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COMMENTS FROM READERS are one of HumbleDollar’s greatest strengths. Just finished perusing an article? If you don’t scan the comments posted below, you’re often missing out on some savvy financial insights and eye-opening personal stories.
With an eye to tapping into this strength, I launched the Voices section two years ago. My hope: The questions—now 133 in total—would offer a way to organize readers’ collective wisdom and become a go-to resource for those seeking help on a particular financial topic.
To be honest, the Voices questions haven’t garnered as much reader participation as I’d hoped. Still, I find the answers fascinating and, fingers crossed, perhaps the section will eventually catch fire with readers. Meanwhile, here—in order—are the nine questions that have so far generated the most responses:
1. What’s the best financial book you’ve ever read? Among the 45 comments, there’s a wide array of books and authors listed. But perhaps the most mentioned are The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas Stanley and William Danko, John Bogle’s books, Burton Malkiel’s A Random Walk Down Wall Street and William Bernstein’s books.
Incidentally, Bill has a new edition of The Four Pillars of Investing coming out in July. I had the privilege of writing the foreword. Bill also contributed an essay to My Money Journey, the HumbleDollar book that’ll be published later this month.
2. What percentage of a stock portfolio should be invested abroad? This has long been a raging debate among investors, and the responses reflect that, with folks suggesting foreign-stock allocations ranging from 0% to 50%. After strong U.S. stock returns over the past decade, maybe it isn’t surprising that many folks are content to have no money invested abroad. But if foreign markets have the edge in the decade ahead, will they feel differently? I, for one, would be happier. As I’ve mentioned before, my single biggest fund holding is Vanguard Total World Stock Index Fund (symbol: VTWAX), which has 41% allocated to foreign markets.
3. What’s your favorite financial quote? This question generated a slew of entertaining and thought-provoking responses. Among those offered, my favorite—given today’s inflation—originated with comedian Henny Youngman: “Americans are getting stronger. Twenty years ago, it took two people to carry $10 worth of groceries. Today, a five-year-old can do it.”
4. What costs are you most loath to pay? While some readers cited significant costs—financial advisory fees, car repairs, insurance premiums—it seems it’s small expenses that rankle the most, especially those unexpected fees that get tacked on to things like car rental costs, cable bills, concert tickets and hotel bills.
5. When does it make sense to buy the extended warranty, if ever? A majority of readers advised against ever paying for the warranty. Still, there were a few intriguing exceptions, notably phones and laptops bought for children.
6. What stock would you happily hold for the next 10 years? The enthusiasm for Apple and Berkshire Hathaway isn’t terribly surprising. Instead, I’d give kudos to the folks who mentioned Waste Management. As one reader wrote, “Everyone has trash. It’s Amazon proof. It has multiple moats. Pays a dividend. Essentially recession proof.”
7. What aspect of the tax code do you hate the most? So far, there have been 26 responses to this question and—amazingly—there’s almost no overlap among the answers. If folks can find so many different things to hate, doesn’t that tell us that the U.S. tax code is indeed an abomination?
8. What’s your No. 1 goal for retirement? The most amusing answer: “To become a major actuarial loss for my employer’s pension fund and enjoy every minute of it.” That, of course, was posted by the inimitable Dick Quinn.
9. What are the smartest financial moves you’ve ever made? Many folks wrote about their good savings habits. But I was also struck by the number of answers that mentioned homeownership. Maybe that reflects the nature of real estate: It’s a big, undiversified bet and—when it works out—it often works out very well.
Meanwhile, with just three responses, the least answered question is this one: What should you look for when buying a home? The three answers are all helpful. But come on, people, I’ve got to imagine there’s more to be said on this topic.
What Voices questions would you like to see asked? That, too, is among the 133 questions. You can post your suggestions here. Not sure how to comment? Check out this page.
Jonathan Clements is the founder and editor of HumbleDollar. Follow him on Twitter @ClementsMoney and on Facebook, and check out his earlier articles.
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Just to add an anecdote to Item 9. When we first married, we moved into this inventory home in a community that my friends and families considered “semi-ghetto”. We maintained and upkept this first home for 10 years and then during sub-prime debacle of 2008, we found another home in an upscale neighborhood. We also decided to become a landlord for the first property. Today, that rental property has given us such a ROI that I consider a blessing.
