That’s a great goal and mindset — building a dividend income engine and extending it (with time) to the your son’s portfolio is a smart move. To design something that aims for $1,000/month of income while also maintaining growth and some return in 1–2 years, and doing something similar for your son, you’ll want to think carefully about risk, diversification, taxes, cash flow timing, and capital required.

Below is a framework + considerations + example allocations + a starter plan for your son. You’re welcome to tweak based on your own risk tolerance and capital available.

Key considerations & trade-offs

Before diving into allocations, it’s important to understand some trade-offs and constraints:

What kind of dividend / income vehicles exist (and which you already use)

You mentioned you use ETFs like Diversified, Roundhill, YieldMax, Defiance, GraniteShares, etc. Some more detail:

• There are weekly-paying ETFs (or “WeeklyPay” style) now. For example, Roundhill’s WeeklyPay™ ETF suite provides weekly distributions. Roundhill Investments

• Defiance also has options / 0DTE income / enhanced options income ETFs (some of these pay weekly or have high distribution frequency). StockAnalysis

• There is a list of ETFs that pay monthly distributions (rather than standard quarterly) — useful for smoothing monthly income. StockAnalysis

• For example, JPMorgan Equity Premium Income ETF (JEPI) and Global X Nasdaq 100 Covered Call ETF (QYLD) are common monthly dividend ETFs that generate income via covered calls. NerdWallet

• Many dividend ETFs (e.g. VYM) pay quarterly, which might require layering multiple ETFs to cover all months. Investopedia+2Morningstar+2

So your current strategy of using those more exotic / active-income ETFs (Roundhill, YieldMax, etc.) is a viable way to try to get higher, more frequent income — but you should blend that with more stable “core” dividend / income holdings.

Designing a target allocation for $1,000 / month income

Here’s a sample high-level allocation strategy you might consider (adjust percentages based on risk tolerance). Let’s call this the Income + Growth Hybrid model.

Example allocation (mid-risk)

• Core dividend / blue-chip / “boring but safe” → 30%

• High-frequency / covered-call / income-enhanced ETFs → 35%

• High-yield bond / credit / fixed income → 20%

• Growth / opportunistic equity → 10%

• Cash buffer → 5%

With this, the high-frequency / income-enhanced portion helps you push toward your monthly income goal, the bonds stabilize, and the growth portion gives you some upside in 1–2 years.

You’ll also want to layer in enough “frequency coverage” so that each month (or even each week) is covered — i.e. you don’t have months with zero distributions.

Hypothetical capital needed and yield assumptions

To understand feasibility:

• Suppose you aim for $12,000/year (i.e. ~$1,000/month).

• Suppose your blended yield (after costs, accounting for safe portions and more aggressive portions) is 5.5%.

  • Then required capital ≈ $12,000 ÷ 0.055 = ~ $218,000

• If your blend yield is 6.5%, required capital ≈ $184,615

• If you push yield to 7.5% (higher risk), required capital ≈ $160,000

Thus, unless you already have substantial capital, you’ll need to scale into this. Even once you hit your target, reinvesting part of it (or only taking a portion) helps with longevity.

Suggested “core” ideas / candidates (to include in your mix)

Here are some ETFs or vehicles (or broad types) you might consider (as “core” or “income-enhancers”):

• VYM (Vanguard High Dividend Yield ETF) — a stable, broad, dividend ETF.

• SCHD (Schwab U.S. Dividend Equity ETF) — good reputation for dividend / quality screen.

• JEPI — monthly distribution, uses equity + covered calls. (mentioned above) NerdWallet

• QYLD — Global X Nasdaq 100 Covered Call ETF, monthly paying. StockAnalysis+1

• Covered-call / options-overlay / “enhanced income” ETFs — the suite of Roundhill WeeklyPay, YieldMax, Defiance “0DTE / income” funds. StockAnalysis+2Roundhill Investments+2

• High-yield bond / credit ETFs / preferred shares — to diversify away from purely equity risk

• Select reliable dividend stocks with long histories — to layer over the ETF base

Additionally, when you pick from those “income-enhanced” ETFs, it’s critical to understand their drawdowns, expense ratios, and how they behave in falling markets.

Plan for your 16-year-old son: Starter Income / Growth Hybrid

Because your son is young and has a long time horizon, the approach can skew more toward growth + modest income now, and gradually shift as he gains more capital.

Key principles

1. Start small and build discipline: Even if he invests only a few hundred dollars per month to begin, compounding + habit is powerful.

2. Focus initially on growth + stable dividends: You don’t have to go heavy on exotic income strategies right away.

3. Teach diversification and income layering: Show him how the income “machine” works.

4. Use tax-advantaged accounts (if possible for his age / jurisdiction): Let compounding and tax deferral help.

5. Gradual shift to more income strategies over time: As his portfolio grows and he may want real cash flow, layer in more income-enhancing ETFs.

Sample starter allocation (for his account, modest capital)

• Core dividend / quality stocks / dividend ETFs: 50%

• Growth / thematic / opportunistic: 30%

• Income-enhancers / covered call / higher-yield: 15%

• Fixed-income / bonds / safer income: 5%

Over time (as capital grows), he can gradually increase the “income-enhancer” slice and reduce the growth slice, if he wants to transition into an income-producing portfolio.

You could even mirror (in scaled form) your own allocation in his account (once his portfolio is large enough to meaningfully diversify).

One more key: teach him to reinvest (especially early on) rather than taking distributions — that accelerates growth.

Practical steps to implement & monitoring

1. Decide your yield / income target & capital plan

   • How much capital do you currently have, and how much more will you commit over time?

   • What’s your realistic blended yield goal?

2. Construct “income schedule coverage”

   • Map out which ETFs / stocks pay in which months/weeks.

   • Layer holdings so that each month (or week) has cash flow.

3. Select your holdings (core + income-enhancers + bonds/credit)

   • Pick, say, 10–20 core holdings or ETFs

   • Add 3–5 income-enhancer / covered call / high-frequency ETFs

   • Add 2–5 bond / credit / preferred holdings

4. Allocate capital according to your plan

5. Simulate / backtest (if possible)

   • Use historical distributions to see how the cash flow looks month-to-month

   • Stress test for downturns

6. Monitor & rebalance

   • Track yield, total return, drawdowns

   • Rebalance between buckets (e.g. sell some growth to add to income portion if needed)

   • Watch for dividend cuts or strategy changes

7. For your son

   • Start small, teach the system

   • Gradually shift his allocation over time

   • Encourage long-term holding and reinvestment

To build a realistic, data-driven income allocation plan for both you and your son, I’ll need a few quick details so I can tailor the yield math and risk balance correctly.