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Leverage

Catherine  |  Jun 19, 2026

"Completely agree. We have a sizable allocation in a 401(k) stable value fund but that’s definitely not what I consider ready cash.  "
- Michael1
Read more »

Close to Everything I Need

ArticleDennis Friedman  |  Jun 20, 2026

I DON’T HAVE MANY regrets in life. But there is one conversation with my mother that I wish I had never had. It was about moving her into an assisted living facility. She was in her 90s, and I thought it would be best for both of us. My mother would receive better care, and I could take much-needed breaks. She could even keep her house and spend time there when I was with her. It seemed like a middle-of-the-road approach to providing care. I thought it was a win-win situation for both of us. But I couldn't convince my mother to leave the home she had lived in for 42 years. She would ask me questions like, “How far my bed would be from the front door?” I was beginning to understand that she was afraid of moving to an unfamiliar place. It was simply too much to ask of her.  About six weeks later, my mother had a heart attack. She passed away a week afterward in a rehabilitation facility after being discharged from the hospital. Looking back, I sometimes wonder if our discussions about assisted living were harder on her than I realized. It's something I've thought about many times since. After reaching age 75 and coming closer to the possibility of needing more care myself, I now have a better understanding of why my mother wanted to age in place. She valued the familiarity and emotional comfort of her home. She knew exactly how far her bed was from the front door. She maintained relationships with neighbors who would stop by to chat and share a glass of wine. She also knew the people at the stores and restaurants she visited regularly. A few of them even attended her funeral. All of her doctors were nearby. She would often say, "I'm close to everything I need." Recently, when I was experiencing problems with my eyesight, I've felt more vulnerable. One day, while having lunch with my wife, I brought up the topic of how we might receive care in our later years. As soon as I mentioned assisted living, Rachel grew quiet and a sad look came over her face. I've seen that look before. At that moment, I realized I was hearing the same concern I had heard from my mother years earlier. They were thinking about leaving behind a familiar life and moving to a place where everything would be different. My wife and my mother are not alone. About three-quarters of Americans over age 50 say they want to remain in their current homes as they age. I count myself among them. Part of our long-term care planning is an effort to preserve the life we've built here for as long as possible. It's not an easy decision because none of us knows what our future health will look like. Aging in place offers advantages, but it also involves risks. If we need only limited assistance, staying in our home could be significantly less expensive than moving to a senior living community, especially since our mortgage is paid off. We can purchase only the services we need—housekeeping, meal delivery, transportation, or occasional home health care—and adjust that support as circumstances change. At the same time, we retain ownership of our home and any future appreciation in its value. That equity remains available if we eventually need more extensive care. Of course, there is no guarantee that our health will cooperate. Serious illnesses or cognitive decline could create care needs that are difficult or expensive to manage at home. That's one reason some people choose a continuing care retirement community (CCRC), which offers a continuum of care and contracts that can provide insurance-like protection against future long-term care costs. For us, the decision comes down to a tradeoff: Do we value maximum independence and flexibility today, or do we value having a built-in care system already in place for the future? For now, we're taking a hybrid approach. We plan to remain in our home through our 70s and early 80s. We're in reasonably good health, and my eyesight is no longer a major issue. We are planning to invest in accessibility improvements, including a stair lift to our upstairs master bedroom, grab bars in the bathrooms, and brighter lighting. Our house already has a walk-in shower, doorways and hallways wide enough for a walker, and space for a caregiver if one is ever needed. In addition, we’re setting aside a dedicated reserve of 20% of our investment portfolio to help cover future care needs. Most people do not spend years in a nursing home. As a result, we're not trying to fund the most expensive long-term-care scenario imaginable. Instead, we're setting aside enough money to cover the most likely care needs without significantly affecting our lifestyle. If we encounter a more extreme situation, we still have the remainder of our portfolio and the equity in our home available. That’s just basic financial planning: managing risk to a comfortable level instead of spending a fortune to eliminate it completely. We'll reevaluate our situation every few years and remain open to moving to a CCRC or assisted living community if health, mobility, or caregiving needs increase significantly. There may come a day when Rachel and I decide that a CCRC or assisted living community is the right choice. None of us can predict the future, and flexibility has value. But I now understand something I didn't fully appreciate when my mother was alive. A home is more than a place to live. It is a collection of routines, relationships, memories, and comforts that become increasingly important as we grow older. My mother knew that instinctively. She wasn't being stubborn. She was protecting a life she loved and a sense of independence that mattered deeply to her. When she told me she was close to everything she needed, she wasn't talking about stores, restaurants, or doctors. She was talking about belonging. It took me years to understand what she meant. If I had understood it sooner, our conversations about assisted living might have been very different.   Dennis Friedman retired from Boeing Satellite Systems after a 30-year career in manufacturing. Born in Ohio, Dennis is a California transplant with a bachelor’s degree in history and an MBA. A self-described “humble investor,” he likes reading historical novels and about personal finance. Follow Dennis on X @DMFrie and check out his earlier articles
Read more »

