Well, these new ETFs are a long way from being "individual company stocks." These ETFs are formulated with an emphasis on dividends no matter where their location.
For instance, I switched from IJJ (Barra Mid Cap Value Index) with a yield around 5% to DON (Mid Cap Dividend Fund) with a yield of around 7%.
Industry Diversification As of 09/30/2008
DON IJJ (From ETFConnect.com)
Both are diversified and therefore possibly less risky than selecting individual company stocks for their specific yield. There's been more than enough price movement in essentially all of these holdings for future return added from volatility capture. Most are, as the graphs show, well below their near term "sell" thresholds. That's a symptom of getting this new strategy started just as the markets started to unwind in late 2007. I never got as much of the one bond fund sold to properly fund the rest of the account and the cash reserve.
Going foreward, if AIM continues to generate "buy" signals, I'll use the dividends to accumulate more shares (not much more than "dollar cost averaging") in those segments that are furthest from their Portfolio Control values. Eventually all will be more reasonably balanced with regard to the original design targets of UBHS.
So, while not the same funds, there's a lot of "value" decision making that is included in selecting for "dividends" and there's a lot of dividends when selecting for value.
Also, this account is a retirement account and as such can't be tapped for a while yet (the tragedy of being too young!).
My current income from my work still pales compared to my investing. One could consider my vocation an avocation at this point. Business is good, however.
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