Consider creating a minimum variance portfolio using five diversified "value" stocks: VZ, JNJ, TGT, JPM, UNP. Go to Yahoo Finance[1] and download/collect monthly (closing price) data for the last 37 months (36 + 1). You may need to search for this data just as I did. Make sure you get the adjusted closing price (i.e., price including dividends) because these stocks all pay dividends. You will likely need to clean up your data to fix broken rows, etc. (For the FAANG stocks that underwent a split or paid dividends). Also collect the current dividend yield, which is the % of your investment that you will receive as income (cash) each year. Assume no company cuts its dividend.

Calculate the monthly returns for each of the five stocks over the last 36 months using your adjusted closing price data (this is why you need the last 36 + 1 = 37 months of data).

Calculate the average monthly return for each of these stocks.

Calculate the Variance-Covariance matrix using Excel's Data Analysis ToolPak. You will need to flesh out the upper part of the matrix because Excel only provides the lower part. Calculate the variance of your portfolio

Now design a minimum variance portfolio based on an initial one million ($1,000,000) dollar investment that:

1. Has an expected total return of at least R% per year, where R can be specified by you, the user. See how your model works for some test values like R = 7%, 8%, 9%, 10%, 11%, etc.

2. Ensures at least $32,000 per year in dividends (a 3.2% yield on the initial $1,000,000 investment).

[1] Go to Yahoo Finance, enter the ticker symbol, click on Historical Data and apply the appropriate filters (monthly, etc.)