The S&P 500 dividend yield sits near 1%, the lowest in over a century. For a million-dollar portfolio, that means just $10,000 a year in dividends-far below historical averages and well under what U.S. Treasuries pay now.

Nancy Gates, Boldin's financial experience principal, points out: 'A 1% yield changes the math on retirement income strategies. The good news is the adjustments aren't complicated.'

Why has the yield fallen so low? The index is dominated by tech giants like Apple, Nvidia, and Microsoft-companies that reinvest earnings rather than pay dividends. Nearly 41% of the S&P 500's market weight is in these low-dividend stocks. As Gates puts it, 'When nearly half the weight comes from students who skip the assignment, the class average drops.'

Consider Carol, a 68-year-old with $1 million drawing $40,000 annually. At 1%, she gets $10,800 in dividends. She must sell shares for the remaining $29,200, exposing her to sequence-of-returns risk. At a 3% yield, she'd only need to sell $10,000 worth of shares. The difference is a structural change in risk exposure.

Medium- and long-term Treasuries now yield 4% to 5%, generating four to five times more income than the S&P 500. A $1 million Treasury portfolio at 4% produces $40,000 a year without selling a single share. The spread between Treasury yields and the index dividend is the widest in a generation.

The solution: build an income floor. Use Social Security plus a Treasury ladder to cover essential expenses like housing and healthcare. Diane, a 67-year-old with $800,000 in investments and $2,200 monthly Social Security, covers her $3,500 essential monthly costs by adding a $1,300 Treasury ladder. Her equities stay invested through market downturns.

A Treasury ladder staggers bond maturities over years, returning principal predictably. Identify your annual shortfall, divide it into 'rungs' over 10 to 30 years, and purchase Treasuries at staggered maturities. Hold to maturity. The main trade-off is liquidity: selling before maturity may mean accepting a market price that doesn't fit your plan.

'This isn't for travel and Netflix,' Gates says. 'The floor covers what you can't go without: housing, healthcare, groceries. Your equity portfolio handles the rest.'