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Lessons Learned Along the Way

Dan Smith  |  Jun 25, 2026

"I read this and thought for a while about what I learned and where. Mostly I kept returning to things I did with coworkers. I thought about how I learned to operate as a member of a team, being friendly and respectful to all, helping in my own way to build a cohesive unit by the way I interacted with every individual, giving credit to the people who deserved it (especially when their contributions weren't recognized), and accepting responsibility for my own errors or failings. No man is an island, and my career relied on many, many people."
- Martin McCue
Read more »

Automatic Income stream? How important to you?

R Quinn  |  Jun 26, 2026

"The ability to select an annuity as a 401(k) option is in principle very positive. The devil is in the details. One issue with annuities in general is the prevalence of excessive (and prepaid) fees. Another issue is the discount rate/earnings expectations formula for calculating the payout. In the retail annuity world, both of these can abused to the point that they become predatory in nature. Where that occurs, they usually conspire to penalize the annuitant greatly. Only if these two negatives can be eliminated or made truly fair will the 401(k) annuity work."
- Martin McCue
Read more »

Luck, Stupidity, Automation and Inertia

Mark Crothers  |  Jun 27, 2026

"Sometimes what we call luck is, in reality, good preparation meeting opportunity."
- Mark Crothers
Read more »

Quiet Failure: The Stories We Tell about Money

Javier  |  Jun 28, 2026

"My approach to/attitude toward money is partly built from family origins and partly by faith convictions. My husband and I both grew up in very modest conditions—I’d say barely lower middle-class on both sides. I always had to work for what I wanted, and that gave me a strong work ethic that I have to this day. I have a strong need for security and have never wanted to take risks with our finances. I also wanted my kids to have enough and never feel like the “poorest kid in the neighborhood,” which is how I grew up. At the same time, because of our religious faith, we feel strongly about giving to charity and have always done that even in our young married years when finances were very tight."
- DrLefty
Read more »

When to Leave Your Portfolio Alone

Mark Gardner  |  Jun 26, 2026

"It does sometimes create tax liability - a cost to manage your risk. I try to be tax efficient with my rebalancing to the best of my ability. Yes, redirecting dividends is a good strategy as well to rebalance to your target band."
- Mark Gardner
Read more »

Luck, Stupidity, and Getting Ripped Off

Mark Crothers  |  Jun 28, 2026

"Mark, I have two separate accounts. Here's my over-simplified response: My IRA proceeds, when withdrawn, are counted as regular income. My investment account proceeds, when withdrawn, will have gains computed between the original purchase price and the sold price. I don't really plan to withdraw from this account. My best-laid plans are for the kids to inherit this account and benefit from the basis step-up that would happen when I croak."
- Jeff Bond
Read more »

Why can’t more people plan for their retirement future?

R Quinn  |  Jun 27, 2026

"Being called to active duty in 1968 changed my life. I never left the US those two years, but it did result in me going to college and using the GI bill for school money and living expenses while raising a family. Carpe Diem, but with an eye on the future."
- R Quinn
Read more »

