Frugality And Beans

Posted on September 11, 2026 by Tom Trimbath

Gotta remember to soak those beans tonight. Tomorrow I plan to make baked beans. Make baked beans? Yes, make baked beans. Granted, a can of beans is cheap, but there are advantages to knowing how to do things yourself. Eventually I’ll learn how to wire a plug or fix a roof leak, but for now, I’ll do what I know how to do and make baked beans. And I’ll be glad for whatever else I can do.

Baked beans. Soak beans. Bake them. Okay, it is more than that. Go check websites and cookbooks for details. The way I make them won’t be much cheaper than a can, but I’ll know what’s in them. I have a variety of food constraints that I will not bore my readers. Reading the back of a can should be sufficient, but I can make stock from roasting a chicken, add onions and mushrooms, cheat by using tomato sauce out of a can (I tried making it and won’t go to that extent again), maybe some bacon, and definitely herbs and spices. Bake it for hours and hope.

I’m glad I know how to do that. I also know that cleanup will take a long time. So it goes.

I mention this because it is an example of an answer to a question someone asked me. “What can you do to get ready for AI?” We’re about to enter an era when that is asked by people who have been busy doing other things. AI is just for geeks, right? Maybe. Maybe not. My answer is to concentrate on the things you can control. For most people, the tech talk is incomprehensible. From what I hear, even the techies are confused about what to do to get ready, both in a good scenario and otherwise.

Dinner just beeped. Frozen meatloaf I made weeks ago. Homemade, of course.

There are too many possible scenarios to list. There are too many to research. Most of them are out of our control. 

Frugality. I’m sure you’ve heard about it. My definition is to respect your resources.

I’ve been involved in tech since 1976 when I learned to program FORTRAN on punch cards. Throwback. I follow AI enough to understand that the upsides and downsides are both possible, and will likely arrive together, not just one but both. About the only reasonable control I have is to not use it. It may be great. It may be literally terrific. I can’t control that. I’ll try to be aware, but I’m not going to try to drive it.

I wish I was more of a DIY kind of person. I was trained as an engineer, but I worked with airplanes, rockets, and satellites. I can make baked beans, but on Monday my Jeep goes into the shop because I’ve given up trying to fix a car.

Others I know fix their car, their appliances, get creative with home projects, and should have a YouTube channel. These folks engage so little with modern life that they’re already somewhat removed from the influence of AI.

The people I worry about are the ones who will feel compelled to buy smart phones, smart cars, smart houses, and smart appliances which might become bricks because a subscription failed, or a company went bankrupt, or a software glitch glitches. 

I’ve got a bicycle, can cook, can entertain myself without electronics, and thoroughly enjoy real conversations and helping others. I’m busy. 

If the optimistic AI scenario dominates, then I’ll try to catch up; and I’ll probably still be ahead of many. If the pessimistic AI dominates, I’ll be busy adapting;  and I’ll probably still be ahead of many. And I’ll probably have to do a bit of both.

(But really, the health insurance call I got from their AI had enough non-sequitors that it was funny, sad, and worrisome .)

It is interesting writing about frugality. Frugality is effectively simplicity, yet requires many words to describe it. It is easier to buy the brands, listen to the ads, and crank up the credit card. Easier, for a while.

Dinner is ready. I am hungry. I’m not even going to take a photo of my meal. Photogenic was not on my list of requirements. It will be a simple meal, not gourmet, but good enough for me. I gotta remember to soak those beans overnight too.

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Do Stocks Come Back

Posted on September 4, 2026 by Tom Trimbath

It’s Friday. It’s time to write. My stocks are down, regardless of the overall market. I have some cash, whew, and am getting tempted to buy back in. Some companies that I thought were gone continue to linger, maybe even show signs of life. Decisions: do nothing while waiting for stocks to recover, buy back in to stocks I already own, or buy back in to companies that have somehow survived their particular turbulence? Decisions. Decisions.

Do stocks come back? Of course, sometimes. Dendreon, my darling stock that was crashed by some white collar crime still has a web site. Yay! Iridium’s satellites continue to provide emergency communication services, after being inundated by corporate debt. America Online, Yahoo, Myspace are all still there, even if Google and Facebook grab the headlines.

And some don’t.

I am not going to list the companies I’ve invested in that disappeared. There are too many. I invest in small companies and hope to sell the stock when their stocks become popular and profitable. It is a risky strategy, but I have less competition for those stocks than for industry mega-caps like MSFT and AAPL. They have teams of analysts who supposedly precisely price the company, or at least the stock. I invest in companies that are so small that they are largely ignored, at least for a while.

Those small companies that failed lost ~100%. (It is hard to hit exactly zero and still be able to sell them.) PIXR, SBUX, FFIV went up by a little and a lot. One stock climbing 1,000% covers a lot of 100% losses.

‘Buy when the fear is high’ vs ‘Don’t try to catch a falling knife.’ 

Two stocks I held for a while have re-entered my consciousness, or at least my social media feed: XOS and WNDW. A while back they looked bad and I sold before zero happened. I’m considering them again, but first have to check the research and evaluate whether their resurgence is a valid business consequence or sentiment and marketing. 

MVIS, LCTX, and GERN are current holdings that are in similar camps. MVIS has yet to make a profit, or even a valid product; and I’ve held it since 1999-ish. LCTX is like many biotechs, promising, but possibly just flirting. GERN finally has a product, but it is as if they are hoping rather than selling.

And yet, there is good news for all three. Profitability real soon. Right? I’ve held all three for decades. ‘Real soon’ is something I see on the discussion boards. Good luck. I’m hanging onto the shares because the losses are worth carrying along, and potential remains high. But, ‘real soon’? Yeah. Nah.

And cash. Cash is good. Cash isn’t an optimizing strategy, but cash is a necessary resource in this economic system. Besides, it might be time for a new (possibly used) car. I want to have enough to pay for my knee surgery if Medicare hiccups. And cash is living expenses, currently months of supply.

I’m in no rush. 

But I also know that opportunities don’t linger. 

As I stare across the room to another monitor, my stocks look mixed as I type.

I ponder, and what you’re reading is my real time mental machinations. Messy, eh?

Take a sip of tea.

XOS seems to be sliding over to the energy delivery field, instead of EVS. WNDW seems to be doing what it’s done, but with flexible solar panels instead of window coverings. I say ‘instead of’, but they may both be working on those old segments as well. Hence, more research.

The biggest drivers in my portfolio are LUNR and QBTS. Both are up over 100% from when I bought them. Both have ill-defined upper limits because both are helping define their markets: commercial space and quantum computing. Both are down over 50% from their highs. Irrational pessimism followed by irrational optimism with a mix of temporary doubt while major funds shifted to SpaceX as if SpaceX can readily rise much higher. Buy back in?

Buy back in to WNDW, or XOS, or both?

Buy more MVIS, LCTX, GERN or a mix?

Hold onto cash? I’ve studied enough history to know that currencies can fall too.

Do I have an answer? No. I’m writing a blog post about the situation. But so many experts and pundits survive by describing what they did, but rarely what it’s like to be doing it. I’m doing it, even though I don’t exactly know what it is – yet. Stay tuned for the bumpy ride.

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A New Podcast – Traffic Jam at the Intersection of Health and Housing

Posted on August 31, 2026 by Tom Trimbath

You may have seen this among my various social media posts:

“A couple of us decided to give homeless (unhoused?) people a voice. They aren’t stereotypes. They are people. It is amazing to see how hard we make it for people to simply live.“

A new Podcast: Traffic Jam at the Intersection of Health and Housing. (And I helped a bit.)

On Spotify (~43 minutes):

Yes, I’ve helped start yet another podcast. I’m glad. Amidst all the talk about homelessness and affordable living, B. Alice and I decided to get past the stereotypes that feed the media and debates. These are people’s lives, not tropes or generalizations. One answer doesn’t fit all. 

Rather than blather on about our impressions of the situation, we decided to let them tell their stories. Some will have jobs. Some will have kids. Some will have parents. Some want to be left alone. Many can’t reveal their situation for fear of being ostracized. We may have found a way to let them tell more of their stories. 

Along the way, the host, B. Alice, noticed that with uncertain housing comes uncertain health care. One study in Seattle found that giving people a place where they could lock up their prescriptions meant there was less theft, and therefore lower costs; and having ready access to reliable supplies meant they were less likely to rely on emergency rooms, and therefore lower costs. The lower costs were enough to balance out the price of providing a home.

Every person I know who has troubled housing has some solution that works for them. Sometimes it is a place to park a car, or pitch a tent, or moor a boat, or build a cobb house, or, or, or… They have solutions but they are not permitted to enact them. Literally, land use permits are denied. Usually, the denial comes from not owning the land for whatever they think works. They frequently have solutions in mind. There are even solutions for providing land.

Having listened to enough of them, I know that they should explain those situations. Hence, the podcast.

B. Alice runs a company in Port Townsend. For much of her time there, she had to hide that they ran the business out of a tent on the end of a long extension cord. She’s the host (and I simply helped), so it makes sense to let her describe her situation first. I almost lost my house in the mid-2010s, and was poor for about a decade. I wasn’t homeless, but I could see it from there. I have a few comments too.

As it says on Spotify;

“Traffic Jam At The Intersection Of Health And Housing is a solutions-based investigative journalism podcast about the increasingly dangerous realities of obtaining housing and proper healthcare in our modern United States of America. AL and contributing partner Tom guide listeners through a larger conversation about society’s relationship to the social contract–and encourage those experiencing the impacts of systemic oppression to define what help means for themselves. When we listen, it turns out there are as many solutions as people experiencing hardship.“

These are people who are living, somehow, in these dire situations today. While meetings are convened and comments collected, these people can be living in the weather, every day and night, now, today. They may even have solutions, but don’t have the luxury of spare time to attend public meetings, or research which official to contact. Jobs, families, and chores can account for their every waking moment. 

There are several episodes scheduled and getting ready to be published. There are lots of stories that are too real to be covered in the news. These are people’s lives, not sound bites and political proclamations. 

We hope that their perspectives can help them find solutions.

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Watching Change Patiently

Posted on August 28, 2026 by Tom Trimbath

Where’s my tea? Ah. There. It is my weekly exercise in wondering and typing about the changes in my world, and for this blog, particularly in personal finance, community, and stuff. The world’s changes are accelerating, and yet, patience is required. Tomorrow is usually like yesterday, until it isn’t. Here’s a review of what I’ve been watching, and sometimes waiting on, and sometimes seeing happen too quickly.

Politics

Gad. I don’t like most political systems, but at least the best are temporary. Regimes and administrations make their influence, and then the next sweeps them away. Somehow, our civilization has progressed (and as icky as it feels, over the course of a thousand years, we’ve progressed, generally and globally). The US system has some obvious flaws (duh) but I am keeping in mind that, within the system as developed, change will happen on or before November 7, 2028. So far away, yet closer by a day every day – as long as the US laws don’t change. Patience, which can be painful, but patience.

Technology

At least one CEO has said it, we’ve entered the Digital Singularity. When I wrote my first scifi book, Firewatcher, I thought projections of 2100 missed the point. I suspected it to happen more like 2040. By the time I finished writing the book, September 2022, some of those things were happening. While the internet era saw change doubling the state of the art every 18 months, this era sees the change doubling every 4 months. That suggests that AI and such will have advanced by 100% by the end of this year. By the time of the US election, AIs and such will have doubled, doubled, doubled, doubled, doubled, and probably doubled. At the same time, politicians and governments may have barely budged. Interesting times. And one reason to hang onto cash, and one reason to realize that cash’s value may crash. (Pardon the word play, but I just wanted to do that.)

Social Injustice

I mention again, Best Sleepover Ever, something that I’m identifying as a hint and partial proof that people, not politics or organizations, can enact great change and faster than they can be aware of. The message has far fewer gatekeepers. That is good and bad. The bad has had its turn. Now it’s the good turn, or so I hope. Trying to keep it positive, and remembering my quote of, “I like people who treat people like people”, because all of the other labels have caveats, asterisks, and stereotypes. Caveats, asterisks, and stereotypes were shorthand, but it is shorthand that is easy to get distracted by what was rather than what shall be. Be real. Be a person. The rest is marketing.

Climate Change

I didn’t expect to have yet another climate change story enter my awareness, yet there are two. To me, climate change was something to rectify during the first Earth Day. Every year since has been taking us further from a solution, yet here we are, having to debate about whether to do anything about it. Just recently, the oceans hit a new record temperature. Within the last week, yet another glacier has collapsed, this time wiping out entire villages. I think when a glacier collapses in Antarctica, no one notices much. When a glacier collapses within sight of a security camera, there’s much greater outcry. And yet, too many will ignore the reality, sometimes simply to exercise their freedom of speech and to be proudly and loudly ignorant. From a systems perspective, we are decades away from cleaning up this mess, at best.

So What

It is kinda spooky to be watching trends play out that shouldn’t be surprises. Like someone said about disaster movies, ‘They usually start with some scientist making some warning, that everyone else ignores.’ Sounds about right. Frequently, it seems that those scientists are rarely visible at The End, while some celebrity claims the credit for saving the situation.

Personally, I watch enough to be worried, and I am also aware of how often I’ve been wrong – and how often I’ve been right.

Pardon me as I sip my tea.

Being in the midst of change is rarely easy. Old habits can backfire, though fundamental truths reveal themselves. Businesses can show themselves as being archaic. Frugality yet again shows its value. 

All is not lost. As usual, all is an average of a chaos that no one controls. 

All I can attempt to control is me. I don’t think politicians are listening to me. Technology listens to oligarchs and hackers. Social injustice is working through millennia of our bad guesses at how we run things. Climate change, well, I’m a minimalist, but not rich enough to be self-sufficient, yet.

My actions? Vote. Don’t run to either technical extreme, but remember that life is more important than our supposed control of electrons. Cheer on the advocates, but personally watch and help individuals because the rest can be catchphrases and not action. And apologize to the planet, to Nature as I have an impact that I hopefully minimize without withdrawing totally.

And keep cash on hand, the emergency kit stocked and ready, passports and such up-to-date, and my investments in stocks. Tomorrow will probably be like yesterday, until it isn’t.

Hopefully, there will still be tea.

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Worries And Celebrations

Posted on August 21, 2026 by Tom Trimbath

What to write about and how to write it. Hmm. That implies a plan. Ha! And yet, life is filled with stories. That’s true for all of us, in my opinion. In my opinion, writers simply have learned to notice the drama and trauma and celebrations that happen around us. Whether anyone is interested in any story seems like something that can be planned, but art doesn’t work that way. Here I sit, just outside a tourist town during a drought. There are people and chores and patience to notice. 

