Growing up in the 1950s in Cincinnati, my Dad had a cousin in Detroit. The cousin was employed in the auto industry there, and had no kids. While on one of our infrequent visits, the cousin took me under his wing and gave me a loose leaf notebook with info about the stock market and gave me a starting understanding on how to read the market results in the newspaper. Being a kid of that era, I started following Disney, but never invested, not having any funds yet. But it got me hooked on following the market. Many years later as a senior in college I took an investment course taught by a local attorney who was an adjunct professor. As part of that course we had to develop an imaginary portfolio and most importantly, write a paper on why we chose the various investments. My results and documentation only warranted a "B", but that refined my interest. After graduation and employment, I started small when I had enough money to invest in a "round lot" since there was a premium charged for an "odd lot" back then. My career advanced, stock market premiums were lowered and virtually eliminated with the coming of the discount brokers. So I continued to invest, sometimes wisely, sometimes not so wisely. Even later on, 401(k)s were started and from that point the results were very positive.
Somewhere along the line I started following Jonathan Clements' column in the WSJ and gained much great advice which greatly helped my discretionary investments.
Thanks so much to my Dad's cousin, to that college professor, and to Jonathan!!
Here in Ohio our public universities allow senior citizens to audit courses for free on a "space available" basis. You register and attend classes. Tests are optional, but I take them to make sure that I am listening in class and reading any textbooks or other material. Some private colleges also offer this perk -- probably hoping to turn us into contributors! You might check to see if Georgia offers this perk.
I had my one and only jury duty call some 20 years ago, and was seated on that jury. Thinking about Jeff's comment on jury duty compensation, the only thing we got was free parking in the county garage. We were on our own for any of the downtown eateries at lunch during the 3-day trial, although they did buy us pizza and soda for lunch on our final day when we were deliberating. The worst part of jury duty was waiting in the jury room before going into the courtroom where they only thing we were allowed to watch on the TV was HGTV.
Among all the comments so far, Martymac's is closest to my recurring dream. I graduated from college 55 years ago and now volunteer with a group of retirees at Habitat for Humanity. While we were on a break last summer, I mentioned my recurring dream that it was finals week in college and when the test schedule was posted there was an exam for a required class that I had totally forgotten about, never attended a lecture or bought the text. I then wake up in a minor panic. When I told this story, 3 of my co-volunteers said that they have had the same dream!!
Add me to the list of commentors who wash their ZipLoc bags. But rather than kitchen use, mine go to the garage. You know how you might need 3 or 4 of a certain screw so you buy a package of 10 at a big-box store? Those little packages never seal back up right so some of the remaining screws fall out. Solution? Reuse one of my second-use ZipLocs to keep them all separated.
At the end of 2023 I will celebrate 20 years of retirement! I still recall advice given at my retirement party by a former colleague. He said there are 3 phases to retirement:
Go-Go
Slow-Go
No-Go
My own assessment is that my wife and I are on the cusp between phase 1 and phase 2. So we are now planning and hoping for an equally long Slow-Go phase, as we can both remember our parents' decline into phase 3.
Jonathan,
You mentioned never doing 6 minute miles again. First of all, congratulations for EVER having done that. I think that my wife and I have about 10 to 15 years of age on you, and one thing we are now realizing is that performance wise, we cannot keep up with ourselves from 1, 2 or 3 decades ago. We should be happy with this phrase from our Doctors, but we both hate hearing "For your age you're doing pretty well!". In fact, medically we are doing pretty well, but not as well as we used to be doing!
A few years ago my wife and I were having an annual in-person investment review with our advisor. I told him that I had $100,000 coming in the next few weeks from the estate of a long-lost Nigerian relative, and asked him for advice to invest that sum. He got an alarmed look on his face, but I could not contain my laughter at his reaction. Then we went back to serious discussion.
This is a great article, and is actually a big "duh" for me. In the past I have been on the endowment committee of 2 different non-profit organizations. One of our tasks was monitoring withdrawal rate with the objective of not depleting the endowment. Current law allows a "total return" distribution, but it is up to the organization as to what base period to use. One of the charities used a rolling 8 quarter-end average, and one used a rolling 12 quarter-end average. That's not too much harder to calculate than Mr Saylor suggests using year-end results. Looking backwards, investment totals peaked at the end of 2021 and were lower at the end of 2022. No surprise there. But the big gains in 2021 got averaged in with the previous quarters, and the big reductions in 2022 got averaged in with their previous quarters as well. This prevented taking an unusual windfall in the unusually good year, and prevents taking a big hit on the distribution in an unusually bad year, thereby somewhat stabilizing the income to the charity. So my big "duh" is, why didn't I think of this for my own account???
Here in Ohio we senior citizens can take courses at the public colleges for free on a space-available, non-credit basis. As long as the classroom is not physically full, we are able to audit the course. Plus we get a discount in the college bookstore -- if they still use a book!
