Welcome back to another edition of the Smart Wealth Newsletter, where Chris, Trip, and Frankie McLaughlin share what they are learning about investing, financial markets, and building wealth for the long run.

What makes this newsletter different is that investing is a family project spanning two generations. Chris brings decades of experience investing in stocks and real estate, while Trip and Frankie are developing their own investment philosophies as young investors studying business at two outstanding universities.

Trip is now a senior at Tulane University’s A. B. Freeman School of Business. As he enters his final year at Tulane, Trip continues to manage his own portfolio and evaluate companies with an emphasis on technology, energy, semiconductors, artificial intelligence and businesses capable of producing substantial long-term growth.

Frankie is beginning his freshman year at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business. His move to Georgetown represents an exciting new chapter, and he enters college already having accumulated years of real-world investing experience through his own Schwab portfolio.

Chris continues to oversee the family's larger portfolios while emphasizing the philosophy that has guided much of our investing: buy exceptional businesses when the opportunity presents itself, give successful investments time to compound, and don't allow short-term market volatility to destroy a sound long-term investment thesis.

That philosophy is particularly relevant right now.

September began with Wall Street wrestling with a familiar question: Is a strong economy good news—or bad news?

This week, surprisingly strong employment numbers reminded investors that the answer can sometimes be both.

Wall Street entered September with investors balancing strong corporate earnings, enormous investment in artificial intelligence, elevated oil prices, geopolitical uncertainty, inflation concerns and questions about what the Federal Reserve will do next.

By Friday's closing bell, the major averages had barely moved for the week—but underneath those headline numbers there was a tremendous amount happening.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed Friday, September 4, at 53,414.25, falling 271.86 points, or 0.51%, during Friday's session. For the full week, the Dow declined approximately 0.3%.

The S&P 500 closed at 7,718.60, declining 29.11 points, or 0.38%, Friday. Despite Friday's retreat, the S&P 500 managed to finish the week approximately 0.1% higher.

The technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite closed at 26,506.99, declining 77.07 points, or 0.29%, Friday but finishing the week approximately 0.4% higher.

That leaves the major averages with impressive gains for 2026. Through September 4, the S&P 500 was approximately 12.8% higher for the year, the Dow approximately 11.1% higher, and the Nasdaq approximately 14% higher. Small-cap stocks have been even stronger, with the Russell 2000 up nearly 20% year to date.

Those numbers demonstrate something we have discussed repeatedly in Smart Wealth: markets can remain remarkably resilient even when the economic backdrop is complicated.

The week's defining event arrived Friday morning.

The U.S. economy added 162,000 jobs in August, dramatically exceeding expectations of roughly 55,000. The unemployment rate remained at 4.1%.

Normally, investors would celebrate a strong employment report.

This time they sold stocks.

Why?

Because Wall Street immediately began reconsidering the probability of another Federal Reserve interest-rate increase.

For much of the week, investors had become increasingly hopeful that the Fed could remain on hold. The August employment report complicated that argument. A labor market capable of creating 162,000 jobs gives policymakers substantially more flexibility to continue fighting inflation.

Bond traders reacted immediately.

The two-year Treasury yield climbed to approximately 4.37%, while the benchmark 10-year Treasury yield approached 4.8%.

Higher Treasury yields matter enormously for stocks because they increase the return investors can earn from relatively safe government securities while simultaneously increasing the discount rate used to value future corporate earnings.

That creates particular pressure on high-valuation growth stocks.

The next major test will be inflation. Investors will be watching the upcoming CPI report carefully because inflation combined with a strong labor market could give the Federal Reserve considerably more justification for tightening monetary policy.

Another major issue confronting investors is energy.

Crude oil rose sharply during the week, with WTI finishing around $91 per barrel, representing roughly a 9% weekly increase.

The continuing geopolitical conflict involving Iran and disruptions surrounding global energy supplies have kept an enormous geopolitical risk premium embedded in crude prices.

This matters well beyond the energy sector.

Higher oil prices eventually filter through transportation, manufacturing, food production, airlines, shipping and consumer prices. That makes the Federal Reserve's inflation problem more difficult.

The combination Wall Street least wants to see is strong employment plus rising energy prices plus stubborn inflation.

That combination could keep interest rates higher for longer.

Yet investors shouldn't mistake Friday's decline for broad weakness.

One of the most encouraging developments during the week was renewed leadership from semiconductor and AI-related companies.

Memory and semiconductor stocks were particularly strong as investors continued betting that enormous AI infrastructure spending will require dramatically greater computing capacity, memory, storage and electricity.

Micron Technology surged approximately 9% for the week as enthusiasm returned to memory stocks.

