026-analysis/ . 2026-09-28. Read at source on 2026-10-13.
87. Dividend Diplomats, December 2025 income summary. https://www.dividenddiplomats.com/dividend-income-summary-lannys-december-2025-summary/ . 2026-02-16. Read at source on 2026-10-13.
88. MaxDividends, Max’s dividend portfolio. https://www.insights.maxdividends.app/t/max-s-dividend-portfolio . 2026-07-31. Read at source on 2026-10-13 (much of the content is behind a paywall).
89. Benzinga, article about a Reddit post on $10,000 a month in dividends. https://www.benzinga.com/personal-finance/management/25/12/49381192/investor-who-reached-10k-month-in-dividend-income-in-10-years-shares-his-portfolio-the-strategy-is-be-disciplined-everything-else-is-just-numbers . 2025-12-13. Secondary (an article about a Reddit post we could not open); read on 2026-10-13 through a reader service.
90. Yahoo Finance, article about a Reddit post on $10,000 a month in dividends. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/dividend-investor-making-10-000-130124926.html . 2026-01-15. Secondary (an article about a Reddit post we could not open).
91. Boomer & Echo (Robb Engen), three years after switching to indexing. https://boomerandecho.com/3-years-ago-switched-indexing-heres-portfolio-performed/ . 2018-01-07. Read at source on 2026-10-13.
92. Crossref record for Hartzmark and Solomon, The Dividend Disconnect, Journal of Finance. https://api.crossref.org/works/10.1111/jofi.12785 . 2019-06-10. Read at source on 2026-10-13 (abstract only).
93. Dividend Growth Investor, 18 years of the blog, and Dividend Aristocrats list for 2026. https://www.dividendgrowthinvestor.com/2026/01/18-years-of-dividend-growth-investor.html and https://www.dividendgrowthinvestor.com/2026/01/dividend-aristocrats-list-for-2026.html . January 2026. Secondary for its statements about the S&P index.
94. Multpl, S&P 500 dividend growth by year. https://www.multpl.com/s-p-500-dividend-growth/table/by-year . Latest row 2025-12-31. Secondary (a data site using S&P and Shiller data), read on 2026-10-13; the count of falling years is our estimate from it.
95. Berkshire Hathaway, letter to shareholders for 2022. https://www.berkshirehathaway.com/letters/2022ltr.pdf . 2023-02-25. Read at source on 2026-10-13; the 54% is our estimate.
96. Dividend Data, annual dividend portfolio review 2025 to 2026. https://dividenddata.beehiiv.com/p/annual-dividend-portfolio-review-2025-2026 . 2026-01-05. Read at source on 2026-10-13; the monthly figure and yield are our estimate.
97. New York Times, About New York: a quiet auditor leaves Yeshiva a fortune (archived copy). https://web.archive.org/web/20231022200602/https://www.nytimes.com/1995/12/02/nyregion/about-new-york-a-quiet-auditor-leaves-yeshiva-a-fortune.html . 1995-12-02. Read at source on 2026-10-13 in an archived copy.
98. Money, on Fidelity’s count of 401(k) millionaires. https://money.com/401k-millionaires-fidelity-retirement-savings/ . 2026-09-09. Secondary (Fidelity’s own release did not load).
99. FINRA, Stocks (investor page). https://www.finra.org/investors/investing/investment-products/stocks . Undated. Read at source on 2026-10-13.
100. US Supreme Court, Lowe v. SEC, 472 U.S. 181. https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/472/181 . 1985-06-10. Read at source on 2026-10-13.
101. Australian Securities and Investments Commission, Information Sheet 269, Discussing financial products and services online. https://www.asic.gov.au/regulatory-resources/financial-services/giving-financial-product-advice/discussing-financial-products-and-services-online/ . March 2022. Read at source on 2026-10-13.
102. X, Paid Partnerships Policy and Authenticity policy, archived copies. https://web.archive.org/web/20261010143847/https://help.x.com/en/rules-and-policies/paid-partnerships-policy and https://web.archive.org/web/20250816091540/https://help.x.com/en/rules-and-policies/authenticity . Snapshots of 2026-10-10 and 2025-08-16. Secondary (archived copies; X’s live pages refused us).
103. FINRA, Following the crowd: investing and social media. https://www.finra.org/investors/insights/following-crowd-investing-and-social-media . 2023-03-13, updated 2026-04-02; the 60% figure is from FINRA’s 2024 National Financial Capability Study investor report. Read on 2026-10-13 through a reader service (finra.org refused us directly).
104. Stock Analysis affiliate programme sign-up page. https://stockanalysis.tolt.io/ . Undated. Read on 2026-10-13 through a reader service.
105. Amazon, book links in the channel’s video descriptions (for example https://amzn.to/3lko53S ) and Amazon Associates rate table, https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/help/node/topic/GRXPHT8U84RAYDXZ . Undated. Read at source on 2026-10-13.
106. FINRA, Letter of Acceptance, Waiver and Consent, Robinhood Financial and Robinhood Securities. https://www.finra.org/sites/default/files/2025-03/robinhood-AWC-030725.pdf . Accepted 2025-03-06. Read at source on 2026-10-13.
107. FINRA, Letter of Acceptance, Waiver and Consent no. 2021072581701, Moomoo Financial. https://www.finra.org/sites/default/files/fda_documents/2021072581701%20Moomoo%20Financial%20Inc.,%20fka%20Futu%20Inc.%20CRD%20283078%20AWC%20vr.pdf . 2024-11-26. Read at source on 2026-10-13.
108. Seeking Alpha, subscriptions. https://seekingalpha.com/subscriptions . Undated. Read on 2026-10-13 through a reader service.
109. Udemy, dividend investing topic page, and instructor revenue share. https://www.udemy.com/topic/dividend-investing/ and https://support.udemy.com/hc/en-us/articles/229605008-Instructor-Revenue-Share . Page marked October 2026. Read on 2026-10-13 through a reader service.
110. Skool, pricing, and search results for “dividend” on a fourth visit. https://www.skool.com/pricing and https://www.skool.com/discovery?q=dividend . Undated. Read at source on 2026-10-13 (first page of results only).
111. YouTube Help, YouTube partner earnings overview. https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/72902 . Undated. Read at source on 2026-10-13.
112. FTC, press release on the WealthPress settlement. https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2023/01/ftc-suit-requires-investment-advice-company-wealthpress-pay-17-million-deceiving-consumers . 2023-01-13. Read on 2026-10-13 through a reader service.
113. Total Real Returns, SPY, SCHD, VIG and VYM compared from SCHD’s launch. https://totalrealreturns.com/s/SPY,SCHD,VIG,VYM . Data to 2026-10-12. Read at source on 2026-10-13.
114. GOV.UK, Individual Savings Accounts. https://www.gov.uk/individual-savings-accounts . 2026 to 2027 tax year. Read at source on 2026-10-13.
115. Gumroad, product page of a $5 guide linked from source 4, and the other ten pages re-read. https://dividend.gumroad.com/l/CSdwG . Undated. Read at source on 2026-10-13; the gross figure is our estimate.
116. Total Real Returns, Vanguard 500 Index Fund (VFINX) and Vanguard Equity Income Fund (VEIPX) compared, 2000 to 2012. https://totalrealreturns.com/s/VFINX,VEIPX?start=2000-01-03&end=2012-12-31 . Data from 2000-01-03 to 2012-12-31. Read at source on 2026-10-13.
117. Total Real Returns, the same two funds over their whole shared history. https://totalrealreturns.com/s/VFINX,VEIPX . Data from 1988-11-17 to 2026-10-12. Read at source on 2026-10-13.

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