{"id":171446,"date":"2025-04-04T23:02:28","date_gmt":"2025-04-04T23:02:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/business\/finance\/my-tariff-playbook-lazy-man-and-money\/"},"modified":"2025-04-04T23:02:28","modified_gmt":"2025-04-04T23:02:28","slug":"my-tariff-playbook-lazy-man-and-money","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=171446","title":{"rendered":"My Tariff Playbook – Lazy Man and Money"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

\n

I had hoped to write about happier topics, such as our vacation over the last couple of weeks or an update on our finances for March. I\u2019ll leave those for next week, as the headlines everywhere are Trump\u2019s tariffs. Please excuse me if this article is a little more rough-around-the-edges as I\u2019m writing and publishing frantically to react to the news.<\/p>\n

My playbook goes back to my February 25 article, Is This Why Warren Buffett is Hoarding Cash?<\/a>. I\u2019ll give a quick summary for those who didn\u2019t read it and are perhaps even lazier than I am to click the link. I realized that the markets were priced for perfection. The Shiller PE, which gauges how expensive the stock market is, was extremely high at 37. (The average since 2000 was about 25. The average has been 17 if you go back 100 years.) There was a lot of uncertainty with government layoffs and\u2026 of course, tariffs.<\/p>\n

With all that information, I decided that it was time to cash out of some stocks and buy bonds. That\u2019s basically what Warren Buffett was doing. I only did this in my retirement accounts, because I didn\u2019t want to trigger any taxable events. (I\u2019ll get to accounts held in brokerages later.)<\/p>\n

This preparation was critical. My 11-year-old hasn\u2019t perfected the time machine yet*, so I\u2019m sorry if you missed this. Don\u2019t fret yet; maybe you are set up to implement my playbook anyway.<\/p>\n

Buy the Dips (with Retirement Accounts)<\/h2>\n

I follow the stock markets every day, but most people probably shouldn\u2019t. It\u2019s events like today, where the news is almost inescapable, that it\u2019s worth giving it a look. These kind of events don\u2019t happen often. I remember them in 2009, 2020, and today. There\u2019s enough going on with the markets that they have the potential to drop a lot. However, no one knows how much. For all we know, Trump could change his mind about tariffs tomorrow, and the markets recover within a week. It doesn\u2019t look that way to me, but he\u2019s done it before. I\u2019m not going to bet my financial future on whether I can read any politician\u2019s mind.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re currently on the second day of stocks dropping around 4%. NASDAQ has entered bear territory, down 20% from its highs. In my mind, this is the dip where you start to buy. You have to have money to buy, so this is where it is helpful to have those bonds that I bought 6 weeks ago. I didn\u2019t know if I\u2019d need this quickly, but I\u2019m happy they are there. They have actually gained a bit over the last couple of days. I consider them about as good as cash. Bonds can drop in value, but they are typically less volatile (as we are seeing now), and they pay out some handy cash in the meantime.<\/p>\n

I divide up my bonds into slices. I want to be able to buy 8-10 times as the market goes down. It\u2019s not a perfect science, so this is an area that is entirely up to your personal preference. I want to be able to sell bonds and buy stocks whenever the market drops 5%. This allows me to continue buying even if the market has dropped 40-50% as it did in 2009. I\u2019m consistently buying stocks cheaply while I wait for the recovery. If we get a large drop, I\u2019ll be buying a fair amount of cheap stock. If we get a small drop, then I won\u2019t have gained too much, but stocks will have recovered so that small amount is gravy.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m 49 years old, so I\u2019ve got time to wait for a recovery with my retirement accounts.<\/p>\n