Sandisk was another enormous winner, climbing more than 10% during the week and surging again Friday.

Dell Technologies jumped roughly 15% for the week as investors continued rewarding companies positioned to benefit from AI infrastructure spending.

Robinhood Markets gained roughly 16% during the week, making it one of the S&P 500's strongest performers.

Best Buy advanced approximately 13%.

Electricity demand associated with artificial intelligence also continued creating opportunities outside traditional technology.

Constellation Energy gained nearly 9% for the week as investors continued focusing on the enormous amount of electricity that future AI data centers may require.

Vistra climbed roughly 9%, while NRG Energy gained approximately 8%.

These power companies are increasingly becoming indirect AI investments. Every new data center needs chips, servers and networking equipment—but it also needs enormous quantities of reliable electricity.

Other semiconductor-related companies including Lam Research, AMD, KLA, Seagate and Western Digital participated in the late-week technology rally.

That gives us well over seven notable stocks that have moved higher recently, and the broader message is important: leadership in this bull market is expanding.

The first phase of the AI investment cycle centered primarily on semiconductor designers and a handful of mega-cap technology companies. The next phase has increasingly expanded into memory, storage, networking, cooling, power generation, electrical equipment and data-center infrastructure.

That expansion could create opportunities well beyond the companies that initially dominated the AI trade.

One of the most fascinating characteristics of this market is how artificial intelligence is beginning to affect companies far removed from traditional software.

An AI data center needs GPUs, but it also needs memory chips. It needs networking equipment. It needs storage. It needs cooling systems. It needs backup power. Most importantly, it needs enormous amounts of electricity.

That is one reason companies such as GE Vernova, Constellation Energy, Vistra and NRG have attracted so much investor attention.

The market is beginning to appreciate that the AI buildout could resemble previous infrastructure booms. During the development of the railroad system, investors eventually discovered opportunities beyond the railroad operators themselves. The same happened with the internet.

AI could follow a similar pattern.

The biggest winners may include not only the companies designing AI models but also the businesses providing the physical infrastructure necessary to operate them.

For long-term investors, that means the opportunity set continues to expand.

Bitcoin also staged an impressive rebound.

The cryptocurrency surged more than 5% Thursday and briefly climbed above $82,000 Friday morning, reaching its highest level in nearly four months.

Heading into Friday, Bitcoin was approximately 4.6% higher for the week and was on track for its third consecutive winning week.

That represents a meaningful turnaround after Bitcoin spent much of the summer trapped in a considerably lower trading range.

Part of the rally appears connected to renewed interest in what traders sometimes call the debasement trade. Concerns about government borrowing, currencies and long-term inflation have encouraged some investors to diversify into assets such as gold and Bitcoin.

But Bitcoin's reaction Friday also demonstrated that cryptocurrency remains extremely sensitive to interest rates.

Once the stronger-than-expected employment report arrived, Treasury yields jumped and Bitcoin quickly retreated from above $82,000 to below $80,000.

Even so, the rebound during recent weeks is significant.

Bitcoin has once again demonstrated that institutional investors increasingly treat the asset as part of the broader global macroeconomic landscape rather than simply as a speculative technology experiment.

September historically has a reputation for producing difficult markets, and investors have several major issues to navigate this month.

Inflation data will be critical.

The Federal Reserve's September meeting will be critical.

Oil prices will be critical.

Developments involving Iran and the Middle East will remain critical.

And perhaps most importantly for technology investors, corporate earnings and AI capital spending must continue justifying the enormous valuations assigned to many companies benefiting from the AI boom.

The market's underlying strength remains impressive.

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq managed small weekly gains despite sharply higher oil prices, rising Treasury yields and renewed concerns about Federal Reserve policy.

That tells us investors are not abandoning equities.

Instead, money is rotating.

Investors are rewarding companies with strong earnings, exposure to AI infrastructure, power generation, semiconductors and improving fundamentals while punishing businesses that disappoint.

That is exactly the kind of environment in which stock selection becomes increasingly important.

Our approach remains unchanged.

We aren't trying to predict what the market will do next Tuesday.

We're trying to identify companies that could be dramatically more valuable five, ten or even twenty years from now.

Volatility doesn't change that objective. In many cases, volatility creates the opportunity.

This week's Smart Wealth Stock Spotlight turns to one of Chris's most successful investments: GE Aerospace (GE).

GE closed Friday, September 4, at $337.12 per share.

Chris's Morgan Stanley position is currently up an extraordinary 239.68%, but what makes the investment particularly interesting isn't simply how much the stock has already appreciated.

Chris continues to believe strongly in the company's future.

That conviction begins with understanding what GE has become.