Investment Wisdom

ArticleAdam M. Grossman  |  Jun 27, 2026

THE INVESTMENT WORLD is full of storytellers. And while these folks might be entertaining, they generally aren’t very helpful. There’s one category of stories, however, that I do think is useful: They’re what I might call investment fables. They’re apocryphal stories that likely aren’t real. But they’re helpful nonetheless because each carries a useful lesson. Here are some of the more popular ones. Consumer choice. In 1999, Richard Mille and a partner launched a company to make wristwatches. By 2001, the company was ready to begin taking orders for its first model, the RM 001. They knew they wanted to target a high-end market, so they chose the Financial Times for their first advertisement. According to legend, however, a graphic designer at the newspaper made a mistake. Instead of including the watch’s intended price of $13,500, an extra zero was added, making the price $135,000. At first, the company was furious at the newspaper for the mistake. But then the phone started to ring. The sky-high price turned out to be attractive to a certain class of buyers, and the initial run of the 001 quickly sold out. Today, Richard Mille sells several models priced in the hundreds of thousands, and some limited editions carry price tags north of $1 million. For its part, the company denies this story, maintaining that $135,000 was always the price it intended. But whether this story is true or not, it illustrates a concept in personal finance known as the Veblen effect. This occurs when the traditional shape of a demand curve gets turned upside down. Instead of consumers buying less of something as its price rises, when it comes to Veblen goods, consumers want to buy more as the price increases. Hermes handbags and Ferrari sportscars are other examples. What should we make of the Veblen effect? To answer this question, it’s worth examining its origins. Thorstein Veblen was a sociologist and economist. Perhaps owing to his background as the sixth of 12 children growing up in modest, rural surroundings, Veblen became broadly critical of capitalism. In his 1899 book, The Theory of the Leisure Class, he coined the term “conspicuous consumption.” And while Veblen didn’t explicitly see himself as a socialist, he leaned in that direction. He would have been bitterly critical of something like a Richard Mille watch. In making spending decisions, though, I wouldn’t worry too much about value judgments like this. The reality is that each of us is different, and we each value different things. That’s why I prefer to stick to the numbers. The most important thing, in my view, is simply to have a framework for your household finances, to ensure that your overall spending level is in line with your long-term plan. Other people’s subjective judgments, in my opinion, shouldn’t factor in. Investment gains. When it comes to investing, what’s the best strategy? According to lore, Fidelity Investments once looked into this question by examining the performance of all of the accounts on its platform. What did they find? The accounts that had done the best were those that had been abandoned due to the death of the owner, with the result that the investments hadn’t changed for years. There’s no evidence that this story is true, but it’s repeated frequently because it aligns with real data. In studies going back more than 25 years, research has shown that frequent trading is generally associated with worse investment results. This is true for both individual and professional investors. To be sure, some active managers have delivered impressive results. In the past, this has included the likes of Warren Buffett and James Simons. More recently, a 24-year-old named Leopold Aschenbrenner has delivered returns of more than 1,000% in the two years since he founded a hedge fund to bet on AI stocks. But cases like this are the exceptions that prove the rule. For most investors, most of the time, the data tell us that it’s better to trade less rather than more. Market tops. On a related note, there’s a tale about Joseph Kennedy—President Kennedy’s father. He was an active investor in the 1920s, but he said he realized it was time to sell when the fellow giving him a shoeshine one day started offering stock tips. What’s interesting about this story is that Kennedy did actually sell his stocks and even took a short position early in 1929, earning him a fortune when the market dropped. The shoeshine aspect of this story likely isn’t true. But it’s a favorite because it carries a useful message. Veteran investor Jeremy Grantham has often talked about the market signals he pays attention to. In addition to P/E ratios and other quantitative measures, he’s noted that he looks for “signs of craziness”—things like the GameStop mania in 2021. When the stock market begins to look more like a casino—and when we see YouTube influencers making stock calls from their gaming chairs—Grantham gets nervous. Intuitively, this does make sense, but it may not be very useful. Consider how the market has performed in recent years. After Grantham urged caution in 2021, the market did drop in 2022. But then it rose in 2023, 2024, 2025 and in the first half of 2026. So an investor who sold in 2021 would have missed out on significant gains. The bottom line: Just as the number of world-class stock-pickers is limited, so too is the number of tactical traders who have profited in the way Joe Kennedy did by getting out at just the right moment. Market forecasts. What’s a better way to think about the stock market? According to another Wall Street tale, J.P. Morgan was once asked what he thought the market would do over the coming year. His reply: “It will fluctuate.” There’s no evidence that Morgan ever actually said this, but in this case too, the story is popular because it sounds right. And in my view, this is exactly the right way to think about the stock market. At the end of the day, the only thing we can know for sure about the stock market is that it will either go up, go down or stay about the same. If we can structure our portfolios so we won’t be too negatively affected whichever way it goes, that, in my opinion, is the road to success.   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.
Read more »

Billy’s Certificate – 1937

W.D. Housley  |  Jun 24, 2026

"I always thought it a lot of money too."
- W.D. Housley
Read more »

What’s in your portfolio ?