Pricing the Future

ArticleAdam M. Grossman  |  Jun 20, 2026

THE WAY INVESTORS think about the stock market may be entirely wrong. Intuition tells us, and academic research confirms, that a company’s stock price should respond to important news and information. When a company announces a new product, for example, its stock should go up. And when results fall short of expectations, it should decline.  But a new paper titled “The Inefficient Pricing of News” calls this idea into question. The authors found that investors respond much more slowly and inconsistently to market news than previously thought. In some cases, it took a year or more for a stock price to respond.  Why would that be the case? Tony Fadell is often referred to as “the father of the iPod.” For years, he worked side-by-side with Steve Jobs, first developing the iPod, then the iPhone. In a recent interview, Fadell shared details of what the product development process looked like inside Apple, and how the reality on the inside often differed from the way it appeared on the outside. Fadell’s comments can help us understand why stock prices often miss the mark. The nature of competition. Investors, Fadell argued, often have a one-dimensional understanding of companies. As an example, he told the story of the development of the iPhone. When it was first released, many observers dismissed it as an overpriced toy. Unlike the BlackBerry, the dominant mobile device for corporate users at the time, the first iPhone lacked key security features and didn’t have a physical keyboard. As a result, it was perceived as a niche product with narrow appeal. Fadell explained, though, that Apple looked at the market differently. Yes, BlackBerry had a very high market share among business users, but it had only a small share of the overall mobile phone market—just 1% or 2%. Apple was interested in the rest of the market: “What about the other 98% of the people? What would they want?” That was the question Apple was asking internally. Observers on the outside, though, underestimated the iPhone’s potential because they assumed they understood Apple’s competitive objectives. The definition of success. Investors often make another mistake, Fadell said. They use the wrong yardstick in measuring successes and failures. He notes that early versions of both the iPod and the iPhone had significant shortcomings. The first iPod worked only with Apple computers. The first iPhone was underpowered and wasn’t open to outside app developers. The App Store didn’t debut until a year after the iPhone’s release. For all these reasons, early critics continued to underestimate the iPhone’s potential even as it gained market share. But inside Apple, the potential was clear. They knew that all of the core components would get better each year and that cell phone networks would get faster. Fadell, who also invented the Nest thermostat, made this observation: “Everything needs three generations. I’ve never seen anyone get it right the first time.” Wall Street, however, tends to not be that patient, and that can lead to a disconnect between perception and reality in stock prices. Fadell notes that even when a product fails, it can be valuable. Apple learned a lot from the Newton, its first attempt at a mobile device. Similarly, Amazon had a short-lived mobile phone called the Fire. From the outside it was deemed a costly mistake, but Jeff Bezos saw it differently. “You can’t, for one minute, feel bad,” he said. The voice recognition technology Amazon developed for the Fire ultimately turned into Alexa. The bottom line: Wall Street’s obsession with quarterly results can cause investors to use the wrong scorecard, and that’s another reason stock prices can move in the wrong direction. The timeline to profits. Fadell noted that the first iPhone was unprofitable but that this wasn’t a concern. Because sales were increasing, Apple would be able to lower production costs. Together with technology advances, management knew that the product would eventually yield profit. “You make the product, you fix the product, then you fix the business,” Fadell explained. Companies pursuing a new idea are often underestimated because they’re judged prematurely. Consider Amazon. It was unprofitable for almost 10 years after its founding. Why? During that decade, the company was growing quickly, but it reinvested as much as it could into warehouses. The result is that it can now deliver packages to many customers the same day. That may have been Jeff Bezos’s vision from early on, but outside observers couldn’t see the roadmap he had in his desk drawer, and for that reason, Amazon was regularly criticized for its lack of profits. The most notable misjudgment: In 1999, Barron’s magazine ran a cover story with the headline “Amazon.bomb.” How did Barron’s editors get it wrong? They had no idea where the company was headed, and for competitive reasons, Bezos certainly wasn’t going to tip his hand. This pattern repeats frequently, and it’s a key reason why stock prices often end up out of line with a company’s true long-term value. "All overnight success takes about 10 years,” Bezos later commented. Timeline to bankruptcy. Sometimes, Wall Street makes the opposite mistake, failing to see when a company is headed into decline. The most famous example in this category may be Kodak, which was the dominant maker of film for traditional cameras. Remarkably, it was a Kodak engineer who invented the first digital camera all the way back in the 1970s. But recognizing the threat it represented, the company shelved the project. Over the course of the 1980s and 1990s, other companies introduced digital cameras, with the result that, between 1990 and 1997, Kodak’s revenue dropped almost 25%. And yet, throughout that period, its stock kept rising, hitting an all-time high in 1997. Investors just couldn’t appreciate the reality of what was happening. But then, just five years later, Kodak filed for bankruptcy. In general, and on average, stock prices do reflect the value of public companies. But for all the reasons Fadell cites, that relationship is often imperfect. This is a fundamental reason why, in my view, investors are best served by choosing diversified index funds rather than trying to pick individual stocks.   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 »

How financially illiterate are Americans?

