My NURP losses of mid-summer are still weighing on me. While I am hoping for gains from my Octane bot and the Futures copy-trading to get me closer to even than doing nothing, I have a journey ahead of me for the next few months.

But before I arrive on December 31st, I am trying to get the bot activity entered into QuickBooks under my LLC. If I knew I would have significant losses, I would have chosen a different tax option. Now that I am forced to reconcile everything, I am quite possibly bending Quickbooks in a way that it won’t easily go. I have used QuickBooks for over a decade, but investment losses/income differ from running a credit card or sending an invoice.

The goal is to capture all of the activity. Unfortunately, peaking four months into the future shows far more red than I would like. If all I saw was the losses, I should find another hobby. If I accept the slaps and pummelings as hazing, I would be foolish to stop. Yes, I have been chastised. And, yes, I have been humbled. But have I been beaten? Absolutely not. I would be foolish to throw away the wisdom acquired in the trenches.

Even the accounting won’t defeat me. I will get through it, and I won’t let myself get behind next year. If I viewed the bots as “retirement-critical,” my attitude would be different. I would have sleepless nights—oh yeah, I had some of those. In the future, the bot income will be bonuses on cruises, family outings, or undeserved splurging. I am grateful for our financial planning and my wife’s willingness to give me some funds to experiment with. I vow to finish 2024 with a positive attitude and apply its wisdom to 2025.