Jonathan, When I read the daily articles, I always scan the main page to read the other headlines: Get Educated; Money Guide; Voices and Second Look. I don’t want to miss a thing.
Unfortunately, I didn’t find this website until a few years ago. What a shame I didn’t know about it earlier.
WOW! I now have even another bookmark in my browser. Thank YOU Jonathan!
I’m interested to hear opinions on “term and invest.” A hotly debated topic in the financial community.
Thanks for the suggestion!
Favorite quote: “This time is different”
Thanks for the comment. As I mentioned in response to other readers below, you might also want to post your response on the Voices page, where it’s more likely to be useful to readers in future:
https://humbledollar.com/voices/whats-your-favorite-financial-quote/
Personal finance guru Clark Howard gave a big shout out to HumbleDollar this week when talking about books on investing. He urged viewers to subscribe and called Jonathan a brilliant financial writer who writes in a language we can all grasp!
Clark is a great person. I’ve worked with him on his Habitat for Humanity projects.
Jonathan…re Voices—may not command enough attention. I vote for Speak Up or Sound Off.
Random Walk Down Wall Street-best book any investor should read
Common Sense Investing-best primer I have seen, an 1 hour read
Thanks for the comment. You might also want to post your response on the Voices page, where it’s more likely to be useful to readers in future:
https://humbledollar.com/voices/whats-the-best-financial-book-youve-ever-read/
A clickable “Voices” header on the home page could be useful, one that would take the reader to the all the Voices topics. Only three Voices pieces show up on my main page at any one time. Readers may not know that refreshing the home page will bring up more.
Another thought is to place the HD Search feature near the top of the home page. Where it is now is easy to miss. Sortable Search returns would be nice, too (most recent, most relevant, keyword, by HD section, etc). A broad search term such as “Medicare” returns many pages of results.
Love the HD site overall – thank you!
Thanks for the comment. Voices is one of the seven tabs on the navigation at the top of the homepage. Click on that and you’re brought to a page with all 133 Voices questions.
Isn’t it amazing how many people do not “see” what is right in front of their noses? Irony seems to escape many of them as well.
Fun recap, Jonathan. And useful, too. Well done.
Re the meager response to your homebuying question, perhaps it’s too unspecific to trigger much of a response. Reminds me of those “top five states” lists – there are some consistencies, especially for ones aimed at retirees (low costs, good access to quality health care). But mostly the criteria are a mix of things decided at the whim of the writer.
So, what should you look for when buying a home? Well, it depends.
I mean – the list is endless!
So really, the only universally correct advice I’ve ever heard – and it continues to stand the test of time – is location, location, and location are the three most important things to consider when buying a home. 🙂
Thanks for the comment. You might also want to post your response on the Voices page, where it’s more likely to be useful to readers in future:
https://humbledollar.com/voices/what-should-you-look-for-when-buying-a-home/
Hands down, the best financial book out there is “The Only Investment Guide You Will Ever Need” by Andrew Tobias. It’s short, sweet and right on target.
Thanks for the comment. You might also want to post your response on the Voices page, where it’s more likely to be useful to readers in future:
https://humbledollar.com/voices/whats-the-best-financial-book-youve-ever-read/
Thanks for the reminder of all the interesting and useful content in the Voices section. I have to admit I’m a bit jealous of Dick Quinn’s brilliant response to #8. It’s one of those “I wish I’d said that” kind of responses.
Forget the quote. I wish I had Dick Quinn’s pension.
Now that’s a great quote!!
It’s a good line, but I can’t identify with it. I’m entirely dependent on my own savings in retirement. I’ll get a raise soon, because I begin Social Security for my 70th birthday in June.
As a longtime reader of HumbleDollar articles, I was not aware of Voices section until now.
Maybe it’s because others find it comment system difficult to use, like I do.
In fairness, I too found the HD user interphase for posting comments to be a bit challenging early on: so many various options on how to comment, and none seemed to ever work for me. The Disqus sign-in option did eventually work…but just once. Mac OS kept putting me in a “lather, rinse, repeat” cycle, requiring a new login for each comment I attempted.
A switch of web browsers from Safari to Google Chrome seemed to resolve this persistent comments login issue.