R Quinn  |  Jun 19, 2026

"I began the private practice of medicine, and had never taken a course in business. From reading the masters including Jonathan, I learned the value of investing in businesses, via stocks. Many attributed Buffett's success to the fact that he was a businessman who excelled at evaluating businesses and discerning their true long term value. I suspect there are many who like myself, had neither interest, experience or education in business who suddenly found themselves in the curious position of needing to assume responsibility for planning their long term financial future. Ironically, now I had a desire to learn a bit about business! Of course people like myself, who lack Buffett's expertise are fortunate to have low cost index funds and widely available information on how to invest successfully. Like that found on Humbler Dollar. Many may prefer for various reasons to hire an advisor, but they will still profit from learning about the topic to better understand and appreciate what the advisor is doing, and what it is exactly that they are paying for. I am a DIYer myself, but if my wife survives me, she will hire an advisor. Which is fine. I can't answer the question you posed, but my guess is the reasons are varied. Maybe for some, perhaps a combination of denial, confirmation bias, and wishful thinking?"
- Jack Hannam
Read more »

What Addiction Couldn’t Take: My Sister’s Story

Andrew Clements  |  Jun 17, 2026

"Thank you so much for the condolences. Yes it has been a difficult year but we need to make it through, one has to."
- Andrew Clements
Read more »

They’re Right, I’m Wrong, Sort Of

Dan Smith  |  Feb 2, 2025

"Food for thought. It took from 1930 to 1946 before the stock market was back to its 1929 level! So all your money in stocks in 1929 and a 1930 retirement date would have put you squarely behind the 8 ball!"
- john deam
Read more »

What’s in your portfolio ?

Larry  |  Jun 12, 2026

"75 years old. 76% in equities (large % in US) 8% short term bonds (VUSB), and 16% VG money market. We have a mixture of 8 ETFs and 7 long held stocks. We have no pension and each have SS. Fortunately the portfolio is very large so the cash position can carry us through any downturn, along with SS. We have no debt either."
- Boomerst3
Read more »

Risk Adjusted: The Family Ledger 

Mark Crothers  |  Jun 18, 2026

"Greg, the guy who lives directly across from me, works for a power utility company in Scotland. Every Monday at 5am I see him heading off to the airport, and he doesn't return home until Thursday evening. It's not a work/life balance I'd choose for myself, but it clearly funds an expensive collection of toys — a 5-litre V8 Jaguar F-Type and a high-end Range Rover sit in his driveway alongside a massive RV. Unfortunately, he rarely seems to have time to actually play with his hard earned trinkets."
- Mark Crothers
Read more »

He Said I Wasn’t Very Nice

Dan Smith  |  Jun 18, 2026

"I doubt anyone would want to make or watch a movie of me asking someone to go away."
- William Perry
Read more »

Bonds vs. Bond Funds

Matt Halperin  |  Jun 12, 2026

"Great article, always nice to learn about Bonds."
- William Dorner
Read more »

Many seniors think we paid for our Social Security benefits based on the FICA taxes we paid. Let’s dispel that myth- we didn’t

R Quinn  |  Jun 15, 2026

"I doubt if Congress will allow it. It would be a strange thing for members of the House and Senate to jeopardize their own jobs and mess with this entitlement."
- Mark Gardner
Read more »

How well off are Americans compared to the rest of the world? Fun facts.

R Quinn  |  Jun 16, 2026

"Yes, that’s a factor, but so is the lifestyle and conveniences that go with it. I could move to the lowest cost state in the US and live like a king, but would I want to?"
- R Quinn
Read more »

Leverage

Catherine  |  Jun 19, 2026

"Completely agree. We have a sizable allocation in a 401(k) stable value fund but that’s definitely not what I consider ready cash.  "
- Michael1
Read more »