The General Electric investors owned decades ago was an enormous conglomerate spanning aviation, power generation, healthcare, financial services, appliances and numerous industrial businesses.

That company no longer exists.

Following years of restructuring and corporate separations, today's GE is GE Aerospace, a much more focused company built around one of the most valuable franchises in global aviation.

GE Aerospace manufactures and services commercial and military aircraft engines and related aerospace systems.

Its engines power aircraft throughout the world's commercial aviation fleets, creating something particularly attractive from an investment standpoint: a massive installed base.

Selling an aircraft engine is only the beginning of the economic relationship.

Aircraft engines require inspection, maintenance, replacement components and servicing throughout their operating lives. That creates recurring aftermarket revenue extending years—and potentially decades—beyond the original engine sale.

That recurring service business is one of the central reasons Chris continues owning GE.

Global commercial aviation continues expanding as populations grow, emerging-market wealth increases and consumers travel more frequently.

Airlines therefore need more aircraft.

More aircraft require more engines.

And more engines create larger installed fleets requiring decades of maintenance and service.

There are also significant barriers to entry.

Developing a modern commercial jet engine requires extraordinary engineering expertise, enormous amounts of capital, regulatory certification and years of testing.

That makes this industry very different from businesses where a new competitor can simply raise venture capital and begin taking market share.

GE's technological expertise and enormous installed base represent genuine competitive advantages.

The aftermarket economics are particularly attractive because airlines can't simply ignore engine maintenance. Reliability and safety are absolutely critical in commercial aviation, and GE's deep relationships with airlines and aircraft manufacturers give the company an entrenched position within the industry.

Commercial aviation isn't GE Aerospace's only opportunity.

Defense spending has increased around the world as governments reassess national-security requirements.

GE Aerospace has substantial exposure to military aviation, creating another potential long-term growth engine.

The company supplies engines and technologies for numerous military aircraft platforms, giving GE exposure to defense budgets at a time when many countries are increasing military spending.

That gives the company exposure to two durable trends simultaneously: increasing global commercial air travel and increasing defense investment.

For Chris, that combination makes GE considerably more attractive than a traditional cyclical industrial company.

Another reason Chris remains optimistic is the dramatic transformation of the company itself.

For many years, General Electric suffered from excessive complexity. Investors had to analyze aviation, healthcare, power generation, financial businesses and numerous other operations simultaneously.

The company's breakup changed that.

GE HealthCare became an independent company.

GE Vernova became an independent company.

And what remained became GE Aerospace.

Ironically, Chris has benefited tremendously from both sides of that transformation. GE Aerospace has produced a gain of approximately 240% in his Morgan Stanley portfolio, while GE Vernova has become an even larger winner, with Chris's position up more than 800%.

The breakup demonstrates how separating complicated conglomerates can sometimes unlock tremendous shareholder value.

Instead of asking investors to value dozens of unrelated businesses under one corporate umbrella, each company can now be evaluated according to its own growth prospects, margins, management team and capital requirements.

GE Aerospace isn't normally classified as an artificial-intelligence company, but AI and advanced computing can still improve its economics.

Modern aircraft engines generate enormous quantities of operational data.

Better analytics can help airlines and GE predict maintenance requirements, improve engine efficiency, reduce downtime and identify problems before they become expensive failures.

Digital technology can therefore improve the value of GE's already-important service relationships.

AI doesn't need to replace GE's core business.

It can make the core business better.

That distinction is important because some of the biggest beneficiaries of artificial intelligence over the next decade may not be companies that investors traditionally think of as AI stocks.

This is perhaps the most important part of the GE story.

A gain of approximately 239.68% might tempt many investors to sell automatically.

Chris views the decision differently.

The question isn't simply:

"How much has the stock already risen?"

The more important question is:

"What is the business likely to be worth years from now?"

If GE Aerospace continues expanding its installed engine base, growing high-margin service revenue, improving profitability and benefiting from rising commercial and defense aviation demand, Chris believes the company can continue creating shareholder value.

That doesn't mean valuation should be ignored.

GE has already experienced tremendous appreciation, and expectations surrounding the company are considerably higher than they were when Chris originally accumulated the investment. Investors buying today don't have Chris's cost basis, and therefore their risk/reward equation is different.

But selling a great company solely because the stock has risen can also be a serious mistake.

Chris's own portfolio provides perhaps the best example.

His Microsoft position is now up nearly 1,000%.

There were many points along the way when Microsoft had already doubled, tripled or quadrupled. Automatically selling simply because the stock had appreciated would have sacrificed enormous additional long-term gains.

That experience influences how Chris thinks about GE today.

Wall Street analysts remain broadly optimistic about GE Aerospace.

