NotSure wrote:But to answer your question, if looking for reasonable, steady income with minimal hassle, then the IT basket would be the clear winner.
What it might also suggest is that an investor not in ITs should emulate part of the IT proposition. That would be that not all the dividend income is withdrawn, rather some of it is reinvested with a view to selling or borrowing when there's a shortfall against the required withdrawal. That's not so easy for private investors as they have limited ability to borrow cheaply and run a risk of being forced sellers during a downturn. Last year being a practical example of the income risk. Investors using passive indexed funds would have the same problem as evidenced by the recent income performance of FTSE 100 ETFs.