Retire at 62 and Health Insurance Is Your Biggest Bill Until Medicare Kicks In at 65. These 3 ETFs Pay the Premium

Retire at 62 and Health Insurance Is Your Biggest Bill Until Medicare Kicks In at 65. These 3 ETFs Pay the Premium

Ryne Mauck

Fri, August 28, 2026 at 12:55 AM GMT+3 6 min read

Quick Read

• JEPI delivers $4.58 per share annually through an options overlay on blue-chip stocks, while TFLO anchors the mix with Treasury floating-rate notes yielding near 4%.

• DIVO posted 19% price appreciation over the past year while paying monthly income, writing covered calls only on select positions to preserve more upside than JEPI.

• Early retirees at 62 face four-figure monthly private insurance premiums for 3 years before Medicare's $203 Part B rate replaces them at 65.

• Two retirees, same $1 million, same 4% rule, buy one finished with $1.4 million, the other hit $0 in 12 years. Our free reader guide explains the flaw that separated them, and the income-first method built to avoid it.

You circled 62 on the calendar for years. Then reality showed up with a bill from the ACA marketplace. Between now and the month you turn 65, private or exchange coverage is likely the single biggest line item in your budget, and Medicare will not rescue you until the standard Part B premium of $202.90 in 2026 replaces the four-figure premiums many early retirees are quoted today. You need three years of dependable cash flow that shows up like clockwork. That is why JPMorgan Equity Premium Income ETF (NYSEARCA:JEPI), iShares Treasury Floating Rate Bond ETF (NYSEARCA:TFLO), and Amplify CWP Enhanced Dividend Income ETF (NYSEARCA:DIVO) belong in the account you tap to write those checks.

The 4% Rule is Broken, Built On A World That No Longer Exists

Every retiree knows about the 4% rule, but it frames retirement as a slow liquidation and still causes retirees with seven-figure accounts to agonize over a dinner out.

There's a different way to run the math that makes more sense today. Build an income floor — dividends, interest, and Social Security that cover your essential bills every month — and you never have to sell shares into a down market just to pay them.

Our free reader guide, The 4% Rule Is Broken, walks through it in about 15 minutes. Access the report here.

Your 36-Month Premium Problem

You are not investing for a 30-year horizon here. You are funding roughly 36 monthly premium drafts, plus deductibles and coinsurance, without dipping into the principal earmarked for your 70s and 80s. That argues for income you can predict, volatility you can handle, and expenses you can measure. Each of these three funds pays monthly, which matches the cadence of the invoice hitting your inbox (we sketched a fuller plan for turning a mid six-figure balance into $1,500 a month of income in a free report if you want the broader math). Together they layer equity income, defensive Treasury income, and quality-dividend income so a single bad quarter in one sleeve does not derail the whole plan.

JEPI: Turning Large-Cap Stocks Into a Paycheck

JEPI holds a diversified basket of low-volatility U.S. large caps and layers in an equity-linked note strategy that converts option premiums into monthly cash. The current lineup reads like a who's-who of blue chips: Broadcom at 1.8%, Ross Stores, Amazon, Apple, and Howmet each near 1.7%, followed by Alphabet, Nvidia, and Eaton around 1.6%. As a result, you are not concentrated in any single name or sector.

The net expense ratio of 0.35% is competitive for an actively managed options-overlay fund. Distributions land monthly, with a trailing 12-month total of $4.58022 per share against a recent price near $58.16. Share price has been steady too, up 6.5% year to date and 10.35% over the past year. The check size varies month to month, so treat JEPI as your largest income engine, not your only one.

TFLO: The Cash-Like Anchor That Actually Pays

TFLO serves as the safety belt. It holds a portfolio built almost entirely of U.S. Treasury floating-rate notes plus a small BlackRock Treasury cash sleeve, with virtually no duration risk. When short rates move, its coupon resets with them. With the federal funds upper bound at 3.75% and 4-week to 52-week T-bill yields ranging from 3.70% to 4.02%, the floating coupons are still meaningful.

Distributions are monthly, with a trailing 12-month total of $1.915251 per share and a market price around $50.62. The fund is deep and liquid at roughly $6.7 billion in net assets. Price has drifted only 2.48% year to date, which is exactly the point: this is money you can hand to your insurer next January without worrying that a rough market wiped out three premium payments.

DIVO: Quality Dividends With a Covered-Call Kicker

DIVO is actively managed by Capital Wealth Planning, holding blue-chip dividend growers and writing tactical covered calls only on selected positions rather than the whole book. The result is a smaller options overlay than JEPI and a higher share of appreciation. Over the past year, DIVO has climbed 18.84%, with a year-to-date gain of 12.5%, alongside monthly cash.

The 0.56% expense ratio is the highest of the three, and the trailing 12-month distributions of $2.985225 include a $0.95339676 special payment on December 30, 2025. Regular monthly checks have been running in the $0.178 to $0.188 range against a share price near $48.71. Net assets sit around $5.25 billion, so liquidity is not a problem.

Trade-Offs to Weigh

Covered-call funds like JEPI and DIVO cap upside in roaring bull markets, and their distributions include option premium that can shrink when volatility falls. TFLO does the opposite job: if the Fed cuts aggressively, your floating coupons will step down. That is the point of running all three. The equity sleeves fund premiums when rates ease, and TFLO steadies the mix when stocks wobble. Pair them, reinvest anything you do not need for the insurance company, and let the three-year bridge to Medicare Part B at $202.90 a month stop feeling like a cliff.

Before Your Next Withdrawal, Run One Number ( It's Not The 4% Rule Everyone Knows)

Take your essential monthly expenses and subtract your guaranteed income — Social Security, plus any pension. What's left is your income gap, and how you close it determines whether retirement runs on share sales or on a paycheck your portfolio writes you every month. Our free reader guide, The 4% Rule Is Broken, shows exactly how to close that gap with portfolio income: a worked example (one retiree needed about $480,000 in income-producing assets to cover his essentials for good), an eight-point conversion checklist, and the 20-year numbers comparing dividends to withdrawals. It's free and takes about 15 minutes to read. Get the guide here before you take your next withdrawal.

Contact editorial@247wallst.com for any questions or corrections.