Larry  |  Jun 12, 2026

"John, Thanks for providing the link! Very good article, I enjoyed the read…covers a lot."
- Andy Morrison
Read more »

The Price of a Cool Pillow

Mark Crothers  |  Jun 25, 2026

"I am traveling and dont have time to cut and paste etc, however, while downloading articles to read on the plane i noticed that The Atlantic has two articles on AC, for those with access."
- Mark Bergman
Read more »

Four Walls

Andrew Clements  |  Jun 24, 2026

"Thank you David, a double wow!"
- Andrew Clements
Read more »

Lessons Learned Along the Way

Dan Smith  |  Jun 25, 2026

"I read this and thought for a while about what I learned and where. Mostly I kept returning to things I did with coworkers. I thought about how I learned to operate as a member of a team, being friendly and respectful to all, helping in my own way to build a cohesive unit by the way I interacted with every individual, giving credit to the people who deserved it (especially when their contributions weren't recognized), and accepting responsibility for my own errors or failings. No man is an island, and my career relied on many, many people."
- Martin McCue
Read more »

Automatic Income stream? How important to you?

R Quinn  |  Jun 26, 2026

"The ability to select an annuity as a 401(k) option is in principle very positive. The devil is in the details. One issue with annuities in general is the prevalence of excessive (and prepaid) fees. Another issue is the discount rate/earnings expectations formula for calculating the payout. In the retail annuity world, both of these can abused to the point that they become predatory in nature. Where that occurs, they usually conspire to penalize the annuitant greatly. Only if these two negatives can be eliminated or made truly fair will the 401(k) annuity work."
- Martin McCue
Read more »

Luck, Stupidity, Automation and Inertia

Mark Crothers  |  Jun 27, 2026

"Sometimes what we call luck is, in reality, good preparation meeting opportunity."
- Mark Crothers
Read more »

Quiet Failure: The Stories We Tell about Money

Javier  |  Jun 28, 2026

"My approach to/attitude toward money is partly built from family origins and partly by faith convictions. My husband and I both grew up in very modest conditions—I’d say barely lower middle-class on both sides. I always had to work for what I wanted, and that gave me a strong work ethic that I have to this day. I have a strong need for security and have never wanted to take risks with our finances. I also wanted my kids to have enough and never feel like the “poorest kid in the neighborhood,” which is how I grew up. At the same time, because of our religious faith, we feel strongly about giving to charity and have always done that even in our young married years when finances were very tight."
- DrLefty
Read more »

When to Leave Your Portfolio Alone

Mark Gardner  |  Jun 26, 2026

"It does sometimes create tax liability - a cost to manage your risk. I try to be tax efficient with my rebalancing to the best of my ability. Yes, redirecting dividends is a good strategy as well to rebalance to your target band."
- Mark Gardner
Read more »

Luck, Stupidity, and Getting Ripped Off

Mark Crothers  |  Jun 28, 2026

"Mark, I have two separate accounts. Here's my over-simplified response: My IRA proceeds, when withdrawn, are counted as regular income. My investment account proceeds, when withdrawn, will have gains computed between the original purchase price and the sold price. I don't really plan to withdraw from this account. My best-laid plans are for the kids to inherit this account and benefit from the basis step-up that would happen when I croak."
- Jeff Bond
Read more »

Why can’t more people plan for their retirement future?

R Quinn  |  Jun 27, 2026

"Being called to active duty in 1968 changed my life. I never left the US those two years, but it did result in me going to college and using the GI bill for school money and living expenses while raising a family. Carpe Diem, but with an eye on the future."
- R Quinn
Read more »