The current consensus sits in the Buy to Strong Buy range, reflecting expectations for continued growth in commercial aviation, services and defense.

Analysts recognize many of the same factors Chris sees: a huge installed engine base, high-value recurring service revenue, strong barriers to entry and favorable long-term aviation demand.

The risk is valuation.

After such a dramatic advance, GE must continue delivering earnings growth to justify investor expectations. Any slowdown in aviation demand, engine deliveries, margins or service revenue could create volatility.

That is why Chris does not view GE as a risk-free investment.

No stock is.

But he does view GE Aerospace as an exceptional business with significant long-term competitive advantages.

Chris isn't rating GE a Buy because he expects another 239% gain anytime soon.

He rates it a Buy because he believes GE Aerospace owns one of the world's best aerospace franchises, benefits from an enormous installed engine base, generates recurring high-value service revenue and participates in long-duration commercial aviation and defense growth.

The stock isn't cheap after its tremendous run, and investors buying today should recognize that valuation matters.

But great businesses often look expensive for long periods because their earnings continue growing into their valuations.

Chris has already experienced that firsthand with GE.

A 239% gain might tempt many investors to automatically take the profit.

Chris believes there is another possibility:

Sometimes the smartest thing an investor can do with an exceptional winner is simply continue owning it.

Finding a great investment is only half the battle.

Having the patience to let it compound can be the harder—and ultimately more profitable—part.

One of the reasons we publish our portfolios each week is to demonstrate what long-term investing actually looks like. There are tremendous winners, positions that are just beginning to work, and occasionally investments that move against us. We don't expect every investment to move higher immediately. Our objective is to own businesses we believe can become substantially more valuable over time and to continually reevaluate whether the original investment thesis remains intact.

This week's portfolio prices reflect the market close on Friday, September 4, 2026. As always, we show percentage gains and losses but do not publish share counts, dollar investment amounts, cost bases or account numbers.

Chris's Morgan Stanley portfolio continues to demonstrate the extraordinary impact that long-term compounding can have when a handful of exceptional businesses are allowed to become major winners. The stock portion of the portfolio is currently up approximately 279.76% overall, led by extraordinary long-term gains in Microsoft, GE Vernova and GE Aerospace.

Closing Price: $335.31 | Gain: +95.10% | Average Analyst Rating: Strong Buy | Chris's Rating: Strong Buy

Alphabet is the parent company of Google, YouTube, Google Cloud and a growing collection of artificial-intelligence businesses. Chris owns Alphabet because Google remains one of the world's dominant digital advertising franchises while Google Cloud and Gemini give the company enormous opportunities in AI. He believes Alphabet's data, distribution, computing infrastructure and cash generation make it one of the strongest long-term technology companies in the portfolio.

Closing Price: $258.51 | Gain: +24.27% | Average Analyst Rating: Strong Buy | Chris's Rating: Strong Buy

Amazon combines the world's dominant e-commerce ecosystem with AWS, one of the world's most important cloud-computing platforms. Chris believes AWS and Amazon's rapidly expanding AI infrastructure could become increasingly important drivers of profits while continued improvements in retail margins provide another source of earnings growth.

Closing Price: $319.97 | Gain: +113.44% | Average Analyst Rating: Buy | Chris's Rating: Hold

Apple remains one of the world's greatest consumer technology franchises, supported by the iPhone, Mac, iPad, wearables and its enormous services ecosystem. Chris continues holding Apple because of its brand, customer loyalty, installed user base and tremendous cash-generating ability, although the stock's valuation and questions surrounding Apple's relative position in AI make him less aggressive at today's price.

Closing Price: $693.53 | Gain: +97.09% | Average Analyst Rating: Buy | Chris's Rating: Hold

Deere is the world's premier agricultural-equipment company and is increasingly becoming a technology company through automation, precision agriculture and autonomous machinery. Chris likes Deere's dominant brand and believes technology can continue making farms more productive, but after the stock's substantial appreciation he views it primarily as a long-term Hold.

Closing Price: $337.12 | Gain: +239.68% | Average Analyst Rating: Strong Buy | Chris's Rating: Buy

GE Aerospace manufactures and services commercial and military aircraft engines and has one of the most valuable installed engine bases in global aviation. Chris believes the recurring service revenue associated with those engines, combined with long-term growth in commercial aviation and defense spending, can continue producing attractive earnings growth even after his approximately 240% gain.

Closing Price: $941.95 | Gain: +817.67% | Average Analyst Rating: Buy | Chris's Rating: Strong Buy

GE Vernova is a global energy company supplying gas turbines, wind equipment, grid technologies and other equipment required to generate and transmit electricity. Chris believes the explosive increase in electricity demand from AI data centers could make power generation and grid infrastructure one of the defining investment themes of the next decade, which is why he continues holding GEV despite an extraordinary gain exceeding 800%.

