Apologies for not being able to post for a long time. This year has been quite busy. As you may recall, we decided to stop taxable brokerage investments in January of this year while we build up our cash position to have at least one year of expenses cash. After exceeding this goal, we decided to start buying BRK.B as a defensive play after we processed expenses for May.
My wife was able to start her Roth 401K mega backdoor in April this year so we have less cash to invest in our taxable than in the past now that she's maxing out pre-tax 401K and contributing to her after tax mega backdoor.
After updating our investment spreadsheets for the past few months, we crossed $2 million in investments for the first time at the end of May 2025 (net worth around $2.6M including our paid off house). In the chart below, you can see how our portfolio follows the market drop that occurred in March/April 2025.
I still feel there are headwinds for our economy if the tariffs continue despite the many pauses and countries looking to make a deal. My hope is that we get back to the old free market before the economy starts tanking. It simply isn't possible to onshore production of certain items we have to import from outside the USA. One example is product that cannot be grown in the USA efficiently or in a cost effective way.
For everyone working in the tech industry, I really hope that Section 174 of the IRS tax code is brought back so that companies can write off research and development costs. This will boost innovation in the USA and keep us at the center of future technologies. The repeal of this tax law has resulted in mass layoffs and a sharp reduction in innovation. This was started in 2017 in order to balance the budget for tax cuts, but I don't think people realized the impact at the time once the law hit the tech industry in 2022.
I'm still hopeful we can get back to business as usual with trade; otherwise, the typical consumer will start feeling the pinch as the tariff costs are passed on to everyone once the reciprocal tariffs hit.