Investment Wisdom

ArticleAdam M. Grossman  |  Jun 27, 2026

THE INVESTMENT WORLD is full of storytellers. And while these folks might be entertaining, they generally aren’t very helpful. There’s one category of stories, however, that I do think is useful: They’re what I might call investment fables. They’re apocryphal stories that likely aren’t real. But they’re helpful nonetheless because each carries a useful lesson. Here are some of the more popular ones. Consumer choice. In 1999, Richard Mille and a partner launched a company to make wristwatches. By 2001, the company was ready to begin taking orders for its first model, the RM 001. They knew they wanted to target a high-end market, so they chose the Financial Times for their first advertisement. According to legend, however, a graphic designer at the newspaper made a mistake. Instead of including the watch’s intended price of $13,500, an extra zero was added, making the price $135,000. At first, the company was furious at the newspaper for the mistake. But then the phone started to ring. The sky-high price turned out to be attractive to a certain class of buyers, and the initial run of the 001 quickly sold out. Today, Richard Mille sells several models priced in the hundreds of thousands, and some limited editions carry price tags north of $1 million. For its part, the company denies this story, maintaining that $135,000 was always the price it intended. But whether this story is true or not, it illustrates a concept in personal finance known as the Veblen effect. This occurs when the traditional shape of a demand curve gets turned upside down. Instead of consumers buying less of something as its price rises, when it comes to Veblen goods, consumers want to buy more as the price increases. Hermes handbags and Ferrari sportscars are other examples. What should we make of the Veblen effect? To answer this question, it’s worth examining its origins. Thorstein Veblen was a sociologist and economist. Perhaps owing to his background as the sixth of 12 children growing up in modest, rural surroundings, Veblen became broadly critical of capitalism. In his 1899 book, The Theory of the Leisure Class, he coined the term “conspicuous consumption.” And while Veblen didn’t explicitly see himself as a socialist, he leaned in that direction. He would have been bitterly critical of something like a Richard Mille watch. In making spending decisions, though, I wouldn’t worry too much about value judgments like this. The reality is that each of us is different, and we each value different things. That’s why I prefer to stick to the numbers. The most important thing, in my view, is simply to have a framework for your household finances, to ensure that your overall spending level is in line with your long-term plan. Other people’s subjective judgments, in my opinion, shouldn’t factor in. Investment gains. When it comes to investing, what’s the best strategy? According to lore, Fidelity Investments once looked into this question by examining the performance of all of the accounts on its platform. What did they find? The accounts that had done the best were those that had been abandoned due to the death of the owner, with the result that the investments hadn’t changed for years. There’s no evidence that this story is true, but it’s repeated frequently because it aligns with real data. In studies going back more than 25 years, research has shown that frequent trading is generally associated with worse investment results. This is true for both individual and professional investors. To be sure, some active managers have delivered impressive results. In the past, this has included the likes of Warren Buffett and James Simons. More recently, a 24-year-old named Leopold Aschenbrenner has delivered returns of more than 1,000% in the two years since he founded a hedge fund to bet on AI stocks. But cases like this are the exceptions that prove the rule. For most investors, most of the time, the data tell us that it’s better to trade less rather than more. Market tops. On a related note, there’s a tale about Joseph Kennedy—President Kennedy’s father. He was an active investor in the 1920s, but he said he realized it was time to sell when the fellow giving him a shoeshine one day started offering stock tips. What’s interesting about this story is that Kennedy did actually sell his stocks and even took a short position early in 1929, earning him a fortune when the market dropped. The shoeshine aspect of this story likely isn’t true. But it’s a favorite because it carries a useful message. Veteran investor Jeremy Grantham has often talked about the market signals he pays attention to. In addition to P/E ratios and other quantitative measures, he’s noted that he looks for “signs of craziness”—things like the GameStop mania in 2021. When the stock market begins to look more like a casino—and when we see YouTube influencers making stock calls from their gaming chairs—Grantham gets nervous. Intuitively, this does make sense, but it may not be very useful. Consider how the market has performed in recent years. After Grantham urged caution in 2021, the market did drop in 2022. But then it rose in 2023, 2024, 2025 and in the first half of 2026. So an investor who sold in 2021 would have missed out on significant gains. The bottom line: Just as the number of world-class stock-pickers is limited, so too is the number of tactical traders who have profited in the way Joe Kennedy did by getting out at just the right moment. Market forecasts. What’s a better way to think about the stock market? According to another Wall Street tale, J.P. Morgan was once asked what he thought the market would do over the coming year. His reply: “It will fluctuate.” There’s no evidence that Morgan ever actually said this, but in this case too, the story is popular because it sounds right. And in my view, this is exactly the right way to think about the stock market. At the end of the day, the only thing we can know for sure about the stock market is that it will either go up, go down or stay about the same. If we can structure our portfolios so we won’t be too negatively affected whichever way it goes, that, in my opinion, is the road to success.   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.
Read more »

Billy’s Certificate – 1937

W.D. Housley  |  Jun 24, 2026

"I always thought it a lot of money too."
- W.D. Housley
Read more »

