94. Can you just live off high yield?

If the goal is to live off your portfolio one day, why bother selling investments at all? Could you simply build a portfolio that throws off enough income to cover your spending, ignore the 4% rule and leave the assets themselves alone? It sounds neat. But once you look past the appeal of regular cash flow, the trade-offs get more interesting.

Dave and Hayden explore what a higher-yield FIRE portfolio could actually look like, why income investing can feel so psychologically appealing, and where chasing yield can start creating problems.

In this episode we'll discuss:

💰 Whether living purely off investment income could offer an alternative to regularly selling assets under a more traditional FIRE withdrawal strategy.

📈 Why total return still matters, even when a portfolio's dividend or distribution yield looks attractive on its own.

🧠 Why receiving regular investment income can feel easier than selling shares, especially once your portfolio becomes your main source of spending money.

🇦🇺 Why Australian shares have traditionally offered more income than US shares, and how that can shape the way local investors think about retirement portfolios.

🏠 How rental property, commercial property, peer-to-peer lending, savings accounts, shares and ETFs could all play different roles in a higher-yield portfolio.

🧾 Why tax settings can influence the appeal of income versus capital growth, while also making it risky to build an entire investing approach around today's rules.

📊 Why a 6% portfolio yield is not the same thing as a free extra 2% compared with a 4% withdrawal rate, particularly if higher income comes with lower long-term growth.

🏢 How listed investment companies can smooth income differently from index funds, and why the way they generate distributions can vary considerably.

⚠️ Why high-yield assets can bring their own risks, from loan defaults and property cycles to debt-heavy REITs cutting or freezing distributions.