RDQ's recent post about seniors paying taxes reminded me that presently only 53% of Americans pay federal income tax.  Many of the remaining 47% are net recipients of money from the treasury.  We all know that everyone working pays payroll taxes, but should everyone pay income tax? On the Yea side, having all citizens paying income tax would give everyone "skin in the game" when it comes to voting on tax policy and expenditures.  As it is, it is very easy to see why the 53% would ask why the 47% gets to vote on how much the 53% is taxed and where those funds go.  If the percentages flip just a little more there will be more non-payors than payors, creating a potentially perverse situation. On the Nea side, one must wonder if we're asking for blood from a turnip?  As it is, if the 47% are net zero or net takers and are barely making ends meet as it is, where does this tax money come from?

I see this new Forum as akin to the Bogleheads forum.  I have some problems with that site, and I (obviously) like this one better.  But one very interesting post I saw related to retirees from 2000. The idea is that, theoretically, 2000 was just about the "worst time" someone could retire because it was shortly before the 9/11/2001 drop in stocks, followed by the 2008-09 plunge. As a mid-career investor, I'd be interested to hear how retirees from that time period fared.

I'm betting that a large number of fellow HumbleDollarians have never heard of a podcast called Down the Middle (Down the Middle Archives | Creative Planning).  It is a pod hosted by our fearless founder Jonathan Clements and co-hosted by Peter Mallouk of Creative Planning. You can find it on Apple or anywhere podcasts are found. It's released only once a month at the beginning of the month. It's one of the pods I most look forward to.  Each episode is only about 10 or 15 minutes long, so the good news is if you've never heard of it, you can catch up on a year's worth of episodes in little time. In the past, Jonathan has been reluctant to promote (or allow promotion) of this pod, but I'm hoping he'll let this one through. I find the content very edifying, and I think it's great to hear his voice.  If you're into podcasts, check it out.

FOURTEEN YEARS AGO, my father-in-law was diagnosed with a blood cancer—multiple myeloma—and given five years to live. Ever since, he’s been battling it like a warrior. But he’s dying now, and he won’t be around much longer. My father-in-law grew up without money to Depression-era parents. He earned his way into a prestigious college, and eventually received a PhD in chemical engineering. He had an impressive career as an engineer with a large chemical company in the Midwest. He was an internationally recognized expert in his field. Like most engineers, he was a tinkerer. He liked to figure out how things worked. As a do-it-yourself investor, he did well in the stock markets of the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s. He retired early, with a paid-off house and a handsome nest egg. And that was after putting two kids through college, including my future wife. As for me, I was born to be wealthy. But by some galactic mistake, my family had little money, but—thankfully—a strong work ethic. I went to college by borrowing the full amount for tuition, room and board. After graduating, I had little desire to repay my loans. I also discovered that all the good political scientist jobs had already been taken. I decided the only sensible thing to do was to go to law school—and borrow twice as much for that degree. I knew very little about money when I landed my first job as a lawyer. My impression of finance was that it was a complicated subject best left to the experts. I never dreamed of becoming a do-it-yourself investor. I started investing in my firm’s 401(k) plan at age 27. That happened to be when the market peaked just before the Great Recession. Two years later, the market had bottomed out. By then I had moved to another firm, and was investing modest sums in that firm’s 401(k). I’m sure I’d heard of a Roth IRA, but had no actual idea what it was, let alone how or why to invest in one. In 2009, just as the financial world was reeling from the market crash, my father-in-law suggested that I roll my old 401(k) into a Roth IRA. That way, I’d pay the conversion tax bill while in a low bracket, because I was still early in my career. He encouraged me to open an account at Vanguard Group and invest in its Small-Cap Index Fund (symbol: VSMAX). Little did I know that my adventure in personal finance had just begun. On visits to the in-laws’ house, the reading material consisted of The Wall Street Journal, especially the weekend editions. Discussions often turned to personal finance, including investing ideas and themes. As with most things, when you become interested in a topic, you end up learning a lot. [xyz-ihs snippet="Mobile-Subscribe"] Reading the Journal led me to online articles. Which led to books and blogs on finance, and eventually hours per week of podcasts. Soon enough, I was reading John Bogle and Burton Malkiel. I formed the belief that, generally speaking, broad market index funds were the way to go. My father-in-law, always the tinkerer and maverick, had more of a flair for actively managed funds. He’d certainly earned the right to select his own investments. You can’t argue with success. Over the years, we’d trade articles and ideas. He’d quietly cheer on my wife and me as we hit milestones in our own financial journey. Looking back, I’m surprised at how far I’ve come in my knowledge of personal finance. It’s not a very difficult topic to learn. Yet many people find it daunting, and I was one of them. I was fortunate to have encouragement from a mentor, one who had made his own way in the world. He approached every topic as one that, with enough effort, he could master. I certainly learned a lot from my father-in-law over the years, but I’ll always think of personal finance as the one thing we really bonded over. I don’t think I’d ever have learned to love it without his influence. After someone is gone, it’s nice to share with others what that person meant to you. But it’s even better to do so while he or she is still alive. I hope they have The Wall Street Journal in Heaven. If they do, please save the weekend business section for me for when I get there. Licensed in both Ohio and Kentucky, Ben Rodriguez practices real estate law in Cincinnati, where he lives with his wife and daughters. Since 2009, Ben's made a hobby out of personal finance by reading books and articles on the subject, and also listening to podcasts. Check out his earlier articles. [xyz-ihs snippet="Donate"]

This may sound crazy to most readers here, but as a 45 year-old, until 2022 I had never lived in, let along invested in, a rising interest rate environment. This is, of course, owing to the enduring bond bull market from 1981-2022 (RIP).  Obviously, we all know rates rose in 2022 and have held steady for a bit.  They are now mostly in the 4% range depending on duration. As a young investor in the 2010s and early 20s, I didn't find bond interest rates in the sub-3%, sometimes sub-2% range to be a compelling investment compared to stocks. Could now be the time to go long in bonds?  Why or why not?

ONE OF MY FAVORITE pastimes is listening to podcasts. I subscribe to about 20—half of them related to finance. One series, produced by a large Wall Street investment house, features three-to-five-minute episodes. They’re usually about market trends or economic analysis. Truthfully, they aren’t among my favorite podcasts. But I like their short length when I don’t have time for a 30- or 60-minute episode. On a recent podcast, listeners were told that the firm’s economists believe that U.S. stocks will decline 5% in the next six months. I chuckled at the hubris of such a prediction. How could something like that be known with such specificity? What else did they know that they weren’t telling us? Maybe I should believe them. After all, it is a well-known Wall Street firm. On the other hand, if the firm possessed this kind of clairvoyance, wouldn’t it be bigger than Vanguard Group, Amazon and Apple combined? And why would the folks there give away such knowledge for free? Something tells me that their specific predictions in the past must not have panned out. I’ve heard it said that the only people who can always be wrong and keep their jobs are meteorologists and economists. I have yet to meet anyone who can predict the direction of the markets with any accuracy. My plan: Assume that I won’t be able to, either. I stay invested and keep contributing every month to meet my goals, no matter what the market’s doing.