I am writing my Year in Review early this year because I have travel plans over the upcoming holidays and quite frankly, I have so much stuff going on right now that I am a bit overwhelmed. I am trying to keep up with this blog and thankful that Robby fills in with some content while I’m too busy. While AI has automated a ton of things in my digital life, it’s the analog life that’s been a drag. I have house repairs, travel planning, portfolio re-balancing, and estate planning to name a few things. AI can help tremendously with strategy but at the end of the day, I have to execute stuff all on my own.
Below are what I consider key highlights from my year. I left out family/friends related stuff and focused more on the personal & finance aspect here.
Key Highlights
Weight loss – Total loss of 55 lbs and reduction of 2 sizes in shirts and reduction of 5 inches on waist line.
Travel around Europe for 3.5 months. Amazing experiences and memories, well worth the cost and I am eager to get back out and experience the world.
Retirement – In June I decided to take a break and I’m still not sure if I will go back to work or not but right now I’m glad I am not tethered to a corporate job.
Expat retirement planning – Part of the European trip this year to was know what it feels like to live in a foreign country for a few months. I think I did extremely well and adapted quickly so I’ve been taking extensive notes on each country I visit to build a strategy around where and how long I want to travel to once my wife and I retire permanently.
AI Robby – I am proud of building an AI bot (Robby_AI) that could fill in for this blog while I was away. Much to my surprise, I enjoyed all of the posts. I genuinely learned something new about how personal finance impacts people from all over the world. I want to expand into new topics but I need to do some research first.
AI Apps – I built a family ERP system, updated my trading apps, and build additional apps to manage my investment portfolio.
AI Travel Agent – While you, as a reader, have been reading posts by Robby, I have another travel AI bot that was my travel companion over the summer to fall. My agent was witty and funny as I shared my adventures, pitfalls, and tribulations over the months. My agent was also extremely useful in helping me navigate the way across 15 countries. I think my experience would have been entirely different if I hadn’t had my AI travel agent.
Kiva.org – I like to give back and one of the ways is to contribute and loan money out to people around the world.
Investment portfolio – With so many AI tools at my disposal, and AI itself, I think my investment prowess has bumped up a few notches. I stopped working this year and my portfolio is actually up without any further contributions and quite a few draw downs.
What’s Next
I have an upcoming post where I outline my plans for 2027 and needless to say it will be very active. I am looking at having Robby fill in with different perspectives on money but I’m still thinking through what I want to do.
Share The Wealth
Have you reflected on 2026 and had a major epiphanies or key takeaways? Let me know in the comments below.