I like personal proactive learning, but the financing and investments don't excite me now. There is so much uncertainty that "pay as you go" seems like a good idea. Between tariffs and somehow the bottom falling out with crypto (e.g. stablecoins have all the problems of fractional reserve banking without regulators to bail them out.) If AI succeeds it will screw things up, if it fails it screws things up. My experience though is making a bear bet is pretty dangerous though as markets can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent.