Success in Sports is 90% Mental

"Baseball is 90% mental.  Then other half is physical." ~ Yogi Berra

My son is starting to learn the truth of that quote for tennis.  

Up until a few weeks ago, he was focusing on the physical part,  perfecting his forehand and backhand, and improving his footwork.  He was doing great in these areas, much better than I ever was.  However, he still rarely won a match in local tennis tournaments, even tough his skills were very close to his competitors. 

I had told his coach my observation that he was hitting well but wasn't trying to points.  His coach's advice was that will come with time and experience.

A couple months ago, I decided to help my son gains some experience.   Up until couple years ago, I could play competitively with my son despite him having better form and skills. However, about a year ago, he started to beat me regularly.  Yeah, I have some excuses, like recovery from major surgery, but the reality was he got a lot better.  

Thus, I decided to work on the 90% mental part.   One day, I told him at the start of match he was spotting me 4 games won and letting me have 15 points at the start of each game.  He complained that was unfair and almost quit playing.  He played anyway and I won both sets.

However, we have continued to do this.  Now every point mattered and he needed to work towards winning points, since losing a point was an issue.   Before long, he started beating me.   Then winning tournaments started happening regularly. 

He has made great progress and now I'm upping the stakes.  I've started to anticipate and disrupt his rhythm so that I can win points.   In addition, I'm taking advantage of his few weaknesses.   With him spotting me the same lead, I'm regularly winning a set or two.  I expect he will figure out how to overcome my plays and start beating me regularly again.

Yes, sports are 90% mental and my son realizes that much better than if I just explained it to him.

For more on New Beginnings, check back every  Sunday for a new segment.

This is not financial, parenting, nor sports practice advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2026 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

U.S. Issues with Debt and Interest Payment

Here's a brief article on the current status of the U.S. debt of $39 trillion.

Bessent's Treasury has troubling news for every taxpayer

I expect the economy will be in deep doo-doo in the next few years, if not sooner, if the Federal government doesn't take action to resolve the debt issue.

For more on Reflections and Musings, check back every Saturday for a new segment.

This is not financial nor policy advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2026 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Stock Market is Looking Really Ugly

The market sentiment is worsening.  With memory stocks falling precipitously, SAAS stocks still down,  AI stocks taking a hit, and even Space stock taking a dive, there doesn't appear anywhere that is protected, except maybe fixed income.  Wall Street Bets is now highly negative with numerous losses being posted.

The declines are becoming bigger, the recoveries are becoming smaller, leading to more investors carrying losses.  Some may start panic selling.  I know I'm starting to feel the urge to close out some of my small gains. 

However, I keep reminding myself of our strategy to create a monthly retirement "paycheck," and I stay the course.   I continue to hodl the majority of our investment positions, with only sales of peripheral small positions.   If the market continues to decline, it will be a first test of our "paycheck" strategy.

For more on Reflections and Musings, check back every  Saturday for a new segment.

This is not financial, retirement, nor investment advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2026 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Volatility is Back and I Don't Care for Now

First, it was SAAS dropping and not recovering.  Now, it's memory stocks dropping 30-40% after a 9 month parabolic run and all time highs last week.  What's next??  The answer is:  I don't know.  The market may go down, stay the same or go up.  Hopefully, my new strategy will enable me not to care.

Why?   In the past year, I've sent up our investments to create a monthly "paycheck," which will be independent of market volatility.  However, since I created the "paycheck" the market has not had a major pullback.  Most of the time, it has rebounded quickly.

This time, it may continue downward for a longer period.  My immediate reaction will be to do nothing, no adding new positions, and neither selling nor buying for existing positions other that to thin out individual stocks or adding market ETFs.

Will I be agnostic to volatility?   I hope so. We shall see.

For more on Reaping the Rewards, check back every Friday  for a new segment.

This is not financial nor investment advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2026 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Being In the Zone

Sometimes in sports, everything goes one's way.   Winning hits, terrific runs, amazing goal scores, terrific shots or streaks and more.  I haven't been in the zone much, but when it happens, it's great.   The baseball and tennis ball  looks like a watermelon and is going in slow motion.  The basketball hoop or soccer goal looks 3 times bigger. In football, the gaps on the defense look bigger than a Macke truck and players are in slow motion.

 A few years ago, I was subbing in a tennis group despite not playing much.  I happen to be in the zone and helped my partner win the championship that night by getting and making shots beyond my normal capability.  Recently, my son was in the zone playing in a tennis tournament.  He won his matches 6-0, 6-0 and 6-2 for the championship. He didn't seem to be able to do anything wrong and easily won points. 

Being in the zone is great.  I hope my son experiences the feeling many more times in sports and in life.

For more on Crossing Generations, check back every Thursday for a new segment.

This is not financial, investment, nor sports advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2026 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Using Inherited IRAs to Fund Current Roth Contributions

Here is a great hack for student with summer jobs and zero tax liability.

When my mom was alive, I set up her retirement accounts to have her grandchildren as the beneficiaries. My rationale was that the RMDs for minor children would be much lower than for my sister or me.  This has worked out that way.   However, it has created the complexity of additional accounts to track and manage.