Closing Price: $58.59 | Gain: +19.08% | Average Analyst Rating: Buy | Chris's Rating: Hold

Kroger is one of America's largest supermarket operators and owns a collection of valuable regional grocery brands. Chris owns Kroger as a defensive consumer holding with dependable demand, scale and cash generation, although its slower growth profile makes it more of a Hold than an aggressive growth investment.

Closing Price: $223.55 | Loss: -5.75% | Average Analyst Rating: Strong Buy | Chris's Rating: Buy

Marvell designs semiconductors and infrastructure technology used in data centers, networking, storage and communications. Chris views the current small loss as relatively unimportant compared with the long-term opportunity created by AI networking and custom silicon, and he believes Marvell can benefit as hyperscale data centers require increasingly sophisticated connectivity.

Closing Price: $616.77 | Gain: +6.39% | Average Analyst Rating: Strong Buy | Chris's Rating: Strong Buy

Meta owns Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger, giving the company one of the largest consumer audiences in the world. Chris believes AI can significantly improve advertising effectiveness and user engagement while Meta's enormous cash flow gives it the financial resources to compete aggressively in artificial intelligence.

Closing Price: $1,016.59 | Loss: -17.74% | Average Analyst Rating: Strong Buy | Chris's Rating: Strong Buy

Micron is a leading producer of DRAM, NAND and high-bandwidth memory, all of which are becoming increasingly important to AI computing. Chris believes high-bandwidth memory demand could fundamentally improve Micron's earnings power, and the current loss does not alter his long-term thesis on AI-driven memory demand.

Closing Price: $499.70 | Gain: +993.74% | Average Analyst Rating: Strong Buy | Chris's Rating: Strong Buy

Microsoft is Chris's largest long-term success story, with the position now approaching a remarkable 1,000% gain. Chris continues owning Microsoft because Azure, Office, enterprise software, cybersecurity and artificial intelligence give the company multiple powerful growth engines, and he believes selling an exceptional compounder merely because it has already risen dramatically can be one of an investor's biggest mistakes.

Closing Price: $146.44 | Loss: -10.83% | Average Analyst Rating: Buy | Chris's Rating: Hold

Procter & Gamble owns some of the world's best-known household and consumer brands and provides stability that balances Chris's technology-heavy portfolio. Chris values P&G's defensive characteristics, dividends and dependable consumer demand, but slower growth makes this primarily a long-term Hold.

Chris's Fidelity holdings provide another combination of long-term compounders, technology investments, energy exposure and several newer positions. Some of the largest gains demonstrate again why Chris favors allowing great businesses to compound rather than constantly trading around short-term market movements.

Closing Price: $258.51 | Gain: +127.54% | Average Analyst Rating: Strong Buy | Chris's Rating: Strong Buy

Amazon has more than doubled from Chris's cost basis in this account. Chris continues to believe AWS, artificial intelligence, advertising and improving retail profitability give Amazon multiple ways to increase earnings over the coming decade.

Closing Price: $326.16 | Gain: +95.68% | Average Analyst Rating: Buy | Chris's Rating: Buy

American Express operates a differentiated payments network with particularly strong exposure to affluent consumers and businesses. Chris likes its powerful brand, loyal cardholder base and ability to benefit from the continuing global transition from cash toward electronic payments.

Closing Price: $31.40 | Gain: +110.54% | Average Analyst Rating: Buy | Chris's Rating: Hold

Kinder Morgan owns a massive network of North American energy pipelines and infrastructure. Chris likes the company's cash-generating assets and believes growing electricity requirements and natural-gas demand can support the business, although after a gain exceeding 100% he considers it primarily a Hold.

Closing Price: $50.14 | Loss: -0.60% | Average Analyst Rating: Buy | Chris's Rating: Hold

Verizon operates one of America's largest wireless communications networks and produces substantial recurring cash flow. Chris owns Verizon primarily for its defensive characteristics and income potential rather than explosive growth, making it a Hold within the broader portfolio.

Closing Price: $159.47 | Gain: +90.05% | Average Analyst Rating: Buy | Chris's Rating: Buy

ExxonMobil is one of the world's largest integrated energy companies. Chris believes disciplined capital spending, strong cash generation and continuing global demand for oil and natural gas make Exxon an important portfolio hedge against inflation, geopolitical instability and higher energy prices.

Closing Price: $9.67 | Loss: -11.85% | Average Analyst Rating: Strong Buy | Chris's Rating: Buy

LightPath develops optical and infrared technologies used across industrial, defense and advanced technology applications. Chris views LPTH as a higher-risk growth investment where the potential expansion of infrared imaging and defense-related demand could produce significant upside if management executes successfully.

