FREE NEWSLETTER
Dana Ferris, known here as DrLefty, retired in July 2025 after 35 years as a university professor (applied linguistics and writing). She is the author of many academic articles, chapters, and books and is also a weekly columnist for a San Francisco Giants fan site. When not working or writing, she enjoys exercising, cooking, and traveling. She is the mother of two adult daughters, and she and her husband live in Davis, California, where they first met as undergraduates at UC Davis. You can read her Giants content here, and her Amazon author page is here.
Am I Really Married?
34 replies
AUTHOR: DrLefty on 5/6/2025
FIRST: stelea99 on 5/6 | RECENT: DrLefty on 8/21
The Half-Completed Retirement Transition
30 replies
AUTHOR: DrLefty on 8/13/2025
FIRST: 1PF on 8/13 | RECENT: DrLefty on 8/20
Today’s the Day!
72 replies
AUTHOR: DrLefty on 7/1/2025
FIRST: Ben Rodriguez on 7/1 | RECENT: mytimetotravel on 8/18
Family Dynamics, Part 3: What Do Adult Children Owe Their Aging Parents?
40 replies
AUTHOR: DrLefty on 7/29/2025
FIRST: DAN SMITH on 7/29 | RECENT: Richard Hayman on 8/18
Family Dynamics, Part 2: Supporting Adult Children
48 replies
AUTHOR: DrLefty on 7/22/2025
FIRST: David Powell on 7/22 | RECENT: John Doe on 7/30
Estrangement & Estates
59 replies
AUTHOR: DrLefty on 7/10/2025
FIRST: David Lancaster on 7/10 | RECENT: Brett Howser on 7/26
In Short-Term Limbo
34 replies
AUTHOR: DrLefty on 7/23/2025
FIRST: David Powell on 7/23 | RECENT: DrLefty on 7/24
2025 Retirement Countdown
40 replies
AUTHOR: DrLefty on 1/1/2025
FIRST: Rick Connor on 1/1 | RECENT: MikeinLA on 5/31
Stay or Go, and How Do We Know?
41 replies
AUTHOR: DrLefty on 5/2/2025
FIRST: mytimetotravel on 5/2 | RECENT: Rob Jennings on 5/14
Today's the Day!--Well, Sort Of (by Dana/DrLefty)
29 replies
AUTHOR: DrLefty on 4/1/2025
FIRST: Ken Cutler on 4/1 | RECENT: luvtoride44afe9eb1e on 4/5
A Rental House? By the Numbers
3 replies
AUTHOR: DrLefty on 9/11/2024
FIRST: William Perry on 9/11/2024 | RECENT: DrLefty on 9/15/2024
A Rental House? Questions to Consider
16 replies
AUTHOR: DrLefty on 9/9/2024
FIRST: Michael1 on 9/10/2024 | RECENT: Mark Eckman on 9/12/2024
Final Arrangements: A Learning Curve
28 replies
AUTHOR: DrLefty on 8/18/2024
FIRST: Jonathan Clements on 8/18/2024 | RECENT: parkslope on 8/22/2024
Aging in Place: Count the Cost(s)
3 replies
AUTHOR: DrLefty on 6/22/2024
FIRST: baldscreen on 6/22/2024 | RECENT: DrLefty on 6/23/2024
WHEN I WAS A YOUNG adult, my parents sat me down and explained that I might at some point inherit money from my grandfather’s trust, which had also helped put me through college. My grandfather passed away in 1984, and his wife—my father’s stepmother—became the trust’s beneficiary.
My father was an only child. The trust stipulated that, if his stepmother died before him, he would receive two-thirds of the trust, while my two siblings and I would share the other third.
I’VE DECIDED UPON MY retirement date: July 1, 2025. We just passed the one-year countdown point, so I thought I’d share some of my ideas and plans for my final year in the workforce.
This countdown idea, of course, isn’t original with me. Indeed, there are apps that you can put on your phone to count down the time until retirement. I was primarily inspired by a retirement blogger named Fritz Gilbert. He’s way more decisive than I am.
MY ALL-TIME FAVORITE movie is the Coen brothers’ 2000 classic, O Brother, Where Art Thou? At one point, Holly Hunter’s character, Penelope, declares, “I’ve said my piece and I’ve counted to three.” Her estranged husband, played by George Clooney, understood from long experience that once she had “counted to three,” her mind couldn’t be changed.
Last summer, I wrote an article that explored the decisions my husband and I are working through about our retirement date and location.
MY LATE FATHER SPENT his entire career, from the time he dropped out of college to marry my mother until the day he died at age 61, in the insurance business. My father was also a huge fan of the San Francisco 49ers, our hometown NFL team.
Last year, the 49ers cruised through the playoffs, led by the team’s dynamic young quarterback, Brock Purdy. But then, in the NFC Championship game against the Philadelphia Eagles,
A LOT HAS BEEN written, here at HumbleDollar and elsewhere, about the “when” of retirement. Not surprisingly, there are strong opinions.
For example, I’m a member of a Facebook group where the overwhelming consensus is, “Don’t work one single day longer than you absolutely have to.” Of course, many people don’t have the luxury of choosing their ideal retirement date because life intervenes: They get let go from their job or experience health issues that dictate the answer to the “when” question.
I’M NOT SOMEONE WHO enjoys spending money on luxury travel. I’d never pay cash for a business class airline ticket or a hotel suite. Nonetheless, on a recent trip to Spain with my husband, we flew business class and had suites in all four hotels we stayed at.