A drought? Blech. I like rain. I particularly like drinking water and cleaning myself. (Hmm. Sounds like a cat.) This town (Port Townsend) has one source of water, one pipe, and one critical failure possibility.

The tourists don’t notice. Many of the residents don’t notice. We assume water, power, sanitation, health, police, and schools are naturally available. Tourists can have higher expectations, thanks to a pleasant setting and marketing materials. Residents are busy trying to live their lives, arranging and enabling groceries, chores, and things like jobs.

The drought will get a hiatus this weekend. Various parts of the Puget Sound are the driest parts of the continental US in August. Deserts are drier, until they get their monsoons. We might get some rain, for a while. Stay tuned. We may even get lightning, but this part of the US has the lowest probability of that. (Southern Florida has the highest, which is ironic considering that we launch rockets from there.)

I will appreciate the rain. The tourists may not. Someone may complain.

Frugality can be seen as the appreciation and respect of the resources available to you. That includes fresh water. And housing. And hospitals, and police, and power, and a very long list.

I long for having a fresh water supply that is more robust, even if it is having a backup well on the property. I am dismayed at the policies that discourage home generated power like solar. I also look forward to a productive garden, which as I understand it, is not allowed within the HOA rules. (Life in a tiny house: MyTinyExperiment.net) I’d prefer to use the local hospital, but evidently, I am not healthy enough to heal. One county over has a hospital that defers to my local one. Another hospital in another direction may supply the service, but rural hospitals have small staffs, and one vacation means a one month delay in my treatment. (Knee stuff)

But, I do have that other option, the water seems to be flowing, I currently (sorry for the accidental pun) don’t need another source of electricity, or food, or the rest of the basic utilities. I am glad for what I’ve got.

And, still, I complain. The tourists are here to get away from a life they may complain about, and some still complain. (Serious question that may not be resolved: When did we start complaining so much?)

Best Sleepover Ever – That was a wave of not complaining. It was a wave of celebrating. Now’s the inevitable backlash with rumors of government intrusion, but I’m convinced that enough of it was real to be glad.

I hope that celebration stays with us. Lately, I’ve been seeing relationships starting up again, as if they were put on hiatus during the pandemic (which isn’t really over yet, but that’s a more complex story.) I’m seeing small, but maybe not small, social revolutions where entrenched organizations are being challenged by new ideas. Attempts to return us to supposed halcyon days of before I was born are falling and failing as renewable energies and general decentralization are setting anachronisms to the side. Change is always the only constant, and changes are being made.

I still worry about certain aspects of AI, intransigent social injustices, definitely climate change, and strive to ignore politics that’s played as a sport. 

But. The drought means I don’t have to mow the lawn. The tourists may be in town, and the town needs their money; but soon comes the welcome shoulder season when the weather is agreeable and the traffic abates. I’ve finished the first draft of my next book (the third in my scifi trilogy that includes Firewatcher). Some docs have had some good news (it’s the system that seems to be the problem. I’m out of mortgage debt. I can afford small splurges. I even have compliments on my books left to adorn my windshield.

There are definitely problems to fix personally, in the community, and globally; but there are also things to celebrate. The bad things headline the news. The good things are usually closer and more personal. Gotta be aware of both.

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A Small Defiance

Posted on August 14, 2026 by Tom Trimbath

I had a drink. It was a small act of defiance. The doctors said do this. I did that. They didn’t say have a drink. I did because me, I, my situation evidently didn’t matter. The appointment required hours spent driving during which I listened to a lot of radio. I heard about a lot of more defiance that greatly exceeds mine. I ponder what that means for us, and what that means for me, too.

I mixed the right drink in the wrong glass. I just got home from a medical appointment in Boise, Idaho. (Boise? Yes, Boise. A friend of a friend suggested the out-of-state option.) A couple of liquors to make a mixed drink – which I tiredly mixed in a glass reserved for lots of tonic water. Great drink. Oops.

The doc, actually the doc’s assistant concluded my visit by telling me they couldn’t operate on my bad knee because my blood sugar was too high. OK. No surprise. Two hospitals in my neighborhood by the Salish Sea said the same thing. The surprise, or at least the disappointment was that they already knew that answer, they knew that limit. When I initially called about the situation I asked if we could talk about whether there was a limit. “No.” they said. I had to visit them. I assumed that the visit may reveal more nuances that would possibly enable the surgery. Nope. 1,200 miles of driving, gas, hotels, food, and four lost days of my life for a comment that could have been resolved in a few minutes. I just wrote about Listening. They were polite. The facility was impressive. They paused and nodded when I talked, and they didn’t listen. That’s common, unfortunately. Nice building though.

My naturopath did a more recent blood draw, which evidently was more favorable. Conventional doctors don’t seem to listen to naturopaths, either.

The doctors work by the numbers. The insurers and the hospital administrators prefer that because they are objective measurers of reality. Anecdotes are to be heard, but not incorporated into treatment. They may be worried about court cases and defenses that key off the average person living an average life. How many of those are there?

