Have You Incorporated A.I. Into Your Life?

A.I. is unavoidable. If dominates almost every conversation, from your phone, to how the biggest companies can leverage A.I.

With that in mind, we wondered, how have you incorporated A.I. into your life? Or have you not?

I know the constant listening from devices and privacy concerns are a real issue when it comes to current devices, like Amazon’s Alexa or Apple’s Siri. But we can’t deny the way these devices have impacted our lives.

Most days, I don’t touch the thermostat, but if I need it changed, I can just yell at my home device to make that change for me. If we have a question, were seconds away from getting an answer, even without the phone in our hands.

We’ve had these devices for a while now so nothing new there, but what about the new A.I. on your phone?

Have you used the A.I. to edit/alter photos or videos you’ve taken? Have you used A.I. to help craft a new workout routine? Start a new diet? Create a meal plan?

What about finances? Have you used A.I. to find stocks for you? Do you have specific stock characteristics or ratios in mind, and use A.I. to find those stocks for you?

I understand that, right now, A.I., for the most part is garbage in, garbage out, but given the amount of data and instant information that is on the internet, I feel A.I. stock screeners can become a huge hit.

I just started using a stock screener and still figuring out my best “Prompt” or question to ask to get the best results, but the more these A.I. models get better and faster, the easier these stock screeners will become.

Do you use a Stock Screen now? Does it have any A.I. incorporated with it? Let us know below!

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Deposit Day – Investment Day

Do you have a specific day of the week that no matter what, you put money to work?

Do you add to your HYSA? Do you add to your IRA or Roth IRA? How many brokerage accounts do you send money to?

We typically throw money in on Fridays. Pay day hits, then the money is moved into the market. Get it out of our account that earns minimal amount of interest and have it start working for our family as soon as possible.

Have you heard of the term FIRE? Financial Independence Retire Early

That is the goal for all the investing my family does. That is why every week we set aside money and put it to work for us.

We are firm believers in the idea that, if your money is making more money, then retirement is within reach. If you’re relying on Social Security to help you in retirement, you need to change your game-plan immediately!

What day do you invest on? Every day? One a week? Once a month?

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HYSA – High-Yield Savings Account

Hello and good day to you! I hope today is a prosperous one!

I hope you know about HYSA’s and how great they are! HYSA or a High-Yield Savings Account, is a great place to park your cash and earn some high monthly earning interest!

Right now I’ve been using OpenBank with their higher than average yields as well as what Public offers as an HYSA.

4.1%-4.75% may not sound like a sexy rate, but it’s a lot better than what your brick and mortar or simple savings accounts will get you. Most banks are paying low interest rates in savings accounts that only pay out quarterly. Most high-yield accounts pay out monthly interest, allowing you to compound much faster.

Nerdwallet is a great place to check out if you’re looking for somewhere to park your cash with an HYSA. The link below is the top HYSA’s offered. I have been using OpenBank and Public, and I love seeing that monthly deposit back into the account, generating even more with compounding interest! (Nerdwallet HYSA)

Do you have an HYSA? If so, who do you go through?

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Staying Thrifty In 2025

How are you planning on staying thrifty this year?

I plan on reading more quality books to help get a better sense of finding valuations and understanding valuations of publicly traded companies.

I will also be working more money into my OpenBank and Public HYSA, while these rates last at 4.1% Am I the only one who wants rates to stay?

My usual strategy is to buy low and hold. I continue to do that into 2025 and I love having really love average costs on stocks.

This will be an interesting year with the market with all of the political and economical policies that are going to be created or modified.

Are you excited or nervous? What are your overall fears for 2025, and what are you really looking forward to? Answer when you can and let us know below!

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What Books Are You Reading? 2025

I try, just as many other people do, to read as much as possible. I’m not a routine person, so it’s difficult to set a particular time to read every day, but I still try.

Currently, I am ready, How to Win Friends and Influence People, by Dale Carnegie. Wow, what an inciteful and knowledgeable book so far, and I’m only half way through!

I don’t want to discuss a list of books that I want to get through and enjoy this 2025. Instead, I want to know what list of books you all are reading this year.

What books are you reading for fun?

What books are you reading to better yourself?

What books are you reading to enhance your literacy on finance?

This is what I am after! Please, leave a comment of the current book you’re reading and what you have on deck!

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Biggest ETF Holding – Why ETFs Are Great!

Being thrifty in the market, you look for deals. EPS, P/E, P/B, and many other indicators let us know where some deals are, but those numbers don’t do much for most ETF’s.

They are graded on the performance of the fund, similar to mutual funds and index funds. So, what does being thrifty have to do with ETFs? Everything!

ETFs are a basket of stocks, bonds, or other investment vehicles, like REITS. These baskets typically have have a sector or investment strategy in mind. Take the Global X ETF, LIT. It’s a Lithium Battery and Technology ETF. The ETF is filled with what Global X thinks are the best plays in the market regarding Lithium, and places them all into one fund.

A nice feature of ETFs, if one stock isn’t performing well, it doesn’t mean the entire fund is performing the same. You are less exposed to drastic swings, and some ETFs even offer dividends. I LOVE dividends.

My largest ETF position so far is SPFF – Global X SuperIncome Preferred ETF. Do your own due diligence on it, make sure it is right for your portfolio. I have it for the monthly dividends and the price action on the stock doesn’t appear to have too large of upswings or downswings. Just the way we like it! Boring!

The ETFs on the market offer a wide variety of investment strategies. Do some research to find some that are interesting to you. HERO is a fun ETF regarding the gaming and video game market. DRIV is an ETF for electric vehicles and FSD. Whatever you’re interested in, there is an ETF out there for you.

What is your favorite ETF to invest in?

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SONY – Do They Really Need Paramount?

SONY is a household name just about everywhere. Are they known for their stellar movies? Not really. Are they known for their electronics, video games, and video game systems, absolutely! They also have a successful music label and multiple other successful businesses, but one that continues to disappoint time and time again, the SONY movie studio.

Their latest flop, “Madame Web” is among many other flops that have come from this studio. With sentiment of the Sony studio at a laughable low, maybe they are looking for a refresh play. Maybe Paramount is a lifeboat for the Sony movie studio.

There has been a lot of talk about Skydance and now that those 30 days of deal talking are up, there is a new offer on the table. This time from Sony/Apollo.

It seems investors biggest fears are Sony’s cash and should it be using so much of it to fund this venture? Teaming up with Apollo is basically saying that you can’t fund it all yourself, so should you at all? Apollo appears to be the “Investment” arm of the deal and Sony would acquire Paramount, but who knows what the final deal would be or if this offer will even be taken.

I think it would be a smart move for Sony. They need a refresh for their studio, and they need access to fresh directors and writers. Maybe it will be good, but it seems like a turn off for most investors because of funding.

I believe in Sony and maybe this is exactly what they need to expand and attract. What are your thoughts?

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Publicly Traded Spinoffs

Ever since I read the book, “You Can Be a Stock Market Genius” by Joel Greenblatt, I’ve been obsessed with Spinoffs. Spinoffs give you a reward for holding the shares of a particular company, by giving you shares of the newly traded company.

Even better, Joel Greenblatt showcases data that most spinoffs do well within the first few years of separating from the original company, and getting to shine all on its own. Pretty much the entire reason for the spin off. Profitable companies or sectors of a business may be overshadowed by debt or other bigger items, but a spinoff allows the market to look at that company on it’s own and make a new case.

I really enjoyed waking up and seeing a different company in my portfolio. How did that get there? Researching and finding out that 3M (MMM) or some other company has completed a spin off and gaining shares of a new company.

After reading that book, it got me thinking, what if I got in front of the spinoff, and began researching upcoming possible spinoffs. Now, they aren’t guaranteed, and not every spinoff is a great opportunity, so make sure you do your due diligence. After looking into a few upcoming, I recently purchased some Western Digital (WD) and Unilever (UL).

WD is spinning off it’s Flash Memory company, which allows both aspects of WD to be seen, instead of HDD over SSD. They are a leader in Flash Memory and it’s time for that to be noticed by the market, instead of being seen as an old fashioned company still churning out hard drives with platters.

Now, UL, they are spinning off their Ice Cream business, which happens to be Ben & Jerry’s! Who doesn’t love some ice cream? Also, who does ice cream better than Ben & Jerry? It seems like an interesting play, and although it’s not a big position, we did buy some. If spinoffs typically increase in price, and there is brand loyalty for B&J, it might just be something fun to hold in the portfolio.

These two plays are speculative, and are not a major, or even minor part of the portfolio. Almost an investing experiment. Remember, never invest with money that you may need today or tomorrow.

There are plenty of other spinoffs proposed, and some are far out. Are there any that you’re interested in?

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SoFi – A Stock To Talk About

Typically on Thrifty Investing, we talk about SoFi, because of the app. Yes, it’s one of the greatest apps out there that gives you access to a huge list of financial products as well as traditional bank and credit card access.

Today, I want to talk about SoFi, but this time the stock. (I am not a financial advisor and do your own due diligence.)

Occasionally you get a good feeling about a stock. Such a good feeling that you don’t care what the analysts say, or care if other investors are in the stock or not, you just have to own a piece of that company. That company to me is SoFi.

This week they had reported earnings that sent the stock lower. They’re now a profitable company, but for some reason analyst get stuck on the “Its a bank” mindset. SoFi is much more than just a bank. It’s a one stop destination to most financial products. All at your fingertips, and for the most part, fee free.

With the retail investors growing in size, they need a great brokerage account. And with so many brokerage firms out there, they have to do something that stands out. SoFi has several stand out products that can help increase your net worth.

SoFi seems like an anti-hero bank, because yes, you can bank with SoFi, they are the official bank of the NBA, but you can also buy and sell stocks, ETFs, Alts, Options, as well as big flagship funds that aren’t normally accessible to the retail trader, like the Ark Fund.

They offer credit cards that have rewards that go to buying more shares or fractional shares, and they offer travel discounts through other partnerships. My only gripe is the need for direct deposit to get access to a few other features, but in the bigger picture, there is little I would change about SoFi and the app.

Being profitable and giving so much access to retail investors and retail traders to a large amount of investment and financial products, it seems like so much more to me than just a bank.

I’ve picked up more shares and increased our position in SoFi during it’s beginning week down trend, but it looks to have paid off as the price has been increasing this morning.

What are you looking at today? Is SoFi in your portfolio?

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