Close to Everything I Need

ArticleDennis Friedman  |  Jun 20, 2026

I DON’T HAVE MANY regrets in life. But there is one conversation with my mother that I wish I had never had. It was about moving her into an assisted living facility. She was in her 90s, and I thought it would be best for both of us. My mother would receive better care, and I could take much-needed breaks. She could even keep her house and spend time there when I was with her. It seemed like a middle-of-the-road approach to providing care. I thought it was a win-win situation for both of us. But I couldn't convince my mother to leave the home she had lived in for 42 years. She would ask me questions like, “How far my bed would be from the front door?” I was beginning to understand that she was afraid of moving to an unfamiliar place. It was simply too much to ask of her.  About six weeks later, my mother had a heart attack. She passed away a week afterward in a rehabilitation facility after being discharged from the hospital. Looking back, I sometimes wonder if our discussions about assisted living were harder on her than I realized. It's something I've thought about many times since. After reaching age 75 and coming closer to the possibility of needing more care myself, I now have a better understanding of why my mother wanted to age in place. She valued the familiarity and emotional comfort of her home. She knew exactly how far her bed was from the front door. She maintained relationships with neighbors who would stop by to chat and share a glass of wine. She also knew the people at the stores and restaurants she visited regularly. A few of them even attended her funeral. All of her doctors were nearby. She would often say, "I'm close to everything I need." Recently, when I was experiencing problems with my eyesight, I've felt more vulnerable. One day, while having lunch with my wife, I brought up the topic of how we might receive care in our later years. As soon as I mentioned assisted living, Rachel grew quiet and a sad look came over her face. I've seen that look before. At that moment, I realized I was hearing the same concern I had heard from my mother years earlier. They were thinking about leaving behind a familiar life and moving to a place where everything would be different. My wife and my mother are not alone. About three-quarters of Americans over age 50 say they want to remain in their current homes as they age. I count myself among them. Part of our long-term care planning is an effort to preserve the life we've built here for as long as possible. It's not an easy decision because none of us knows what our future health will look like. Aging in place offers advantages, but it also involves risks. If we need only limited assistance, staying in our home could be significantly less expensive than moving to a senior living community, especially since our mortgage is paid off. We can purchase only the services we need—housekeeping, meal delivery, transportation, or occasional home health care—and adjust that support as circumstances change. At the same time, we retain ownership of our home and any future appreciation in its value. That equity remains available if we eventually need more extensive care. Of course, there is no guarantee that our health will cooperate. Serious illnesses or cognitive decline could create care needs that are difficult or expensive to manage at home. That's one reason some people choose a continuing care retirement community (CCRC), which offers a continuum of care and contracts that can provide insurance-like protection against future long-term care costs. For us, the decision comes down to a tradeoff: Do we value maximum independence and flexibility today, or do we value having a built-in care system already in place for the future? For now, we're taking a hybrid approach. We plan to remain in our home through our 70s and early 80s. We're in reasonably good health, and my eyesight is no longer a major issue. We are planning to invest in accessibility improvements, including a stair lift to our upstairs master bedroom, grab bars in the bathrooms, and brighter lighting. Our house already has a walk-in shower, doorways and hallways wide enough for a walker, and space for a caregiver if one is ever needed. In addition, we’re setting aside a dedicated reserve of 20% of our investment portfolio to help cover future care needs. Most people do not spend years in a nursing home. As a result, we're not trying to fund the most expensive long-term-care scenario imaginable. Instead, we're setting aside enough money to cover the most likely care needs without significantly affecting our lifestyle. If we encounter a more extreme situation, we still have the remainder of our portfolio and the equity in our home available. That’s just basic financial planning: managing risk to a comfortable level instead of spending a fortune to eliminate it completely. We'll reevaluate our situation every few years and remain open to moving to a CCRC or assisted living community if health, mobility, or caregiving needs increase significantly. There may come a day when Rachel and I decide that a CCRC or assisted living community is the right choice. None of us can predict the future, and flexibility has value. But I now understand something I didn't fully appreciate when my mother was alive. A home is more than a place to live. It is a collection of routines, relationships, memories, and comforts that become increasingly important as we grow older. My mother knew that instinctively. She wasn't being stubborn. She was protecting a life she loved and a sense of independence that mattered deeply to her. When she told me she was close to everything she needed, she wasn't talking about stores, restaurants, or doctors. She was talking about belonging. It took me years to understand what she meant. If I had understood it sooner, our conversations about assisted living might have been very different.   Dennis Friedman retired from Boeing Satellite Systems after a 30-year career in manufacturing. Born in Ohio, Dennis is a California transplant with a bachelor’s degree in history and an MBA. A self-described “humble investor,” he likes reading historical novels and about personal finance. Follow Dennis on X @DMFrie and check out his earlier articles
Read more »