Closing Price: $354.08 | Gain: +11.34% | Average Analyst Rating: Buy | Chris's Rating: Strong Buy

Tesla remains much more than an electric-vehicle investment in Chris's view, with opportunities in autonomous driving, robotics, energy storage and AI. Chris accepts the stock's substantial volatility because he believes successful commercialization of autonomy and Optimus could eventually create businesses whose value extends far beyond automobile manufacturing.

Closing Price: $319.97 | Gain: +186.60% | Average Analyst Rating: Buy | Chris's Rating: Hold

Apple has produced another exceptional long-term return for Chris, with this position approaching a 187% gain. He continues owning the stock because Apple's ecosystem and customer loyalty remain extraordinary competitive advantages, although valuation and the company's AI execution keep his current rating at Hold.

Closing Price: $230.36 | Gain: +133.32% | Average Analyst Rating: Strong Buy | Chris's Rating: Strong Buy

NVIDIA is the dominant supplier of accelerated-computing technology powering much of the current artificial-intelligence revolution. Chris believes AI infrastructure spending remains a multi-year secular trend and views NVIDIA's hardware, software ecosystem and technological leadership as exceptionally difficult for competitors to replicate.

Reported Price: $147.95 | Gain: +9.59% | Average Analyst Rating: Not Broadly Available | Chris's Rating: Strong Buy

SpaceX is a privately held aerospace company and therefore does not have the same broad Wall Street analyst consensus available for publicly traded stocks. Chris believes SpaceX's reusable rockets, launch economics, Starlink network and potential future businesses make it one of the most compelling private technology and aerospace investments in the world.

Closing Price: $319.97 | Gain: +1.59% | Average Analyst Rating: Buy | Chris's Rating: Hold

Apple remains a world-class consumer franchise with tremendous brand strength and recurring services revenue. Chris likes the company for the long term but believes the current valuation warrants patience rather than aggressive buying.

Closing Price: $915.74 | Loss: -5.49% | Average Analyst Rating: Buy | Chris's Rating: Buy

Costco's membership model, customer loyalty and enormous purchasing scale have created one of retail's strongest competitive advantages. Chris considers the current decline from his purchase price manageable and believes Costco can continue compounding earnings through membership growth, new stores and international expansion.

Closing Price: $109.20 | Gain: +5.64% | Average Analyst Rating: Buy | Chris's Rating: Buy

Cisco is a global leader in networking equipment and increasingly participates in cybersecurity, observability and AI-related data-center infrastructure. Chris believes the massive networking requirements created by AI computing can provide Cisco with a renewed long-term growth opportunity.

Closing Price: $337.12 | Gain: +4.70% | Average Analyst Rating: Strong Buy | Chris's Rating: Buy

GE Aerospace's enormous installed engine base creates decades of recurring service and maintenance revenue. Chris added GE to this retirement account because he believes commercial aviation and defense spending can continue driving earnings well into the future.

Closing Price: $88.07 | Gain: +11.79% | Average Analyst Rating: Buy | Chris's Rating: Buy

Coca-Cola owns one of the most valuable consumer brands in the world and operates a global distribution system that would be extremely difficult to recreate. Chris owns Coca-Cola as a durable compounder that can provide portfolio stability, dividends and pricing power during uncertain economic periods.

Closing Price: $307.65 | Gain: +11.20% | Average Analyst Rating: Strong Buy | Chris's Rating: Strong Buy

Lam Research manufactures critical semiconductor-production equipment and benefits from increasingly complex chip manufacturing. Chris believes enormous AI-related investment in memory and advanced semiconductors creates a powerful long-term demand cycle for Lam's equipment.

Closing Price: $579.21 | Gain: +7.41% | Average Analyst Rating: Strong Buy | Chris's Rating: Strong Buy

Mastercard operates one of the world's dominant electronic payment networks. Chris believes the continuing global migration from cash toward digital payments provides Mastercard with a long runway for growth while its asset-light business model produces exceptional margins and cash flow.

Closing Price: $150.33 | Gain: +23.50% | Average Analyst Rating: Buy | Chris's Rating: Hold

Merck is one of the world's major pharmaceutical companies and has built a powerful oncology franchise around Keytruda. Chris likes the company's research capabilities and cash generation but recognizes the pharmaceutical industry's inherent patent and pipeline risks, making Merck a Hold after its solid gain.

Closing Price: $146.44 | Loss: -1.96% | Average Analyst Rating: Buy | Chris's Rating: Hold

P&G provides exposure to household products consumers purchase regardless of the economic cycle. Chris owns it for stability, dividends and dependable cash flow rather than aggressive capital appreciation.