We also visited lounges in every airport before our flights, had access to executive lounges at two hotels where we could get free meals, snacks and cocktails,
THE PROLIFIC MR. QUINN recently wrote that people who were irresponsible in one area of their life, such as failing to return shopping carts, also tend to be irresponsible in other areas, like managing their finances. He’s probably right. Still, I’ve had times when, even though I’m a “responsible person”—I’ve had a successful career, my kids lived to grow up, and so forth—I nonetheless had pockets of disorder in my life.
For me, the two biggest areas of chaos were managing money and maintaining a healthy diet and exercise regimen.
“I’D BE HAPPY TO JUST come here every year,” I told my husband. We and our two daughters had arrived on Maui 72 hours earlier. It was May 2000—and our first trip to Hawaii.
We’d signed up for a timeshare presentation in return for discounts on tours and activities. By the time we got to the meeting, I’d fallen head over heels in love with the place. The timeshare salesperson had an easy time persuading me to buy.
MY HUSBAND AND I WERE late bloomers when it came to estate planning. Though we took care of the basics when we became parents, such as purchasing term life insurance and naming a guardian, we never had a professionally executed will and trust until 2016, when we were in our late 50s.
Observing my in-laws, now in their 80s, made us realize how important it was to get our own estate-planning house in order.
Comments
We are still debating this. Or rather, I am. My husband is pretty set on both of us waiting until 70 for the obvious reason (8% payoff for each year beyond 67, our full retirement age, that we wait). I see the benefit of one of us waiting until 70. After all, one of us will have to get by on one SS benefit after enjoying two for however long we're both around. So it makes sense to maximize that one benefit if you can. We're the same age, and even though he makes (way) more money than I did, our projected benefits are the same because of the earnings cap each year. I did the Mike Piper calculator, which said that I should start claiming immediately while he should wait until 70. I didn't understand this result, specifically why have me (and not him) claim early? I don't care about trying to "break even," but I don't like the idea of claiming earlier than 67. I also don't really like the idea of dipping into savings or withdrawing from my IRA (and paying taxes) to make up the difference. So I think it will come down to where our income and expenses are as we approach age 67. Right now he's still working, so we're very comfortable even with me having retired. But I'm not sure what two years from now might look like.
Post: Rehashing the age 70 thing. Tell Dear Dickie what is it that he doesn’t get about SS at age 70?
Link to comment from August 22, 2025
We get Valentine's Day stuff in between those, but on 15 Feb, the Easter stuff comes out.
Post: Bah Humbug! It’s Not Even September Yet
Link to comment from August 22, 2025
We experienced this on a smaller scale at my former employer. A dean or provost would underfund a program. It would then struggle to meet its goals. Then that was used as an excuse to take it over, gut it, and start over with something cheaper.
Post: Does Social Security work?
Link to comment from August 22, 2025
Good questions. I do sometimes donate because I know and respect the person(s) behind an initiative, and this one honoring Jonathan is a good example of that. One of my former colleagues has a special needs child with a very rare genetic condition, and because of this colleague and his wife, who are wonderful people doing a fabulous job in a very difficult situation, I donate to the foundation doing research on that condition.
Post: Jonathan Clements Initiative at the Bogle Center for Financial Literacy
Link to comment from August 22, 2025
It wasn’t very expensive to order the certificate—$17. But it took more than three months! California’s a big state. Well, I have it now!
Post: Am I Really Married?
Link to comment from August 21, 2025
You’re right, of course. The problem is that taxpayers have a range of opinions about what’s important to spend public money on and how much. For example, I love PBS and NPR, but lots of Americans think it’s too woke and too wonky and don’t want tax dollars supporting it. The current president is one of those. On a smaller scale, I’m on the board of the HOA for our condo community. We’re coming up on a discussion about our budget reserves and the related issue of HOA dues. Some owners are concerned that the HOA dues, which are high for our area, are hurting the resale value of our condos. Several local realtors say this is true. So they want us to have a lower level of reserves so that we can reduce the dues. Others of us want the reserves kept at a healthy, safe level to make sure that if there’s a major expense, owners aren’t hit with hefty assessments. The “lower the dues” crew thinks we should reduce the reserves to the minimum allowed by state law and take our chances, saying “If there’s a major expense, the HOA can get a loan and then raise the dues to make the payments.” Both sides have legitimate points, and it’s two ways of looking at things. (I’ve written here about being an insurance man’s daughter, so you can guess which side I fall on.)
Post: The Tax Man Cometh, and I Think It’s Okay.
Link to comment from August 21, 2025
I find Christmas, at least the overscheduled, overcommercialized version we have here in the U.S., very stressful, always have. When I see Christmas stuff in stores in early fall, I find it triggering (oh, God, already? Didn’t we just do this last year?). It doesn’t tempt me to spend. Unless I see those holiday Mint M&Ms. I like those!
Post: Bah Humbug! It’s Not Even September Yet
Link to comment from August 21, 2025
I saw Halloween stuff in a local store in JUNE. I’m used to it appearing in August. But June?!
Post: Bah Humbug! It’s Not Even September Yet
Link to comment from August 21, 2025
I assume Chris means what my credit union calls a “Santa Saver” account? I have an automatic deposit to this account every month and then they dump it into my checking account around Nov. 1. I agree with Chris—I’ve had one for many years, and it’s a great way to keep holiday spending under control.
Post: Bah Humbug! It’s Not Even September Yet
Link to comment from August 21, 2025
Yes! I put an update on that post, too! 🥳
Post: Am I Really Married?
Link to comment from August 21, 2025