Zizzi Investments, LLC

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Zizzi Investments, LLC Fee-only Investment Management, Financial Planning, and Retirement Plan Consulting.
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10/08/2026

Is $100K, $250K, $500K, or $1 million enough income?

Tell me what you spend.

Is a $1M, $2M, $5M, or $10M portfolio enough to retire?

Tell me what you spend.

Trying to figure out how much income you need or how large your portfolio should be is nearly impossible until you understand what your lifestyle actually costs.

Without that understanding, you're taking a shot in the dark.

You could be overspending and undersaving, sacrificing your future to maintain your lifestyle today.

Or you could be oversaving and underspending, sacrificing opportunities to enjoy your life today for a future that's already well funded.

Both are different risks, but either way, there's a big cost to not knowing.

Before you ask how much is enough, you have to figure out how much you actually need.

And that starts with understanding what you spend.

I find the HSA (health savings account) strategy usually evolves in three parts through conversations with people.1) Com...
09/21/2026

I find the HSA (health savings account) strategy usually evolves in three parts through conversations with people.

1) Comparing the tradeoffs of HDHP versus lower deductible plan to understand a high-deductible health plan doesn't automatically mean the plan is more costly.

2) Once adopting a HDHP with an HSA, helping them to understand the balance can carry over year to year and does not need to be spent immediately.

3) Grasping the long term benefits of investing the funds in an HSA, especially if considering retiring or leaving W2 employment before age 65. There is no other account that is tax-deductible on the way in and has the potential to be tax-free on the way out.

It sometimes takes a few meetings to address all these topics, but I was just meeting with a client recently that started using their HSA to invest a few years back. They are already seeing substantial benefits in their early retirement projection.

We've personally been using an HSA since 2019.

It's cool to now see the investment growth alone has now more than doubled the out of pocket medical expenses we've accrued along the way.

**This post is for informational purposes only. Investing involves risk, past performance is no guarantee of future results.

The Fed hiked rates yesterday for the first time since 2023.Since many bearish people have drawn comparisons of the curr...
09/17/2026

The Fed hiked rates yesterday for the first time since 2023.

Since many bearish people have drawn comparisons of the current AI driven cycle to the late 90s tech bubble let's look back at what happened then after the Fed raised rates for the first time.

1999 Rate Hike Dates:

June 30, 1999: Raised by 25 basis points to 5.00%.

August 24, 1999: Raised by 25 basis points to 5.25%.

November 16, 1999: Raised by 25 basis points to 5.50%.

From the first Fed rate hike of the cycle on June 1999 the Nasdaq went on to rally another ~88% before it reached it's peak on March 10, 2000!

Meanwhile the Fed continued to raise rates though the end of 1999 and into 2000, including another 0.50% at their May 2000 meeting, bringing the Fed funds rate to a cycle high of 6.5% in May of 2000.

Only in hindsight did they realize had over-tightened and cut the fed funds rate by -4.75% alone in 2001.

We have no idea if this cycle plays out the same, but if someone is trying to compare today's AI driven spending to the 1990s tech bubble, it's at least important for them to be honest and point to the fact that the Nasdaq went up almost another 90% from the first rate hike to the market peak.

I drove by a local bank this weekend on the way to my son's soccer game.The billboard was showing an 18/mo CD at 2.85%.M...
09/15/2026

I drove by a local bank this weekend on the way to my son's soccer game.

The billboard was showing an 18/mo CD at 2.85%.

Meanwhile, you can now get 4% or more on treasury bills as short as 3/mo duration.

Bonds actually look they are supposed to again.

A normal "yield curve."

Understanding and planning for opportunities in cash and short term bonds is one of the simplest way to improve returns.

The conversations I've had many time the last few years was helping people understand they weren't stuck with the close to 0% rates their banks were offering on their checking and savings accounts.

Now the conversation is shifting to ways to further maximize returns in the short term (0-3 years) planning bucket.

The fearmongering around AI has gone on too long. Below is a twitter exchange between a former and current Anthropic emp...
09/14/2026

The fearmongering around AI has gone on too long.

Below is a twitter exchange between a former and current Anthropic employee.

10% is not a small probability to throw out there casually for the end of all humanity.

In the same breadth these Anthropic guys are assigning alarming probabilities for the end of humanity and then saying they really have no idea how that is going to play out.

These companies (Anthropic and OpenAI) have had a continuous pattern of making similar claims in the past.

I think it's time congress should subpoena the CEO's of both Anthropic and OpenAI and force them to provide credible evidence to substantiate these claims they are making.

In 2019, OpenAI was saying their GPT2 text generator tool was "too dangerous" to release to the public.

That was 7+ years ago!

Time to hold these companies accountable.

Prior to this they had only caught little sunnies and perches at the lake.The bait they were using was almost the same s...
08/24/2026

Prior to this they had only caught little sunnies and perches at the lake.

