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Brain Power

ArticleJeffrey K. Actor | Oct 31, 2026

I KEEP PHYSICALLY active and exercise on a semi-regular basis. Maybe not as much as my wife suggests, but enough that I feel the burn during a workout, and experience those pesky muscle group aches the next day. However, there is one muscle that I should probably exercise more, and with greater fervor, especially now that I am retired. That muscle is the brain. In my humble opinion, the brain should be considered a critical retirement asset. I am keenly aware of my diminished mental acuity as I enter my third trimester of life. My ability to sort, store, and retrieve information has weakened. Furthermore, at two years into retirement, I find that I no longer push my brain muscles for hours at a time as I did during my working years. When I do push, my focus is shorter; my thoughts are not quite as deep. Where I used to swim deep with the fishes, I now wade shallow with the minnows. I joke with friends and colleagues that, as a former scientist-researcher-educator, my brain was my most critical piece of “capital equipment”. In reality, regardless of occupation or social status, the brain serves everyone as his or her most important asset for career placement, advancement, and success. There is irony in carefully protecting a financial retirement portfolio while paying considerably less attention to the biological asset responsible for managing it. Many of us pour over our spreadsheets to ensure existing monetary assets will support our retirement years. I suggest that just like any other valuable asset, the brain requires continued monitoring. I am certainly guilty of giving my fiscal portfolio more attention than I do preserving the cognitive asset required to maintain it. During my working years, brain “maintenance” was automatic; daily doses of research investigations, teaching and writing, kept this capital equipment asset exquisitely tuned. Now that I am retired, I find that much of the built-in capital expenditure for maintaining the brain is gone. I have this extraordinarily valuable piece of equipment lying around the house (upstairs) with no scheduled maintenance program. Recognition that I require increased brain maintenance may be the first step. Perhaps all I need is simply a continued re-investment; a minor amount of intellectual capital deposited every day might do the trick to keep my most important muscle asset from depreciating. I thought to start by fortifying existing neurons. My twins bought me a subscription to Spotify, a music service that has eerily learned my likes and dislikes all too well. Figuring to rekindle teenage memories of the ‘70s, I created playlists that included the earliest albums I owned. Curiously, I am able to recall all the words from favorite songs written by The Beatles, Elton John, and The Kinks. Unfortunately these exercises can backfire. Let’s just say that once Bee Gees tunes, or associated images of John Travolta dancing in tight bell bottoms, get into your head, no amount of cognitive therapy can force them out. On the flip side, some neurons simply left no forwarding address. Try as I may, I am unable to remember anything I learned in physics or calculus from that same decade. Those capital assets left no receipts; the intellectual ledger entries have been simply wiped clean from the grey matter processing center. The creation of new neural pathways remains a challenge. I try to stay mentally engaged. While my time spent reading is probably similar to when working, the breadth of subjects has expanded. Less pure science, and more science fiction. What I really need is a way to consistently exercise and strengthen my brain’s problem-solving circuitry. I’ve tried jigsaw puzzles, however, my color deficiency leads to more frustration than completed projects. Apps are fun, but become less engaging once the logical paths to successful completion have been mastered. I tried to learn a new language, but the slow progress made me depressed. There is an oft-cited figure that it takes 10,000 deliberate and focused hours to achieve mastery in any particular field. At a realistic pace of 2 hours a day, for 6 days a week, mastery in any new field chosen would take roughly 16 years. That’s a significant time-related investment, and that investment comes with an opportunity cost. Time spent mastering one pursuit is time unavailable for another. At my current stage of life, time may actually be the capital asset in the shortest supply. I began new hobbies, such as woodworking and hydroponic gardening. Each brings the challenge of new cognitive skills. Yet I don’t engage in those activities every day. Furthermore, it seems unrealistic that these activities will hold my interest intently for the time required to master these subjects. Indeed, the only constant activity I’ve kept since retiring is that of napping. So, I guess I am on track to be a nap master in another decade or two. I could speed the process by taking longer naps, but on the surface that seems to defeat the overall goal of strengthening mental muscle growth and cognitive conditioning. For now, I am beginning to realize that the overall goal may not truly be mastery of new skills at all. Rather I should focus on continued cognitive maintenance and investment. A little intellectual capital deposited every day may not make me an expert in anything new, but perhaps it will keep my most important capital biological asset from depreciating too quickly. Jeffrey K. Actor, PhD, was a professor at a major medical school in Houston for more than 25 years, serving as an academic researcher with interests in how immune responses function to fight pathogenic diseases. Jeff’s retirement goals are to write short science fiction stories, volunteer in the community and spend time in his garden. Check out his earlier articles.