What Stocks Do I Buy?<\/h3>\n

I have two schools of thought with this one. I think each has merit, and it just depends on your risk tolerance:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Buy Technology and Small Cap Stocks<\/b>
    These are the two areas that typically get hit the hardest during a sell-off. They are simply the most volatile as investors focus on the safest companies, such as consumer staples, that people will buy even in a recession. I specifically buy the NASDAQ 100 (symbol QQQ or QQQM) and Vanguard Small Business ETF (symbol VB). Over the last couple of days, I\u2019ve been buying the NASDAQ and taking advantage of the 20% off sale. In the spirit of baseball\u2019s spring training, I\u2019m swinging for the fences.<\/li>\n
  2. Buy Dividend Stocks<\/b>
    Many companies that pay dividends have steady businesses. Otherwise they couldn\u2019t commit to paying the dividends. They are often oil companies and the consumer staples mentioned above. Usually they hold up better in big drops. This is a more conservative plan. I\u2019m hoping to just hit a single. I haven\u2019t bought any of this during this tariff event, but I had bought a high-dividend ETF (Symbol: ETF) six weeks ago when I was buying the bonds.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    When the recovery happens, and it always does, I sell the stocks and add back to my bonds.<\/p>\n

    What About Taxable Brokerage Accounts?<\/h2>\n

    I do almost nothing with my taxable brokerage accounts. I had set them up to conservatively invest to begin with. I knew I wouldn\u2019t want to actively trade them, so there isn\u2019t a lot do.<\/p>\n

    There are a couple of small things you can do. My conservative investments paid a good amount of quarterly dividends at the end of March. I always take these in cash so that I can buy whatever is cheap to rebalance my portfolio. This seems like a good time to put those cash dividends to work, right?<\/p>\n

    The other thing you can do is tax loss harvesting. I won\u2019t go too deep into this, but if you have some stocks that have gained and some that have lost, you can sell them. When you match them up you can avoid paying taxes, get cash to reinvest in other areas.<\/p>\n

    For example, I have some NASDAQ stock that I bought very low that has gained a lot with the artificial intelligence run-up. I have some international stocks that have lost money. I can match them up and buy something else (perhaps a different international ETF) to rebalance without creating a taxable event. (I think I usually create a taxable event of a few dollars, but it\u2019s not noticeable at tax time.) There are many, many people who know a lot more about tax-loss harvesting than I do. I recommend using Reddit or maybe even ChatGPT to learn a little more. It\u2019s a fairly advanced topic.<\/p>\n

    Final Thoughts<\/h2>\n

    This was my blueprint during COVID and it worked perfectly. Back then I was fortunately to increase my bonds greatly and buy a high-dividend ETF because the market had gone up for a decade. I didn\u2019t have a crystal ball telling me that COVID was coming. I ended up buying some stock cheaper and when the market recovered, my accounts were stronger than ever before.<\/p>\n

    Do you have an investment plan to navigate Tariffgate? If so, let me know in the comments.<\/p>\n

