#88: America, We're So Back!

And I'm also back from my honeymoon!

Author

Millennial Money Veteran
May 19, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 6 minutes

In case you didn’t notice, I’ve been M.I.A. (missing in action) because I was/am on my honeymoon. I’m currently writing this up from the Japan Airlines’ lounge as I wait for my flight back to the United States that I booked with points (big thanks to my credit cards!). 

I’ve been enjoying the last 3 weeks in Japan traveling and walking nearly 20,000 steps every single day, but the Army has trained me well enough that it wasn’t so bad on my feet. My wife on the other hand.. Let’s just say our next vacation will be at some resort by the beach. 

While we’re coming back to the US, this newsletter isn’t about just us coming back - it’s the stock market coming back!

Recent News

📰 News Highlights

Brief

Stock Market Rebounds

If you were following my story, you saw that I “bought the dip” on several occasions, mainly in heavily impacted stocks that I currently hold and in tech ETFs.

I’m not an advanced trader and I’m also not a beginner, but after 10 years in the stock market, I don’t get worked up over declines, especially after the COVID impact.

The S&P 500 rebounded about 20% since Liberation Day and is just 3% below its record high set in mid-February and up 1.53% from the start of the year. What a comeback..

I took a course called Behavioral Finance during my MBA days and it highlights a lot of these mass psychological reactions to the stock market. Emotions drive a lot of the immediate decision-making, which makes the market irrational at times. Over time, the market will regulate and correct. This is what you have to worry about if you’re investing with a short time horizon.

If you’re a long-term investor like me, assuming that that money won’t need to be touched in a very long time, then you shouldn’t panic at these events. The majority of my investments are in ETFs so those follow the market. 

Over the past month and a half, I haven’t sold a single stock. The majority of my portfolio is allocated in the tech sector, which was disproportionately impacted (as per usual) so I purchased more of those. Even the one tech stock that was really impacted rebounded! 

All this is to point out that this tariff shock to the market is not unusual. I said it in an Instagram reel before that this was an artificially created event with the expectation that the stock market would react negatively. Just like how it was created, it could be fixed right away with something as simple as a tweet.

While the stock market is just below the all-time-high, I do have some worries about the economy from different signals like Treasury bonds yields going higher even though PPI dipped lower, unemployment rate, etc. but I’m also slightly optimistic hoping that there is a spur of economic activity after the 90-day pause with China and that the other trade deals made with countries will continue the country’s economic activity.

Regardless of my feelings, I consistently invest in the market because I have a long-term goal and I know from experience that time in the market is more important than timing the market.

To do that, investing consistently is key. It’s easy when you have an automated investing schedule like mine:

  • 5% contribution to my employer retirement account (with a 5% match)

  • Maximum annual contribution to my Roth IRA

  • Maximum annual contribution to my Health Savings Account

  • Anything else into my taxable brokerage account for liquidity

Recommendations

🔧 Toolbox

This section will showcase the tools I use and recommend. I love trying new things so I’ll share what I’m using and why:

  • Best budget app visuals (link): Ever since Mint shut down, I think Monarch is now the best budget app on the market especially with its visual data feature. You can sign up for a free trial to test it out here.

  • Short term rental insurance (link): If you’re a short-term rental investor, you should know that a typical landlord insurance policy DOES NOT cover short-term rentals. It’s really important to get a policy that covers you if you’re in this game. Get a free online quote.