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Vanguard’s VYM Posts About 200% 10‑Year Gain but Trails on Income Versus SCHD

Its market‑cap weighting lowers headline yield while concentrating exposure in a few large names, a tradeoff that can cut retirees’ annual cash flow.

Overview

  • The Vanguard High Dividend Yield ETF (VYM) returned roughly 200% over 10 years while reporting about $78.3 billion in assets and a 0.04% expense ratio.
  • VYM yields about 2.35% versus Schwab’s SCHD at roughly 3.4%, a gap that equals about $3,150 less annual income on a $300,000 allocation.
  • The fund holds around 618 stocks with the top 10 making up about 26% of assets, and Broadcom alone sits near an 8% weight that helps push technology to roughly a 20% sector share.
  • SCHD returned about 223% over the same decade and beats VYM over the 10‑year window even though relative performance flips across shorter periods.
  • VYM tracks the FTSE High Dividend Yield Index, which screens the top 50% of U.S. dividend payers and then market‑cap weights them, producing broader diversification but lower current income than quality or dividend‑growth screened ETFs.