Comments:
Growing up in the 1950s in Cincinnati, my Dad had a cousin in Detroit. The cousin was employed in the auto industry there, and had no kids. While on one of our infrequent visits, the cousin took me under his wing and gave me a loose leaf notebook with info about the stock market and gave me a starting understanding on how to read the market results in the newspaper. Being a kid of that era, I started following Disney, but never invested, not having any funds yet. But it got me hooked on following the market. Many years later as a senior in college I took an investment course taught by a local attorney who was an adjunct professor. As part of that course we had to develop an imaginary portfolio and most importantly, write a paper on why we chose the various investments. My results and documentation only warranted a "B", but that refined my interest. After graduation and employment, I started small when I had enough money to invest in a "round lot" since there was a premium charged for an "odd lot" back then. My career advanced, stock market premiums were lowered and virtually eliminated with the coming of the discount brokers. So I continued to invest, sometimes wisely, sometimes not so wisely. Even later on, 401(k)s were started and from that point the results were very positive. Somewhere along the line I started following Jonathan Clements' column in the WSJ and gained much great advice which greatly helped my discretionary investments. Thanks so much to my Dad's cousin, to that college professor, and to Jonathan!!
Post: No Barriers to Entry by Jonathan Clements
Link to comment from December 28, 2024
Here in Ohio our public universities allow senior citizens to audit courses for free on a "space available" basis. You register and attend classes. Tests are optional, but I take them to make sure that I am listening in class and reading any textbooks or other material. Some private colleges also offer this perk -- probably hoping to turn us into contributors! You might check to see if Georgia offers this perk.
Post: Still Learning
Link to comment from August 24, 2024
I had my one and only jury duty call some 20 years ago, and was seated on that jury. Thinking about Jeff's comment on jury duty compensation, the only thing we got was free parking in the county garage. We were on our own for any of the downtown eateries at lunch during the 3-day trial, although they did buy us pizza and soda for lunch on our final day when we were deliberating. The worst part of jury duty was waiting in the jury room before going into the courtroom where they only thing we were allowed to watch on the TV was HGTV.
Post: Duty Calls
Link to comment from July 6, 2024
Among all the comments so far, Martymac's is closest to my recurring dream. I graduated from college 55 years ago and now volunteer with a group of retirees at Habitat for Humanity. While we were on a break last summer, I mentioned my recurring dream that it was finals week in college and when the test schedule was posted there was an exam for a required class that I had totally forgotten about, never attended a lecture or bought the text. I then wake up in a minor panic. When I told this story, 3 of my co-volunteers said that they have had the same dream!!
Post: Retirement Dreams
Link to comment from February 21, 2024
Add me to the list of commentors who wash their ZipLoc bags. But rather than kitchen use, mine go to the garage. You know how you might need 3 or 4 of a certain screw so you buy a package of 10 at a big-box store? Those little packages never seal back up right so some of the remaining screws fall out. Solution? Reuse one of my second-use ZipLocs to keep them all separated.
Post: Frugality Has a Cost
Link to comment from November 8, 2023
At the end of 2023 I will celebrate 20 years of retirement! I still recall advice given at my retirement party by a former colleague. He said there are 3 phases to retirement:
- Go-Go
- Slow-Go
- No-Go
My own assessment is that my wife and I are on the cusp between phase 1 and phase 2. So we are now planning and hoping for an equally long Slow-Go phase, as we can both remember our parents' decline into phase 3.Post: Retirement Takes Work
Link to comment from October 25, 2023
Jonathan, You mentioned never doing 6 minute miles again. First of all, congratulations for EVER having done that. I think that my wife and I have about 10 to 15 years of age on you, and one thing we are now realizing is that performance wise, we cannot keep up with ourselves from 1, 2 or 3 decades ago. We should be happy with this phrase from our Doctors, but we both hate hearing "For your age you're doing pretty well!". In fact, medically we are doing pretty well, but not as well as we used to be doing!
Post: Absolutely Fine
Link to comment from September 23, 2023
A few years ago my wife and I were having an annual in-person investment review with our advisor. I told him that I had $100,000 coming in the next few weeks from the estate of a long-lost Nigerian relative, and asked him for advice to invest that sum. He got an alarmed look on his face, but I could not contain my laughter at his reaction. Then we went back to serious discussion.
Post: Woolf at the Door
Link to comment from August 2, 2023
This is a great article, and is actually a big "duh" for me. In the past I have been on the endowment committee of 2 different non-profit organizations. One of our tasks was monitoring withdrawal rate with the objective of not depleting the endowment. Current law allows a "total return" distribution, but it is up to the organization as to what base period to use. One of the charities used a rolling 8 quarter-end average, and one used a rolling 12 quarter-end average. That's not too much harder to calculate than Mr Saylor suggests using year-end results. Looking backwards, investment totals peaked at the end of 2021 and were lower at the end of 2022. No surprise there. But the big gains in 2021 got averaged in with the previous quarters, and the big reductions in 2022 got averaged in with their previous quarters as well. This prevented taking an unusual windfall in the unusually good year, and prevents taking a big hit on the distribution in an unusually bad year, thereby somewhat stabilizing the income to the charity. So my big "duh" is, why didn't I think of this for my own account???
Post: Our Exit Strategy
Link to comment from July 19, 2023
Here in Ohio we senior citizens can take courses at the public colleges for free on a space-available, non-credit basis. As long as the classroom is not physically full, we are able to audit the course. Plus we get a discount in the college bookstore -- if they still use a book!
Post: College in Retirement
Link to comment from July 2, 2023