Pricing the Future

ArticleAdam M. Grossman  |  Jun 20, 2026

THE WAY INVESTORS think about the stock market may be entirely wrong. Intuition tells us, and academic research confirms, that a company’s stock price should respond to important news and information. When a company announces a new product, for example, its stock should go up. And when results fall short of expectations, it should decline.  But a new paper titled “The Inefficient Pricing of News” calls this idea into question. The authors found that investors respond much more slowly and inconsistently to market news than previously thought. In some cases, it took a year or more for a stock price to respond.  Why would that be the case? Tony Fadell is often referred to as “the father of the iPod.” For years, he worked side-by-side with Steve Jobs, first developing the iPod, then the iPhone. In a recent interview, Fadell shared details of what the product development process looked like inside Apple, and how the reality on the inside often differed from the way it appeared on the outside. Fadell’s comments can help us understand why stock prices often miss the mark. The nature of competition. Investors, Fadell argued, often have a one-dimensional understanding of companies. As an example, he told the story of the development of the iPhone. When it was first released, many observers dismissed it as an overpriced toy. Unlike the BlackBerry, the dominant mobile device for corporate users at the time, the first iPhone lacked key security features and didn’t have a physical keyboard. As a result, it was perceived as a niche product with narrow appeal. Fadell explained, though, that Apple looked at the market differently. Yes, BlackBerry had a very high market share among business users, but it had only a small share of the overall mobile phone market—just 1% or 2%. Apple was interested in the rest of the market: “What about the other 98% of the people? What would they want?” That was the question Apple was asking internally. Observers on the outside, though, underestimated the iPhone’s potential because they assumed they understood Apple’s competitive objectives. The definition of success. Investors often make another mistake, Fadell said. They use the wrong yardstick in measuring successes and failures. He notes that early versions of both the iPod and the iPhone had significant shortcomings. The first iPod worked only with Apple computers. The first iPhone was underpowered and wasn’t open to outside app developers. The App Store didn’t debut until a year after the iPhone’s release. For all these reasons, early critics continued to underestimate the iPhone’s potential even as it gained market share. But inside Apple, the potential was clear. They knew that all of the core components would get better each year and that cell phone networks would get faster. Fadell, who also invented the Nest thermostat, made this observation: “Everything needs three generations. I’ve never seen anyone get it right the first time.” Wall Street, however, tends to not be that patient, and that can lead to a disconnect between perception and reality in stock prices. Fadell notes that even when a product fails, it can be valuable. Apple learned a lot from the Newton, its first attempt at a mobile device. Similarly, Amazon had a short-lived mobile phone called the Fire. From the outside it was deemed a costly mistake, but Jeff Bezos saw it differently. “You can’t, for one minute, feel bad,” he said. The voice recognition technology Amazon developed for the Fire ultimately turned into Alexa. The bottom line: Wall Street’s obsession with quarterly results can cause investors to use the wrong scorecard, and that’s another reason stock prices can move in the wrong direction. The timeline to profits. Fadell noted that the first iPhone was unprofitable but that this wasn’t a concern. Because sales were increasing, Apple would be able to lower production costs. Together with technology advances, management knew that the product would eventually yield profit. “You make the product, you fix the product, then you fix the business,” Fadell explained. Companies pursuing a new idea are often underestimated because they’re judged prematurely. Consider Amazon. It was unprofitable for almost 10 years after its founding. Why? During that decade, the company was growing quickly, but it reinvested as much as it could into warehouses. The result is that it can now deliver packages to many customers the same day. That may have been Jeff Bezos’s vision from early on, but outside observers couldn’t see the roadmap he had in his desk drawer, and for that reason, Amazon was regularly criticized for its lack of profits. The most notable misjudgment: In 1999, Barron’s magazine ran a cover story with the headline “Amazon.bomb.” How did Barron’s editors get it wrong? They had no idea where the company was headed, and for competitive reasons, Bezos certainly wasn’t going to tip his hand. This pattern repeats frequently, and it’s a key reason why stock prices often end up out of line with a company’s true long-term value. "All overnight success takes about 10 years,” Bezos later commented. Timeline to bankruptcy. Sometimes, Wall Street makes the opposite mistake, failing to see when a company is headed into decline. The most famous example in this category may be Kodak, which was the dominant maker of film for traditional cameras. Remarkably, it was a Kodak engineer who invented the first digital camera all the way back in the 1970s. But recognizing the threat it represented, the company shelved the project. Over the course of the 1980s and 1990s, other companies introduced digital cameras, with the result that, between 1990 and 1997, Kodak’s revenue dropped almost 25%. And yet, throughout that period, its stock kept rising, hitting an all-time high in 1997. Investors just couldn’t appreciate the reality of what was happening. But then, just five years later, Kodak filed for bankruptcy. In general, and on average, stock prices do reflect the value of public companies. But for all the reasons Fadell cites, that relationship is often imperfect. This is a fundamental reason why, in my view, investors are best served by choosing diversified index funds rather than trying to pick individual stocks.   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 »

How financially illiterate are Americans?

R Quinn  |  Jun 19, 2026

"I began the private practice of medicine, and had never taken a course in business. From reading the masters including Jonathan, I learned the value of investing in businesses, via stocks. Many attributed Buffett's success to the fact that he was a businessman who excelled at evaluating businesses and discerning their true long term value. I suspect there are many who like myself, had neither interest, experience or education in business who suddenly found themselves in the curious position of needing to assume responsibility for planning their long term financial future. Ironically, now I had a desire to learn a bit about business! Of course people like myself, who lack Buffett's expertise are fortunate to have low cost index funds and widely available information on how to invest successfully. Like that found on Humbler Dollar. Many may prefer for various reasons to hire an advisor, but they will still profit from learning about the topic to better understand and appreciate what the advisor is doing, and what it is exactly that they are paying for. I am a DIYer myself, but if my wife survives me, she will hire an advisor. Which is fine. I can't answer the question you posed, but my guess is the reasons are varied. Maybe for some, perhaps a combination of denial, confirmation bias, and wishful thinking?"
- Jack Hannam
Read more »

What Addiction Couldn’t Take: My Sister’s Story

Andrew Clements  |  Jun 17, 2026

"Thank you so much for the condolences. Yes it has been a difficult year but we need to make it through, one has to."
- Andrew Clements
Read more »

They’re Right, I’m Wrong, Sort Of

Dan Smith  |  Feb 2, 2025

"Food for thought. It took from 1930 to 1946 before the stock market was back to its 1929 level! So all your money in stocks in 1929 and a 1930 retirement date would have put you squarely behind the 8 ball!"
- john deam
Read more »

What’s in your portfolio ?