My act of defiance was to have my first drink in two weeks. 

I may have a beer tomorrow, if I mow the lawn and don’t have anywhere to drive afterwards.

But that’s my situation. I’ll play to their numbers but as a doctor said about me years ago, ‘my body runs hot.’ With ‘high’ blood pressure I’ve done several semi-epic trips. Blood pressure stayed the same. Ran marathons, the same. Had a stressful job, the same. The doctors may be aiming me at a target that is unattainable naturally for my body, which means I’ll be living this way as it slowly degrades. 

Oops. Back to the larger picture. 

I don’t follow politics much. It seems to be a couple of large organizations that make proclamations about what their followers should feel and say – without listening to what the followers actually feel and say. And yet, that is how the game is played. And the reporting treats it in game terms, even though running the world is no game.

My act of defiance was to have a drink. Disensions(sp?) within the parties, within their ranks, and a growing number of voters who won’t claim allegiance to either are positive signs, but not pleasant ones. 

Marches, protests, and memes proliferate, but unless the politician organized it, they may not be there to listen. They may be there for the photo-op, but not to formulate a position. Yet, the citizenry isn’t being quiet.

I’ve written about how I believe we may be heading to a Magna Carta moment, a historical event that redefines a system of government. Like the Digital Singularity, any guesses about what comes next are guesses, not logically supported conclusions except by luck. 

Tomorrow will be like yesterday, until it is not.

So, what to do?

Be adaptable. Be aware. There are historical events that are remembered as anecdotes, not as real. Real? Sure, they happened, but that was then. This is now. Right? Maybe, but history is known for echoing.

Democracy may have started with the Greeks, but really caught on, at least as a meme, in 1776. Monarchy still exists, barely. Communism has redefined itself so much that Karl Marx may get confused. And Socialism has turned into a hot word, possibly simply because it was one of the Ss in USSR. And now, Democratic Socialism is being talked about so much that the press is shortening it to DS. What, too many syllables for today’s audience?

Regardless of the name used, social upheavals can mean monetary upheavals. 

(See, I brought it back around to personal finance.)

Currencies can be revalued, or devalued. Debts from national down to personal can see jubilees (where debts are forgiven and the folks who issued it cry) or called to be paid off, regardless of the hurt. There are calls to make the default currency digital, and possibly not accept cash (which assumes that Everybody has the skills and equipment to handle it, including kid’s lemonade stands). Investing is pulling back from public access and is increasingly being handled by private equity firms, sovereign wealth funds, oligarchs, and computers. 

How many times do we need to be reminded of people using worthless bonds as wallpaper or needing wheelbarrows of cash to buy bread? Of course, if paper money switches to digital, … I’ll ponder that for later. 

Just as many hopefully well-prepared citizens living in potential crisis zones, I have cash set aside in case an earthquake or tsunami interrupts ATMs et al.

But as I wrote above, ‘Tomorrow will be like yesterday, until it is not.’

So, the majority of my meager wealth is in digital form, including stocks.

But I keep in mind that society has seen many acts of defiance that were large enough to be significant and memorable. They may even have been unexpected, that is, to those who weren’t listening.

For me, it is back to my normal routine of improved diet and exercise, accepting that the current healthcare system is imperfect, that I shouldn’t expect them to suddenly listen for real and not just to nod their head. And to glance out the window at my yard and wonder if I should mow it tomorrow, beer or no beer.

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Listening

Posted on August 8, 2026 by Tom Trimbath

Listening saves money? Yep. No investment insights, and yet, appreciating value.

I listened to a friend for an hour, and was thanked. I had a few days with good friends, which also meant sharing the time, and felt better than I’ve felt for years. And I also know what it feels like to speak and realize that none of the words found a home.

Yes. Yes. Listening is good. What’s the point?

Listening well can reduce some folk’s need for therapy, paid therapy, expensive paid therapy, therapy that has a time limit.

Have you ever had a conversation that went on for twelve hours? I wonder if there are any therapists who have that much time. The world is chaotic. There is always pressure to help the next person, and to save time for the therapist to have a life, also to recover from hearing a day’s worth of varied stories, some of which are dramatic, some of which are traumatic. I bow to their expertise and resilience.

Talking about mental health issues inspires many people to change the topic. Understandable. I enjoy listening to friends and feel privileged to hear their stories, and honored to hear the parts that they’ve never told anyone else. I also am human, not a professional therapist, so some stories make me back away – and encourage them to talk to a professional.

I’ve talked to professionals. Depending on how you count it, I’ve had a therapist about every ten years, usually for about a year. They have helped me (though I think I helped one more than they helped me. Hey, we’re all human.)

