A few months back I wrote about QQQI and why a monthly cadence changes the compounding math. The natural follow-up question I kept getting was: "how does it compare to JEPI?" Both funds sell the same promise — a monthly paycheck from an ETF — but the headline yields are wildly different: ~14.2% TTM for QQQI vs ~8.2% for JEPI in my latest data refresh. Six points.
That gap isn't marketing. It's the fingerprint of two different option machines bolted onto two different portfolios. Here's the actual math, using both funds' real distribution data.
The raw numbers (September refresh)
My site pulls distributions monthly; this is the snapshot as of 2026-09-16:
| QQQI | JEPI | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $53.89 | $56.19 |
| TTM yield | 14.19% | 8.16% |
| Latest monthly distribution | $0.652 | $0.371 |
| Prior two | $0.657, $0.635 | $0.387, $0.367 |
| Cadence | monthly | monthly |
Two things jump out. First, the yield gap — nearly 1.74×. Second, look at the distribution trend columns: neither fund's payment is growing. QQQI went 0.657 → 0.635 → 0.652 (a dip, then recovery, net flat). JEPI went 0.387 → 0.367 → 0.371 (net down ~4%). That's not a bug — option-income funds distribute premium, and premium tracks volatility, not dividend policy. Compare that to a dividend-growth fund like SCHD, where the quarterly payment grinds upward year after year. Different animals.
The income math, both directions
Forward income from a lump sum is one pure function:
import { monthlyDividendIncome } from 'dividend-math';
// $50,000 into each, at current TTM yields
monthlyDividendIncome({ investment: 50000, dividendYieldPct: 14.19 }); // → ~$591.25/month (QQQI)
monthlyDividendIncome({ investment: 50000, dividendYieldPct: 8.16 }); // → ~$340.00/month (JEPI)
Same capital, $251/month difference. But the more honest direction is the inverse — how much capital does a target paycheck need:
const capitalFor = (monthlyTarget: number, yieldPct: number) =>
(monthlyTarget * 12) / (yieldPct / 100);
capitalFor(1000, 14.19); // → ~$84,600 (QQQI)
capitalFor(1000, 8.16); // → ~$147,100 (JEPI)
For the same $1,000/month, JEPI needs ~74% more capital. That's the yield gap translated into dollars. If you're planning income rather than chasing yields, this inverse framing is the one that matters — it's why I built the monthly dividend calculator to work backwards from the income you want to the capital required.
What the gap is buying you
Here's the part a yield table will never show. Those six extra points aren't free money — they're compensation for structural differences:
- QQQI (NEOS Nasdaq-100 High Income) holds Nasdaq-100 exposure plus a synthetic covered-call overlay built on index options and swaps. You're selling upside on a growth-heavy index, and the tax mechanics of the structure have their own wrinkles — worth reading the prospectus, not a blog.
- JEPI (JPMorgan Equity Premium Income) is an actively managed, low-volatility large-cap basket with equity-linked notes replicating covered calls. More defensive underlying, less call premium harvested, lower headline yield.
Same paycheck cadence, very different ride underneath: one is a leveraged-feeling bet on tech with the upside sold away, the other a value tilt with milder optionality. When a drawdown comes, the Nasdaq-heavy machine will feel it more — that's precisely what the extra premium is pricing.
In my last post I asked how people model NAV erosion in reinvestment sims — flat haircut on the yield, or a price-growth assumption below the index. Having now run both funds through dripCalculator at these yields: at 8–14% distributions, the two methods land within noise of each other over a decade. The knob that moves the 10-year number far more is whether you reinvest at all:
import { dripCalculator } from 'dividend-math';
// QQQI, distributions reinvested, no growth assumptions flattered
dripCalculator({
initialInvestment: 50000, price: 53.89,
dividendYieldPct: 14.19, dividendGrowthPct: 0, // option income doesn't 'grow'
priceGrowthPct: 2, monthlyContribution: 0, years: 10,
});
With dividendGrowthPct: 0 on both — which the recent distribution data says is the honest assumption — the compounding comes almost entirely from reinvestment frequency, not growth. (I set QQQI's priceGrowthPct a notch above JEPI's in my baseline, which is a statement about the underlying index, not a forecast.)
The calendar detail nobody prices in
There's one operational difference that doesn't show up in any yield comparison: when in the month the paycheck lands. From the actual ex-date history — QQQI's distributions have gone ex mid-month (Jun 16, Jul 22, Aug 19; next projected Oct 14), while JEPI's go ex at the start (Jul 1, Aug 3, Sep 1; next projected Oct 1). Hold both and your income staggers across the month instead of arriving in one clump.
That's exactly the kind of detail the dedicated pages exist for: the QQQI dividend calculator page carries the live distribution history and projected ex-dates on its own ticker, and the JEPI dividend calendar does the same for JEPI (next projected: Oct 1, Oct 31, Nov 30). Both update from the same monthly data refresh that produced every number in this post.
Reproduce every number here
- Live calculators: dividendpayoutcalculator.com — QQQI, JEPI-adjacent monthly income, DRIP, yield, payout ratio, all driven by the same engine
-
Library:
npm install dividend-math— pure functions, MIT - Source + tests: github.com/a353551071/dividend-math
Engineering + math post, not financial advice. Option-income funds carry real NAV, distribution, and tax complexity — model scenarios, don't pick tickers from a blog.
Genuine question for holders of either fund: do you reinvest the monthly distribution or take it as cash? At these yield levels that single choice moves the 10-year outcome more than the QQQI-vs-JEPI gap itself — and I suspect the answer splits cleanly between "accumulation phase" and "paycheck phase" people.
Top comments (1)
The yield gap is real, but two numbers in the table do not quite describe the same thing. Using your own latest distributions, annualised against price: QQQI is 0.652 × 12 / 53.89 = 14.5%, JEPI is 0.371 × 12 / 56.19 = 7.9%. TTM gives 14.19% and 8.16%. JEPI's run-rate is below its TTM figure because its payments fell about 4% over your three months (0.387 → 0.371), so the TTM yield flatters the forward income. On the run-rate the ratio is 1.83×, not 1.74×, and the "74% more capital" for $1,000 a month becomes about 83% (12,000 / 0.0792 ≈ $151,500 vs 12,000 / 0.1452 ≈ $82,600).
The other thing a monthly-income calculator cannot show is what the distribution is made of. Option-income funds often pay part of it as return of capital, so a 14% distribution rate is not a 14% return, and NAV erosion shows up in the price, not the yield. Your DRIP example uses
priceGrowthPct: 2for QQQI. Replacing that with the fund's actual price change since inception, over the same dates as the distributions, would tell you if 2% is reasonable. Total return (price plus distributions) against the Nasdaq-100 itself is the fairer comparison to run.What did you use for the TTM window: the last 12 ex-dates, or the last 12 calendar months? With ex-dates drifting between mid-month and the start of the month, those two can differ by a payment.