From Yahoo Finance · · 2m
$7,900 a Month Without the Medicare Surcharge
Six holdings can pay $94,800 a year, but where you park them decides your Medicare bill.
In brief
Six holdings can pay $94,800 a year, but where you park them decides your Medicare bill. Account location, not ticker selection, is what keeps dividend income out of the IRMAA calculation. Put Ares Capital and SGOV in tax-advantaged space first. Originally reported by Yahoo Finance.
The $94,800 target
Pulling $7,900 a month from six holdings takes roughly $1.5M to $1.7M, depending on the mix. Yields run from 1.7% on dividend growth to about 14% on the options-income sleeve.
The six pieces
Three broad dividend ETFs (VIG, VYM, FDVV), a covered-call sleeve in QQQI, business development lender Ares Capital, and a short Treasury sleeve in SGOV.
IRMAA counts everything
The Medicare surcharge is set from your modified adjusted gross income two years back. Qualified dividends count. Treasury interest counts. Even muni interest gets added back in.
“Picking better dividend tickers does not sidestep the surcharge.”
Three accounts, three outcomes
Roth income never shows up in MAGI, ever. Taxable counts the year it is paid. Tax-deferred stays hidden while compounding, then counts in full on withdrawal.
“That three-way split is the whole strategy.”
The qualified dividend trap
VIG, VYM and FDVV pay mostly qualified dividends, so you get the friendly tax rate. They still count toward MAGI in full. Favorable rate is not the same as excluded.
“This is the single most confusing point in the entire IRMAA conversation.”
QQQI's quiet advantage
Per its Form 8937 for the year ended May 31, 2025, roughly 94% to 99% of several monthly payouts were return of capital. That lowers your cost basis, deferring tax into a bigger gain at sale.
Where each piece goes
Ares Capital and SGOV into tax-advantaged accounts, since ordinary income does the most damage in taxable. VIG, VYM and FDVV in taxable. QQQI in taxable, where its return of capital actually matters.
What breaks the plan
The two-year lookback means restructuring today does nothing to this year's bill. Brackets are cliffs, so a single dollar over can cost real money. RMDs eventually force income out anyway.
“Crossing a bracket by a dollar can cost meaningfully more than staying just under it.”
Rebalancing has a cost
Selling to rebalance creates capital gains, and those count toward MAGI too. Maintaining the portfolio is one of the biggest levers on your surcharge risk.
Roth is the scarcest resource
Ares Capital is down about 3% over the past year while the equity sleeves rose, so part of that 9.8% yield comes back out of the share price. QQQI has never been through a full cycle.
“Treating Roth capacity as the scarcest resource in the whole plan.”
The key point
Account location, not ticker selection, is what keeps dividend income out of the IRMAA calculation. Put Ares Capital and SGOV in tax-advantaged space first.