Free Newsletter

Get Educated

Manifesto

Jun 28, 2026

NO. 15: WE SHOULD retire our debts before we retire from our job. Paying off debt cuts our living expenses, plus that debt is likely costing us more than we’re earning on our bonds.

think

Jun 29, 2026

OVERCONFIDENCE. Most of us believe we’re above-average drivers, smarter than most and better looking. This overconfidence is often a good thing—it can boost happiness and help our careers—but it’s terrible for investment results. As they try to beat the market, the overconfident trade too much, take unnecessary risk and buy costly investments.

humans

Jun 28, 2026

NO. 34: WE overestimate our investment results. Got folks boasting about their portfolio’s performance? They may be ignoring the losers they’ve sold, bragging based on a few winners and failing to compare to an appropriate index. They may also suffer from the endowment effect, believing their winners have performed better than they really have.

act

Jun 27, 2026

INVEST YOUR TAXABLE account thoughtfully. If you purchase the wrong investments in your taxable account, you may be reluctant to sell because you’ll trigger capital gains taxes. A good choice: low-cost U.S. and international total stock market index funds, which should be tax-efficient—and which shouldn’t ever lag far behind the market averages.

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Great debates

Manifesto

Jun 28, 2026

NO. 15: WE SHOULD retire our debts before we retire from our job. Paying off debt cuts our living expenses, plus that debt is likely costing us more than we’re earning on our bonds.

Spotlight: Investing

The Benefits of 401(k)

Greg Spears   |  Dec 19, 2025

I WAS HAPPY to read in The Wall Street Journal that 401(k) plans are “minting a generation of moderate millionaires.” I spent the last two decades of my professional life promoting 401(k) plans to workers, so the news felt like validation.
Moderate millionaires were loosely defined as coupon-clippers with seven figures. Sound familiar? It should to many HD readers. At Fidelity, a record 654,000 investors had a million or more in the 401(k) in the third quarter of 2025.

Read more »

Perfect Portfolio

Adam M. Grossman   |  Feb 7, 2026

WHAT’S THE BEST way to manage your investments?
A new book titled Your Perfect Portfolio helps answer this question. I spoke this week with the author, Cullen Roche.
Adam Grossman: The title is Your Perfect Portfolio with an emphasis on your. 
Cullen Roche: I was very intentional about saying “your perfect portfolio” because everyone’s different, everyone’s unique. So I wrote this book with the intent of studying lots of different strategies and styles.

Read more »

Managing Concentration Risk

Adam M. Grossman   |  Oct 4, 2025

LARRY ELLISON, THE 81-YEAR-OLD cofounder of Oracle Corporation, recently became the world’s wealthiest person.
Oracle, a software company, isn’t nearly as large as its peers. So how did Ellison’s net worth manage to surpass that of Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos and the founders of other much larger companies?
The answer is simple: In the nearly 50 years since Oracle’s founding, Ellison has almost never sold a share of his company’s stock. According to an analysis by Smart Insider,

Read more »

Inflation and Innovation

Adam M. Grossman   |  May 23, 2026

ECONOMICS IS KNOWN as “the dismal science,” and perhaps for good reason. Oftentimes it can be abstract and overly academic. There are, however, certain economic concepts that can be helpful to individual investors. Below are two that I see as especially important.
When it comes to the government’s ability to control—or least influence—the economy, there are two main levers. The first is fiscal policy, which refers to Congress’s (as well as state and local governments’) ability to levy taxes and to spend money. 

Read more »

Stock Tokens

Adam M. Grossman   |  Apr 11, 2026

RECENTLY, The Wall Street Journal ran a story about a new type of investment known as a digital stock token. For now, they aren’t available in the U.S., but they’re coming soon, so it’s worth taking a closer look.
What are stock tokens? At the most basic level, they’re a technology designed to make stock market investing quicker and easier than it is today. With tokens, trading won’t be limited to traditional business hours.

Read more »

Tax Efficiency

Bogdan Sheremeta   |  Apr 4, 2026

TAX EFFICIENT FUND placement is an often underrated topic. The goal of the tax efficient fund placement is to minimize taxes within your investments, and select the right account for those investments.

But how much does that actually matter?

