A weekly newsletter for people who want to understand money without needing therapy afterward. I cover accounting, tax, and finance the way they should be taught. Simple, sharp, and with a sense of humor. If knowledge is power, this one’s your caffeine shot.
Share
Silver slapped in 2025, 2026 California new laws for you, Year-end market review
Published 3 months ago • 6 min read
Romeo Razi, CPA
Dec 31st
Silver slapped in 2025, and China knows!
Wall Street was so busy chasing AI stocks they failed to notice the shiny grey elephant in the room. Silver didn't just do well in 2025, it exploded, going from ~$30 oz to almost ~$80 oz. It outpaced Gold🪙. It outpaced logic. It even outpaced Tiktok.
You're probably wondering why?
📈 Investor mania & safe‑haven FOMO ↳ The usual suspects: Fed rates changes coming, the dollar limping, and geopolitical risk around the world. 💸 Speculation gone wild ↳ Chinese retail and arbitrage traders decided that their north star Meme Sock was silver futures (AMC & GME can finally suck it!) ⚙️ Industrial crunch (most importantly) ↳ One thing I learned last week was that silver is not just grey shiny gold. It's in everything. Solar panels, EVs, data centers, AI chips, electronics, and green tech. In other words, if tech is your religion, turns out that silver is its holy water.
What China's doing (plot twist)
Starting tomorrow (Jan 1st), Beijing's is tightening the silver valves.
They've decided to scrap the old system and put silver under stricter export controls(as if they didn't control enough already).
If you want refined silver, you better have friends in Shanghai and make sure to bring little red envelopes🧧.
Mexico may be the #1 producer of Silver in the world (~27%), but China is the #1 refiner & exporter (~60%-70%.)
In other words, China controls the refinery tap.
So, it's not just some shiny thing, it's now become the catalytic converter of tech, and unfortunately China is holding the wrench🔧.
📊Golden State says, "New Year, New Me!"
They say the week between Christmas and New Year’s is when time stands still. Perfect for deep thoughts, bold plans, and questionable leftovers.
So, here’s a question you should be asking yourself at year end: If your life were a movie, what would the audience be yelling at the screen right now?
“Get a new job!”
“Break up with Chad!”
“Move to Portugal and start that coffee farm you've dreamed about!”
Well, California heard the question, and their self-reflection brought them to what they know how to do best: passed a bunch of new laws.
Here are California's New Year's resolution (laws) for 2026:
💸 $16.90 Minimum Wage ↳ California’s base pay climbs up to $16.90/hour statewide. Some cities, like San Fran, one-up it, because local pride demands it.
🤖 Chatbots Must Admit They’re Not Human ↳ If you’ve ever chatted with customer support and thought, “Is this a person or an AI toaster with a thesaurus?” good news: AI bots must now confess their non-humanness (until they learn to behave more like Johnny 5....)
🏚 No Rent During Mandatory Evacuations ↳ Wildfires and mudslides may come for your home, but your landlord can’t come for your rent. If you're forced out by an official evacuation, you owe no rent for that period.
🧫 Restaurant Menus Must List Allergens ↳ Menus are finally required to flag allergens, such as dairy, glutton, and soy (the silent saboteur of many a salad dressing.)
🎇 Diwali is Now an Official California Holiday (I had to look this one up) ↳ Shining a light (literally and legislatively), Diwali joins the calendar of state holidays in 2026. YES!!! It's time to officially celebrate Good defeating Evil, Knowledge over Ignorance, Autobots dismantling Decepticons, and let's make sure to take a day off in the process!
🛍 Plastic Grocery Bags Are Out ↳ California’s been flirting with this for years. Now it’s official: no more plastic bags, even the “reusable” ones. It's paper or BYOBag. Micro-plastics, you have finally met your match!
🚗 Uber & Lyft Drivers Can Form a Union ↳ After years of gig economy gymnastics, California has greenlit organizing rights for drivers, while still calling them independent contractors (because tax simplicity is for the weak.)
🐾 Declawing Cats? Banned ↳Your cat may ignore you, but the state hasn’t. Declawing (unless medically necessary) is now illegal. Claws are in. So, tell "Behemoth" to scratch your couch out.
