FREE NEWSLETTER
Bequeath your thoughtfulness, not a thoughtless financial mess.
THE STOCK MARKET HAS been one of my life’s enduring interests. No, it’s not because I try to pick market-beating investments. I gave up on that nonsense more than three decades ago.
Rather, I’m fascinated by the way we humans engage with this maddening market that promises both riches and peril, and which seems both ruthlessly efficient and utterly nuts. What have I learned from a lifetime of following the stock market? The sad truth is,
PEOPLE WHO KNOW ME say I’m sentimental, and they’re right. I like visiting places like my elementary school, the house where I grew up and my first home away from home. They bring back fond memories.
As I’ve grown older, I’ve become more nostalgic, and it isn’t just me. I heard that the ashes of my childhood friend Brian were spread over our grade school grounds. He must have had a touch of nostalgia,
EARLIER THIS YEAR, I came up with what I thought was a brilliant idea. I’d signed up for the August 2025 Ironman Ottawa to celebrate my 70th birthday and thought, “Why not jump on the Ozempic bandwagon for six months to drop some significant excess weight before the heavy training starts?”
I’ve struggled with my weight for years. My doctor calls me an emotional eater. I thought, if I dropped the weight and committed to keeping it off,
ONE DAY, AS I WAS walking through the mathematics building at the community college I attended, I saw a poster that screamed, “Math Majors?”
That got my attention. The poster introduced me to a career possibility: becoming an actuary. My job path was set. Or so I thought.
The actuarial career path consists of passing either five or 10 standardized tests. Complete five, and you become an associate. Complete 10, and you’re a fellow.
IMAGINE TAKING DOLLAR bills and inserting them into a shredder. This is how you might think about a concept that economists call “deadweight loss.” As its name suggests, a deadweight loss occurs when there’s an irrevocable loss of economic output.
Deadweight losses can occur under a variety of circumstances. Among them: when tariffs are imposed. It’s for that reason that the incoming administration’s tariff plan has raised concerns. But how worried should we be?
MANAGING MONEY IS about managing risk. But which risks? We all have a different collection of financial worries, and that drives the investments we buy and the insurance we purchase.
Problem is, every choice we make comes with a tradeoff. If we seek to fend off one risk, we often open ourselves up to other dangers. Consider five such tradeoffs:
1. Dying young vs. living long. When should we claim Social Security?
MAIL CHECKS with care. Ideally, you’d avoid the risk by paying online. But if that isn’t an option, be aware there’s a chance the check could be stolen and “washed” so it’s made out to someone new and for a far larger sum. What to do? Use the mail slot inside the post office to mail envelopes containing checks—and fill out your checks using a fraud prevention pen.
FIDUCIARY. If financial advisors are fiduciaries, they’re legally obligated to act in your best interest. By contrast, stockbrokers working on commission are held to the lower suitability standard: Their recommendations merely have to be suitable for the client. Be warned: Advisors may say they’re fiduciaries—but only act that way part of the time.
NO. 82: RETIREES need stocks to combat inflation. Even at a modest 2% inflation rate, the spending power of $1 is reduced to 61 cents after 25 years. Yes, owning stocks is risky. But if you have a cash cushion to cover the next five years of portfolio withdrawals, you should be able to ride out a bear market without being forced to sell stocks at fire-sale prices.
NO. 38: AS STOCK prices fall, our enthusiasm should climb. The decline raises expected returns and offers the chance to buy at lower prices, both with new money and through rebalancing.
I’M 64 AND PREPARING to sign up for Medicare next year. I’ve done extensive research, including earning the Retirement Income Certified Professional designation. I’ve also written articles for HumbleDollar on Medicare coverage, Medicare premiums, Medigap and health savings accounts.
In addition, I’ve befriended Medigap salespeople, advised others on which plans to choose, and asked those on Medicare for advice on their experience with the program. I feel as if I’ve been preparing to take the Medicare filing “exam,” and I’m excited to sign up.
MY MOST MEMORABLE experiences are family vacations—and that includes the mishaps. Those become the stories we laugh about years later.
For instance, when our boys were young, we took an overnight train from Bangkok to northern Thailand. We found ourselves trapped for three days in Chiangmai by an unexpected torrential flood. Multiple times, we had to modify our plans for getting back to Bangkok. Finally, we got a flight on a small airplane. As we walked up to the plane,
LAST WEEK, I TALKED about some of the unsettling trends in the financial markets. In that article, I focused on the role of brokers and day traders, and noted that it takes two to tango. But it turns out the dance floor is quite a bit more crowded than that.
