Dividend Growth and Dividend Stock ETFs
| Fund | Safety Rating | Rate → Yield | Price | 3-yr price | 3-yr with payouts | Price check | 5-yr payout growth | Fund size |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| VIGVanguard Dividend Appreciation10+ yrs of raises, top yielders cut | UnlockDividend Safety Rating: paid plans only | $3.72/yr → 1.49%$0.93 quarterly | $248.94 | +56.5% | +63.2% | Price held uphigher than 3 years ago | +9.1%/yr | $111.6B |
| SCHDSchwab U.S. Dividend EquityQuality screen: cash flow, debt, growth | UnlockDividend Safety Rating: paid plans only | $1.07/yr → 3.00%$0.267 quarterly | $35.65 | +54.0% | +67.2% | Price held uphigher than 3 years ago | +9.1%/yr | $102.0B |
| VYMVanguard High Dividend Yield500+ above-average yielders | UnlockDividend Safety Rating: paid plans only | $3.55/yr → 2.19%$0.887 quarterly | $162.16 | +58.0% | +68.5% | Price held uphigher than 3 years ago | +3.8%/yr | $94.9B |
These funds own ordinary dividend-paying companies and pass the dividends through. The yields are modest; the point is a payout that grows as the companies raise theirs, on top of share-price growth. They differ in how they pick: SCHD screens 100 U.S. stocks on cash flow, debt, return on equity and dividend growth; VIG and DGRO require a record of raises and drop the very highest yielders; VYM, HDV, SPYD and DVY lean into yield instead. VIGI, VYMI, SCHY and IDV run the same ideas outside the U.S.
Read the 5-yr payout growth column first here. It is how fast the fund’s own payout per share grew from 2020 to 2025, which is what turns a 3% yield today into a much bigger check on the same shares later.
Covered-Call and Income ETFs
| Fund | Safety Rating | Rate → Yield | Price | 3-yr price | 3-yr with payouts | Price check | 5-yr payout growth | Fund size |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| JEPIJPMorgan Equity Premium IncomeLow-volatility S&P 500 + option notes | UnlockDividend Safety Rating: paid plans only | $4.09/yr → 7.13%$0.341 monthly | $57.43 | +6.7% | +31.2% | Price held uphigher than 3 years ago | — | $46.0B |
| JEPQJPMorgan Nasdaq Equity Premium IncomeNasdaq-100 + option notes | UnlockDividend Safety Rating: paid plans only | $6.47/yr → 11.64%$0.5392 monthly | $55.57 | +14.6% | +51.3% | Price held uphigher than 3 years ago | — | $41.6B |
| QQQINEOS Nasdaq-100 High IncomeNasdaq-100 + index call options | UnlockDividend Safety Rating: paid plans only | $7.61/yr → 14.92%$0.6343 monthly | $51.01 | +2.3%since Jan 2024 launch | +43.5% | Price held uphigher than at launch | — | $14.8B |
These buy a stock basket and sell call options on it, directly or through notes, turning some of the future upside into cash now. The payout is mostly option premium, so it changes from month to month, and in a strong rally the fund lags because the upside was sold. What they pay is a distribution, not a dividend, and the tax treatment differs by fund. JEPI and JEPQ pay mostly ordinary income, which is why many holders keep them in an IRA. NEOS funds such as SPYI and QQQI use index options taxed under different rules and often label much of the payout a return of capital. Check each fund’s own tax notices before you decide which account it goes in.
SDIV and PFF sit here too: high payouts from the highest-yielding stocks worldwide, and from preferred shares. Neither sells options, but both are bought for the check rather than for growth, so the same price check applies. So do Roundhill’s QDTE and XDTE, which sell index calls that expire every day and pay weekly.
YieldMax Option Income ETFs
| Fund | Safety Rating | Rate → Yield | Price | 3-yr price | 3-yr with payouts | Price check | 5-yr payout growth | Fund size |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ULTYYieldMax Ultra Option Income StrategyBasket of volatile stocks | UnlockDividend Safety Rating: paid plans only | $12.84/yr → 61.60%$0.247 weekly | $20.85 | −89.2%since Feb 2024 launch | −2.0% | High payout while the price sinksdown even with payouts | — | $1.4B |
| NVDYYieldMax NVDA Option Income StrategyOptions on Nvidia | UnlockDividend Safety Rating: paid plans only | $3.48/yr → 36.87%$0.067 weekly | $9.45 | −55.9% | +116.8% | High payout while the price sinkspayouts made up for it | — | $1.1B |
| MSTYYieldMax MSTR Option Income StrategyOptions on Strategy (MSTR) | UnlockDividend Safety Rating: paid plans only | $8.11/yr → 68.00%$0.156 weekly | $11.93 | −88.7%since Feb 2024 launch | +136.2% | High payout while the price sinkspayouts made up for it | — | $683M |
These sell options on one volatile stock (MSTY on Strategy, TSLY on Tesla, NVDY on Nvidia, CONY on Coinbase) or on a basket (ULTY, or YMAX, which holds other YieldMax funds). They pay weekly or monthly, and the quoted yields are the biggest in the market. When the stock underneath falls, the fund falls with it; when it rebounds, the fund keeps only part of the climb. Over time that ratchet pulls the share price down, and part of what they pay can be return of capital: your own money handed back.
The YieldMax scoreboard: 50 of the 53 YieldMax funds with a year or more of prices trade below their launch price (split-adjusted). Add every payout back and 17 of them still show a loss for someone who bought on day one, took the cash and never reinvested.
That is the whole YieldMax family; the table below has six of the most-held. For every YieldMax payout the day it’s announced, plus fund-by-fund trades and holdings, use our dedicated YieldMax pages.
A dividend ETF pays you from a basket of stocks instead of one company, and that is where the similarity ends. Some, like SCHD and VIG, are built to grow their payout a little every year. Others, like JEPI and QQQI, sell options on what they own to pay a much bigger check now. A third camp, the YieldMax funds, pays more still, often by giving up share price along the way.
This page puts 44 of the best-known side by side with today’s numbers from our database, and answers the question a yield alone hides: did the price hold up while the fund paid you? Yield here is the latest regular payout × payouts per year ÷ last close, never a trailing 12-month figure.
The Yield Trap, in Plain English
An ETF’s price tracks what its holdings are worth (its NAV). Every payout comes out of that pile: on the ex-date the price drops by about the amount paid. A fund that earns more than it pays, from dividends, option premium and growth in what it owns, climbs back. A fund that pays out more than it earns can only shrink. That slow shrink is NAV decay, and a big yield can hide it for years because the checks keep arriving.
The test is simple, and it’s what the Price check column does: put the price over 3 years (or since launch) next to the yield. If the price fell while the fund paid more than 8%, it is marked red, High payout while the price sinks, because some of that income was your own money coming back. Then read 3-yr with payouts. If that is negative too, an owner who took the cash is behind even after every payout. Today’s widest gap on this page: ULTY pays at a 61.6% rate, but its price is −89.2% since launch, Feb 2024; with every payout added back, a holder is at −2.0%.
A falling price is not always decay. Dividend stock ETFs drop in a sell-off and recover with the market, and a fund that tracks a weak sector falls with it. The pattern that matters is a price sliding year after year in a fund whose whole job is to pay you.
Income Now or Snowball Later: How to Choose
The three groups trade the same thing against each other: how much you get paid now versus how much the payout and the price can grow. Here is what $10,000 pays today in the best-known names, with the price record next to it.
