This may help with ideas on ETF’s . THYE are similar to Mutual funds but can be trade like a stock .. Mutuals you put in a buy or sell order in before the close of the day . Then in After hours you have to wait and see what the price is decided on after they calculated the price . You have no control of the buy or sell price on any day . With the ETF’s you can buy or sell at your limit order price chosen durning the day , after hours and Pre market ( just like a stock ) . Mutuals can have a front load fee , back load fee or no load fee ( basically a commission for the broker , not cheap either depending on the fund , could be several hundred dollars ! ) that raises your cost basis on a mutual . Also they may require a specific time frame to hold the fund or a penalty charge hits you .
ETF’s do have an expense fee and they vary with them. ( look for the lower fees on ETF’s . ) there are plenty of low expense fee ETF’s out there and a lot of the companies have made the fees even lower …
With either Mutuals or EFT’s FUNDS ,, they tend to cover catagory and market sectors .. so check them in order to diversify into different sectors and categories in order not to be loaded in Tech , consumer, financial,,, ETC. Don’t put all your apples in the same basket ! ETF’s pay divs , monthly , quarterly and some annually .. I prefer monthly to max the gaps between the quarterly div payout to try and get an even monthly paycheck or cover some heavier expense months in through the year ..
build your plan and portfolio in accordance to your own cash requirements through the year ..
you could just set a goal to build a Christmas fund , cover Birthdays , pay electric or water ,,,, or just for a rainy day .. build a little emergency fund . That doesn’t take tons of cash to start ! Every penny more is a penny more than you have !
Look at some examples in the investopedia article link which will give you more knowledge on the ETF’s , fees , categories etc.
A review of eight exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that offer investors monthly dividends.
www.investopedia.com