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Quarterly Summary · Q2 2026 Q2 2026 Dividend Income: Up 105%, Down 6.5% The account statements say the quarter more than doubled. The per-share math says my distributions shrank. Both are true. QUARTERLY · APRIL - JUNE 2026 · 7 MIN READ Dividend income across both accounts came to $1,488.18 in the second quarter of 2026, against $727.29 a year earlier. That is up 104.6 percent. Hold my share count from Q2 2025 flat and apply this year's distribution rates to those exact shares, and the same holdings would have paid $680.36. That is down 6.5 percent. The gap between those two numbers is entirely money I added. This is the first quarter I have measured it, and the result was not what I expected.

Weekly Series · Dividend Increases Dividend Increases This Week (Jul 20-24, 2026) Every raise worth noting this week came from a bank. That is not a coincidence, and it tells you something about where the capital confidence sits right now. WEEKLY · WEEK OF JUL 20-24, 2026 · 4 MIN READ Bank of America raised its quarterly dividend 14 percent to $0.32 per share on Friday, the largest increase among the dividend increases this week by a wide margin in market cap terms. Southern Missouri Bancorp lifted its payout 8 percent. Capital Bancorp went 16.7 percent higher. Three raises, three banks. Late July is Q2 bank earnings season, and boards that just cleared the stress test cycle tend to announce capital returns alongside the numbers.

Career & Compensation · Long Read The RSU Diversification Strategy I Actually Use Sell 100 percent on vest day and put the proceeds into a diversified dividend growth portfolio. Here's why that beats every other RSU diversification strategy I've seen. ESSAY · JULY 2026 · 6 MIN READ Every four years I watch a friend in tech tell me they've decided to hold their RSUs this time because the stock looks strong. About half of them come back later regretting it. That's not a story about picking bad companies. It's what a concentrated position in a single stock does to a portfolio, and it's the exact outcome any real RSU diversification strategy is designed to prevent. Your employer already pays your salary, your bonus, your health insurance, and if you leave, your future paychecks stop. Adding a large equity position in the same company means the same event that ends your income also craters your net worth. That...

Refresh notice. This is an updated version of the May 2018 Monday Myth post, extended with eight additional years of market data through mid-2026. The original analysis and comments remain part of the same conversation. Investing Analysis · Refresh The Monday Myth: Best Day to Buy Index Funds (Updated) Eight more years of data. A pandemic, a bear market, an AI rally. Here's whether the "best day to buy" question got any more useful in 2026. REFRESH · UPDATED JULY 2026 · 6 MIN READ "Appreciate the analysis. I'm getting my MBA at the moment and was planning to propose this strategy and do the related regression analysis. You saved me the time of going down this rabbit hole, so now I need to pivot and see if I can find a better strategy." John A, comment on the original post, December 2020 That comment stuck with me. Not because it was flattering, though it was, but because the reader saying...

The unstructured hours are the ones that build the person underneath the resume. Essay · Tech & Parenting The Professionalization of Childhood Is Backfiring The kids being optimized the hardest are the ones I keep passing over in interviews. Here's what the success accelerator model actually breaks. ESSAY · JULY 2026 · 6 MIN READ Grand View Research puts the global private tutoring market at $154.8 billion by 2030. Global Industry Analysts puts the same market at $295.1 billion. Either way, the professionalization of childhood is now one of the largest consumer categories on the planet, and it's growing faster than most of tech itself. I run engineering teams. I've hired hundreds of people over 20 years. The candidates I turn down most often at the top of the pile aren't the ones with gaps in their resumes. They're the ones whose resumes look like they were built by a consultant, because usually they we...

Dividend Increases · Weekly Dividend Increases This Week (July 13-17, 2026) Three Dividend Achievers raised this week. One of them, a 17-year streak from Cummins with a 10 percent hike, is the story worth sitting with. WEEKLY SERIES · JULY 17, 2026 · 5 MIN READ Mid-July is usually a quiet stretch for dividend increases. Most Achievers and Aristocrats run annual raise cycles in Q1 or Q4, so July tends to deliver a handful of raises rather than a flood. This week fits that pattern, but it also delivered one raise big enough to actually think about. Cummins bumped its quarterly dividend 10 percent to $2.20 per share, extending a 17-year streak. That's a real signal from a cyclical industrial that just finished a year with $2.8 billion in earnings on $33.7 billion in sales. NNN REIT quietly hit its 37th consecutive annual increase, which puts it in a club of just three publicly traded REITs at that milestone. And Home...

Investing · SPCX Investing in SPCX: Is SpaceX Stock Worth the Price? Investing in SPCX means buying rockets, Starlink, and an AI bet in one stock. Here's what the price actually assumes before you buy in. ANALYSIS · UPDATED JULY 2026 · 6 MIN READ On June 12, 2026, SpaceX rang the opening bell on the Nasdaq under the ticker SPCX. Shares priced at $135, valuing the company near $1.77 trillion, the largest IPO in history by a wide margin. A month later, the stock had round tripped from an intraday high of $225.64 back down below where it started. That whiplash is the real backdrop for anyone researching investing in SPCX right now. This isn't a sleepy dividend stock you buy and forget about. It's a rocket company, a satellite internet provider, and an AI bet, all trading under one ticker, and Wall Street clearly hasn't agreed on what that combination is worth.

