. Download a complimentary copy of FundInvestor . Where did the income go? A recession led high-quality yields lower in 2020, and fiscal and monetary support spurred a lower-quality rebound that kept yields pretty low across the board. But yield isn't everything. As Morningstar's director of personal finance Christine Benz and others have pointed out, you can also invest for total return and sell some of your appreciated mutual funds and stocks to pay some expenses in retirement. Certainly, it makes sense to be flexible rather than chase yield. But to see how things shake out today, I looked at the 13 highest-yielding funds in the Morningstar 500 as of Jan. 25, 2021, though the table shows yields as of March 8. This is one of those "Don't try this at home" things. I select the M500 list mostly on Morningstar Analyst Ratings but also include prominent and up-and-coming funds that may be rated Neutral or not rated. So, it's a fairly safe place for this exercise. If you did this for the whole universe of funds or the whole universe of stocks, you'd come up with a list of risky investments likely to blow up on you.