How I’m protecting my retirement bag in this crazy volatile market 

things are looking a bit rough out there right now, aren't they? S&P 500 and Nasdaq have been bleeding lately, and the VIX just spiked over 20. It feels like everyone is on edge.

Did you catch the latest FOMC meeting? Warsh made some super interesting comments about ditching forward guidance and suddenly talking about creating a whole new inflation index since PCE is running hot.

The market completely freaked out over this. People are basically assuming the Fed wants to move the goalposts to make inflation look lower than it actually is.

That panic sent the 30-year Treasury yield soaring past 5.7%.

On top of all that macro mess, the Middle East tensions are pushing oil back to $88. SK Hynix took a massive 10% dump, dragging US semis down with it. It's wild though because amidst all this, Microsoft is still absolutely crushing it—up another 3% thanks to a massive jump in Cloud and Azure revenue.

Meanwhile, Meta tanked 4% after missing EPS expectations. Oh, and Apple just dethroned Nvidia to take back the #1 market cap spot.

So what am I doing with my money in the middle of this chaos?

Honestly, I'm playing the long game. I plan for 30 years out. Going all-in on whoever holds the #1 spot is tempting since it can net you like 25% a year in a bull run, but the drawdowns will destroy your mental health.

Instead, I'm constantly accumulating a mix of MAGS, VOO, and QQQM to get broad tech exposure without betting it all on one horse.

But more importantly, I’m balancing that with defensive assets.

I keep a strict allocation of SGOV (short-term treasuries), BND, IEF, and IAUM (gold). It keeps my MDD (Maximum Drawdown) super manageable when days like today happen.