In 2004, I had chest pains. It was amazing how quickly I could get an appointment to see my regular doctor. I asked for an appointment within the next few weeks. They made a slot for me within a day. Lay down. Get an EKG. Wonder and worry about why they thought that was necessary. The doctor comes in, tapping a pencil on a clipboard. “This is classic.” I’m worrying that I’m evidently having a heart attack. He slightly chuckles. “This is classic. You have a perfectly normal healthy heart.” That was the joke. We knew each other. He read me well, or at least well enough. “Your problem is not in your heart but in your head.” He referred me to a mental health practitioner. 

That’s a relief? Evidently there was some benefit to all that exercise masquerading as hiking, biking, skiing, and karate.

Six months of therapy sessions later I asked the therapist, “Am I crazy?” Yeah, it took me six months to work up the courage to ask the question. “No.” Whew. “You’re under a lot of stress with a very thin support network.” Whew?

I’ll paraphrase his general observation.

Fifty years ago, guys would stop at the bar on the way home from work. They’d vent to the other guys. Fifty years ago, women who weren’t working would get together for a variety of social and civic events, maybe with wine. Now, we don’t drink and drive, so that’s good, and there are more women in the workplace, which has its benefits. But we’ve lost the gathering of ‘like-minded’ souls who commiserate. Shared pain is diminished. Shared joy is amplified, but there seems, seems, to be less of that, lately. So, the majority of his clients aren’t crazy, they’re simply humans who need to listen, and occasionally, provide some advice. It’s more expensive than beer or wine, and it isn’t as frequent as the bar or the social circle, but it is what we have.

He helped.

A few years ago, the medical community declared an ‘epidemic of loneliness’. We have all those issues from things lost fifty years ago, but now people feel that social media and texts can replace personal contact. As a friend revealed recently, they feel a lack of personal contact. It isn’t sexual. It is hugs and handshakes. I get some of that through dancing, and I understand what they said. We got some good hugs in. I’ve got to get back into practice.

How much of today’s…dissatisfaction is people feeling alone, or cut off, or not heard?

So, I listen. When I’m doing public speaking I speak, naturally; but even then I prefer to begin before I begin by talking to people in the audience to hear what they want to hear. If I’ve produced yet another book, do they want to hear about the book, the writing process, publishing, or simply want to be entertained?

And then there are those quiet, simple conversations that start with no agenda but if allowed to go on long enough reach a point when significance is found. By then I have a good idea of how much to listen and how much to say. What I say has frequently been simply, “I’m sorry.” What I’ve learned not to say (though I do on occasion) is “So you should do…”

Recently, I admitted to my therapist that I was embarrassed to have nothing dramatic or traumatic to share. He grinned. Every conversation does not have to be dramatic or traumatic. Sometimes it is the simple things that are most revealing. Sometimes a conversation, even a professional one, needs a breath, a rest.

I’ve also mentioned to my therapist that, in times like now, they seem to be needed more than usual. He agreed, but I get the impression that he’s always busy.

And while I prefer to listen, I realize that when I’m in a session it is my time to talk. And I talk. Simply taking it all in and never letting something out is unsustainable, I guess. Maybe the pros can do it. But I’m happy to listen to my friends, and maybe talk some, too. No beer or wine or formal training required. Talk is cheap Ain’t that great?

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Scared Money

Posted on July 31, 2026 by Tom Trimbath

Do you know that feeling when you’re walking along a ridge line with a thousand foot drop on either side? No. Of course not; few ever climb mountains. Yet, I suspect a lot of investors feel that way for the last few months. The market has carried them to new heights. They hope it goes higher, but the possibility of a drop is real. Fortunately for stocks, there are exits that don’t require falling off a cliff; and there’s a hope for catching a ride up another ridge.

maybe not a thousand feet, but, eeps! – from Twelve Months at Barclay Lake

The stock market has been ridiculous for a couple of decades. Look for the blip that was the Internet Bubble and the Great Recession, and they barely register. Since 2016-ish, the NASDAQ has risen from ~5,000 to ~25,000 (as I type). A 7% rise is normal? Not lately. 5,000 at 7% in 10 years ‘only’ equals ~9800, not 25,000. 10%? ~12968.

Yahoo Finance

These are heady times. 

These are worrisome times. 

The financial news is worried about an AI bubble, probably for good reason. There’s lots of hype. Yay! There’s lots of worry. Boo. There’s also a lot of FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out). Continue on despite your fears! Don’t. If you’re afraid, listen to yourself, don’t discount your perspective. Ideally, find another one.

There is a fear of missing out, and then there’s a worry of finding a better or safer place. Some are already there with mutual funds and such. Higher expectation investors may hang on until the pop, or just past it. They can be big money, and when they sell they hunt for what I call lifeboat stocks, something to weather the storm.

The situation is that, when that big money bails, that community tends to bail, which then leads to scared money hunting for a home.

I’m not sure we’re there, yet, but the recent response to any good news from mega caps seems to be out of proportion for what the numbers say. It is as if a mob has quickly decided to hide from the rain by scurrying from under one tree to another. They may be off the ridge, but trees attract lightning.

In the meantime, regardless of their motivations and philosophies, the rest of us see the market making wide swings, sometimes to our detriment.