Yes, brokers and day traders are doing their part, but there’s another set of actors who are less visible but a whole lot more influential.
WHAT SHOULD YOU DO with your money next year? The same things you should have done this year, and the year before, and the year before that.
The rules for a successful life—financially and otherwise—are, I believe, pretty timeless. What rules? Here are 24 of my favorites.
1. Ask why. If you don’t know where you’re going with your finances, you’ll likely end up somewhere you don’t like. What are your money goals for 2024 and beyond?
FOR A LIFE TO BE meaningful, it doesn’t need to be unique—and yet many of us believe that’s necessary. We’re convinced we lack something special, and that paralyzes us. This is a mistake, says the philosopher Iddo Landau, who argues that everybody already possesses what they need for a meaningful existence. We just need to look harder.
I’ve spent years researching and educating myself on how to find and cultivate purpose. This helped me to develop a process to guide clients,
NO. 38: AS STOCK prices fall, our enthusiasm should climb. The decline raises expected returns and offers the chance to buy at lower prices, both with new money and through rebalancing.
MAIL CHECKS with care. Ideally, you’d avoid the risk by paying online. But if that isn’t an option, be aware there’s a chance the check could be stolen and “washed” so it’s made out to someone new and for a far larger sum. What to do? Use the mail slot inside the post office to mail envelopes containing checks—and fill out your checks using a fraud prevention pen.
FIDUCIARY. If financial advisors are fiduciaries, they’re legally obligated to act in your best interest. By contrast, stockbrokers working on commission are held to the lower suitability standard: Their recommendations merely have to be suitable for the client. Be warned: Advisors may say they’re fiduciaries—but only act that way part of the time.
NO. 82: RETIREES need stocks to combat inflation. Even at a modest 2% inflation rate, the spending power of $1 is reduced to 61 cents after 25 years. Yes, owning stocks is risky. But if you have a cash cushion to cover the next five years of portfolio withdrawals, you should be able to ride out a bear market without being forced to sell stocks at fire-sale prices.
I’M 64 AND PREPARING to sign up for Medicare next year. I’ve done extensive research, including earning the Retirement Income Certified Professional designation. I’ve also written articles for HumbleDollar on Medicare coverage, Medicare premiums, Medigap and health savings accounts.
In addition, I’ve befriended Medigap salespeople, advised others on which plans to choose, and asked those on Medicare for advice on their experience with the program. I feel as if I’ve been preparing to take the Medicare filing “exam,” and I’m excited to sign up.
MY MOST MEMORABLE experiences are family vacations—and that includes the mishaps. Those become the stories we laugh about years later.
For instance, when our boys were young, we took an overnight train from Bangkok to northern Thailand. We found ourselves trapped for three days in Chiangmai by an unexpected torrential flood. Multiple times, we had to modify our plans for getting back to Bangkok. Finally, we got a flight on a small airplane. As we walked up to the plane,
LAST WEEK, I TALKED about some of the unsettling trends in the financial markets. In that article, I focused on the role of brokers and day traders, and noted that it takes two to tango. But it turns out the dance floor is quite a bit more crowded than that.
Yes, brokers and day traders are doing their part, but there’s another set of actors who are less visible but a whole lot more influential.
WHAT SHOULD YOU DO with your money next year? The same things you should have done this year, and the year before, and the year before that.
The rules for a successful life—financially and otherwise—are, I believe, pretty timeless. What rules? Here are 24 of my favorites.
1. Ask why. If you don’t know where you’re going with your finances, you’ll likely end up somewhere you don’t like. What are your money goals for 2024 and beyond?
FOR A LIFE TO BE meaningful, it doesn’t need to be unique—and yet many of us believe that’s necessary. We’re convinced we lack something special, and that paralyzes us. This is a mistake, says the philosopher Iddo Landau, who argues that everybody already possesses what they need for a meaningful existence. We just need to look harder.
I’ve spent years researching and educating myself on how to find and cultivate purpose. This helped me to develop a process to guide clients,
Quinn’s last rant for 2024. Misinformation is frustrating. No, your wife is not a car!
Money Stress in Childhood
Too Big to Succeed by Jonathan Clements
When should one give up control over finances?
The Most Wonderful Time of the Year
Can this forum support math formulas in posts?
StrikethroughQuoted TextCode Block (code disappears when editing - let's see if it shows up after posting) Code Block 1 Code Block 2 Link to disqus text editor page Spoiler [spoiler title="Spoiler Title"] Spoiler line 1 Spoiler line 2 [/spoiler]"