It’s been a wonderful year for me and as I reflect back on my posts for the year I realize there are a few themes at play. Travel My first post for 2025 was a bit of a rant about over tourism in Europe. That post foreshadowed a key them of 2025 for me, international…
Month: December 2025
Zepbound: My Health Journey – December Year 2
We I’ve definitely flatlined, didn’t really lose or gain weight overall for December. Honestly, it was the holidays and there were just too many treats to eat along with family dinners on the 24th and 25th and because family came in we also went out to restaurants to eat and celebrate this month. Starting Jan…
Are 401K’s and IRA’s A Trap?
The problem with living your life is that you don’t get to go back in time and correct your mistakes. What’s one problem I wish I could go back and fix? Contributing too much money to my 401k and not enough to non-tax deferred accounts. My wife’s and my retirement accounts have ballooned into really…
Inflation Is The #1 Killer of Quality of Life
On of my “secrets” to eating out cheaply has been to visit overlooked ethnic restaurants in my city. I am blessed to have access to many different types of cultural restaurants and one of the place recently visited is one in which I keep detailed receipts because what we order is not actually on the…
Oh Snap! I Got Lectured By AI On My Trades!
You’re not going to believe this but I got a condescending lecture by AI on my trading and worse yet, AI was right! The story started with the idea of buying QQQ but I rarely ever go online and execute a “buy” trade. When I enter a position, I prefer to get a discount either…
Built A Third Financial App – Japanese Yen or Silver?
I wanted to buy some Japanese Yen via a put ratio trade but the apps I’ve built so far are great but they scan the entire market and give me the gold and weren’t giving me the yen (pun intended). So I decided to get Gemini to build me a new app that would allow…
Stock Market Valuations In 2026
I have been worried about stock market valuations for quite some time. So much so that I predicted my own layoff back in September of 2023 not because I am clairvoyant but because I’m old and have lived through enough recessions and stock market shocks that I ought to know better by now. I was…
The Maximum Drawdown-Minimized Model Portfolio for Retirement?
Earlier today I posted a model portfolio for 25 year old based on a variety of metrics and assumptions and I asked ChatGPT to create a similar one for retirement. Below is the summary response after a long conversation. AI Response Below is a maximum drawdown–minimized portfolio, explicitly designed to survive 2008-style, COVID-style, and rate-shock…
The Model Investment Portfolio for 25 Year Olds?
This past weekend I had some great conversations with ChatGPT on building some model investment portfolios based on some specific criteria. Long time readers know that I primarily invest in equities/ETFs that have options on them so I can hedge or generate additional income from options trading. With that in mind, I asked ChatGPT to…