Several of my stocks are down significantly, yet most of the companies are making good progress. This seems to be based more on emotion than logic.

I’m glad I sold when I did. 

QBTS hit ~$30. I hoped for more. I sold at ~$26(?). As I type, it is at ~$18.30. The stock is down. Their news is up.

LUNR hit over ~$45. Now it is at ~$12.25. 

On a purely mathematical basis and expecting things to return to a norm, I should buy some more LUNR.

On a practical nature, I will hold onto cash because those are my living expenses.

Some are worried about the market. I worry about it too, but life is here to be lived. Besides, I have some health issues to deal with. (Groan.) Cash is a comfortable cushion.

Until the market gets off that ridge, or finds that the ridge truly does lead to something even better, there will be uncertainty, and this time I suspect the uncertainties are larger than usual. Maybe hanging on to the cash is a better idea than I realized. Maybe there will be some better buying opportunities, soon. Maybe nobody ever knows what’s going on, and investors will always be scurrying about. It makes for fascinating people watching.

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Keep It Simple – Please

Posted on July 24, 2026 by Tom Trimbath

Note: Here’s a post for those who follow stocks, but the same rules apply throughout life.

Google has improved their finance tool, now with AI! Groan. I guess it was inevitable; taking a useful service, hiring a bunch of programmers and a staff to maintain it, and then improving it until it is barely useful. Maybe by the time you are reading this Google will have corrected the errors it induced by changing something that didn’t need improving. Not likely, considering the history of improved products. Fortunately, there are competitors, some of which have histories, too.

For weeks, Google has been teasing a new AI-enabled upgrade to its Finance pages. Fine by me as long as I can turn it off. I track my stocks, or tracked them, by opening up a tab for my watchlist in Google Finance. Simple. The stock, its price, whether it is up or down, and with one click I could get financial data like market cap, and maybe news. (Some of my investments are in stocks that are so small that news is rare, but hence, more valuable when it appears.)

a Google Finance screen grab for years ago

The AI upgrade overwhelmed all of that, at least from what I can see.

a Google Finance screengrab from July 24, 2026

You’ve seen many screengrabs of Google’s Finance page in this blog. I’d like to create a new graphic of the old screen, but it’s gone. I tried grabbing a screengrab of the new graphic, but the screen is active enough that it sweeps a new news screen across the image instead. Not useful for tracking my portfolio. 

Grumble. Gripe. Gripe.

Cheer and and and salute sites like craigslist that keep it simple and useful. I think their style will eventually come back into style, and all they have to do is nothing. Well done. Well played.

There are many other ways of tracking stocks and portfolios. I’m not going to list them. There are too many.

What I’m hunting for is simplicity, convenience, and of course, accuracy. 

The data I want is simple, as I described above.

Accuracy is assumed, with some allowances for data transfer rates, which don’t bother me.

Convenience blocks out many sites that require regular log in sessions, drilling down to the key data, or bizarre formats. 

Silicon Investor is a site I’ve used for so long (decades?) but predominantly for discussion boards. But, it keeps me logged in, and my data is available. Looks kinda kludgy, but it works.

screengrab from Silicon Investor

On a more official page, there is my official portfolio tracker on Schwab, which I rarely access because its security is justifiably tighter, which I appreciate. But logging into any system provides a risk of logging in incorrectly, which can cascade into a maelstrom of having to prove I am who I say I am. Great site. Nice service. But I only access it about once a week, not casually.

Whew. I just brought up Yahoo’s wikipedia page because I was about to refer to the company. Founded in 1994! Yeah. I knew it was old, back when any site was considered a success, and probably temporary; but I remember using it before Google (founded in 1998). Maybe they’ve maintained their simple style (and somehow survived years of drama). Ta da! They have. (Just ignore the realities of what they’ve been through. There should be a movie.)

Voila! Create a new account (because obviously it forgot the original one, or I did). Load up the stock symbols (while deleting all of their suggested ones that were ultra-mega-caps). And notice that it exceeds my expectations. They even include range data (and don’t worry if you don’t know what that means.)

screengrab from Yahoo! Finance from July 24, 2026

OK. I think I’ve found my new site to check regularly, for a while, until something else better comes along, and maybe not even going back to Google because this is better than that.

Craigslist, wikipedia, I do like such sites.

And I wonder if a minimalist, luddite-light, simplistic approach is about to see a resurgence.

E-bikes are becoming more popular. EVs are potentially simpler than gas-powered cars. Have you seen the new electric pickup, the Slate? Simple, cheap, electric. Roll-up windows are back! There are far fewer systems to distract you from driving. If you want to modify it, then modify it. I want one (pending having enough funds and finding out how best to carry bicycles in the bed.)

screengrab from Slate.auto

Give me a simple car, and a simple camera, and a simple computer, and a simple life.

New does not mean improved, but maybe, just maybe, it may begin to.

Thanks for the years of service, Google. I liked you best when you didn’t want to be evil.

