Conservative Income · Capital preservation with real yield
More than cash pays. Less than stocks can lose.
Built to earn meaningfully more than cash savings without putting your principal through stock-market-sized drops. For the investor whose first rule is: I can’t stand to lose.
- Backtested return
- 6.27%/yr
- Worst drop
- -12.19%
- Sharpe ratio
- 1.07
- Years tested
- 15
Backtested on actual historical ETF data from July 2011, computed by the open-source Boutquin.Trading engine (as of ). Benchmark: ultra-safe government bonds, which earned 1.74%. Backtested performance is hypothetical and is not indicative of future results.
Why it works
Your money is spread across short-term Treasuries, floating-rate bonds, gold, and dividend-paying stocks tuned for income. When markets get rough, the mix automatically leans harder into the safe assets; when markets are calm, it leans into income. Over 15 years of testing, it earned 6.27% per year against 1.74% for ultra-safe government bonds — with a worst drop of -12.19%. For comparison, the S&P 500 fell about 50% in 2008.
The trade-off
You give up stock-market upside — that’s the price of a floor that holds when stocks crash. This Blueprint is designed for capital preservation, not maximum growth.
What’s inside the Blueprint
Plain-English asset classes by current emphasis — Core, Significant, or Diversifier. The exact ETF tickers and target percentages, in a US or Canadian implementation, are in the subscriber view.
Current weighting as of — emphasis tiers, not exact weights.
Construction: a covariance-aware fallback chain (MeanCVaR → MeanSortino → Hierarchical Risk Parity → equal weight) on a denoised covariance estimate — the mix re-derives every quarter from fresh market data, not a fixed weighting set once and forgotten.
See the full Blueprint — exact tickers, percentages, and backtests.
Conservative Income is available on the Explorer tier (one Blueprint of your choice) and on Builder and Decumulator (all four). Start free with the IQ Score to see which archetype fits your general profile.
Important disclaimers
Educational content only. ETFWealthIQ provides financial education only. Model portfolios are illustrative examples presented for educational purposes and are not personalized investment recommendations. ETFWealthIQ is not a registered investment adviser, portfolio manager, or financial planner. Past performance of model portfolios does not guarantee future results. Before making any investment decision, consult with a qualified financial professional who understands your individual circumstances, goals, and risk tolerance.
Backtested results. All historical performance data represents backtested results computed by open-source software (Boutquin.Trading) using actual historical index and ETF return data. Backtested performance is hypothetical and does not represent actual trading. The source code used to generate these results is publicly available for audit. Actual investment results may differ materially. Past performance is not indicative of future results.
Canadian investors. This educational content does not constitute investment advice under Canadian securities law. The provision of investment advice in Canada requires registration with provincial securities regulators, which ETFWealthIQ does not hold.
Open-source software. The Boutquin.Trading backtesting engine is open-source software provided under the MIT License. It is a general-purpose research tool. Use of this software to make investment decisions is at your own risk. The software authors and ETFWealthIQ are not responsible for any losses incurred.