Vanguard’s research finds that a thoughtful asset location strategy can add significantly more value than an equal location strategy. The value added typically ranges from 5 to 30 basis points of after-tax return, depending on circumstances (e.g.,

Read more »

Spotlight: Mcintosh

To the Dump

Kyle McIntosh   |  May 13, 2022

LOOKING FOR A FIELD trip that’ll inspire you? It may sound strange, but I suggest visiting your local landfill. I just went to mine to discard a rug. I returned with a commitment to change my behavior. The landfill was a surprisingly busy place. This was my first visit, so I was confused about where and how to drop off my rug. Dozens of more-seasoned visitors sped past me to drop off their loads. Seeing them made me ponder the ease with which people throw things away. I was surprised that a large portion of the items still appeared to be in working condition. Furniture and toys topped this list. I saw several bikes with air in their tires that could have been ridden home. I may have tried to snag a few lawn chairs if not for the “no scavenging” signs. Couldn't these have been recycled or passed on to someone else? Another section that caught my eye was the area for appliances. I had never considered where old appliances ended up. There were dozens of stainless-steel dishwashers and refrigerators. Again, many appeared to be in decent shape. I would guess that most were within a decade of their original purchase. Certainly, some appliances are donated or sold, but why not more? My landfill experience made me reflect on how wasteful we can be. I’ve since made three pledges to limit my personal waste. First, I’ll try to repair household items when they break. The internet makes it easy to find replacement parts, and it seems like there’s a YouTube video to guide every home repair. I’ve kept dishwashers and barbecues working through such efforts. Second, I will emphasize quality when making purchase decisions. Pinching pennies is tempting, but there’s truth to the adage that you “get what you…
Read more »

Value Machine

Kyle McIntosh   |  Oct 8, 2021

SEPTEMBER WAS A BIG anniversary month for us. In addition to celebrating our 19th wedding anniversary, we celebrated our third Pelo-versary. In the words of my mother-in-law, we are Peloton addicts. Ask us about our favorite instructors at your own risk. The general perception of Peloton—for which the entry price is now $1,495—is that it’s priced too high for most people. While I don’t believe that Peloton is “democratizing fitness,” as its CEO suggests, I do see solid value in Peloton bikes for households that’ll use them consistently. As early adopters of Peloton, we paid $2,200 for our bike, shoes and delivery. We also pay $39 per month to be “connected fitness users,” which allows us to take live and on-demand classes. Our membership covers all four members of our household, though my wife and I are the main users. In addition to bike classes, we have access to strength, yoga, stretching and bootcamp classes. How can a $2,200 bike with a $39 monthly fee be a good value? First, if we spread the $2,200 over the past 36 months and add the monthly fee, the monthly cost is $100. That average compares favorably to what we’d pay for two high-quality gym memberships here in California. Further, if we assume the bike will last two more years, the average monthly cost becomes $76 and the comparison favors Peloton even more. And, of course, the value equation is even better for those buying at today’s lower price point. Another way I look at value is based on cost per workout. Since 2018, between my wife and me, we’ve completed almost 3,000 classes. As we usually complete two or three classes during each workout session, we’ve done about 1,200 workouts—which usually last between 45 and 60 minutes—in the past three years. This…
Read more »

Buckeye Burglar

Kyle McIntosh   |  Nov 8, 2021

“DEAR OHIOAN: According to our records, you have applied for and/or received pandemic unemployment benefits.” As I haven’t been to Ohio in more than 20 years, I knew something was amiss. It was highly likely I was the victim of identify fraud. After some investigation, I found out someone had been receiving unemployment benefits in my name since March 2021. I’m hardly the only person victimized by this fraud. In a recent report, Ohio Auditor Keith Faber estimated that $3.8 billion in fraudulent unemployment payments and overpayments had been made since March 2020. The fraud has been so widespread that claims have been made in the names Ohio’s governor and lieutenant governor. To prevent further fraud, I reported the matter to the state of Ohio. Initially, I was skittish about filing the fraud report online because I had to provide my Social Security number, but I figured the online system was the safest way to report the fraud—and certainly better than giving my personal information over the phone, which had backfired on me before. Next, I reviewed my credit report to ensure that no one had parlayed my personal information into an even bigger fraud. Fortunately, there was no unusual credit activity. But because someone obviously had my personal information, I decided I’d better monitor my credit activity more closely. I chatted with a colleague about available services, and ended up selecting the Complete ID service offered by Costco. Costco partners with Experian to provide members with credit monitoring, identity protection and restoration services, which now costs me $8.99 a month. I also pay another $2.99 a month to have my two children’s information monitored.
Read more »