Now that my daughter is old enough to work, I have a solution that will simplify the accounts and maintain tax free growth of a Roth IRA. First I will withdraw in entirety the traditional IRA over three years, to stay below $450 of unearned income to avoid federal taxes on her income.   These withdrawals will immediately be use as Roth IRA contributions.   Next, we will withdraw funds from the inherited Roth to fund current Roth IRA contributions.

Over 3-4 years, all the inherited IRA funds will be withdrawn and put in her contributory Roth IRA.  Eliminates two accounts that have RMDs (that need to be calculated and withdrawn each year) and funds her Roth IRA completely, without using funds from her current income.  

For more on The Practice of Personal Finance, check back every Wednesday  for a new segment.

This is not financial, IRA, nor tax advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2026 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Freezer Not Cold Enough - Fixed

A couple weeks ago, I noticed the ice cream was softer than usual.  I thought it was because it was moved to a different section in the freezer. Then my son noticed the freezer temperature was 10F instead of the target 0F.  Ah, the real cause!

In the past, the usual solution was to clean the condenser coils.  Our fridge is 23 years old and I've done this two times in the past, with success.  However, our condenser coils are underneath the fridge and are not easily accessible.  I decide to check for other possible solution.  

According to the Internet, there were two possibilities:

• Condenser coils are caked with dust and need to be cleaned.
• Freeze is too packed and blocking cold air from the vents.

In our case, I expect one or both possibilities could be the cause.  I decided to go with cleaning the condenser coils first, which involves unplugging the appliance,  removing the lower grill on the front, pulling the refrigerator out, taking off the lower access panel in the back.  With a narrow brush, I removed dust near the opening.  Using a leaf blower, I blew out dust from the front first.   Then I blew out dust from the back.    As an added benefit, I vacuumed the space underneath the refrigerator, while vacuuming all the blown out dust.

Reassembled and plugged back the refrigerator.   The indicator started at 16F and slowly declined to 8F.  I stopped watching and checked back after an hour.   Success, the freezer was at 0F and we avoided a charge for a service call.

For more on Ideas You Can Use, check back every Tuesday for a new segment.

This is not financial, maintenance, nor repair advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2026 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Managing Our Kids Tax Returns

When I first started working summers, my dad did my tax returns.  That was a great help and relief to me.   Now I'm doing the same for my kids.   One difference now is that tax returns are more complicated, but tax relief for dependents is more frequent, if one fills out the return properly. My dependent kids are exempt for federal and state taxes if they earn less than $16,100 in wages, or less than wages + 450 unearned income up to $16,100.  If they only have unearned income, they need to have less than $1350 income to be tax free.

For my daughter, who will earn less than $16,100, I ensure she has less than $450 of unearned income.  For my son, I ensure he has less than $1350 of unearned income.   If I meet this income criteria, they are tax exempt and do not need to file a tax return.

For federal tax withholding, my daughter can fill out a W-4 exemption from withhold and have zero dollars withheld.  Thus, no federal tax return is needed.  Unfortunately, there is no exception for withholding in our state.  Thus, my daughter needs to file a state tax return each year to get 100% of state withheld taxes refunded.  I am authorized to file on her behalf and do so since I can get it done in less than an hour.

I plan on doing tax return gratis for my kids to help them get through their first few years of full time employment.  

For more on Strategies and Plans, check back every Monday for a new segment.

This is not financial nor tax advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2026 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

I Quit Buying the Dip

I've stopped buying the dips.  I admit that is has been exciting, an adrenaline rush, that I have enjoyed; but it's not a long term situation that is sustainable. It requires more attention and work than I want in the future.  The index funds are less exciting, but less volatile, and require much less attention.  Overall, I have done better with the index funds than the individual stocks at this point.  Thus, I'm moving back to thinning out my individual stock holdings and investing in broad market equity funds and fixed income.

Basically, it's no longer fun and is becoming stressful.  If I had sold all my buy the dip stocks when initially profitable, I would have made money on all but one.  Instead, I held, hoping for bigger gains and instead half of them dropped to 52 week lows.  Psychologically,  I'm now a long term investor (cynically known as bag holder), waiting for them to profitable again, if ever.   Definitely, not fun and is stressful.

However, I plan to still hodl the buy the dip software stocks I purchased in February 2026.   I won't add to them if they decline further, and I won't sell if get slightly above breakeven.   Also, I still reserve the option to occasionally purchase an individual stock, but I plan to add no new positions and, longer term, reduce to only 10-20 individual stock positions maximum.

For more on New Beginnings, check back every  Sunday for a new segment.

This is not financial, stock picking, nor stock investment advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2026 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Spider on Shower Caddy

I take my showers in the basement bath to avoid bothering my spouse since I shower both early and late when she might be sleeping.  Since it is the basement, we occasionally get some bugs on the floor.  Not being one to kill bugs, I usually pick them up and move them outside.

This time I decided to leave this spider in place since it is small and would be hard to catch without harming it.  I wondered how it would get food, since the bathroom was devoid of flying insects.  I wondered how long it would stay, since it's been there since June 30, 2026.  Since the spider is not causing any issues for me, I'm inclined to leave it alone.

For more on Reflections and Musings, check back every Saturday for a new segment.

This is not financial advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2026 Achievement Catalyst, LLC