The first thing I do every month when I sit down to write Easy Income is ask a simple question: what is the market paying us to take risk right now?

This month's answer is that credit markets still look relaxed.

Spreads are tight, liquidity is solid, and the new-issue market is open for business.

That is a gift and a warning. It is a gift because it tells us the financing window is open and the income engines, we rely on can keep doing their job. It is a warning because when spreads are tight, you do not get paid much for being careless.

In Easy Income, we never confuse "good market" with "risk-free market." Tight spreads are not a reason to swing harder. They are a reason to stay disciplined, keep quality high, and let income do the heavy lifting.

And that is the real purpose of this portfolio. Easy Income is not built to win cocktail-party bragging contests. It is built to deliver low volatility returns by collecting cash payments from a wide range of income sources, month after month, without needing perfect market timing. We want most of the return to come from the checks, not from guessing what traders will do next. That is why our mantra is simple and stubborn: ignore the news and collect the cash. When markets get noisy, we get paid. When markets get euphoric, we still get paid. When markets get scared, we focus on owning the highest-quality versions of the income we can buy.

Private credit and BDC lending markets continue to look like a steady-carry environment, but also a crowded trade. The story here is not panic. It is selectivity. When a lot of money wants the same senior-secured loans, it compresses spreads, pushes leverage higher, and tempts managers into "creative" structures to keep yields elevated. The income is still attractive, but the edge comes from underwriting discipline, portfolio construction, and avoiding the problem corners that always show up late in the cycle. A BDC is not a bond fund with a marketing wrapper. It is a lender. We want the lenders that behave like lenders.

Energy income had its usual mix of calm and chaos. Oil is always a geopolitics-plus-supply tape, and prices can move around for reasons that have nothing to do with the long-term cash flow of a well-run midstream business. That is why we focus on the mechanism. The best midstream businesses are toll collectors. They do not need perfect commodity prices, they need volumes, contracts, and counterparties that can pay. On the royalty side, we stay realistic about variability and focus on exposures where the cash flow potential still makes sense across a range of price outcomes.

In securitized markets, residential mortgage-backed securities remain a carry-versus-convexity game. When it spreads tight, you are paid less for the same complexity. When volatility rises, mortgages remind you they are not simple duration instruments. This is why we treat the sector like a craft, not a slogan: collect the carry, respect the structure, and do not reach for yield by taking hidden prepayment risk you would not want to own in a nasty rate move.

Commercial mortgage-backed securities have been steadier at the top of the stack, but commercial real estate remains a tale of two worlds. Strong properties refinance. Weak properties negotiate. And office remains the slow-moving story that keeps drifting through the market. For Easy Income, the mindset stays simple. Senior exposure can make sense when it pays you for uncertainty, but office-heavy risk is its own category. We never pretend it is "just another spread product."

High-grade and high-yield bonds are still doing what we want them to do in this portfolio: provide reliable income, liquidity, and ballast. When spreads are tight, forward returns become more dependent on collecting coupons and less dependent on spreads tightening further. That is fine. It just means we win by being paid, staying diversified, and letting time work for us.

Closed-end fund discounts, activism, and arbitrage remain one of the most interesting hunting grounds precisely because it is not only about credit. It is about structure, governance, and the constant tug-of-war between shareholders and boards. Discounts can persist longer than they should and then change quickly when catalysts appear. The edge comes from owning funds with sustainable payouts, reasonable portfolios, and a credible path to narrowing discounts over time, whether that is via improved sentiment, buybacks, tender offers, activist pressure, or opportunistic portfolio moves.

Community bank debt securities continue to fit beautifully in Easy Income because they sit at the intersection of yield, fundamentals, and real-world banking behavior. These are instruments that reward careful credit work. We want conservative balance sheets, stable funding, manageable credit costs, and issuers that treat capital like something valuable, not something to be played with. We underwrite like bankers, not tourists, and we stay allergic to anything that only works when conditions are perfect.

Bank risk transfer is one of those "quietly important" sectors that keeps growing because it solves a real problem. Banks and housing finance agencies can transfer slices of credit risk to investors, and investors can earn income for taking that measured exposure. The opportunity is real, but the rulebook matters. When a market grows, scrutiny follows, and scrutiny can change pricing and structure. That is why we treat bank risk transfer as a disciplined sleeve: high-quality exposure, diversified, and sized so that we collect the carry without depending on best-case assumptions.