Back in 2017, I wrote an article titled "ETF vs. Mutual Fund Investment Strategy" that explored the fundamental trade-offs for the passive investor. At the time, the choice was defined by clear barriers: high minimums for "Admiral" shares, the lack of fractional ETF units, and the inability to automate ETF trades. Fast forward nine years to Q1 2026, and the landscape has undergone a complete transformation. The barriers have largely evaporated, leaving us with a new question: Does the distinction even matter anymore?

North American markets are currently expensive. The S&P 500 is trading at a premium driven by multiple expansion in a handful of tech giants, while the real "Yield" and "Appreciation" have moved across the ocean. International diversification is no longer an optional hedge; it is the only way to avoid domestic over-valuation. This analysis breaks down the structural components and diversification profiles of Vanguard’s International Dividend Appreciation (VIGI) and International High Dividend Yield (VYMI) ETFs.

As we enter the second quarter of 2026, Costco Wholesale Corporation (NASDAQ: COST) remains one of the most polarizing tickers in the consumer staples sector. For some, it is a fortress of reliability and shareholder value; for others, it is a dangerously over-extended stock trading at a valuation usually reserved for hyper-growth technology firms. With a Price-to-Earnings (P/E) ratio consistently hovering near 55, the central debate for 2026 is whether Costco's operational execution can continue to outrun its premium price tag.

As we navigate the opening chapters of 2026, the global financial landscape is defined by a paradoxical mix of stubborn inflation and aggressive technological disruption. Within this volatility, Berkshire Hathaway has emerged not just as a participant, but as the ultimate architect of defensive value, pushing its cash reserves to a historic $347 billion—a figure that represents more than just a savings account, but a strategic fortress designed to withstand the structural technical debt of the modern market.

As the first quarter of 2026 comes to a close, Canada’s economic story is increasingly defined by a profound contradiction. Headline figures suggest an economy that is expanding faster than many of its global peers, yet the individual experience of Canadians is one of persistent decline. For seven years, the gap between the nation's total output and the prosperity of its citizens has widened, marking the most significant erosion of living standards in four decades.

In the world of high-stakes technology and engineering, we often talk about technical debt—the hidden cost of choosing an easy, short-term fix over a sustainable, long-term architecture. We are now witnessing the same phenomenon applied to the next generation. In our desperate rush to de-risk our children's futures, we have started architecting their lives through industrial frameworks, accumulating a massive amount of "Human Technical Debt" that will eventually come due with interest. As a technical leader and a parent, I have spent decades optimizing systems, refactoring legacy codebases, and managing large-scale engineering organizations. I understand the human instinct to mitigate risk and the professional desire for a high-quality, predictable "output." However, I have begun to see the cold, rigid principles of systems engineering applied with alarming precision to the development of our children. We are witnessing the Professionalization of...

Vanguard Real Estate ETF (VNQ): Navigating the World of Property Investments Vanguard Real Estate ETF (VNQ): Navigating the World of Property Investments In a diversified investment portfolio, real estate can play a crucial role, offering potential for income, capital appreciation, and inflation hedging. However, direct property ownership can be illiquid and capital-intensive. The Vanguard Real Estate ETF ($VNQ) provides an accessible, low-cost avenue for investors to gain diversified exposure to the U.S. real estate market without the complexities of direct ownership. VNQ primarily invests in Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs), companies that own, operate, or finance income-producing real estate across various sectors, from commercial properties to residential and specialized facilities. This structure allows investors to participate in the real estate market's potential returns and income distributions while enjoying the li...

XRP: The Global Payments Revolution XRP: The Global Payments Revolution – An Investor's Deep Dive In the dynamic and often contentious world of cryptocurrencies, XRP ($XRP) stands as a unique digital asset designed primarily for one purpose: to revolutionize global payments. Developed by Ripple Labs, XRP aims to serve as a bridge currency for fast, low-cost, and reliable cross-border transactions, distinguishing itself from cryptocurrencies focused on broader use cases like digital gold or decentralized applications. Its journey has been marked by both rapid adoption in the financial sector and significant regulatory challenges, most notably a protracted legal battle with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). For investors assessing the future of digital finance, understanding XRP means evaluating its utility in a modernizing global economy, its unique technological underpinnings, and its path towards broader regula...

Amazon: The Diversified Empire – Cloud, Commerce, and Beyond for Investors Amazon: The Diversified Empire – Cloud, Commerce, and Beyond for Investors In the expansive and ever-evolving digital landscape, few companies have sculpted their presence with the breadth and depth of Amazon.com, Inc. ($AMZN) . What began as an online bookseller has relentlessly diversified into a global powerhouse, seamlessly integrating e-commerce , transformative cloud computing , cutting-edge digital advertising , and a suite of innovative subscription services. For investors seeking exposure to a deeply entrenched ecosystem powering global consumption and digital transformation, AMZN represents a unique blend of scale, innovation, and strategic foresight. This comprehensive analysis delves into Amazon's distinctive financial architecture, its multi-faceted competitive advantages, and its unparalleled global operational footprint, offering a nuanced p...