My thinking is the exact opposite of what you are describing. I believe in trading more, and taking more chances when young, then becoming more conservative as we age. Two of my father's friends were HEAVILY invested in tech stocks in the late 90's. After the crash, one of them had to come out of retirement and go back to work for several years. The other had to delay retirement many years.
Several years back I created a spreadsheet that calculates our projected monthly income at various ages based on 401k withdrawals, SS, pensions, and E-trade accnt withdrawals. Our goal is to work until we have saved a VERY comfortable buffer such that if another massive crash hit the markets, we would not have to change our lifestyle in retirement. So far things are looking good.
Since you mentioned 2025, the S&P500 went up 17.9% that year. Trading a 5% move 5 times in 2025 would have beat an index fund, but you would be required to pay short term capital gains tax on all of those transactions. Were you able to beat the S&P500 in 2025 with your trading of SPY and accounting for paying short term capital gains tax on what you made? Can you do it year after year after year? If so, hats off to you because that is VERY hard to do.
