Welcome to Graham's Gazette, your home base for all things investing, financial, and personal growth! This week we will deep dive into the Freedom Fund history, the importance on slowing down and creating an investing plan, and creating a mindset around taking calculated risks.

I am coming to you live from the Dominican Republic and have had a relaxing reset week to gather my thoughts on the past few years of my life to help share some resources that have helped me and tools to get started on your journey. Over the past 5 years I have taken little to no vacations and have been dedicated to my career growth so don’t get used to me as a travel influencer we are back to the grind next week 🙂 

Big 3 - Market Notes

This week has honestly been a pretty eventful week and usually I don’t give our clickbait media the benefit of the doubt. Between escalated Israel/Iran conflict, Bitcoin halving event, and some really interesting data on real estate below are some of the most interesting topics I followed this week:

Iran Attacks Israel - AP News Article

• This week Iran decided to attack Israel with UAV’s, ballistic, and cruise missile. Due to the Israeli and US defense systems in place only about 1% of the attack hit the ground.

• The U.S. House of Representatives are trying to decide on what action of funding to take for supporting Israel and Ukraine again this week (see article on details here).

• The world is watching to see how the U.S. supports the conflicts in both regions to mitigate the potential escalation in the Middle East.

• Personally I think the U.S. Defense industry will benefit from continued financial support in these conflicts however everything comes with a cost on humanity that can’t be forgotten about.

• If you think all the tax dollars are going towards the defense of other nations think again. The U.S. Missile Defense Agency just announced a new $17B deal with Lockheed Martin ($LMT) to create the next generation of missile defense systems to defend the U.S. against intercontinental missile attacks.

Bitcoin Halving Event - CNBC Article

• Every 4 years Bitcoin has a “halving” event where the currency creates a scarcity event and cuts the supply of mining it by half.

• What does this mean? Imagine there is only one coffee bean farm in the world. And it is produced with a finite amount of plants. And every hour someone comes and cuts down one of the plants. At first there are tons of plants so it is no big deal that it gets cut down. But every 4 years the farmer decides to plant new coffee plants, but this time they are only able to plant half the amount of plants they were able to before. So now instead of the abundance of acres of coffee plants before there is only half the amount of plants growing for a new harvest. But every hour someone still comes to cut down one of the plants for a bag of coffee beans.

• As time goes on, the plants become more valuable because there are fewer than there were before. That is exactly what is happening with Bitcoin this week with the halving event. Every 4 years the number of new Bitcoins created gets cut in half. So they become more scarce, which can create more value due to the shrinking supply.

Baby Boomer Housing Data - This week there was an article (WSJ Article) released about the assets that the boomer generation holds.

• The boomer generation and younger home owner generations aren’t giving up their homes due to convenience of living costs or low interest rates.

• Typically in past generations older generations would downsize to smaller homes or condos. And younger generations would upsize to a larger home to accommodate families. However due to longevity of health, the delay of starting families, and interest rates doubling rapidly over the past few years people are staying put.

• I think this data tells us that there will be an abundance of housing and a delay in real estate investment opportunities available to the younger generations if they stay patient.

Freedom Fund Update

I created the Freedom Fund as a public brokerage account originally back in October of 2022 to share on X (click here for the timeline of my Freedom Fund updates in my X highlights) that anyone with a social security # and a bank account can begin their investing journey. During the past year and a half I have aligned the brokerage account to be a weekly added growth & dividend account that will become a machine for growth over the future decades ahead. In the long run you only hit what you aim at and if you have a consistent plan, take action, and stick with it anything is possible.

• Current Status Of the Freedom Fund

  • Account Balance: $11,512.93

  • Dividends Paid: $434.38

• Recent Freedom Fund Purchases

  • Friday April 12th

    • 3 - Shares of Shopify Inc.

  • Friday April 19th

    • 2 - Shares of Shopify Inc. ($SHOP)

    • 4 - Shares of Apple Hospitality REIT ($APLE)

• This week I decided to beef up my weekly investments to $200 a week going forward to springboard some additional growth.

• Every week and month I post on X (@GrahamInvesting) public updates about the purchases, exits, dividends, and growth of the fund if you want to follow in real time.

The Power of Consistency

• One of the brutal facts of life is that as of 2022 in America under 10% of households actually hold a net worth of $1 million dollars or more. The fact is that a very small % of the population ever truly gets there.

• Do you need to be a millionaire to have a great life? Absolutely not. It is all subject to your desires. What I am trying to get across is that even those who seek out to become millionaires only have a less than 10% chance in getting there.

• If you have desires of getting rich quick that is a great mentality to have drive for… however you need to understand that you don’t get there by investing for 1 day, 1 month, or 1 year. It takes consistent monthly and yearly compounding contributions and holdings in the stock market to get there.

• Long story short before you decide to to embark on this journey you need to understand that this is not a path for the every day person. You must focus on laying the foundation of your investment portfolio week after week, decade after decade to get there.

• Those who stick with it will be miles ahead of those who give up or never start. So stay the course and focus on the goal and the process you create for yourself. (More topics on processes next week).

Create a Financial Plan for Yourself

If you are yet to create a system for your money then you should start there prior to building wealth. Because any time you feel defeated, behind, or impatient it is a always best to have a plan to resort to and get back to the basics. Before starting any position in any asset you need to create a plan. Below are some financial formats that really helped me over the years create my own plan for myself. Do I follow everything these individuals preach? No. But they have been great for giving insight into what truly matters in your financial plans future.

• The Money Guys - Financial Order of Operations (FOO)

  • Brain and Bo do a really great job talking about the FOO in this video: How to Start the Financial Order of Operations

  • Personally the FOO is what I think about the most when I review my finances.

• The 7 Baby Steps - Dave Ramsey

  • Dave breaks down the baby steps here: 7 Baby Steps Explained

  • Listening to Dave isn’t for everyone. But if you have issues with credit card debt, consumer debt, and having absolutely no idea where to begin to take it then Dave is your guy to tell you why you are “STUPID” and how to get the debt snowball rolling.

• Conscious Spending Plan - Ramit Sethi

  • Ramit has probably created the most realistic and enjoyable financial structure for beginners out there. He helps individuals identify their fixed spending, investments, savings, and guilt free spending.

  • For the younger crowd who likes to splurge on material items or experiences I would suggest giving Ramit a listen.

I have leveraged the above 3 systems to create my own. The biggest takeaways that I have focused on in my own life are:

• Knowing my fixed costs. I know every single month what my expenses on housing, insurance, subscriptions, utilities, food, transportation, health and I try to keep them around 50% of my net take home pay.

• Automating savings so that I have a fund to cover emergencies. Right now I funnel 10-15% into a money market about for an emergency fund and then some of that % goes into a new car fund.

• The rest of my take home goes straight into Roth 401k contributions up to my employer match, maxing out my Roth IRA yearly via weekly contributions, a brokerage account for stocks & potential real estate investments down the road, and then everything else goes into the Freedom Fund brokerage or into my life expenses (such as clothes, experiences, etc).

The purpose of Graham’s Gazette and my social account @GrahamInvesting is to help others get started and stay consistent on their own personal, professional, and financial journey. I appreciate the time you take in reading & interacting with me and look forward to growing together.

Thanks for investing your time reading this!

-Graham (@GrahamInvesting)

Disclaimer: Graham’s Gazette provides information and resources related to investing, financial topics, and personal growth for educational and entertainment purposes only. The content presented is not intended to be construed as financial advice. Readers are encouraged to conduct their own research and consult with qualified professionals before making any financial decisions. Graham’s Gazette and its creators do not assume any responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of the information provided nor do they guarantee any specific results from such use of information.