Larry  |  Jun 12, 2026

"75 years old. 76% in equities (large % in US) 8% short term bonds (VUSB), and 16% VG money market. We have a mixture of 8 ETFs and 7 long held stocks. We have no pension and each have SS. Fortunately the portfolio is very large so the cash position can carry us through any downturn, along with SS. We have no debt either."
- Boomerst3
Read more »

Risk Adjusted: The Family Ledger 

Mark Crothers  |  Jun 18, 2026

"Greg, the guy who lives directly across from me, works for a power utility company in Scotland. Every Monday at 5am I see him heading off to the airport, and he doesn't return home until Thursday evening. It's not a work/life balance I'd choose for myself, but it clearly funds an expensive collection of toys — a 5-litre V8 Jaguar F-Type and a high-end Range Rover sit in his driveway alongside a massive RV. Unfortunately, he rarely seems to have time to actually play with his hard earned trinkets."
- Mark Crothers
Read more »

He Said I Wasn’t Very Nice

Dan Smith  |  Jun 18, 2026

"I doubt anyone would want to make or watch a movie of me asking someone to go away."
- William Perry
Read more »

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Get Educated

Manifesto

Jun 21, 2026

NO. 65: IF WE CAN easily afford to cover a financial loss out of pocket, we shouldn’t pay an insurance company to do so. An auto policy is a great idea—but one with low deductibles isn’t.

Truths

Jun 21, 2026

NO. 64: NOBODY should be all stocks or all bonds. If you’re 100% stocks, you can reduce volatility by shifting 10% of your portfolio into bonds—with little impact on returns. The reason: Adding bonds allows you to pick up a rebalancing bonus. Meanwhile, 100% bond investors can boost returns, without a lot of added volatility, by moving maybe 25% to stocks.

act

Jun 20, 2026

GET ORGANIZED. Keep the backup material for your past seven tax returns. The rest can be tossed. If your brokerage firm and mutual funds provide the cost basis for your investments, there may be no need to keep old statements. Tell your family where they can find your will, a list of your financial accounts, and all your usernames and passwords.

Truths

Jun 19, 2026

NO. 76: TAX DEFERRAL lets you use dollars that’ll eventually go to Uncle Sam to earn extra gains for yourself. An example: If you invested $1,000 at 6% a year and paid 22% in taxes every year, you would have $3,944 after 30 years. But if you put off the 22% tax bill for 30 years by funding a tax-deferred retirement account, you’d end up with $4,700, or 19% more.

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Best of Jonathan Clements

Manifesto

Jun 21, 2026

NO. 65: IF WE CAN easily afford to cover a financial loss out of pocket, we shouldn’t pay an insurance company to do so. An auto policy is a great idea—but one with low deductibles isn’t.

Spotlight: Careers

Stored Memories: Friendship and Software

steve abramowitz   |  Jul 23, 2024

“I’m giving up on your cousin Bernie, Fay.”
“Bill, grow up already and stop acting like a wounded bird. Be a good husband and give him another year.“
“Another year?  It’s already been three years and he told me two. Good-bye to our $20,000. I told you it wouldn’t be so easy to go from men’s clothing to shoes. Your family’s in la la land.”
The business lesson. My father looked up from his lamb chop and poked his fork at me.

Read more »

The Sweet Spot

Ken Cutler   |  Jul 5, 2024

Note: This is the third in my Forum series of previously written pieces that I never submitted to the editor for consideration. 
AN INTERNET ARTICLE I printed out over 15 years ago set the work-life balance standard for me. The article has been relegated to the dust bin of cyber space so I can’t link to it or even identify who wrote it. The author discusses a friend who “seems to have found the ultimate sweet spot in his career.”
The friend made a comfortable living working less than 40 hours a week.

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Factory Floor Education

Ken Cutler   |  Oct 13, 2024

I talked about my first paying job, at the local public library, in Learned From Less. I discussed experiences from my second job in Not Long Remembered. My third job, as a temporary factory worker, also made a big impression on me.
During the second part of the summer after my college freshman year, I signed up with a temporary employment agency. They would call me most weekday mornings to offer work assignments at pay slightly above minimum wage.