For the high-quality sovereign sleeve in Asia-Pacific, the role is straightforward. It is diversification and stability. You may not get dramatic upside in a world where risk assets are levitating, but you get a high-quality anchor that tends to behave differently when stress shows up elsewhere. It earns its keep-through carry, quality, and portfolio balance.

And U.S. preferred stocks trading below par remain one of the best "get paid" corners of the market when you are disciplined about issuer quality and call structure. Preferreds can look deceptively simple, but they are still instruments whose price can swing with rates and with financial-sector sentiment. The best outcomes come from buying strong issuers at discounts, understanding the call math, and letting the income compound while the market eventually remembers what it owns.

So that is the month in a sentence: markets are liquid, spreads are tight, and income still works. Our job is not to predict every headline. Our job is to own a portfolio designed to keep paying us through whatever the market decides to do next. Ignore the news and collect the cash. That is the Easy Income way.

Virtus InfraCap U.S. Preferred Stock ETF (PFFA) dividend yield about 9.3%
PFFA is our preferred stock income engine, an actively managed ETF built to generate high current income by owning a diversified portfolio of US preferred securities, the kind of above the common stock instruments most often issued by banks and other capital intensive businesses. Preferreds tend to trade on interest rate expectations, credit conditions, and call features more than quarterly earnings noise, which is exactly why they fit our ‘ignore the news and collect the cash' approach.

In this portfolio, PFFA's job is simple, keep the checks coming from an asset class that can be purchased below par and can offer attractive income without forcing us to live and die by equity market mood swings.

Special Opportunities Fund (SPE) dividend yield about 13.4%
SPE is a closed end fund built around special situations and opportunistic investing, which is a fancy way of saying it goes where the mispricing is rather than hugging a traditional index. It has the flexibility to invest across credit and equities, and the reason it earns a seat in Easy Income is because it can tap return streams that do not perfectly overlap with plain vanilla bonds or stock dividends. We are not buying it for day-to-day excitement.

We are buying it because the structure and mandate can produce meaningful cash distributions while the manager looks for catalysts, corporate actions, and value gaps the broader market tends to ignore.

Simplify MBS ETF (MTBA) dividend yield about 6.7%
MTBA is a mortgage-backed securities ETF designed to turn the agency MBS market into a monthly income stream. It is a way to collect mortgage carry from a portfolio centered on high quality MBS exposure, where the main moving parts are interest rates, mortgage spreads, and the quirks of prepayments rather than corporate credit fundamentals.

That is why it belongs here. When you own mortgages, you respect volatility, but you also appreciate how consistently the sector can generate cash flow when managed with discipline.

iShares Mortgage Real Estate ETF (REM) dividend yield about 8.7%
REM is a diversified ETF of mortgage REITs, meaning it owns publicly traded companies whose business model is borrowing and investing in mortgage assets and related structured credit. The income can be substantial because these firms are designed to distribute most of what they earn, but the ride can be bumpy because the group is sensitive to funding costs, yield curve shifts, and changes in mortgage spreads.

In Easy Income, REM is not a steady as a rock holding. It is a get paid well but know what you own holding, an income sleeve that can throw off meaningful cash when the mortgage REIT model is working, while we stay honest about the sector's higher volatility.

Saba Closed End Funds ETF (CEFS) dividend yield about 7.8%
CEFS is our discount and structure tool. It owns closed-end funds and is managed with an eye toward capturing the opportunity that shows up when closed-end funds trade meaningfully below the value of their underlying portfolios. This is not just bond exposure in a different wrapper. The return drivers include discounts widening and narrowing, corporate actions, tender offers, and the slow grind of activism and governance changes that can unlock value. It earns its keep by giving the portfolio a differentiated source of income and potential discount capture without relying solely on the direction of credit spreads.

State Street Blackstone Senior Loan ETF (SRLN) dividend yield about 7.0%
SRLN is a senior loan ETF focused on floating rate bank loans. The appeal is straightforward. These loans generally sit high in the capital structure and their coupons reset with short term rates, which can make the income stream more resilient in a world where cash yields are still meaningful. This is one of the portfolio's cleanest ways to access private credit like carry in a liquid wrapper, with the understanding that you still have corporate credit risk underneath. In Easy Income terms, SRLN is a practical cash flow tool that helps keep portfolio income robust without loading up on traditional bond duration.