Closing Price: $174.33 | Gain: +21.09% | Average Analyst Rating: Buy | Chris's Rating: Strong Buy

Palantir has become one of Chris's favorite ways to participate in enterprise and government artificial intelligence. He believes the company's software platforms, government relationships and rapidly expanding commercial AI business could support substantial long-term growth despite the stock's premium valuation.

Closing Price: $375.07 | Gain: +12.18% | Average Analyst Rating: Strong Buy | Chris's Rating: Strong Buy

Visa operates one of the most powerful payment networks in the world and benefits whenever consumers shift transactions from cash toward electronic payments. Chris believes Visa's scale, margins, network effects and global growth runway make it an outstanding long-term compounder.

Trip, now a senior at Tulane University's A. B. Freeman School of Business, continues managing a concentrated portfolio built around several major investment themes. His account is currently up 72.04% overall, demonstrating how one extraordinary winner can have an enormous impact on portfolio results.

Closing Price: $941.95 | Gain: +835.44% | Average Analyst Rating: Buy | Trip's Rating: Strong Buy

GE Vernova is Trip's extraordinary long-term winner and remains a major position even after appreciating more than eightfold from his cost basis. Trip believes rapidly rising electricity demand from AI data centers, electrification and grid modernization could support years of additional growth for GE Vernova's power-generation and grid businesses.

Closing Price: $915.74 | Gain: +98.68% | Average Analyst Rating: Buy | Trip's Rating: Buy

Costco has nearly doubled for Trip because the company's membership model, customer loyalty and operating discipline have continued producing exceptional results. Trip believes Costco remains one of America's highest-quality retailers and sees international expansion as another long-term growth opportunity.

Closing Price: $95.80 | Loss: -25.07% | Average Analyst Rating: Hold | Trip's Rating: Buy

Intel is currently Trip's largest losing position, but he continues to believe the turnaround deserves time. Trip sees potential in Intel's manufacturing strategy, foundry ambitions and importance to domestic semiconductor production, although he recognizes that execution remains critical and the investment carries considerably more risk than his established winners.

Closing Price: $1,016.59 | Gain: +17.78% | Average Analyst Rating: Strong Buy | Trip's Rating: Strong Buy

Micron produces the advanced memory required by AI accelerators, servers and data centers. Trip believes high-bandwidth memory could remain one of the semiconductor industry's fastest-growing categories and views Micron as a direct beneficiary of continued AI infrastructure spending.

Frankie, now a freshman at Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business, begins college with an investment portfolio that has already produced extraordinary results. His Schwab portfolio is currently up 151.01% overall, led by major gains in GE Vernova, Microsoft, Nebius and several emerging technology investments.

Closing Price: $11.80 | Gain: +58.60% | Average Analyst Rating: Hold | Frankie's Rating: Buy

Navitas develops next-generation gallium nitride and silicon carbide power semiconductors designed to improve energy efficiency. Frankie believes these technologies could gain adoption across AI data centers, electric vehicles, power supplies and other high-growth markets, although NVTS remains a higher-risk small-cap investment.

Closing Price: $941.95 | Gain: +835.44% | Average Analyst Rating: Buy | Frankie's Rating: Strong Buy

GE Vernova has become one of Frankie's greatest investments, producing a gain of more than 835%. Frankie continues holding because he believes surging electricity requirements from artificial intelligence, data centers and broader electrification could create a prolonged investment cycle in power generation and electrical-grid infrastructure.

Closing Price: $915.74 | Gain: +98.00% | Average Analyst Rating: Buy | Frankie's Rating: Buy

Costco has nearly doubled for Frankie while continuing to demonstrate the strength of its membership-driven business model. Frankie believes customer loyalty, recurring membership fees, new warehouse openings and international expansion can allow Costco to remain an excellent long-term compounder.

Closing Price: $226.39 | Gain: +167.06% | Average Analyst Rating: Strong Buy | Frankie's Rating: Strong Buy

Nebius is an AI infrastructure company focused on providing computing capacity and cloud services required for advanced artificial intelligence workloads. Frankie believes demand for specialized AI infrastructure can continue expanding rapidly, and his more than 167% gain demonstrates how strongly investors have responded to that opportunity.

Closing Price: $354.08 | Gain: +19.06% | Average Analyst Rating: Buy | Frankie's Rating: Strong Buy

Tesla gives Frankie exposure not only to electric vehicles but also energy storage, autonomy, robotics and artificial intelligence. Frankie believes successful development of autonomous driving and Optimus could eventually become more important to Tesla's valuation than the traditional automobile business.

