Social Security Won’t Deposit a Dime Until You Turn 62. These 3 ETFs Pay You Every Month in Between

Social Security Won’t Deposit a Dime Until You Turn 62. These 3 ETFs Pay You Every Month in Between

Ryne Mauck

Fri, August 28, 2026 at 11:35 PM GMT+3 5 min read

Quick Read

• Early retirement creates an income gap before Social Security becomes available at 62. SPYI, DGRW, and HDV combine current distributions with equity growth to help generate portfolio cash flow during those bridge years.

• SPYI does most of the immediate income work. Its covered-call strategy generates a double-digit distribution rate paid monthly, while DGRW adds monthly dividend income with a stronger emphasis on long-term growth.

• HDV adds a defensive counterweight to the higher-growth and options-based funds. Its quarterly dividends and exposure to energy, healthcare, staples, and utilities can diversify the income stream when other parts of the market struggle.

• Read More: Learn 7 ways to generate income with a $1,000,000+ portfolio (sponsor)

You retired early. Congratulations! Now you're staring down a very specific problem: the Social Security Administration won't send you a check until you turn 62, and even that first payment may be trimmed for claiming early. Until then, your portfolio has to write the paychecks. Three ETFs are built for exactly this bridge period: the NEOS S&P 500 High Income ETF (CBOE:SPYI), the WisdomTree U.S. Quality Dividend Growth Fund (NASDAQ:DGRW), and the iShares Core High Dividend ETF (NYSEARCA:HDV). Together, they can turn a lump sum into a regular stream of income while your future benefit keeps growing.

The gap is real. The 2027 Social Security COLA is tracking toward 3.1%, which is helpful once benefits start, but useless if you're 58 with bills due next Tuesday. You need cash flow now, and ideally growth to keep up with the next 20 or 30 years of retirement.

SPYI: The High-Yield Anchor That Pays Every Month

SPYI is a covered-call fund built on S&P 500 holdings. The manager owns the underlying large-cap stocks and sells index options on top, converting price volatility into cash distributions. That's why the payouts land in your account every month like clockwork.

A $1,000,000 Income Portfolio

If you've saved over $1,000,000, this guide is for you. The last thing you want in retirement is to run out of money, you want your money to generate lasting income while you enjoy your life.

Now you can learn the strategies wealthy retirees use to fund their retirement with The Definitive Guide to Retirement Income from Fisher Investments. Download the guide today! (sponsor)

SPYI has paid a distribution every month this year. The latest was $0.5423 per share on August 21, 2026, and the trailing 12-month total is $6.333526, with a forward annualized figure of $6.5076. Against a recent share price of $53.53, that translates to a double-digit distribution yield, the kind of number that can meaningfully replace a paycheck.

Fund size gives you comfort too: roughly $10.4 billion in net assets, with top positions in familiar names like Apple at about 6.56% and Microsoft near 4.30%. Total return has kept pace, with SPYI up 17.37% over the past year and 10.38% year to date.

DGRW: Monthly Income With a Growth Engine

SPYI hands you yield today. DGRW is what keeps your purchasing power from eroding over the next two decades. It screens U.S. companies for return on equity, return on assets, and dividend growth potential, then pays distributions monthly. That combination is unusual: most growth-tilted funds pay quarterly at best, if at all (we rounded up seven of our favorite every-30-days payers in a free monthly-income report here).

The expense ratio is 0.28%, meaning about $9,972 of every $10,000 stays invested each year. DGRW's trailing 12-month distributions total $1.1477 per share, with a forward annualized figure of $0.78. The yield is modest, but the total-return picture is where DGRW earns its slot: up 15.07% over the past year, 11.68% year to date, and up 270.35% over the past decade. If SPYI is the paycheck, DGRW is the raise.

HDV: The Defensive Yield, With a Cadence Caveat

HDV tracks the Morningstar Dividend Yield Focus Index and is built like a fortress of blue-chip cash generators. The portfolio leans hard into energy, staples, healthcare, and utilities. Top holdings include Exxon Mobil at 8.42% of net assets, Chevron at 6.42%, Johnson & Johnson at 5.68%, and AbbVie at 5.44%. Fund assets sit at roughly $13.57 billion, so liquidity is not a concern.

Here's the caveat the headline demands: HDV pays quarterly, not monthly. Its trailing 12-month total is $3.422486 per share, and the shares recently traded near $29.74. HDV alone won't hand you 12 checks a year, but paired with SPYI and DGRW, it fills quarterly income windows with defensive names that tend to hold up when tech-heavy funds wobble. Its 26.03% one-year return and 24.69% YTD gain show what a defensive tilt has done in 2026.

Trade-Offs You Need to Own

None of these funds are risk-free. SPYI's covered-call strategy caps your upside in a raging bull market: when the S&P 500 advances sharply higher, SPYI participates less because the calls it sold get exercised. DGRW's yield is real but small, so treat it as a supplement to the main income line. And HDV's energy and staples concentration means it can lag when growth stocks lead. Combine the three, and you smooth out the flaws: SPYI supplies the monthly cash, DGRW compounds quality growth with a monthly kicker, and HDV delivers defensive quarterly dividends that catch you when the other two get choppy. That's a bridge sturdy enough to walk across until 62, and long past it.

A $1,000,000 Income Portfolio

If you've saved over $1,000,000, this guide is for you. The last thing you want in retirement is to run out of money, you want your money to generate lasting income while you enjoy your life.

Now you can learn the strategies wealthy retirees use to fund their retirement with The Definitive Guide to Retirement Income from Fisher Investments. Download the guide today! (sponsor)

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