Thank you, Jonathan, for making your position for the purpose of HumbleDollar clear. I have been reading your works for many, many years and have learned a lot from you. This now includes financial and life experience insights from the many contributors to this Forum. What is not needed is political claptrap or personal attacks on contributors.
Consider this. We HD readers in a perverse way are the beneficiaries of the largesse of those that spend and don't save. Consumer spending is 70 percent of our Gross Domestic Product. This spending feed the coffers of all businesses including the S&P 500. As corporate earnings grow so goes the value of those stocks. We savers through our investing are the long-term beneficiaries of this growth. We should be thanking the spenders for our growth in our wealth. PS: Richard, I very much enjoy your postings.
I too like to do a lot of repairs to save money. I even finished the basement at my prior house some 30 years ago. The degree of difficulty and complexity helps me to decide when outside help is needed. I know defining this is different for each of us. When taking on a project, I think of this line from Clint Eastwood as Dirty Harry in Magnum Force, “A man’s got to know his limitations.”
P.S., I am an investment advisor and not in the trades. I just enjoy doing this kind of house work (within limits).
As ‘mytimetotravel’ says, “Sounds like you have enough.” You could perhaps add to your second to last sentence the words “and knowing when you have enough.” I am sure many HumbleDollar readers have read John Bogle’s passage about “Enough.” For those that haven’t. it goes like this: Joseph Heller, an important and funny writer now dead, and I (Kurt Vonnegut) were at a party given by a billionaire on Shelter Island. I said, “Joe, how does it make you feel to know that our host only yesterday may have made more money than your novel ‘Catch -22’ has earned in its entire history?” And Joe said, “I’ve got something he will never have.” And I said, “What on earth could that be, Joe?” And Joe said, “The knowledge that I’ve got enough.”
There is also the FairTax (FairTax.org). It would eliminate so many problems for taxpayers. This one is also simple but as you point out not good for the lobbyists and so many others.
Comments
Thank you, Jonathan, for making your position for the purpose of HumbleDollar clear. I have been reading your works for many, many years and have learned a lot from you. This now includes financial and life experience insights from the many contributors to this Forum. What is not needed is political claptrap or personal attacks on contributors.
Post: Let’s Be Adults by Jonathan Clements
Link to comment from April 23, 2025
Consider this. We HD readers in a perverse way are the beneficiaries of the largesse of those that spend and don't save. Consumer spending is 70 percent of our Gross Domestic Product. This spending feed the coffers of all businesses including the S&P 500. As corporate earnings grow so goes the value of those stocks. We savers through our investing are the long-term beneficiaries of this growth. We should be thanking the spenders for our growth in our wealth. PS: Richard, I very much enjoy your postings.
Post: The que sera, sera retirement planning strategy
Link to comment from January 15, 2025
I too like to do a lot of repairs to save money. I even finished the basement at my prior house some 30 years ago. The degree of difficulty and complexity helps me to decide when outside help is needed. I know defining this is different for each of us. When taking on a project, I think of this line from Clint Eastwood as Dirty Harry in Magnum Force, “A man’s got to know his limitations.” P.S., I am an investment advisor and not in the trades. I just enjoy doing this kind of house work (within limits).
Post: Frugality Has a Cost
Link to comment from November 7, 2023
As ‘mytimetotravel’ says, “Sounds like you have enough.” You could perhaps add to your second to last sentence the words “and knowing when you have enough.” I am sure many HumbleDollar readers have read John Bogle’s passage about “Enough.” For those that haven’t. it goes like this: Joseph Heller, an important and funny writer now dead, and I (Kurt Vonnegut) were at a party given by a billionaire on Shelter Island. I said, “Joe, how does it make you feel to know that our host only yesterday may have made more money than your novel ‘Catch -22’ has earned in its entire history?” And Joe said, “I’ve got something he will never have.” And I said, “What on earth could that be, Joe?” And Joe said, “The knowledge that I’ve got enough.”
Post: And Yet I Did Okay
Link to comment from July 13, 2023
There is also the FairTax (FairTax.org). It would eliminate so many problems for taxpayers. This one is also simple but as you point out not good for the lobbyists and so many others.
Post: What Gets Taxed
Link to comment from January 24, 2023