I have no trouble logging in with WordPress, but the site has a very annoying habit of logging me off (I use Firefox). I also prefer comments sorted oldest first, but I cope.
Jonathan – may I offer some constructive feedback? Perhaps the title Voices is a bit too obscure for this valuable HD feature. Rebranding “Voices” with a name that is more attention-grabbing could garner more eyeballs and reader participation.
I’ll throw my vote behind Vox Populi. Those who didn’t study Latin in HS will likely be intrigued by the title alone to click on the link out of curiosity…”wow, what the heck does that mean! “.
From my own perspective, I always assumed the “Voices” link found within the HD banner at the top of your website was merely a URL link to the bios of various HD contributors. I stumbled into the content found in Voices quite by accident a year or so back. I think it was a result of a “back-link” that was embedded inside a contributor’s posting.
Greater backlinks to the Voices content (if applicable) are another idle thought. In truth, the actual exercise of indexing the massive trove of content found within Voices may prove a Herculean task, and a bit like herding cats given the dynamic nature of reader postings. It’s nothing to be attempted by a managing editor who’s looking to reduce his workload in retirement. Perhaps this would be a pet project best tackled by a summer college intern or a volunteer in retirement.
Thanks for the suggestions. I must confess, I have conflicting reactions to readers’ lack of awareness of the Voices section. On the one hand, I usually feature three Voices questions in every Saturday newsletter and, at any given moment, three Voices questions and their answers appear on the homepage, so I struggle to grasp how readers could be unaware of the section. On the other hand, the customer — meaning the reader — is always right and thus I must be doing something wrong.
If you’re considering changing the title, I suggest the following:
excellent suggestion
I’ve always liked the three questions that pop up at the bottom of your introduction, but I didn’t actually get the “branding” of that segment as “Voices” until I read this. I just thought of it as a recurring invitation to comment on what you saw as the most elementary questions we all face.
In the time I have been following and interacting with you, I’ve heard you stress that people are interested in conversations more than they are in getting their questions answered. I’ve found that true in matters of faith as well. When I was exploring blogging, I found it quite difficult to arrange a site so that the best comments float to the top. Amazon seems to have figured it out, but I didn’t.
The least answered question is the one I feel the most attached to. It’s been said before “Location, location, location” and that to me can’t be said enough. A house can be changed, remodeled, even torn down and rebuilt but there are some things that can’t be changed. I love where I live except for one thing; there’s a rifle range within earshot. It’s a constant reminder that there’s violence in the world. On the positive side, I can walk out my back gate and literally walk for miles in the woods (public land) without crossing any roads. I (and my neighbors) have trees. You really can’t plant 50-100 year old trees that give shade in the summer. Sure there are leaves to clean in the fall but I wouldn’t have it anyother way. I also live on a court (or as some call it, a cul-de-sac). Great to not have thru traffic. And finally, I have an acre to cultivate as I please. I chuckle at the HGTV shows where people are looking for things like crown molding; a real easy thing to add even if you can’t do it yourself.
Buying a house is a little like marriage. While with marriage you are also marrying the relatives, in home buying you are also buying the neighbors. So one must be careful. (That, incidentally, is often the biggest risk in spending big bucks on waterfront property – among others, you may get partiers who are up all hours of the night, or people whose place deserves an episode of Junkyard Empire.)
I formerly lived within earshot of a gunrange. I never thought of violence when I heard those pops. It reminded me of happy times when my former boss taught me how to shoot. For many, going to the range “ranges” from being a hobby to a step in preparedness. Archery ranges, same idea. My former boss is a deer hunter, too. Yes, I know, that equates to two strikes to many folks these days.
I can relate to the love of your forested-lands. There is nothing better in my world than drinking a glass of wine on my screen porch on a still summer night and hearing the symphony of owls, bullfrogs, cicadas, and other creatures.
Trying to figure out down votes for this comment…?
Jonathan,
Thanks for describing the “Voices” section and its content. I have been one of your avid followers since your WSJ days and a Humble Dollar reader for many years. I was not aware of the volume of useful information in the Voices section. I usually only select and read the links to articles in the emailed newsletter that likely pertain to me. Thanks for compiling the comments by subject matter and leading me to a wealth of knowledge