ElLobo:

" What you ARE concerned about is future distributions."

Exactly!

From the data I can find, the distributions have been in steady decline for at least 10 years.  We are at the low of an interest rate cycle, so interest rates will start to rise at some time and, hopefully, the VWEHX distributions will rise too.  Initially, however,  the NAV should take a hit from the rising interest rates..

John Bogle, in his book Bogle On Mutual Funds said the following:

"While junk bond funds may provide higher current income to meet day-to-day living expenses, they are likely to do so only with a potential sacrifce of principal."

You and Bill understand this, and that is good; it works for you.

Bogle continues:

"Even if you understand the speculative nature of junk bond funds and are willing to accept the considerable risks they entail, your weighting in these funds should be held to a modest weighting (say, no more than 20%)."

That's a caveat emptor for the rest of us, as demonstrated in the table in my post above.

He goes on (emphasis is mine) :

"Junk bond funds are not for investors who cannot stomach both the inevitable fluctuations in the market value of junk bonds and the possible deterioration of their high initial income."

That's the caveat emptor for me.

Thanks for your and  time best of luck with your portfolio.

Thankfully, we live in this great country where we can accumulate the assets to have these discussion.  Hopefully, we can keep it free.  Have a great Independence Day!

Regards,

Lew