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Will Work For Food, Starting My Diet Soon

DAN SMITH   |  Mar 31, 2025

Part 1
I sold my tax business 3 seasons ago, the year I turned 70, or as I often refer to it, the 30th anniversary of my 40th birthday. Besides the volunteer tax prep I do with AARP, I still prepare a dozen or so returns for friends and family. I don’t want to take money for my efforts, I will work for food. So far this season I have been compensated with burgers, steaks, chicken,

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Going Back to Work (Briefly)

Laura E. Kelly   |  Mar 26, 2025

I’ve read with interest posts such as Jonathan’s Taking Center Stage and Those Who Follow, both which touched on the pluses and minuses of taking on a part-time job in retirement. The conversation in the comments for both of those posts was great, too. Below, I share my own recent experience of re-entering the job world at age 64.
In my past HD posts I have written how, in our mid-60s, my husband and I appeared to be gliding into retirement.

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A Crisis of Competence?

Ken Cutler   |  Aug 8, 2024

Do you think we are moving toward a competency crisis in this country? I told this story in a comment on an article a few months back:
“Seven years ago, I bought a 2005 Outback. Despite the pink slip being clearly written by the dealer, the title came back with ‘Culter’ as my last name. I went to AAA for advice and they filled out a correction form for me. The title was revised to read ‘Renneth Culter’.

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Retirement in America is not a pretty picture…and not getting better.

R Quinn   |  Mar 17, 2026

From what I read, many if not the great majority, of HD readers are the exception to much of this dilemma. The responsibility for retirement income has steadily shifted to individuals and away from employers (unless you work for government), but far too few workers have accepted that responsibility. Longterm thinking does not seem a widespread skill. I find this information a bit depressing. How do we change the situation?  Frankly I don’t know, but if we don’t make changes- if individuals don’t make changes in their financial behavior and if we don’t do better for those with inadequate means to fend for themselves, there will be adverse economic consequences as society continues to age. In my view anyway.  Hey, we need more Americans reading HumbleDollar and the reality it’s writers bring to personal finance. 🤑 Fact: most workers don’t stay with one employer long enough to get any value from a pension plan. The median job tenure is about 4 years, a bit longer in the public sector.  Fact: the peak for workers pensions in the private sector was about 50% in the 1970s. However, far less actually received a pension because they left the job before vesting or the receive a minimal deferred annuity at age 65 if they were vested. Today about 15% of private sector workers have a defined benefit pension, but short job tenure still means they most receive little value.  Fact: Today more workers have an employer-based retirement plan than ever before, just not a defined benefit pension. About 65–70% of private-sector workers have access to a retirement plan (401k and the like), the bad news, roughly 50–55% actually participate.  Fact:  workers in their 50s have an average 401k balance of  $246,700 – $270,000 and a median of $85,000 – $95,000.  Workers in their…
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The great COLA debate-maybe not the expected solution.

R Quinn   |  Apr 26, 2026

“Everyone” knows that Social Security was never intended as the sole source of retirement income or even the majority of income - but apparently not everyone knows it if you believe the rhetoric.  Many people claim that the COLA in inadequate, even unfair, some rage that what they receive from Social Security is not what they were promised or what they paid for.  Truth is that it is what was promised and we did not pay for our benefits, we paid a tax to fund a pool of money, a notational government trust fund. If people had paid for their benefits, the incoming tax revenue would be sufficient to sustain full accrued benefits - it isn’t as we know.  To correct the perceived COLA shortfall based on use of the CPI-W, many people suggest using the (experimental) CPI-E which better reflects spending by those over age 62. I read that the CPI-E may be higher, but can also be lower.  I did some research and ran some numbers. Here are the estimates. CPI-E is designed around households age 62+ and historically rises about 0.2 percentage points faster per year on average.  If Social Security COLAs had used CPI-E instead of CPI-W since 2010: $1,000 monthly benefit indexed by CPI-W → about $1,475 Same benefit indexed by CPI-E → about $1,520 So over time, CPI-E compounds into a modest difference. In the estimate that is $45 per month after sixteen years. Using today’s average FRA benefit the dollars would all be higher.  No doubt it helps, but not a significant change, especially when Medicare premium increases will likely continue to outpace inflation in the future.  Changing the COLA calculation accelerates the trust depletion as well. Using CPI-E increases the funding gap by 12% according the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget…
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Shopping carts again…but not what you think

R Quinn   |  Jun 2, 2026

I have written before that I could look at your grocery cart and find money to save and invest. Some people thought I was joking, but I’m not. My point isn’t about groceries, it’s really about finding money to save and invest, even small amounts over time. Groceries are just one example. I suppose I am promoting a bit of frugality and financial discipline in very modest ways.  Initially my conclusion about groceries was based on many hours of observation, but now I’ve done a little research with the help of several AI tools.  A USDA study found that for the average grocery shopper, categories like sweetened beverages, prepared desserts, salty snacks, candy, and sugar collectively account for roughly 22–23% of grocery purchases. That's nearly a quarter of the cart on items most nutritionists would call non-essential. The average U.S. household spends about $1,080 per month on groceries (probably more now), though the amount varies a lot by household size, location, and eating habits. For a rough per-person estimate, recent sources put it around $346 to $543 per month. If I saved just 15% of $400 each month for 35 years at 6% interest, I would have about $70,700. Apply that to a family and it becomes $188,900. Not much of a retirement nest egg for sure, but meaningful for a retiree now struggling to live solely or mostly on Social Security.  Of course, these are pie in the sky numbers, but the point is, for the vast majority of Americans saving is possible.  To me it boils down to the famous quote attributed to Henry Ford. “Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t—you’re right.”
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Coping with inflation in retirement, what’s the plan?

