Automating Investing for Growth and Income

My plan for managing our investments in retirement keeps evolving.   My initial approach was to simplify our investments by:

• Selling most individual stocks, but doing so in a tax efficient way and waiting for some postions to become profitable.
• Moving from stock investments to market index mutual funds or ETFs.
• Moving from bond/CD investments to mutual funds or ETFs.
• Automatically withdraw interest and dividend income from taxable accounts.  

I implemented the automatic withdrawal of interest and dividends right away, and that part has worked out well.  In the first week of the month, we receive all the interest and dividends from our taxable account.  This distribution is about 50% of our monthly income.

Otherwise, the process has been slow.  Some of my stock positions have large gains, and it would be not tax efficient to sell them yet.   Some of my losses are in tax advantaged accounts and there is no tax benefit to selling them right away when there is a chance of recovering and become profitable, even though a small chance. I'm slowly moving into bond mutual funds, mostly municipal bond fund so far.  On the other hand, I hold some 10 to 15 year treasuries and agency bonds that I prefer to hold to maturity instead of selling and converting to a bond mutual fund.

Then again, it's tough to give up old habits which caused a distraction in February 2026 when I bought the dip on SAAS software stocks.   It gives me some excitement, entertainment and fun, but I need to restrict do this much less in the future

Finally, I decided to investigate a slightly different approach.   Schwab offers a robotic investment feature called Schwab Intelligent Portfolios.  It seems to offer an investment platform that meets my criteria for being  perpetually very low involvement and automatically adaptive.  This might be what I'm looking for when I am no longer interested nor able to manage our investments.  I've decided to open three Intelligent Portfolio strategies and evaluate if the platform will meet my needs.

Disclosure:  I was not compensated by Schwab for writing this post.

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

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

Copyright © 2026 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

War Used to Make Markets Decline Signifcantly - Maybe Not Anymore

Based on my memory, which I did not fact check, war used to make the market decline significantly in the near term.  The two I remember were Desert Storm in 1990 and the Russia/Ukraine in 2022.  In 1990, I was very concerned.  I had some recent stock purchases that had big declines.  As soon as the stocks recovered, I sold them for a small profit.  Of course, when I sold the market did recover.

In 2022, Russia went to war with Ukraine and the market dropped.  In fact, the drop was followed by a bear market that didn't end until 2023.   I have significant losses during that drop.

With the war in Iran, this time the market seems to have remained flat to slight down in the first week so far.  At this point, I am surprised the market has responded with more negativity and declines.   At this point, I am holding, including the purchases made in February 2026, which surprisingly are up.

It's too soon to conclude that the Iran conflict won't result in a big decline, but for now, my accounts are flat or slightly up despite the relatively high volatility during the day.

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

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

Copyright © 2026 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Did Pam Bondi Call the Stock Market Top?

During an intense grilling before Congress about the Epstein files on February 11, 2026, Pam Bondi, the U.S. Attorney General,  responded with a non sequitur deflection, "The DOW is over 50,000 right now..." touting the economic achievements of the Trump administration with the all time high of the DOW.    The DOW immediately fell the next day to below 50,000.

The DOW has stayed below 50,000 since then and  fallen since to a 47,501 close on Friday, March 6, 2026.

This begs the question, "Did Pam Bondi call the stock market top?"😢   We shall see.🤡

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

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

Copyright © 2026 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Roomba is my Preferred Type of Robot

It seems humanoid robots are the desirable execution for many people.   Not me.  I prefer robots like our Roomba.

Living with a humanoid robot seems creepy to me.  I expect it will be given a personality and other human characteristics.   It will be a creature that I don't want to establish a relationship with. On the other hand, it will act as if it is a friend or family to serve me.   I'm sure it will observe and make a record of my requests and actions.   I'm sure it will remember personal and confidential information.  And I won't know who else is accessing that data and information.   This is one reason I won't buy new cars that have extensive software or subscription services.   I'm sure every bit of data is being used by the manufacturer or provider.

The Roomba has no personality or human characteristics.  It doesn't interact with me.  Roomba just does it job when I press a button since I don't schedule it to clean.  And it's easy to maintain.  I order a new battery every 2 years and replace some parts periodically.   No relationship expected.

Similarly, our dishwasher and washing machine are able to modify how they clean by detecting levels of "dirt."   Otherwise, it just does it's job and doesn't require personal interaction from me other than adding detergent, choosing a cycle and pressing a button.

It will be interesting to see where the robot design ends up in a few years.

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

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

Copyright © 2026 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

I Was Lucky, Not Brilliant

Well, most of my buy the dip stocks have advanced in the past couple weeks, with a couple returning about 25% so far.   At first, the stocks either went down further or bounce up and down significantly.  I was concerned that they would drop much further.  However, it now appears that I was just early since it looks like most have bottomed a couple weeks after I purchased them.  I clearly was lucky, especially since war with Iran happened, which typically causes stocks to fall.

During that time, I went through several bouts of excitement, dismay, and anxiety since there was significant volatility in February 2026 followed by the war with Iran.  Was I brilliant?  No way.   I consider myself extremely lucky right now.  I happen to pick the right stocks at the right time, which is very difficult to do.   

I will continue to hold the buy the dip stocks, hoping that all will become positive.  I may scale out of some positions and take profits if they continue to advance.   Otherwise, I may hold for a few months and then sell.

