Not to call attention to my journal... but I have a journal. In this journal I attempt to carbon-date my maturities bc my shit is glacial. CCs in LEAPS...
I clicked on your Journal and I don't mean to be rude but it was pretty boring, bought this, sold that etc. To be interesting a Journal should show a continuing P&L with buys and sells to see how you are doing on an accumulative basis. You don't have to "show proof" as some on ET demand but an ongoing P&L spreadsheet would spice things up.
Sorry, it will just be a very boring thread. I won't bother to create a spreadsheet...I turn 69 in a week. I haven't been to a computer class since the 1980s...DOS/Lotus 1-2-3!! I do one basic one for our one rental, medical/dental, that's it. A few things do come to mind. Only my wife has a small ($500.) pension. We have SSI, Medicare, and four Roth IRAs going. Usually we do NOT pay income tax. If we do, it is very low. We work hard (with our CPA) to match up our long and short term capital gains and losses. So, buying stocks in an established industry leader that pays say a 3% dividend, comes into more play than if we both were working and generating large amounts of income (and taxes). It's not what you earn, it's what you keep... So we hide our assets...Being asset rich, cash rich, and reportable income (relatively) poor. Just some of our stocks with dividends over 3%: Citi (C), Conoco Phillips (COP), Zion (ZION), Coke (K), Gilead (GILD), IBM. Throw in a few options here and there... Yeah, I'll be holding things like Apple and QQQ for growth...But more boring than watching paint dry. They make money..."He gets on base".