Dear Financial Samurai,
The S&P 500 is up 13.7% for the year. What a blessing after total returns of 26%, 25%, and 17.88% in 2023, 2024, and 2025.
According to a report from Bank of America Securities, older Americans are leaving the workforce at a faster pace. Labor force participation among people aged 55+ has dropped from above 40% pre-pandemic to 36.9% in July.
This is great news for younger Americans who want to grind up the corporate ladder and make more money. And this is obviously great news for older Americans who get to break free sooner.
For those of us without jobs during this four-year bull run, it has honestly felt kind of like a miracle. We could have withdrawn $100,000 a year from a hypothetical $1 million portfolio at the beginning of 2023, or $400,000 in total, and still have roughly $1.6 million today.
I hope you all spend a moment checking your stock portfolio balance from January 1, 2023, and comparing it to today to fully appreciate your good fortune. Now consider how you can more intentionally enjoy your wealth, whether through greater experiences, more stuff, working less, helping others, or doing something more interesting.
But More Financial Education Is Needed
Of course, not everybody has benefited from the stock market bull run.
One famous person who noticeably has not is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, 36, now the likely Democratic candidate for president in 2028, according to betting markets.
She’s made $174,000 a year in Congress since 2019 and recently reported, at most, $81,000 in total assets and up to $50,000 in student loans. Her only investment is in RPSIX, a T. Rowe Price income fund that is actually down about 2% for the year. Based on the disclosure, the most her net worth could be is about $61,000.
If AOC is representative of a large swath of the population, maybe Americans are not richer, happier, and healthier than I originally thought, based on the thousands of comments from my viral tweet. Hence, I feel more motivated to keep writing about personal finance, despite all the investment gains, not less.
To miss out on this four-year bull run is a serious problem because it means the wealth gap has widened even further for many more people. And given that I’m a parent who is constantly thinking about my children’s future, young children could be left behind the most if we don’t aggressively invest for them.
Oh, and of course, AOC will be financially fine. She could easily sign a multimillion-dollar book deal after leaving government, and she also has a lifetime pension.
Being Provided For Feels Nice
But maybe life doesn’t have to be all work, no play, at least for boys and future men. Indeed, Hiring Lab reported that women now hold more payroll jobs than men in America. It’s only the third time this has ever happened.
Based on my 25 years of living in San Francisco and seeing adult male children living at home with their parents or rent-free in their parents’ rentals, I’m actually surprised this situation hasn’t grown sooner. Women have also been the majority of college degree earners for over a decade now.
I’ve also met a lot of fellow dads at my school and other schools who are not the breadwinners or who are stay-at-home dads. It’s become common.
So if you are a man who is burned out, know there may be relief for you and your sons in the future! It feels wonderful to get taken care of sometimes.
See: The Stay-At-Home Boyfriend Or Husband Is A Great Trend
Venture Capital Spotlight
Finally, I’m in venture capital enthusiasm mode because the first tranche of SpaceX shares unlocked, and I finally got to find out exactly how much I own and at what entry price. It’s pretty cool to participate on the rocket as a passive limited partner.
Check out Everybody Got The SpaceX Lockup Expiration Wrong and what I plan to do with my shares. I also published a new post about Why Venture Capital Funds Need To Grow Bigger To Compete, if you’re like me and allocate a portion of your capital to venture.
The second bit of news is that my VCX shares also finally unlocked after five months on August 14. The day before the unlock, the shares jumped over 20%, and then gave up about 60% of the gains the next day. Wild volatility. I ended up using about 20% of my allocated cash to buy more shares on Friday morning at or around my original NAV estimate of $31.
Once we get through the entire unlock pressure by August 21, as it takes time for shares to transfer to people’s brokerage accounts, I think there’s going to be an opportunity given the Anthropic IPO. Sitting here in San Francisco, speaking to real estate agents, venture capitalists, limited partners, and founders for the past three years about AI, I think the IPO demand will be unprecedented.
Meanwhile, major outlets are talking about Anthropic wanting to IPO at a $2+ trillion valuation in October, up from a $965 billion valuation in May 2026. If they indeed hit a $100 billion annual revenue run rate or higher by the end of the year, a $2 trillion IPO market capitalization is feasible.
So personally, I welcome any selling in VCX over the next week so I can build my Anthropic position at a better value before the IPO. At least 20% of VCX is in Anthropic. When I modeled VCX’s NAV at $31, I assumed Anthropic was at a $1 trillion valuation at IPO, not $2 trillion, let alone the $3 trillion that some are arguing for.
Of course, I could be entirely off, and the market could balk at anything greater than a $1 trillion valuation. My modeling could be off by up to 25% as well. I’m also totally biased, as I’m a VCX shareholder and Fundrise is a long-time sponsor as our investment philosophies are aligned.
So please, do your own due diligence before making any investment decisions. I’m just sharing with you what I’m doing with my cash.
As I’ve said before, a FIRE investor with no paycheck can’t be too wrong. I depend more than a working father on my investment gains to support my family. However, as someone who stepped away from a handsome paycheck in 2012 to do my own thing, I’m also probably a bigger risk-taker than most.
Let the exciting times continue!
Sam
If you want the full framework for turning a bull run into permanent financial security, my USA Today bestseller Millionaire Milestones: Simple Steps To Seven Figures walks through it milestone by milestone. And my next book, Your Children Will Be OK: Helping Them Navigate An Uncertain Future, is coming. It’s the book I wish someone had handed me when I became a full-time dad.
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Everything I write comes from firsthand experience since 2009. Money is too important to be left up to pontification.