Updates-Economic Cement

It looks like we are officially now stuck in economic cement.  Things aren’t moving much, prices are rising, interest rates are rising and governments are spending more.  It’s not a study or anything, or economic forecast.  It’s based on common sense looking around Ontario and the East Coast of Canada.

People are afraid to invest, buy or take a lot of risk.  We will pay for that later.  Ai (that I discuss a bit later here) is now the next industrial revolution.  But only if you know how to use it.

I’m now a software engineer, with my trusty AI assistant coder at my side.  That is a revelation and significant sign of the value of existing software companies.  Those that have contracts and proprietary software can continue to build, improve and innovate with very few humans doing the grunt work.  The moat is the data, or intelligence or reasoning that can’t be replicated by generative AI.

Governments are wanting to control it for several reasons.  Some like America, have equity in some of the general LLM’s such as Open AI.

That is another story and doesn’t really matter here.  For now, I consider my software investments in Enghouse, Coveo, Vital Hub, with a bit of Constellation thrown in as good to hold.  The rest just lets me sleep at night.

For the economy I don’t know how we get out of this quickly.  No one is even buying much in the grocery store.  I was in one today and while a couple of bags of groceries (without meat or much protein) was $140, most people I watched were spending a lot less.  Like when gas goes up and you put in $20 because it’s all you can afford.

I remember those days and feel greatly for people working on salaries today.  My only thought is to start a small thing on the side if you can, to earn extra money and take care of this ever-increasing inflation.

Now more on how I became a software engineer.

Does this really work?

As many of you know I first launched Ask Hank in November of 2025.  The financial version AskHank.money continues to get some 100 visitors a day or 45,952 since we launched it in March of this year.  AskHank.ai and all the platforms have reached over 700,000 opens.  But our intelligence sits on top of a public LLM, Open Ai.

It started that way, and the company I launched was on a strict budged.  Let’s see if anybody cares to go there or has interest in a place that is like a park bench.  No pressure to ask a question, just something you know is there if you need it.  After some 7 million people watched my video clips it seemed to look like we have something.  But my goal has always been to create Ask Hank AI your private AI.

So, about a week ago, after months of studying, I started the process.  I’m pleased to say that next week we launch all 9 platforms on our own proprietary AI service.  All self-contained, all Canadian built and owned.

The AskHank.money will be up within the same expanded and better format by November 1.

I was shocked that this all works.  It’s also much better than anything out there now and having our own AI is superior to relying on anyone else.

So if I were much younger and looking for a side hustle or extra business I would definitely be automating small business software and consult to those companies that value having their own intact systems.

When I finished the first phase of our software the estimate was that 5 years ago, 3-5 engineers would have to work for 4months minimum, at a cost of some $250,000 or more to create what we had.

So, on an investment theme, software created this way to me, is the investment of the future.  Software engineers that can’t code a thing but have a basic understanding of it. They are presented with a problem and are willing to work through common sense steps to solve them.  The “grunt” work is carried out by the ai coding assistant, ready to work 24/7 for just a few hundred dollars a month.  The moat and proprietary skills are the ability to use today’s technology to solve those problems efficiently and effectively.

I’m excited to share with you next time the launch of these platforms.  In the meantime, AI is not a threat I believe to my software investments.  It’s going to be a game changer to those that solve problems and provide exceptional service.

Building your ETF has Never been Easier

Recently, Investor Line, announced that they were eliminating all fees for stock trades.  For some time, other investment platforms have done the same.  It adds more value for me to continue to build my own ETF and be able to invest dividends immediately back into more stock without incurring more cost.

For Banks, while I still feel they are not of value, buying 5-8 of them is the Bank ETF.

I have discussed my technology companies, and they are the same, a higher Risk or Tech ETF.

For Transportation, I like the railroads and a few pipelines.  For REITS it’s the same two Boardwalk and Canadian Apartment Reit.

Still nibbling on gold and basically not doing much else.

I continue to work on the “investment brain” and hope to have more information next month.  So, for now, I’m loving the ocean, the honeybees and the launch of Ask Hank AI, Your Private AI next week.

Bee well, Hank.