Listen up, dividend overachievers! With a mere $2,500 per stock or exchange traded fund (ETF), it’s entirely possible to bring in $3,500 worth of passive income per year.
To sweeten the deal, we can build out a master plan that will get you paid on a monthly basis and maybe even on a weekly basis. The trick is to look into the realm of real estate, where the stocks can pay surprisingly high yields.
Then, you can round out your portfolio with a handful of YieldMax ETFs, which are known for their sizable and frequent cash distributions to shareholders. You’ll need to be able to tolerate some risk, but that’s the price of admission if you want to follow this plan to earn $3,500 per year.
To sum it up, the idea is to invest $2,500 in five stocks or ETFs, for a total of $12,500. To get $3,500 per year in passive income, your average annual yield will have to be at least $3,500 / $12,500 or 28%. With that in mind, here comes the first stock pick.
ARMOUR Residential REIT (ARR)
To get started, you could invest $2,500 in ARMOUR Residential REIT (NYSE:ARR), a real estate investment trust (REIT) focused on residential mortgage-backed securities. Plenty of REITs pay solid yields, but ARMOUR Residential REIT will cut you a check (or at least deposit a dividend payment into your account) every month.
A crucial question is whether ARMOUR Residential REIT brings in enough capital to fund its dividends. As it turns out, ARMOUR Residential REIT reported GAAP net income available to common stockholders of $156.3 million for 2025’s third quarter. Hence, it appears that the company is currently in an adequate financial condition.
Furthermore, ARMOUR Residential REIT pays a cash dividend every month and provides a forward annual dividend yield of 17.34%. This falls short of our goal of achieving a 28% average annual yield, but we’re just getting started. Soon enough, we’ll add some mega-yield funds to boost your earning power.
Dynex Capital (DX)
Moving forward, you might invest another $2,500 into shares of Dynex Capital (NYSE:DX). Like ARMOUR Residential REIT, Dynex Capital is a REIT that specializes in residential real estate assets. Plus, Dynex Capital distributes its dividends on a monthly basis.
Is Dynex Capital on firm enough financial footing to continue paying dividends? A quick glance confirms Dynex Capital’s ability to produce profits as the company generated $150.388 million in Q3 2025 net income.
While Dynex Capital’s forward annual dividend yield of 15.12% is generous, it still doesn’t bring our average annual yield up to 28%. Nevertheless, we’ll meet our goal after introducing several YieldMax funds for your consideration.
Huge Yield Is as Easy as One, Two, Three
Getting down to the nitty-gritty, you can purchase $2,500 worth of three different YieldMax ETFs to significantly boost your passive earnings. Just be sure to monitor the share prices of these three funds as they can be volatile.
The first of today’s featured funds is the YieldMax TSM Option Income Strategy ETF (NYSEARCA:TSMY). This and the other two ETFs on this list all pay weekly cash distributions, so you won’t even need to wait a full month to start seeing the passive income.
Using sophisticated options-trading strategies, possibly including writing covered call options and establishing synthetic put-and-call positions, the TSMY ETF indirectly derives income from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (NYSE:TSM) stock.
Since Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing YieldMax is a world-class semiconductor producer, the TSM Option Income Strategy ETF looks like a good choice for passive income seekers. Besides, the YieldMax TSM Option Income Strategy ETF’s 37.33% annual distribution rate will bring you closer to earning $3,500 in total annual payouts.
Now, we can add a $2,500 stake in the YieldMax SNOW Option Income Strategy ETF (NYSEARCA:SNOY). This is another YieldMax fund that utilizes options-trading strategies to extract weekly income.
The SNOY ETF is based on the price moves of Snowflake (NYSE:SNOW) stock, and as you may be aware, Snowflake is a renowned software developer. At this moment, the YieldMax SNOW Option Income Strategy ETF advertises a massive 51.79% distribution rate.
Continuing with the technology large-cap theme, the final $2,500 can be allocated toward the YieldMax META Option Income Strategy ETF (NYSEARCA:FBY). It’s encouraging to know that the FBY ETF trades options on shares of Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META), an ultra-profitable tech titan.
If you wondering how much income you’ll get from the YieldMax META Option Income Strategy ETF, it has an annual distribution rate of 37.78%. And, like the other YieldMax funds mentioned here, FBY will distribute cash payments each week.
Taking Home $3,500 Per Year
So now, you’ve got equal-sized $2,500 positions in ARR, DX, TSMY, SNOY, and FBY. To reiterate, we’re shooting for a minimum average yearly yield of 28%. This would get you $3,500 in annual passive income from a total $12,500 investment.
Adding the yields up and then dividing by five, we’ll get an average yield of 31.87%. That’s great news, as you can now get started on your pathway to $3,500 in anticipated yearly income with just five stock/ETF positions.