Hotels Over Coffee

Kyle McIntosh   |  Aug 30, 2021

WHEN I MATCHED UP our monthly spending with the terms of the Starbucks Rewards Visa card, I calculated that I could potentially get a free drip coffee every day of the year. Given the proliferation of Starbucks in our Los Angeles suburb—including one within 400 yards of my office—it’s tempting to cover my caffeination by swiping my credit card. After some deliberation, however, I’m going to focus instead on amassing travel rewards points. For the past five years, I’ve used the Marriott Rewards credit card, which gives me at least one hotel point for each dollar I spend. The key reason I like this card: With my spending, I’m effectively forcing myself to save for a vacation. While a daily Starbucks coffee would be nice, I can see this reward getting old after a few weeks. I treat myself to Starbucks once or twice per week. A daily dose may be too much. I view it as more prudent to save for a big experience a few times each year rather than focus on getting my daily coffee comped. Another solid feature of the Marriott card: The effective rewards rate compares well to the teaser rates advertised by cash-back cards. Based on our spending level, I place the value for the free nights we earn at about 1.7% of our total spending. While that’s lower than the 2% that Katie Ledecky was advertising during the Olympics, we have a lot more fun with our free hotel nights than we’d get from a periodic credit on our billing statement. An additional benefit I’ve been impressed by—and one not to be taken lightly when evaluating cards—is that it’s been easy to use our hotel points. The rewards points post soon after the dollars are spent, and we’ve never had an issue getting…
Read more »

Worth a Listen

Kyle McIntosh   |  Jun 2, 2022

MIKE ZACCARDI recently wrote about his favorite podcasts. His list was excellent, but it didn’t include my own favorite, which is Focus on Facts by Eric Sussman. One of the most popular professors at the University of California at Los Angeles’s Anderson School of Management, Sussman delivered a series of riveting podcasts in the first half of 2021. Given its short run, it’s no surprise that Mike missed the series. But I recommend that Mike—along with other HumbleDollar readers—go to Sussman’s podcast archives to hear his witty insights on the financial markets. Podcasts I enjoyed include those focusing on the market action behind GameStop’s ascent; financial fraud at Wirecard, the insolvent payments processor that some call Germany’s Enron; and the state of housing in America. But my favorite Focus on Facts episode—and the one I’ve used in teaching a college course about emerging technologies—covers cryptocurrencies. For anyone who wants to learn how cryptocurrencies work, or is considering investing, it’s “must listen” material. Sussman provides practical examples of how cryptocurrencies work, and contrasts them with government-issued currencies. He then gets to the oft-debated question of whether to invest. Sussman is outspoken that cryptocurrencies aren’t a necessary holding in an investment portfolio. As I relistened to this year-old podcast for the fourth or fifth time, I was struck by how pertinent his message is today, given the recent freefall in cryptocurrencies. Here are three reasons that Sussman sees them as purely speculative: Cryptocurrencies are too volatile to become broadly accepted mediums of exchange. Cryptocurrencies aren’t needed because we already have reliable and effective ways to transmit funds globally. There is a massive—and unsustainable—environmental cost to mining cryptocurrencies. If this sounds intriguing, listen to his entire podcast. And be sure to check out some of the other Focus on Facts episodes. If enough…
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Quality or Quantity?

Kyle Mcintosh   |  Jul 7, 2024

Every three years or so, I can't resist the temptation to buy disposable razors at Costco. Given the disposables are about $1 each, they are about a third of the price of buying razor cartridges. About a week into the purchase, however, I am reminded why I prefer the cartridges. While more expensive, the cartridges provide a better shave and they last about 3 times as long. While the initial impression I get is that I am getting a bargain, I sacrifice quality and at best I am breakeven on the transaction. What examples do you have on times when a focus on price was more costly than if you'd ponied up for a better quality product in the first place?
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