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Inflation relentlessly erodes purchasing power, making dividend growth essential for income investors to maintain real income. A barbell strategy—combining moderate-yielding dividend growth stocks/ETFs and 6.5%+ yielding investment grade preferreds—offers both growth and current income. AI-driven capex by large-cap S&P 500 firms is powering economic growth and masking weakness among lower-income consumers.

WisdomTree U.S. Value Fund has outperformed IWD since adopting a shareholder yield focus in 2017 but exhibits higher volatility and drawdowns. WTV's strategy blends quality and shareholder yield, emphasizing buybacks and dividends, but its quality metrics lag IWD and DIVB, making it 'quality-aware' rather than 'quality-focused.' With a 5.86% shareholder yield, 14.64x forward P/E, and 13.63% next-year EPS growth, WTV…