That 300-basis point difference, which is widening by the month, will, if the gap continues to grow, hit a tipping point where capital flows directly from stocks to bonds. Ergo: the beginning of Bear Market 2006.

But if you are invested for income plus capital growth over the very long-term, then you ought to be looking at Exchange Traded Funds that have been built for such purposes.

On Saturday, John Spence of MarketWatch reviewed these ETF's, and the article is worth your next five minutes.

You will read about DVY, PFM, PHJ and PEY. I like the notion of PEY. :-) ; even if this ETF has not had a great February.

I don't particularly like the total return of the oldest and biggest of this group (DVY). Nor do I like the fact that there are no put and call options on it like there is for the other three.

As you know, for income I like to follow the weekly and daily data RSI to where it falls below the 30 line. And then, other factors being considered, such as a bottoming RSI on the broad market indexes, I would write put options at strike prices that are attractive to me. That way I get to either buy the ETF (or stock) at a price I like or I take in the options premium if it expires worthless.

This is a slow but methodical way of increasing your income and beating the broad market indexes over multiple years. Besides, if you are semi-retired " like me :-) " you get to enjoy the intellectual stimulation.