R Quinn   |  Mar 30, 2026

It’s not hard to find articles about high prices, the burden inflation puts on seniors, those with a so-called fixed income, which is a myth. Virtually no retiree is on a fixed income and the more they depend on Social Security the less so.  Of course, high inflation, actually any inflation creates financial stress for many retirees, but is it a surprise? Isn’t being aware of and planning for inflation a key part of retirement? Inflation is nearly always with us.  The highest period of inflation since 1900 was between 1973-1982 where it average 8.7% and hit a peak of 13.5% in 1980. That’s when my mortgage had a 9-3/4% interest rate They were tough times. Remember WIN buttons?  To my surprise the lowest period was 1920-1929 with an average of 0.0%. No wonder it’s called the roaring twenties.  While we can’t predict inflation from year to year, it’s a pretty good bet that goods and services, property taxes, etc. will cost more ten years after we retire.  Many claim Social Security doesn’t keep up with inflation. It does, but it depends.  The overall inflation rate for 2025 was reported as 2.6%. The 2026 Social security COLA was 2.8% so yes, SS keeps up with inflation. If inflation takes off after September of a year, the COLA may be less. On the other hand, the opposite may happen.  The important variables are what percentage of total income is Social Security and how close to the CPI is an individual’s inflation rate? For example, I’m not affected by housing prices, but I am by premiums for Medicare. Indirectly many seniors see rising expenses reflected in property taxes as towns cope with rising prices and wage pressures.  The CPI-E (Consumer Price Index for Americans 62 Years of Age and Older) has been…
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Is there any point when a child needs financial help that you feel comfortable saying “not my problem?” 

R Quinn   |  Mar 14, 2026

A question for discussion. Is an eighteen year old an adult? Do you expect an 18 year old to pay their bills, to be on their own for college? Several years ago on HD someone wrote in a comment that when their child reach age 18, they were done. They expected them out of the house and they were on their own.  Another wrote that when their youngest child graduated high school, the were relocating south and leaving the child behind.  One blogger I read who retired at 33 bragged that when his 11 year old asked if he was going to pay for her college, he told her no. Frankly, I don’t understand those points of view. In my view an 18-year old brain is not that of an adult. A child is the parents obligation until they are truly on their own, earning a living. Even then there are times when help is appropriate. And no, I am not talking about the 25 year old lounging in the basement playing video games all day.  I am especially convinced that to the extent feasible parents have a responsibility to pay for college.  In a recent post on HD from 2017 Jonathan wrote “Can you afford to help your kids with college costs? It’s important to talk to your teenagers early on about how much financial assistance you can offer—and that’s doubly true if they’ll need to shoulder much or all of the cost.” Wise advice indeed. Defining “afford” is critical. In my example of the 11 year old, the family takes three or four international trips a year.  Some families view college the same way they view housing, food, or healthcare while growing up—as part of supporting a child until they’re established. Others argue college is the student’s responsibility…
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The never ending payday

R Quinn   |  May 9, 2026

While working, there is something we call payday, it may happen once a month, more likely two or four times a month. Generally that means money is deposited into our bank account - a steady income stream we count on to pay a new set of bills.  Then we retire and everything changes, no more payday. To me recreating that is the key to a less stressful retirement.  I can say that because I am fortunate to be able to do so and know the feeling of a retirement payday.  On the first of the month my pension arrives as does Connie’s tiny ($400) vested pension from fifty years ago. On the 2nd and 4th Wednesdays Social Security is added.  Something else happens too. On the first of the month interest from our bond funds and money market accounts is credited to our investment accounts. Dividends are quarterly. It all stays there for now, but can add to our income stream in the future.  I know from years on HD that retirees have different approaches to creating income in retirement, some take a percentage withdrawal, others cash amounts based on a budget, many seem to reject an annuity purchase to create an income stream.  Some retirees have pensions. Virtually everyone has SS, but many delay that income for years after retiring. One thing is clear, all retired people need steady income, but creating it is often a challenge, sometimes requiring careful planning and decision making, sometimes rather complicated-at least from my perspective.  I favor simple, steady, all on automatic pilot, a retirement payday little different from working years, but that’s easier said than done.  What have you done or plan to do to create your payday allowing you to sleep soundly at night (or during the afternoon nap if you’re…
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