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Best Sleepover Ever

Posted on July 17, 2026 by Tom Trimbath

Pardon me as I dry my eyes. The World Cup proved to me something I’ve been looking for. Humans meeting humans is marvelous. Pundits and politicians don’t have a clue. You want the finance part of the picture? Imagine all the money spent on hotels, flights, food, and beer; and look at all the fun they generated. Imagine an economy run by having a better party. (Thanks, Rick Ingrasci.)

But, but, but…politics and AI and climate change and… And you’re right those threats exist. But they aren’t the only things that exist. Balance.

2026, the World Cup came to North America. I didn’t watch the games. I did, however, watch dozens of YouTube videos of people having fun with people. People got past the media summaries that are necessarily short sound bites. They got past the political statements that emphasize our differences. The people posted their videos of their lives.

The videos of their lives were of people realizing that the other people are people. Certain criminals claim the spotlight, and the media plays in to that. That’s news. The people posted fun, amazement, and wonder. That’s not news, but that’s far more important.

The media and the politicians are gatekeepers, editors of the world that filter the events into ‘simpler’ messages that hope to grab eyeballs and votes.

Have a better party. At least for a while, skip the news. Skip the politics. Dance, sing, talk, travel, listen, look at what you see, not what you’re shown.

Then, the kicker was that much of this was happening in the US. Foreigners who’ve only seen the country in the news felt betrayed. Sure, there’s bad stuff, but they celebrated a wonder at the country, not as a news item or political position, but as a people, culture and land that they could enjoy. I’m proud of us, and surprised and not.

Do we have flaws? Duh! Everyone does. Should we fix them? Yes. But we shouldn’t forget the positives. And, having traveled a bit, they do too, flaws and positives. We are humans. We have more in common than will fit in a news item or a speech.

As I mentioned, I watched dozens of videos. I’m sure there are hundreds, maybe thousands. Some were staged by YouTubers craving an audience, but many, most, were authentic.

My favorite was “America Hosted The Best Sleepover Ever”, which included an intro of “…The World Cup is just the US having a giant sleepover with the cousins we never get to see because our parents hate each other.” Just a bunch of people having fun with people.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/CV4qY7-2ANw (~4 minutes)

Then I found a few others which were reaction videos. Reaction videos is where a YouTuber reacts to the video. These two were from different countries (Ireland and Britian?) saying much of the same. (~8 minutes each)

The parties were good and loud. The explorations were quieter and filled with wonder. Individual cities were called out, but I particularly enjoyed the ones from people who had the time to travel to small towns and to National Parks. I chuckle as I type because for each I’m thinking, ‘Oh, that’s good but they shoulda seen…’. And that was for our National Parks, of which I am a fan. Our state parks are pretty magnificent too.

They also showed us us. Texas is bold and brassy, just right for many of them. LA is warm sand and beach life. NYC is, of course, the most familiar from its size and movie exposure. They aren’t for me, but I respect those Americans and the way they enjoy life; and the visitors did too.

They were warned about murders and guns and so many other of our faults. They weren’t warned about our portion sizes, our diversity, our hospitality.

But, Tom, this blog is about personal finance. What does this have to do with that?

After social media gained traction (and after reading a few books like Powershift), I expected that a great movement, a great positive movement could arise from individuals. Individuals can now reach past the gatekeepers and spread messages that have been filtered out. Organizations have some control over global messaging, but they have significant competition now. Imagine a world where we have more and they have less. Imagine a world where positive messages eclipse negative ones. Imagine a world where criminals aren’t given the pulpit and the stage. What do you want to watch? What do you want to show the world?

But about the personal finance?

The world’s economies run on consumption, competition, and crisis. Imagine a world (and pardon the accidental alliteration) built from cooperation, creation, and compassion. 

How much money was spent on all of these parties? In the same time, how much money was spent on bombs, bullets, and missiles? We’ll never get rid of both, but which economy would you rather see dominate?

And here I’ll get personal for you and me. What kind of business… What goods and services can we provide that fosters that other economy, the better party economy? B&Bs? Yes. Travel across oceans will almost exclusively belong to billion dollar companies (and I cheer my friends who’ve crossed oceans in sailboats). Food? Go local. Skip the restaurant in a box, decorations and menues included. What can you serve that you eat that is from your location? Thai may be great, but here around the Salish Sea I’d like to see more salmon and elk.

This may be a dream, but dreams come true.

My four main worries are AI, politics, climate change, and social injustice. I don’t use AI on purpose. I vote, but I don’t know of any party that matches my values. Climate change would be impacted by the travel, but not everyone has to travel, just enough to spread the stories. But social injustice, now that may be best assaulted by people treating people as if they are people. They aren’t labels or stereotypes or races or genders. They (assuming AIs are sentient yet) are people, flesh and blood, trying to get through life and maybe even pursue happiness.

Pursue happiness? Sounds like a fine business opportunity. I wonder how I can invest in it.

PS I watched a video from a local news channel. They acknowledged the trend, and then spent a quarter of the time describing all the bad things that happened. Sigh.

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