There’s something deeply funny about the modern investor. We claim to want “long-term compounding,” but the second cash hits our brokerage account, we light up like raccoons discovering an unattended pizza. Dividend. Distribution. Yield. Monthly payout. Those words hit investors with the same neurological intensity that casino bells hit gamblers. And honestly? I get it. There’s something emotionally satisfying about receiving cash from an investment. It feels tangible. Real. Concrete. Like your portfolio finally stopped speaking in theoretical PowerPoint language and handed you actual money. But the more time I spend watching investors discuss growth-oriented ETFs that generate cash payouts, the more I realize most people have absolutely no idea where the money is actually coming from. They see a distribution and assume magic occurred. Like somewhere inside the ETF, tiny financial elves manufactured free income while the fund manager played jazz flute beside a Bloomberg term...