Overall, this has been a good experience so far.  However, I do not plan to buy the dip on this scale again. Too much stress and anxiety for me when depending on luck.

Disclosure:  The stocks I bought on the dip were:  MSFT, TSLA, NOW, CRM, TEAM, ADBE, ACN, NFLX, UNH, and PYPL.  The ETFs I bought on the dip were:  VOO, RSP, MGK, and SCHD.

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

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

Copyright © 2026 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Routine is Good for Me

Routine is present for kids.  Routine is present when in school. Routine is present when working. There usually is no routine in retirement.   However, routine is good, even in retirement.

The last few years, I have had no scheduled commitments, with the exception of a small social men's tennis league that I manage which plays once a week.  Other than that, I spend some time on the various projects I work on, but there is no sense of urgency.

Lately, I've been doing Cardiac Rehab, which is schedule Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for the next 12 weeks.  I decided to the 8AM session.  This has created routine for me.  I prepare my exercise bag the night before.  I also prepare a small post exercise meal, since I am vegetarian and need to eat every 2 hours. In the morning, I make breakfast for my son before school, and then leave for rehab. Afterwards, I run my errands to grocery, hardware or other stores.   Then I come home and work on the projects, which includes managing our financial investments.

Previously, I would spend most of the day in the house, working on different house projects, checking on investments, but without any well defined endpoints.  With the new routine, I feel I need to meet deadlines, or else fall way behind.

The good news is that routine is keeping me energized to complete project and advance our financial situation.   I used to think having lots of free time would be great.  Now I feel having a schedule with endpoints is much better.   Who knew having a routine and schedule would help create better sense of purpose in retirement.  

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

This is not financial, planning nor aging advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2026 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Simple Template for Wealth Building

I read this on LinkedIn and am passing it on.

Overall, I think this a great framework.  My only input is that I would allocate debt repayment (e.g. student loans) to the 50% needs allocation.

Of course, YMMV.

Credit: Tiras Wealth Managment

Disclosure:  I was not compensated by Tiras Wealth Management for writing this post.

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

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

Copyright © 2026 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Removing Friction is a Great Business Strategy

I used think product and pricing were the most important elements for business success.   While I still think product and pricing are important, I now believe making the consumer experience as easy as possible is the most important factor.

Here's one example for the DIYer.   In the past, to fix something, I would take the part to Lowe's or Home Depot, walk around the store, talk to an associate, compare the part to what I have, buy it and bring it home.   It would take me 20 minutes to drive and park, 30-60 minutes in the store, and 30 minutes to return home.   Now I can look 15 minutes online for the part, order it and get it delivered for free in 1-2 days, try the part and only drive back 20 minutes if I got the wrong part.   The process now take 60 to 90 minutes less time.   Home Depot has a 1 year return policy for those that use the Home Depot credit card and Lowe's has a 5% automatic discount for card holders and a 90 day return policy.  Easy peasy.

Here's another example for the Costco shopper.   Costco now has a 30 day price match guarantee.  If I buy it and the price goes down within 30 days, I am refunded the difference.   Costco also has a forever satisfaction guarantee return policy on most items, except electronics and computers, which are 90 days.  Rather than deal with manufacturer warrantees, I let Costco handle by returning items that stop working in the first couple years.   

In both examples, the stores are within few miles of my house and I pass by them when doing other errands.  Thus, no additional travel effort on my part to return items.  

Disclosure:  I was not compensated by Costco, Lowe's nor Home Depot for writing this post.

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

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

Copyright © 2026 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Outcome Bias -YMMV

Our brains look for patterns especially patterns that appear to result in success.

We assume that successful outcomes result from taking certain actions or making certain choices based on those who have been successful.  For example, to be a very successful investor, do what Warren Buffet would do would be recommendation based on his success results.  Naturally, people believe that doing what successful people have done will lead to success.

The main fallacy with this logic is that it rarely includes those people that took similar actions and make similar decisions and did not succeed.   What if 99 other people were Warren Buffet like but did not get the same great results or even lost money.  That would imply there is only a 1% chance of success using the Warren Buffet methodology, which is not a high probability.  Another fallacy is that we don't know every one of Warren Buffet's actions or choices on what to do or not do.   One of those missing pieces of information may have been the key to success.  Finally, we don't know how much luck, or factors not in Warren Buffet's control, contributed to his success.

All of these factors suggest that doing what one thinks other successful people have done does not guarantee one will also be successful.  YMMV when using strategies and plans that were previously led to successful outcomes.

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

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

Copyright © 2026 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Falling More than Ever When Snow Skiing

Since having open heart surgery in 2024 and missing the 24/25 skiing season, I have seen a decline in my snow skiing capability.   This year, I have skied less than normal and have fallen as many times this season than cumulatively over the past 10 years.  Not only have I fallen on the tougher slopes, but I have fallen getting off the lifts and even fell once just standing around.   One time I fell twice during same ski run on a relative short but steep double black slope.

I realize now that I'm starting to experience significant declines in previous capabilities with aging and, in some cases, due to the heart surgery.  I've learned time and aging doesn't wait. My solution is to get out more early and often to do the things I enjoy, before the inevitable decline prevent the ability to do so. 

Oh well... it's off to skiing next week before spring weather comes and before another birthday happens.

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

This is not financial, aging nor health advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2026 Achievement Catalyst, LLC