Posted by Since I had no earned income in 2025, my tax refund is zero dollars. My investment income was less than the standard deduction, so I didn’t have to pay any tax. This is the 5th year in a row with zero refund and zero tax. In 2025 I did not take any money from my IRA. The previous year I took out $3000, which added to my taxable income, but I was still below the standard deduction. Three months into 2026 and I have not made an IRA withdrawal, despite having less investment income. In my brokerage account, I had several investments that I sold at a loss. I had $1,998 in ordinary dividends and $1,059 in qualified dividends. Qualified dividends are taxed at a lower rate. My short-term investment gain was $605 while long-term investments lost $3032.
My biggest mistakes: -$523 on VTRS (Viatris), -$1163 on the SQQQ ETF, -$1447 on KHC (Kraft/Heinz), and -$3254 on TLRY (Tilray). The last two were long term holdings that I gave up on. All of the losses were from investments that I was speculating on and had limited knowledge in. This is usually a recipe for disaster. I expected Kraft/Heinz to recover after the pandemic, but things only got worse. But I did collect a 7% dividend on the way down. Tilray was supposed to dominate the global pot and beverage market, but if you look at a 5-year chart, the stock is down 97%. There is no doubt that I bought and then sold at the absolute worst times.
The nice thing about investing in individual stocks is that your winners can make up for the losses. My long-term gain was $1699, which helped offset the long-term loss. Right now, I only have 3 stocks and 3 ETFs in my brokerage account. All are doing okay, except for Skyworks which has lost 21% since I bought it. I was expecting it to do well with the new Apple phones hitting the market last year and a merger with Qorvo. The problem is that institutional investors are worried about phone sales, and the merger isn’t expected to close until 2027. Skyworks is paying a 5.2% dividend, but I might have to wait a while for the stock price to recover. Or it might turn out to be another bad judgement call, like Kraft/Heinz and Tilray.