Investing

Private Funds

ArticleAdam M. Grossman | Oct 31, 2026

IT'S THAT TIME of year again, when college endowments report their results for the recently completed fiscal year. This year’s numbers were unusual and carry lessons for individual investors. For fiscal year 2026, which ended June 30th, some schools reported extraordinary returns. The University of North Carolina’s endowment reported a gain of nearly 38%. Washington University notched a return of more than 37%. And Stanford University’s endowment gained almost 32%. Those are strong numbers, but it was a year of haves and have-nots. The median return was a much more modest 16.1%, according to consulting firm Cambridge Associates. And some schools trailed badly. MIT’s endowment, which has historically been near the top of the leaderboard, returned just 10.3%. Why the disparity? The explanation, in short: SpaceX. Some schools—but not all—had invested in the company years before its public offering. Some had purchased shares directly, while others had exposure through venture capital funds. So when SpaceX held its IPO earlier this year at a valuation of nearly $2 trillion, these schools experienced windfalls. That explains the outstanding results at UNC, WashU and Stanford, and it explains why the median school, which had little or no exposure to SpaceX, put up much less dramatic results. What should we conclude from this? On the one hand, this seems to validate stock pickers’ argument that the right picks can make all the difference. It also seems to support those lobbying for a rule change to allow private funds into workplace 401(k)s. Advocates of this move talk about democratizing access to investments, and the impact of SpaceX certainly aligns with that argument. Despite some endowments’ success with this strategy, though, my recommendation is unchanged: For virtually all investors, I would still opt for the simplicity of index funds and would steer clear of private funds, including hedge funds, private equity and venture capital. When it comes to private funds, there are four fundamental challenges which are well understood. For starters, they’re expensive. The traditional private fund structure involves a management fee which is typically between 1% and 2%. On top of that, the manager collects a performance fee—usually 20% of the profits each year. Funds like the Robinhood Ventures Fund (ticker: RVI) offer access to a basket of private companies through a publicly-traded vehicle, and they’re similarly expensive. This fund charges more than 3%. In contrast, funds tracking the S&P 500 charge as little as 0.03%. So cost is one key factor. Private funds can also be tax-inefficient. Because they’re actively managed, the level of trading inside these funds can be significant. That leaves investors’ tax bills exposed to the whims of fund managers. A recent roundup by research firm Morningstar illustrates how investors in actively-managed mutual funds can face unpleasant tax surprises. Though the mechanism is different, the same risk applies to investors in private funds. Private funds also carry fundamentally more risk, because they aren’t required to undergo the same level of scrutiny as publicly-traded funds. That provides more room for malfeasance. And finally, private funds are generally illiquid, limiting withdrawals to periodic windows throughout the year. These restrictions have been problematic even for large university endowments, forcing them to sell investments at below-market prices. For individual investors, this sort of illiquidity could be an even larger problem. In my view, an asset that can’t be sold on demand has limited practical value, however attractive it may appear on paper. Those are some of the more commonly cited challenges with private funds. But this year’s endowment returns highlight another issue: The performance of private funds is highly variable, and that’s because the landscape of investments outside of public markets is so idiosyncratic. At the University of North Carolina, for example, half of the endowment’s returns last year came solely from its SpaceX stake. That was fortunate. But unfortunately, there’s no reliable formula to repeat that kind of success. It’s for that reason, I think, that endowment returns, on average, have been middling. According to data from the National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO), the average college endowment has gained 10.0% per year over the past three fiscal years. In contrast, an investor in a simple publicly-traded stock-bond fund like the Vanguard Balanced Index Fund, would have earned 12.5% per year over that same time period. To be sure, endowments have delivered better returns than publicly-traded alternatives in other time periods. Over the past five years, for example, endowments in the NACUBO database have beaten that Vanguard fund by about one percentage point per year. The issue, though, is that there’s no pattern to these returns. If private funds start the year encumbered by high fees, tax-inefficiency and illiquidity, then they need to deliver returns that are that much better just to stay even. And there’s no guarantee that this will be the case. It’s for these reasons that I continue to recommend the simplest of investments for portfolios of all sizes. Adam M. Grossman is the founder of Mayport, a fixed-fee wealth management firm. Sign up for Adam's Daily Ideas email, follow him on X @AdamMGrossman and check out his earlier articles.