The bait they were using was almost the same size.

I didn't warn them ahead of time this was a whole different ball game haha.

Seeing their excitement as they reeled these in was priceless.

The fishing charter only lasted two hours.

But I think the story of the giant fish they caught is going to be told for next 30 years.

There is a lot of chatter right now about "off balance sheet" financing risks in AI.

The whole point is it's hard to measure.

But it got me thinking that we don't spend enough time talking about the positive impact of "off balance sheet" wealth in personal finance.

The kind of wealth that's hard to measure. The kind that doesn't show up on your net worth statement.

A great marriage, close friendships, taking time to serve others, or creating a story your family will still be telling decades from now.

We have great tools to track and measure how much money we've accumulated.

But we should spend more time asking:

What kind of wealth are we actually creating with it?

I wasn’t carrying my wallet but I told them they could run the cart down to ask if we could pay with my phone.They got u...
08/17/2026

I wasn’t carrying my wallet but I told them they could run the cart down to ask if we could pay with my phone.

They got up to the cart.

“Someone already paid for the next 14 ices, so it’s free.”

Their faces lit up.

Little acts of anonymous generosity are a great way to spend money.

Whoever paid for these guys water ices.

Thank you!

Timing the market is hard.Michael Burry famously called the housing crisis that led to the Great Financial Crisis, so wh...
08/06/2026

Timing the market is hard.

Michael Burry famously called the housing crisis that led to the Great Financial Crisis, so whenever he issues another warning, people pay attention.

Lately, he has been back in the news for his bearish views on AI related stocks.

But one of his previous market calls offers an important reminder.

On January 31, 2023, shortly after I started Zizzi Investments, Burry posted a one-word tweet:

“Sell.”

A couple of months later, he acknowledged that he had been wrong to make the call.

Since that call, the S&P 500 has produced a total return of nearly 100%, assuming dividends reinvested.

At this point, the market would need to fall close to 50% just to return to where it was when he tweeted “Sell.”

Even brilliant investors can be dead wrong about timing.

The goal for most people is not to predict every market move like Michael Burry.

It is to build a financial plan that does not depend on being able to, so you can focus on what actually matters in life.

I think our industry has done an above-average job helping people understand the value of a 401(k).Company matches, auto...
08/04/2026

I think our industry has done an above-average job helping people understand the value of a 401(k).

Company matches, automatic enrollment and consistent contributions have moved the needle for millions of people.

But we still have miles to go in helping high earners understand the power of a taxable brokerage account.

Most high-income clients who come to us are already contributing to a 401(k).

But beyond that, the picture often looks something like this:

A large amount of cash sitting in the bank, underutilized.

Sometimes a few stocks purchased in a Robinhood account during COVID.

Maybe an expensive permanent life insurance policy pitched by a "friend" as an alternative investment strategy.

Maybe a highly concentrated single stock position in their company's stock.

What is usually missing is an organized, consistent investment plan for building a brokerage account alongside the 401(k).

A brokerage account can provide flexibility that retirement accounts cannot.

It can help fund an early retirement, a career change, a home purchase, a business opportunity or simply create more options before age 59½.

A 401(k) helps fund retirement.

A brokerage account helps fund flexibility.

So you can start pursuing the things that won't wait until retirement.

As mortgage rates stay higher, here is something many homebuyers overlook.The stated rate on the loan is not always the ...
08/03/2026

As mortgage rates stay higher, here is something many homebuyers overlook.

The stated rate on the loan is not always the true cost of carrying the mortgage.

A client recently purchased a home, and I was helping them evaluate future plans to pay down the mortgage early or invest extra cash.

They fall into a favorable window for the increased SALT deduction. Their income is high enough that state and local taxes are meaningful, but not so high that the larger deduction begins to phase out.

They are also charitably inclined and were already itemizing deductions in 2025. That means the additional mortgage interest should increase their itemized deductions when they file their 2026 taxes.

At a 32% marginal federal tax rate, a fully deductible 6.75% mortgage has a potential after-tax cost of approximately 4.59%.

A 4.59% carrying cost is a lot easier to stomach than 6.75%.

They may still decide to put additional money toward the mortgage. But understanding the potential tax benefit gave them more confidence in weighing the tradeoff between investing and paying down the loan.

Higher mortgage rates are not fun. But when deciding whether to buy a home or accelerate payments, it is important to understand the potential after-tax cost of the mortgage, not just the rate printed on the statement.

Of course, the benefit depends on your income, deductions, mortgage balance and individual tax situation.

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Mechanicsburg, PA
17050

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Monday 8:30am - 4:30pm
Tuesday 8:30am - 4:30pm
Wednesday 8:30am - 4:30pm
Thursday 8:30am - 4:30pm
Friday 8:30am - 12pm

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+17179619456

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