Tortoise Energy Infrastructure Corp (TYG) dividend yield about 13.1%
TYG is a closed end fund focused on energy infrastructure, the toll collector businesses that sit behind the scenes moving and storing energy. That is the real attraction here. We are aiming for income tied to long-living assets and cash flow businesses rather than trying to guess the next twist in commodity prices. TYG's distribution is paid monthly, and the fund can use leverage, which can amplify both income and volatility.

In Easy Income, TYG is part of the energy income sleeve where we accept some price swings in exchange for meaningful cash flow tied to essential infrastructure.

Angel Oak Financial Strategies Income Term Trust (FINS) distribution rate about 10.45%
FINS is a term closed end fund built around a banking sector, debt centric strategy. That is a niche most investors ignore, which is exactly why it can be attractive. The portfolio is designed to generate current income from securities tied to financial issuers, and it aims to do it with a profile that can diversify the usual mix of high yield and loans. In Easy Income, FINS is a way to earn strong income from bank related credit exposures without making a direct bet on bank common stocks, while still doing what we always do, watch credit quality, and stay disciplined about what can go wrong.

Asia Pacific Income Fund (FAX) dividend yield about 13.0%
FAX is a closed end fund that gives us income exposure outside the US, with a focus on Asia Pacific fixed income. The role in Easy Income is diversification, different rate cycles, different sovereign and credit exposures, and a return stream that will not always move in lockstep with US corporate credit. It can be influenced by global rates and currency dynamics, so it is not set it and forget it. But it does give us a high-quality sovereign and regional income angle that broad US only portfolios usually miss.

Dorchester Minerals LP (DMLP) dividend yield about 11.9%
DMLP is an oil and gas royalty partnership. The key word there is royalty. It is not an operator running drilling programs and spending piles of capital. It is a vehicle designed to collect cash flows tied to production and commodity realizations. That makes DMLP a natural fit for an income portfolio that wants exposure to energy cash flow without having to own a traditional E and P business model.

The tradeoff is that distributions can vary with commodity prices and production volumes, but the whole point of owning it here is to be paid for that variability over time.

ArrowMark Financial Corp (BANX) dividend yield about 8.2%
BANX is a small specialty finance company that focuses on income producing credit exposures, historically tied to segments like financial sector related credit and other structured areas where investors are paid for complexity. That is why it fits Easy Income. It is not index like exposure, and it is not meant to be smooth every week.

 It is meant to be a niche cash flow tool that can complement the broader credit and securitized sleeves when it is run prudently and when the underlying credit environment remains stable.

Nuveen Real Asset Income and Growth Fund (JRI) market distribution rate about 11.66%
JRI is a closed end fund built to generate income with a real asset tilt. In practice, that typically means a blend of real asset equities and income producing credit exposure that aims to deliver consistent cash distributions, often with some leverage embedded in the structure. We own it because it is designed to be a monthly payer and because real assets can provide a different set of return drivers than plain corporate credit.

 In Easy Income, JRI is a paid to wait holding, collecting the monthly distribution while the market cycles through its latest obsession.

VanEck BDC Income ETF (BIZD) dividend yield about 11.5%
BIZD is the broad basket way to own the BDC sector, which is essentially a collection of middle market lenders. The income is high because BDCs pass through most of their earnings, and much of what they own are floating rate loans that can generate meaningful interest income when base rates are not near zero. The sector's risk is credit, plain and simple, underwriting standards, non-accruals, and how portfolios behave when growth slows.

In Easy Income, BIZD is a core private credit sleeve because it turns the sector into a diversified cash flow stream without forcing us to pick individual winners.

WisdomTree Private Credit and Alternative Income Fund (HYIN) dividend yield about 12.4%
HYIN is designed to provide exposure to private credit and alternative income segments through a packaged fund structure, with the goal of generating a high level of current income. The reason it belongs in Easy Income is diversification of income sources. It is not trying to be just another aggregate bond fund. It is meant to access alternative credit carry, and it tends to pay monthly, which fits the portfolio's cash flow mission.

 As always, we treat it like a credit vehicle. We want the income, but we stay alert to what is driving it and what could pressure distributions if the credit backdrop changes.

Infrastructure Capital Bond Income ETF (BNDS) dividend yield about 7.5%
BNDS is a bond income ETF designed to generate steady cash flow from a multi sector fixed income approach. It is part of the portfolio's bond engine, the sleeve that is supposed to be boring in the best possible way, diversified exposure, consistent income, and a role that complements the more specialized holdings like senior loans, mortgage REITs, and closed end fund discount strategies.

 In Easy Income, BNDS is there to keep the cash payments coming and to help balance the portfolio's overall volatility.

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