Bill,

"Thanks for that long explanation"

Unless you have experience with things like CEFs, or domestic royalty trusts, MLPs, and such beasts, the concept of 'return of capital' seems a bit strange.  Vanguard very prominently mentions this in the descriptions of the new funds.  This is the one new feature of the new Vanguard funds, and OEFs in general.  They think their Managed Payout Strategy is so unique that they say they have a patent pending on the strategy. (check the asterisk footnote).

The reason I started this thread was to get a detailed discussion going of how MPO works.  The nuts and bolts, so to speak (or have the nuts bolted?)  God knows we've spent a ton of time discussing ADVDX and Dividend Capture, with little agreement as to what is really involved in it.  There was no sense in reinventing the wheel from now on each time these new Vanguard funds get mentioned.

Question:  How would you ever patent a strategy?

"To me a fund that relies on growth and income combined is a total return fund."

Relies on growth for what?  All funds generate a total return, be it positive or negative.

I, too have nothing to speak of in taxable accounts, just under 50% in Roths, the rest in tax deferred accounts.