Insurance

To Claim or Not to Claim, That Is the Question

Mark Crothers | Oct 28, 2026

"I guess one reason for my disgust is that my home insurance in Florida has gone from $300 to $7,000 in 40 years (same house). The hurricane deductible is now $51,000."

- Randy Dobkin

Markets

Executives have stopped talking about recession. They talk about affordability instead.

Daniel Oliveira | Oct 30, 2026

"The near-disappearance of recession talk is interesting. I can’t remember who said it or where I read it, but I once came across the idea that a thing is most likely to happen once the noise around it has died down. I don’t know whether any research backs that up, but it’s a thought-provoking contrarian angle. To answer your question, I can think of only one change to my buying habits because of prices, and it goes in the opposite direction. I occasionally enjoy chocolate, and my preferred brand has reformulated under cost pressure, adding palm oil and other cheaper ingredients to keep the price down. I’ve started buying more expensive chocolate instead, because I don’t appreciate the cocoa mass being replaced with filler."

- Mark Crothers

From HumbleDollar Founder Jonathan Clements

Careers

Late Shift

LIKE A SLOW-MOTION train wreck, we’ve spent recent decades inching toward a world where we have too few workers and too many retirees dependent…

Investing

Would copying Congress have beaten an index fund?

Daniel Oliveira | Oct 28, 2026

"Simple solution to prevent even a "sniff" of impropriety: Anyone entering Congress or key Executive Branch positions need to move all assets (this includes spousal assets) to Index funds before taking office and for an appropriate "blackout period" after leaving office. Any evidence of insider information being provided to other friends and extended family should have the same implications as private sector executives are subject to. Officials in other government positions who have major executive control over government contracts should not be able to trade in stocks of companies in the sector(s) they are decision makers overseeing policy and or contract awards for. Anyone who can't abide by this or feels these ethical guardrails "costs" them too much money to serve need not apply. As it sits in prevailing practice and has for decades there is an odd ethical "odor" emanating from Congressional and Executive Branch offices in this area that is "sniff" worthy but could easily be largely avoided."

- Dunn Werking

Retirement

Why can’t Americans put more effort into understanding Social Security?

R Quinn | Oct 29, 2026

"There is way too much ignorance about SS and personal finance. Also, politicians avoid addressing the problem because to do so jeopardizes their elected position. They prefer to kick the can down the road. I do not have a solution except I have long felt that young people should be taught basic personal finance in HS and college."

- Jerry Pinkard

Investing

Do I really need International funds in my portfolio? I say no.

Bruce Roberts | Oct 26, 2026

"Just looked up at Vanguard. International is 34.61%."

- David Lancaster

Markets

Doubling the Bear Market Low

Mark Crothers | Oct 22, 2026

"What I find particularly interesting about this discussion is how portfolio growth can change the nature of the risk we're taking, even when we haven't made a single investment decision. A portfolio that has doubled since the 2022 lows may look very different today, not only in terms of asset allocation but also in terms of what that capital now represents in someone's life. I don't think rebalancing should necessarily be automatic simply because an allocation has drifted from its original target. But I also wouldn't dismiss the increased risk just because much of the growth came from investment gains. Perhaps the more useful question is whether the portfolio still serves the same purpose it did four years ago. If those gains have brought someone significantly closer to financial independence, protecting part of that progress might make sense. For someone with a longer horizon and secure income, the answer could be quite different. The interesting part is that the same portfolio allocation can be perfectly reasonable for one investor and uncomfortable for another, depending on what the money is ultimately meant to accomplish."

- Massimiliano Scioscia

Family

The Advantage We Bring

Andrew Clements | Oct 28, 2026

"Dan, those conversations can stay with us long after a vacation ends. I appreciate your distinction between getting a glimpse of someone’s life and knowing what it’s like to live it. Your point about people struggling at home is well taken, too. Gratitude and generosity shouldn’t depend on which country we’re visiting. Your reflection on your tax practice also resonates. We can be proud of what we’ve built while recognizing that others may have faced obstacles we never had to consider. That awareness is something I want to carry with me, both in the Philippines and here at home."

- Andrew Clements

Behavior

Monopoly

D.J. | Oct 27, 2026

"lol, of course both the Mudhens and Tony Packos are musts on the game."

- DAN SMITH

In Retirement

The pension conundrum and a solution

R Quinn | Oct 26, 2026

"Your fellow taxpayers say “you’re welcome.” 😁"

- R Quinn

Health

Brain Power

ArticleJeffrey K. Actor | Oct 31, 2026

Investing

Private Funds

ArticleAdam M. Grossman | Oct 31, 2026