Hello, hello!

I'm not dead, but I did have some catching up to do with work and such before I could give you guys a decent update here.

First things first, let's talk about stocks and portfolios. I haven't made any additional purchases since my last post which was ... 9 days ago. Holy wow. Sorry about that huge break in posts. That also reminds me that I didn't update my portfolio page to reflect my updated portfolio values after my last buys. I'll do that after this post.

For now, I just want to say -- what's up with the stock market lately? All my stuff is either down or stale. Get it together, stock market. COME ON.

The only thing that has been doing reasonably well is Realty Income Corp (O), but I guess that's why we diversify, right? Can't blame the market if I only have seven stocks. Instead of building upward (buying more stocks for my existing portfolio), I think I will build horizontally a bit (buy other companies) for my next set of purchases.

Moving on to business endeavors, I have actually made some progress there! Having narrowed down the product selection to five last week, I ended up making some more business purchases to assist me in my quest and have narrowed the list down to three products. This part of the process has been difficult to say the least. Luckily, I have a buddy I'm partnered with to keep me motivated and keep the wheel rolling forward, however slowly.

That being said, I still have to narrow the list down to that one product to start with and then make a big purchase. Of course, this might seem unrelated to this blog at first glance until you consider the business itself an investment and part of my overall strategy to make up the difference that my new situation has led me into.

While I'm not being frivolous with my spending, I'm certainly trying to be less timid in pushing forward with my FBA business and buying the right tools (after much personal vetting) to get my to my destination. I'm already about $1,000 in and I'm keeping track of every penny.

This is not my first business, but it's definitely the business I have taken most seriously. There was a time when I started my first business on my own and actually took time off from working in general, but because I didn't take it seriously enough, I ended up focusing on too many things and the original business idea went cold, then died. Not the end of the world, but it's good to know myself.

Business-wise, self-management is paramount for success.

Armed with that knowledge, I know it's best to focus on my main gig while keeping a side focus on my business. On top of that, it's important to have a partner with similar goals who will keep me focused.

Interestingly, that brief period of joblessness I mentioned reveals something about one way I might retire if I didn't keep working. For a while, I just played games instead of doing any actual work. That's not how I want things to go, so a big part of self-management means keeping myself busy with meaningful work. I do want some time to just mess around because I believe that's just good for the soul, but not like it was.

I'll keep you posted on the progress on my FBA Business, of course. Meanwhile, I'm looking at my next portfolio purchases. If I can't find something suitable, I'll just move more money into my SEP IRA while I can.

As always, let me know if you have any suggestions in that department.

Thanks!