Investing

3 ETFs Every Baby Boomer Should Buy and Hold Forever

Ian Cooper

Published: January 29, 2025 12:25 pm

Retirement should be stress-free.

You shouldn’t have to worry about generating extra income.

You should only have to worry about where you want to vacation. All while generating a good deal of passive income, which can be done by investing in safe, high-yielding exchange-traded funds, or ETFs.

Key Points About This Article 

• Safe, high-yielding exchange-traded funds can help make retirement stress-free.
• Baby boomers are jumping into Bitcoin, as a safe haven asset. That’s not a bad move, especially with pro-crypto President Trump back in The White House.
• Have you done a 2025 portfolio checkup yet? Sitting with a financial advisor and reviewing your assets makes sense. Click here to get started finding the right one for you. (sponsored)

Look at the Vanguard Real Estate ETF (NYSEARCA:VNQ), for example.

With an expense ratio of 0.13%, a yield of 3.74%, and 160 holdings, including a great deal of real estate investment trusts (REITs), VNQ is a safe, long-term real estate opportunity.

Here are a few more ETFs every baby boomer may want to consider.

ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF 

Baby boomers are jumping into Bitcoin, as a safe haven asset.

That’s not a bad move, especially with pro-crypto President Trump back in The White House, and analysts now calling for $200,000 Bitcoin later this year. Evercore ISI analysts recently called for $150,000 Bitcoin.

One way to take advantage of Bitcoin upside is with the ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF (NYSEARCA:BITO). With $1.8 billion under management and an expense ratio of 0.95%, the BITO ETF mimics the price of Bitcoin as closely as possible without investing in the cryptocurrency itself. It last paid a monthly dividend of $1.113 on December 23. BITO is also seeing strong inflows. Over the last month, it saw net flows of 86.16 million.

ProShares S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats ETF 

There’s also the ProShares S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats ETF (CBOE:NOBL).

One of the best ways to generate reliable income is by investing in dividend aristocrats because they’re among the most reliable dividend payers. Not only have these stocks paid out dividends for more than 25 years, but they’re also some of the most reliable companies on the planet even in the worst of times.

And while you could always buy a basket of aristocrats, you can instead pick up the NOBL ETF, which holds 66 of them and yields 2.46%. Its expense ratio is 0.35%. Making it even more attractive, it’s been trending higher (with the exception of the 2020 drop along with a massive market pullback) since 2013.

Schwab US Dividend Equity ETF

There’s also the Schwab US Dividend Equity ETF (NYSEARCA:SCHD).

With an expense ratio of 0.06%, the ETF tracks the total return of the Dow Jones U.S. Dividend index. It also yields 3.58% and has holdings in Amgen, AbbVie, Home Depot, Cisco Systems, Broadcom, Chevron, UPS, and Coca-Cola.

The ETF includes a total of 103 dividend stocks. So, by buying into the ETF, you’re diversified with a great deal of dividend stocks. Plus, the fund tracks the Dow Jones U.S. Dividend 100. Even better, the SCHD has also been in a strong uptrend (again, with the exception of the 2020 market mess), returning just under 400% since 2011.