Paging My Inner Gekko

For most of my career save for a couple dumb decisions I made in my twenties, I have invested passively (and lightly) into my 401k. Truth be told, it took getting old before I realized I was getting old and needed money to not have to work forever. My 401k was set to autopilot in one "set-it-and-forget-it" fund targeted to a retirement date and that was about it.

During the early part of COVID in March 2020, I opened a brokerage account (with companies like Fidelity, Schwab, or Robinhood where you can buy and sell stocks) with $5. Five and a half years later, at the time my hustle began, I had grown it to $2385 mostly with deposits as opposed to any sort of positive growth (I've invested in some real stinkers). So, my 401k and $2385 in a (taxable) brokerage account is what I was working with.

If you read my first post (here), you know my first month's side hustle earnings in November of 2025 totaled $59.81. Over time, I am going to track what has happened to that money, what got added to it, where I hope it is going, and how I intend to get there. It starts here (btw, if you're interested, you can see the average return over different periods of time here; I'm going with about 10% and the below assumes $59.81 every month – it'll change):