| $10,000 in | Pays a year | A month | 3-yr price | 3-yr with payouts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dividend growth ETFs | ||||
| SCHD3.00% yield | $300 | $25 | +54.0% | +67.2% |
| VYM2.19% yield | $219 | $18 | +58.0% | +68.5% |
| DGRO1.90% yield | $190 | $16 | +63.4% | +72.0% |
| Covered-call income ETFs | ||||
| JEPI7.13% yield | $713 | $59 | +6.7% | +31.2% |
| JEPQ11.64% yield | $1,164 | $97 | +14.6% | +51.3% |
| SPYI11.72% yield | $1,172 | $98 | +10.1% | +49.1% |
| QQQI14.92% yield | $1,492 | $124 | +2.3%since launch | +43.5% |
| YieldMax ETFs | ||||
| MSTY68.00% yield | $6,800 | $567 | −88.7%since launch | +136.2% |
Take SCHD against JEPI. On the same $10,000, SCHD pays about $300 a year today and JEPI about $713. If SCHD’s payout kept growing at its 5-year pace of 9.1% a year and JEPI’s stayed where it is, SCHD’s yearly check would pass JEPI’s in about 10 years, with no reinvesting and no new money. That is the whole trade: JEPI pays more every year before the crossover, SCHD every year after, and the price columns show what each did to the money underneath. This is arithmetic on past numbers, not a forecast.
If you need the check now, to retire on or to cover a bill, the income group pays more per dollar today; size it so a payout cut would not break your budget, because option premiums shrink when markets go quiet. If you are ten or more years from spending it, the growth group with dividends reinvested is the snowball. Plenty of investors hold both: a growth core with an income sleeve on the side.
What Reinvesting Does, and What It Can’t Fix
Turning on DRIP sends every payout back into new shares, so the next payout is bigger and the share count grows with no new money. On a fund whose price holds, that is the snowball. On a fund whose price keeps falling, DRIP buys more and more shares of a shrinking fund: the share count climbs, the value may not. Run SCHD through the DRIP calculator or try JEPI to see the year-by-year share count and income with reinvesting on, or start from any ticker in the dividend reinvestment calculator.
Already own some of these? The free portfolio tracker logs every payout from your buy date and counts the DRIP shares for you, so there is nothing to re-type after each reinvestment and no broker login to hand over.
Questions About Dividend ETFs
What is the best dividend ETF?
There isn’t one best fund, because dividend ETFs do different jobs. For a payout that grows, the most-held names are SCHD, VIG, VYM and DGRO; SCHD yields 3.0% at its latest payout and grew that payout 9.1% a year over five years. For more income now, covered-call funds such as JEPI (7.1%) and QQQI (14.9%) pay more but give up part of every rally. Whichever you pick, check the price over 3 years next to the yield. This page is data, not investment advice.
SCHD vs JEPI: which is better?
They do different jobs. On $10,000, SCHD pays about $300 a year at its latest payout and JEPI about $713. SCHD’s payout comes from company dividends and grows when they raise; JEPI’s comes mostly from option premium and moves month to month. Over the last 3 years SCHD’s price changed +54.0% and JEPI’s +6.7%; with payouts added back, +67.2% against +31.2%. Many investors keep JEPI in an IRA because most of its payout is taxed as ordinary income.
Are covered-call ETFs a yield trap?
Not automatically. A covered-call fund turns future upside into cash now, so it lags in a strong rally, but a well-run one can hold its price. The trap is a price that keeps sliding while the fund pays a big yield, which means part of each payout is your own capital coming back (NAV decay). On this page 5 of 19 covered-call and income funds show that pattern: price down over 3 years, or since launch, while yielding more than 8%. Among the YieldMax funds it is 6 of 6.
Which dividend ETFs pay monthly?
Most covered-call and income funds pay monthly, including JEPI, JEPQ, SPYI, QQQI, DIVO, QYLD, XYLD, PFF. A few dividend stock funds do too, such as SPHD and HDV, while SCHD, VIG, VYM and DGRO pay quarterly. Several YieldMax funds go further and pay every week: MSTY, ULTY, NVDY, TSLY; among the covered-call funds, Roundhill’s QDTE and XDTE do too. A monthly or weekly check is a schedule, not a bigger return; the yield and the price record decide that.
How is the yield on this page calculated?
Yield = the latest regular payout per share × the number of payouts per year ÷ the last closing price. It is the rate the fund is paying right now, not a trailing 12-month total, which lags whenever a payout is raised, cut, or moved from monthly to weekly. One-time specials are skipped. For funds whose payout changes every month or week, the figure moves with each payment.