Closing Price: $141.26 | Gain: +55.04% | Average Analyst Rating: Strong Buy | Frankie's Rating: Strong Buy

ServiceNow provides cloud-based workflow software used by major corporations to automate and manage increasingly complex business processes. Frankie believes generative AI can make ServiceNow's platform even more valuable by allowing companies to automate additional knowledge work and improve employee productivity.

Closing Price: $6.34 | Gain: +62.56% | Average Analyst Rating: Buy | Frankie's Rating: Buy

Aurora is developing autonomous-driving technology with an initial emphasis on self-driving trucks. Frankie believes autonomous trucking could become an enormous market if Aurora successfully demonstrates safe commercial deployment, although he recognizes that this remains a speculative investment with substantial execution risk.

Closing Price: $499.70 | Gain: +188.29% | Average Analyst Rating: Strong Buy | Frankie's Rating: Strong Buy

Microsoft has become another outstanding winner for Frankie, with his position up more than 188%. He continues owning Microsoft because Azure, enterprise software, cybersecurity and AI give the company multiple ways to participate in the digitization of the global economy, while its enormous recurring revenue base provides financial strength few competitors can match.

Looking across the McLaughlin family portfolios this week, one lesson stands above everything else: extraordinary investment results usually aren't created by constantly jumping from one stock to another. They are created by finding exceptional businesses and then giving those businesses enough time to compound.

Consider some of the results in these portfolios. Chris is up approximately 994% on Microsoft, 818% on GE Vernova, 240% on GE Aerospace, 187% on Apple in one Fidelity account, 133% on NVIDIA and 128% on Amazon in another Fidelity account. Trip is up more than 835% on GE Vernova and nearly 99% on Costco. Frankie is up more than 835% on GE Vernova, 188% on Microsoft, 167% on Nebius and 98% on Costco.

None of that means these stocks will continue rising indefinitely. Every company must continually earn its place in a portfolio, and valuations matter. Business conditions change, competitors emerge, technologies evolve and even outstanding companies can become overpriced.

But there is an important difference between managing risk and automatically selling a successful investment simply because it has already gone up.

Microsoft is perhaps the clearest example. Chris's position is now up nearly 1,000%. There were countless opportunities over the years to sell after the stock doubled, tripled or quadrupled. Holding required accepting corrections, bear markets, recessions, changing interest rates, technological shifts and periods when Wall Street questioned Microsoft's future.

The reward for that patience has been extraordinary compounding.

At the same time, this week's portfolios show the other side of investing. Intel, Micron, LightPath, Marvell, Procter & Gamble, Costco in one account and several other holdings currently sit below their purchase prices. A red number alone doesn't tell us whether an investment is good or bad. What matters is whether the underlying business thesis remains intact.

That is why we continually return to the same questions: Do we still understand why we own the company? Is the business becoming stronger? Does it possess a durable competitive advantage? Is management executing? Is the opportunity ahead still large enough to justify the valuation and risk?

If the answers remain favorable, temporary volatility can be an investor's friend rather than an enemy.

As Trip begins his senior year at Tulane's Freeman School of Business and Frankie begins his freshman year at Georgetown's McDonough School of Business, the portfolios themselves continue serving as a real-world financial classroom. Some lessons will come from tremendous winners. Others will inevitably come from mistakes.

Both are valuable.

Our objective isn't to win every trade.

Our objective is to build wealth over decades.

The Smart Wealth Newsletter is provided solely for educational and informational purposes. Nothing contained in this newsletter should be considered individualized investment, financial, tax, accounting or legal advice, nor should any discussion of a security be interpreted as a recommendation to buy, sell or hold that security.

The portfolio information discussed above represents actual or reported investments held by Chris, Trip and Frankie and is presented to illustrate their personal investing experiences and viewpoints. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Percentage gains and losses may represent unrealized investment performance, and portfolio information may not reflect dividends, taxes, fees, subsequent transactions or other factors that could affect an investor's actual return.

Stock prices, analyst ratings, analyst estimates and other market information can change rapidly. Analyst ratings represent the opinions of third parties and are not guarantees of future performance. Chris's, Trip's and Frankie's personal ratings represent their own opinions and may change at any time as company fundamentals, valuations, economic conditions or investment circumstances change.

All investments involve risk, including the possible loss of principal. Individual stocks—particularly emerging technology companies, small-cap companies and other high-growth investments—can experience substantial volatility and significant losses. Readers should conduct their own research and consider their personal financial circumstances, investment objectives, risk tolerance and time horizon before making investment decisions. When appropriate, consult a qualified financial, tax or legal professional.

Invest for the long term, understand what you own, manage your risk, and never invest money you cannot afford to lose.