The custom of eating black-eyed peas on New Year's Day is thought to bring good luck in the year ahead. This may not be as reliable as the hangover from guzzling too much bubbly the night before, but I always say there is no harm in trying. As for resolutions, they usually take the form of adopting good habits and ditching bad ones: I will spend more time with my family and quit downing cheap scotch at the strip club. Many people resolve to get healthier, and I see this at my fitness center, when the place is packed in January, but those crowds taper off by the end of February. Procrastination is the enemy of disciplined consistency. As Scarlett O'Hara said at the end of Gone With the Wind, I'll think about that tomorrow.
The turning of the calendar to a new year serves as what I like to call a lodestar--in this case, a set target date to make those positive changes. I have friends who say they are going to have a "Dry January," but judging from those Bloody Marys I see served with the black-eyed peas, I guess January starts a few days later for those folks. Here's an example from my recent experience. This past summer my wife and I were invited to join our good friends for a week on their yacht in the Caribbean. They sent us some information to prepare for the trip, and that was when I learned that there was no smoking allowed on the boat--not even on the outdoor decks. I quit smoking cigarettes 14 years ago (how I accomplished that is a story for another post), but I now enjoy cigars. So, I had to psyche myself up to give up cigars for a week. (It was well worth it, by the way.) I didn't need to choose my lodestar, as it was handed to me.
It's always a good time to think about getting our financial house in order, with a new year giving just the nudge to focus. I like to think of this in two parts: my income statement of income and expenses, and my balance sheet of assets and liabilities. Finding ways to increase income is more of an ongoing endeavor, so I try to take my scalpel to expenses in the immediate term. One example here is all the subscription charges I see on my credit card statement. How did I manage to get all those subscriptions? I just start (or try to start) cancelling everything. If it's something I miss and need, surely they'll let me have it back. The charges may be insignificant, but they add up. It's like cleaning out my closet--if I haven't worn something in more then a year, then it's Goodwill, here I come.
Also, it's a good time for a portfolio check-up. Do the stocks I own make sense in light of what's going on in the world? Are they relevant, or are they just there because they've been there for a long time? Investments are not the place to form sentimental attachments. And what's missing? Unless you've been living untethered from all forms of communication (might need to try that), you know that Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the ubiquitous topic in the investment world. NVIDIA (NVDA, $186) has been the star preformer here, up some 20,000+% over the past ten years--One thousand dollars invested in NVDA stock in 2016 would be worth around $250,000 today. Those are once-in-a-generation returns. And there are other companies like NVDA that make the technology that enables AI, but what about the companies using AI to become more efficient and profitable? That opens up an entire world of investment opportunities. The companies who can harness AI effectively will end up leaving the ones who don't in the dust. This is what really bears watching.
A portfolio check-up is similar to your exam at the doctor. There are certain things the doctor always checks--your heart, blood pressure, blood, and urine. In your portfolio, we'd be checking our diversification, the industries where we might be over- or under-exposed. Do we have some reliable dividend-payers? My favorite stocks are those that are smaller and relatively unknown--and that have a promising growth runway ahead of them. I love to find one or more and add those to my portfolio. One such example here is Toast (TOST, $33). They make software and hardware that integrate a restaurant's operations into one ecosystem--ordering, inventory, payment, etc. Your server takes your order on a hand-held device, which transmits that back to the kitchen, and then generates your bill. It will keep track of which items need to be re-ordered. My friend Kelcie owns a casual restaurant here in Memphis called Wild Beets. They serve salads and other healthy fare (it's really good and tasty). Kelcie uses Toast and loves it, noting the "simplicity of the loyalty program and a very user-friendly backend."
When making those January changes, we should be mindful of qualities of a personal nature that we don't want or need to change. In the wise words of Dr. Seuss:
"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind."
Life is short. Get busy!
Jim
Disclosure/Disclaimer: My family members and/or I own shares of NVDA and TOST. Individual stocks are mentioned here for the sole purpose of illustrating investment concepts, and nothing stated here should be construed as the advice to buy or sell any security.
Copyright 2026 James Brinkley Taylor, Jr.
Email me with any questions, comments, or feedback:
jbrinkleytaylor@gmail.com
