Here’s How Many Shares of the Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF (VTI) You’d Need for $500 in Yearly Dividends

Want $500 in passive income from VTI? Here's the exact share count you'll need—and why traditional ETFs look downright archaic compared to crypto's yield opportunities.

The Math Behind the Dividend Dream

Crunching numbers on VTI's dividend yield reveals how much capital gets tied up chasing modest returns—meanwhile, DeFi protocols generate similar yields without locking up six figures.

Traditional Finance's Yield Problem

ETF dividends require massive upfront investment for meager returns—a stark contrast to crypto staking where yields aren't diluted by fund managers taking their cut first.

Why Settle for Market Average?

VTI's diversification comes at a cost: you're buying the entire market's mediocrity. Crypto lets you bet on specific innovations—not just ride the index fund escalator.

Wake up, investors: your grandparents' dividend strategy is bleeding value against inflation while digital assets redefine what passive income means.

Image source: Getty Images.

But let's assume a 1.2% yield. If you invest, say, $1,000, you'll receive around $12. So to collect $500 in dividend income, you'd need about 42 times that -- meaning a stake worth roughly $42,000. That WOULD mean some 130 shares.

To be clear, you can collect much more in dividend income from various high-yield stocks and even some good dividend-focused ETFs. But the Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF can still serve a useful role in your long-term portfolio, having you invested in pretty much the entire U.S. market -- and, therefore, most of the U.S. economy -- including stocks from (NASDAQ: AMZN) to(NYSE: ZIM). So if you're bullish on the future of e-commerce and international trade, not to mention scores of other businesses, this ETF has you covered. (Note that there are reports that ZIM may be taken private. And Amazon investors are expecting its investments in artificial intelligence to make it even more efficient.)

It has more to recommend it, too, such as a low expense ratio (annual fee) of just 0.03%, costing you $3 per $10,000 invested per year.