Trillion Dollar Future

Investments Worth Considering

A ton of “financial advisors” (or just plain idiots on Instagram) will warn you of the upcoming crash or give you plenty of other generic advice. Very few seem to be willing to write about specific investments worth considering. They always want you to pay them before they will share their secret advice.

I’ll put my mouth where my money is! Without charging you a cent! (Donations are always welcome!)

Citrini Research charges $1,000 a year for their Substack membership, they charge $10,000 a year for their enterprise research. No doubt they provide better research than I can. If you can afford them, that’s awesome, feel free to share some of their nuggets of wisdom with me. 😇

If you are paying attention to space and investment news, you’ve no doubt heard about the anticipated IPO (Initial Public Offering) of SpaceX. This is expected to raise one trillion dollars! That is one huge bet on the future of space exploration / exploitation. SpaceX earned over $18 billion dollars last year!

I’ve been pro “space” for my entire lifetime. My childhood was in the 1960s following along with watching the moon landing on TV in 1969. Of course we also had Star Trek, 2001 A Space Odyssey and then Star Wars. Humans have a long history of being fascinated with space.

What does this have to do with investing money?

We have finally reached the point where commercial exploitation of space is big business. Anyone with GPS and a cell phone should be well aware of the essential role of satellites to provide this service.

Being a fan of Firefly (best TV show ever made that promotes freedom), the company Firefly (FLY) caught my eye when they did their IPO shortly after successfully landing on the moon. I’ve bought shares of Firefly several times now starting seriously on October 21, 2025 (at $26.66). The lowest I’ve paid for their stock was $16.67. They are now at $44. Overall in just over a half a year my rate of return is 77.87%. Not bad at all for a half a year!

Rocket Lab (RKLB) was another company I was keeping my eye on and finally made several purchases in February at an average cost of $72.06. Rocket Lab is now at $134.28. Thus in less than three months I’ve got an 86.34% rate of return! Eat your heart out Warren Buffett.

LUNR (Intuitive Machines) is rapidly evolving into a major player in space missions with the successful IM-1 and IM-2 missions, including the first commercial spacecraft to land and operate on the Moon. Forthcoming flights are IM-3, IM-4 and IM-5. LUNR cooperates with many other companies to create successful missions. They have proven mission success with 300+ spacecraft launches, 100 satellites in orbit and 3,000 collective years in orbit. Purchasing LUNR earlier this month, on May 7^th at $24 per share, they are now at $33.67 per share, giving a current rate of return of 40.29% - again absolutely phenomenal for a 13 day return!

AST SpaceMobile (ASTS) caught my attention in December just before they started a one year long plan for putting a lot of “Bluebird” satellites into orbit. These “Bluebird” satellites will provide full bandwidth communications directly to cell phones without any special hardware or phone modifications. Freedom from the tower! They are partnered with over fifty mobile network operators, with nearly three billion combined subscribers. I bought ASTS on December 2^nd at $53.12 per share. They are now at $89.58 per share. They have had some trouble which brought them down from their peak of $129.89 per share. Despite this drop, my rate of return in six months is currently at 68.64%.

ARKX, this is an ETF (Exchange Traded Fund) that invests in a number of “Space & Defense Innovation” companies. I’ve bought some at various times over the past six months for an average price of $31.21. They are now at $34.64 per share. This is “only” a rate of return of 11%. That’s respectable if you double it to 22% for an annual rate of return. But this illustrates the difference between targeted investing in companies you believe in vs letting someone else manage your money. ETFs can be the “safe” way to go if you are willing to settle for lower rates of return, with the benefit of less volatility (fewer days of pulling your hair out when prices crash temporarily).

Also I’ve invested in ARKQ, which is an ETF that invests in “Autonomous Technology & Robotics” (a lot of this technology will be used for space missions). Like ARKX, this is a good return but very similar to the moderately good returns for ARKX.

On a typical day (like today), my rate of return is usually about triple the rate of return from managed funds (like my 401k provided by my employer). Each person has to decide their own tolerance for risk (and ability to predict the future). Personally I have a very high tolerance for risk and my investments are almost always aimed for future returns (three to five years from now).

Generally it rubs me the wrong way when other investors “toot their own horn” bragging about how great they are doing. I’m just a normal guy. I don’t have millions or billions of dollars invested, but I’ve done very well with the very little that I’ve had available for investing. Still, I wanted to share some concrete data, not just vague advice or vague bragging.

Is it “too late” to jump on the space investment bandwagon? Certainly not. The Artemis mission that just circled the moon with human astronauts has generated excitement and buzz. SpaceX’s IPO is generating more buzz and may steal the thunder of other companies for the next couple months. SpaceX’s IPO might actually create some opportunities to buy some of these other companies at a bargain. When a future Artemis mission lands humans on the moon there will be even more buzz and excitement (and investing). Artemis III (more testing) should launch in 2027. Artemis IV is currently targeting a human moon landing in 2028.

There is no need to rush and buy some stock “tomorrow”, there should be plenty of opportunities to spot good investments over the next few years.

Don’t crash and burn! Or if you do, please don’t blame me! One of my approaches to investing: “Never risk more money than you can afford to throw away”

Standard disclaimer: I’m sharing some of my thoughts and experiences, this should not be interpreted as financial advice!