Ep. 104: Read What's Under the Hood of the Yield — NAV Erosion, Return of Capital & What You Actually Keep

6 sources on one throughline — a headline yield tells you nothing alone; read what's under the hood: the NAV path (is it eroding your principal?), the tax treatment (what do you keep?), and total return over a full cycle. Walk the income spectrum: (1) TEL Forge piece — durable single-stock AI-buildout income at the component layer (20.2x P/E, 1.45% yield, 13yr dividend growth, ROE ~21%) vs NVDA (31.1x) / AVGO (64.1x) price torque; lower octane, same secular theme. (2) SCHD 247wallst — the 'boring' dividend ETF up 20% YTD vs S&P ~10%, but the total-return honesty check bites over a full cycle: +23%/+21% 1yr, +53%/+83% 5yr, +221%/+309% 10yr; 0.06% ER, ~3% yield, rotation not regime change. (3) 10 no-NAV-erosion income ETFs — SPYI (~11-12%, 15.13% CAGR) and QQQI (~14%, 20.20% CAGR) hold/grow NAV; FEPI the only eroder on the list; TSPY ~12-18%. (4) Return of Capital — the misunderstood third category; ROC is tax-deferred until cost basis hits zero then cap-gains; SPYI 12% example; dividend-trap chart test; QYLD 50%+ NAV depletion cautionary case. (5) QQQI under the hood — NEOS sells NDX index calls 1.5-4.5% OTM, Section 1256 + ROC tax efficiency, survived Liberation Day; XQQI is the 150%-levered untested variant. (6) TOPW/Roundhill — the speculative high-octane edge: ~44.5% distribution on a 1.2x-levered basket of 11 single-stock weekly-pay ETFs (AAPL/NVDA/MSFT/AMZN/GOOG top), AMDW added / Netflix dropped; opposite end of the spectrum from SCHD's ~3%.