    Related<\/em><\/h3>\n<\/p>\n

    <\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    I had hoped to write about happier topics, such as our vacation over the last couple of weeks or an update on our finances for March. I\u2019ll leave those for next week, as the headlines everywhere are Trump\u2019s tariffs. Please excuse me if this article is a little more rough-around-the-edges as I\u2019m writing and publishing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":76478,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[93],"tags":[2902,385,832,13313,11677],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-171446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance","tag-lazy","tag-man","tag-money","tag-playbook","tag-tariff"],"yoast_head":"\nMy Tariff Playbook - Lazy Man and Money - Som2ny Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=171446\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"My Tariff Playbook - Lazy Man and Money - Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I had hoped to write about happier topics, such as our vacation over the last couple of weeks or an update on our finances for March. I\u2019ll leave those for next week, as the headlines everywhere are Trump\u2019s tariffs. Please excuse me if this article is a little more rough-around-the-edges as I\u2019m writing and publishing […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=171446\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-04-04T23:02:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/slidingStock.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"724\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=171446#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=171446\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/person\/b85e3c3dc0e1daea076524dc8810c371\"},\"headline\":\"My Tariff Playbook – Lazy Man and Money\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-04-04T23:02:28+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=171446\"},\"wordCount\":1208,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=171446#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/slidingStock.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Lazy\",\"Man\",\"Money\",\"Playbook\",\"Tariff\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Finance\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=171446#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=171446\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=171446\",\"name\":\"My Tariff Playbook - Lazy Man and Money - Som2ny Network\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=171446#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=171446#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/slidingStock.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-04-04T23:02:28+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=171446#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=171446\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=171446#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/slidingStock.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/slidingStock.jpg\",\"width\":1024,\"height\":724},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=171446#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?bp_activities=1\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"My Tariff Playbook – Lazy Man and Money\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/\",\"name\":\"Som2ny Network\",\"description\":\"Daily Deals\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Som2ny Network\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/4a0953c4-logo-300x86-1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/4a0953c4-logo-300x86-1.png\",\"width\":300,\"height\":86,\"caption\":\"Som2ny Network\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/person\/b85e3c3dc0e1daea076524dc8810c371\",\"name\":\"admin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/729ae85bf62b9917e93538db2f2688ca?s=96&r=g&default=https%3A%2F%2Ffivemor.com%2Fwp-content%2Fplugins%2Fbuddypress-first-letter-avatar%2Fimages%2Fdefault%2F96%2Flatin_a.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/729ae85bf62b9917e93538db2f2688ca?s=96&r=g&default=https%3A%2F%2Ffivemor.com%2Fwp-content%2Fplugins%2Fbuddypress-first-letter-avatar%2Fimages%2Fdefault%2F96%2Flatin_a.png\",\"caption\":\"admin\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"My Tariff Playbook - Lazy Man and Money - Som2ny Network","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=171446","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"My Tariff Playbook - Lazy Man and Money - Som2ny Network","og_description":"I had hoped to write about happier topics, such as our vacation over the last couple of weeks or an update on our finances for March. I\u2019ll leave those for next week, as the headlines everywhere are Trump\u2019s tariffs. Please excuse me if this article is a little more rough-around-the-edges as I\u2019m writing and publishing […]","og_url":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=171446","og_site_name":"Som2ny Network","article_published_time":"2025-04-04T23:02:28+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1024,"height":724,"url":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/slidingStock.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"admin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"admin","Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=171446#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=171446"},"author":{"name":"admin","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/person\/b85e3c3dc0e1daea076524dc8810c371"},"headline":"My Tariff Playbook – Lazy Man and Money","datePublished":"2025-04-04T23:02:28+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=171446"},"wordCount":1208,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=171446#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/slidingStock.jpg","keywords":["Lazy","Man","Money","Playbook","Tariff"],"articleSection":["Finance"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=171446#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=171446","url":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=171446","name":"My Tariff Playbook - Lazy Man and Money - Som2ny Network","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=171446#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=171446#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/slidingStock.jpg","datePublished":"2025-04-04T23:02:28+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=171446#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=171446"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=171446#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/slidingStock.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/slidingStock.jpg","width":1024,"height":724},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=171446#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?bp_activities=1"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"My Tariff Playbook – Lazy Man and Money"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/","name":"Som2ny Network","description":"Daily Deals","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#organization","name":"Som2ny Network","url":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/4a0953c4-logo-300x86-1.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/4a0953c4-logo-300x86-1.png","width":300,"height":86,"caption":"Som2ny Network"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/person\/b85e3c3dc0e1daea076524dc8810c371","name":"admin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/729ae85bf62b9917e93538db2f2688ca?s=96&r=g&default=https%3A%2F%2Ffivemor.com%2Fwp-content%2Fplugins%2Fbuddypress-first-letter-avatar%2Fimages%2Fdefault%2F96%2Flatin_a.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/729ae85bf62b9917e93538db2f2688ca?s=96&r=g&default=https%3A%2F%2Ffivemor.com%2Fwp-content%2Fplugins%2Fbuddypress-first-letter-avatar%2Fimages%2Fdefault%2F96%2Flatin_a.png","caption":"admin"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/fivemor.com"],"url":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?author=1"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=171446"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171446\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/76478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=171446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=171446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=171446"},{"taxonomy":"dealstore","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fdealstore&post=171446"},{"taxonomy":"offerexpiration","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fofferexpiration&post=171446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}