Behemoth of "Master and Margarita" fame
🏠 Housing Corner
Interest rates jumped the last couple of weeks. All the news is that housing's stagnant, and owners aren't lowering prices fast enough.
On top of that, POTUS meandering in the Middle East isn't instilling any confidence in the housing market back home.
💹
Interest Rates
6.43%
🏡 🏡 🏡 Inventory
705,663
🧊
Days on Market
126 days
Here's a quick list of the housing stats over the last 1 weeks: 🏠 Mortgage rates: 6.43% (up a quarter point) 📈 Inventory: 705,663 homes (up sellers, less buyers) 📉 Price reductions? 33.4% (overall pricing adjustments still going down) 💰 Median list price? $434,900 (but median prices going up) 🕰️ Days on market? 126 (moving a little quicker).
Market Highlights for 2025
Overall, the market had an up year for 2025. Even if you discount that the buying power of the USD has dropped due to tariffs and inflation (net ~10%), you'd still be ahead if you invested in the index for the entire year.
BTC was a disappointment this year, dropping ~6%, and if you bought at the highs of +$100K, you are hurting for sure.
Gold & Silver are the breakout Gigachads of the year, out of nowhere. Gold because countries around the world are worried about USD debt & solvency, so they are taking "chips (USD) off the table" and moving them to Gold until they have a better understanding of where the monetary state of USA is heading.
Silver, because of actual use case, as I wrote above.
Everything down. Appearantly markets don't like war.
~ S&P 500 $6,369 (-2.81%)
~ Nasdaq $20,948 (-4.16%)
~ BTC $66,468 (-5.75%)
~ Silver $68.90 (-1.48%)
~ Gold $4,489 (+0.40%)
💸 4th Quarter, taxes are due this week!
Just a reminder that, at the time of this writing, we are 4 days away from your 4th quarter tax payment to your 🤡silent partner.
It's due by January 15th, so you still have a few more days to procrastinate.
💸 All payments must now be made electronically
So, if you haven't already, set up an IRS.gov account, and make sure to make ES payment for 2025, Form 1040.
What's been going on with your Favorite CPA
Here's a great podcast that I listened to this week about how to think about setting up your upcoming goals for 2026.
Never mind the clickbait-ish title, it was actually a really good podcast.
Tonight, I am heading to the strip to celebrate New Year's with fireworks with friends. Whatever you're doing tonight, have fun. ❤️
A weekly newsletter for people who want to understand money without needing therapy afterward. I cover accounting, tax, and finance the way they should be taught. Simple, sharp, and with a sense of humor. If knowledge is power, this one’s your caffeine shot.
Romeo Razi, CPA Mar 29th 👴🏻Social Security is running out fast 🛡️Social Security is the government pension system that was created by F.D.R. during the Great Depression as part of his "New Deal". Unfortunately, the "New Deal" is starting to look a lot like a scheme Charles Ponzi would be proud of. It used to be a very safe asset, but between LBJ's '68 Unified Budget (think Vietnam war) and Greenspan's '83 Budget Reform (when the surplus started getting too big), Congress decided to do what it...
Romeo Razi, CPA Mar 15th 😶The State of Washington just did a boo-boo. The State of Washington, famous (among tax aficionados) just made a spectacular U-turn on one of their most coveted and prized policies: No State Income Tax. The legislature has been asked to vote on a state income tax 10 times. Ten times they said "Nay." Ten times, voters treated the idea like a bad Gen Z blind date. Declined politely, and ghost👻. Then came March 10th, 2026. A date that will live in Seattleite tax infamy....
Romeo Razi, CPA Mar 1st 😶Yes, I am still alive People ask me (when they get a hold of me), "Romeo, what did you do yesterday?" Here is my day, in a nutshell: 7am: go to gym 🏋️ (weights) 8am: 💻tax work until 10am. Deep focus. No Mercy. 10am: breakfast 10:30am: 💻tax work until 1pm 1pm: protein smoothie 1:25pm: 💻tax work until 4pm 4pm: rest for 30 minutes, calculate macros on app, what I'm eating tonight 4:30pm: gym 🏋️round two (cardio) 5:30pm: make dinner 👨🍳(it's therapy, I swear) 6-6:30pm:...