Income investors may want to branch out beyond S&P 500 ETFs to boost their passive income stream.

The S&P 500 has historically averaged a return of around 10% per year -- making it a powerful tool for growing your wealth over time. But its gains have been much bigger lately, with 2023 and 2024 each notching returns of more than 20%. In 2025, we aren't even through August and the S&P 500 is up 9.7% year to date.

The S&P 500 has been going up faster than its dividend growth rate, which has pushed its average yield down to just 1.2% -- as evidenced by the largest low-cost exchange-traded fund (ETF) that tracks the index -- the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF ( VOO -0.39% ) . For context, the S&P 500 yielded around 2% a decade ago.

Here's why the Vanguard Mega Cap Value ETF ( MGV

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