eludom

Comments:

• Not sure where to begin. I started reading something like 2 years ago, a year before retirement and had not really been focusing much on investments beyond maxing 401k contributions and letting my (AUM) broker try to pick "winners". In general, the last few years have been an education in everything from index funds, to social security claiming, to Medicare, to asset allocation, to IRMMA, to ACA credits, et cetera Aside from the specifics (spelled out very well in articles, guide, forum) probably the most valuable take away for me was the realization that it is possible to DIY on many of these areas and the confidence to move ahead knowing that I'm on a sensible path. Thanks to Jonathan everyone who shared their experiences.

  Post: Lessons you have learned from articles by Jonathan Clements

  Link to comment from January 23, 2025

• Another consideration: your friends and social support structures are gone. My mother-in-law lived in Ocean Springs/Biloxi, MS when Katrina hit. The water came up to the threshold of her front door. Her house was the highest on the street. Many neighbors were in her house with her (some swam over) wondering if they were going to have to climb into the attic or on the roof. The house across the street, which was downhill (with a bed-and-breakfast we had stayed in) was just gone. Others floated into the street and sat there for months. In retrospect, we think she was starting to have cognitive decline before that. Now, her friends and neighbors were gone. The museum (Walter Anderson, painter) that she volunteered at had been underwater. She was a regular at local restaurants and shops and knew the employees/owners. Those were closed. Her walking friends were gone. The familiar, the friends, the routines of life (including places) are part of what keeps us going, especially as we age. With those gone and less time/energy to literally rebuild, the case for staying seems weaker.

  Post: Would You Rebuild?

  Link to comment from January 12, 2025

• Thanks for the review. Turns out I'm a mix of many of these. I use the %4 rule to see if I way off base (apparently not). I'm probably actually closest to using the fixed withdraw rate ... the monthy "retirement paychecks" total is less than %4 of current assets, and that difference + anticipated income gives me a good feel for the head-room (larger trips, home imporvments, etc). Was looking hard at the RMD method (Steve Vernon's "Don't Go Broke In Retirement") before some major medical issues threw planning into confusion 6 weeks after retiring :-( ... I will probalby get back to it. The RMD tables are just another way of setting the right "safe" level. There is a healthy dose of bucketing in there too. One thing I appreciated about his approach was it was designed to work with the realities that many people with more modest savings face in retirement. I'm using buckets conceputially to make sure the asset mix is right per the high/medium/low + timeframe categories. Realities of where the assets are (taxable, tax deferred) are a little messy/sub-optimal for the next few years because I'm playing the keep-income-low-before-65-for-ACA-credits game. Thanks for the list Jonathan. It's useful for reviewing where I am, what I'm doing and why ... after some confusion set in.

  Post: Spending It

  Link to comment from January 11, 2025

• van Dyke, with a little help from van Beethoven gave us "Joyful Joyful We Adore Thee" https://youtu.be/eMY3ivdNzwE?feature=shared Merry Christmas

  Post: Christmas Thoughts from Henry van Dyke

  Link to comment from December 23, 2024

• Amazon is a big company that I still have positive vibes towards. And I am no fan of big companies/organiztions/governments. I worked at AWS for a little over year. The Amazon Leadership Principals are the one set of corporate goals that are not forgettable HR mubo-jumbo. It changes your thinking. Some people have been known to have to turn it off at home ("Now dear, don't you think we should 'disagree and commit' on this issue"?). I've heard from people more recently that the culture has moved from "Day One" to "Day Two". There is (or at least was) cutomer obsession, top to bottom. No new project got started without a "PR/FAQ" (Press Release/Freuquently Asked Questions) document that allowed the whole project to "Work Backwards" (starting with the customer experience, not the corporate goals). I learend a lot there in a short time. The place is (was) filled with truly amazing people. I'm still a very satisfied customer. I'm holding the Amazon stock I got while there (one of two individual stocks I own).

  Post: Too Big to Succeed by Jonathan Clements

  Link to comment from December 13, 2024

• Yeah, maybe a little aggressive on the outsourcing age. Other considerations there are a belief that scammers and hackers are only going to get better at scamming individuals (even individuals whose profession was preventing hacks), wanting to be too early than too late in recognizing myself as the problem (or, as my dad, denying it), and the reality that my wife is not as interested in keeping the financial plates spinning.

  Post: When should one give up control over finances?

  Link to comment from December 12, 2024

• It's very hard to admit you are slipping. I was helping my dad the last few years of his life and had to reset his online password for him 20 times in a row, and he still refused to admit that he might be the problem, not the bank. Fortunately, we got his will revised to his liking and TODs set up correctly on all his accounts before he really started slipping...and becoming more resistant to accepting help. Not sure of the details, but I think I'm going to start involving my kids sooner rather than later and plan on stepping out of actively managing my investments by age 70 or so, even if it involved AUM or other fees.

  Post: When should one give up control over finances?

  Link to comment from December 12, 2024

• Mark Twain on Cryptocurrency: “The only thing more elusive than the value of cryptocurrency is the person who invented it. They must be a master of misdirection, for they have managed to convince the world that a string of numbers and letters has worth.” (per ChatGPT, an infallible source of truth)

  Post: Didn’t Say That by Jonathan Clements

  Link to comment from December 8, 2024

• I recently checked and few/none of the financial institutions I deal with are adopting passkey. Mostly retailers, social media etc. As to password managers, yeah, letting a company store them online seems like a recipe for disaster, but there are on-your-device-only options like KeePassXC. I'm in the process of setting up a PC from which I will manage all $ things. Usually not even connected to network.

  Post: Passkeys, anyone? by 1PF

  Link to comment from December 1, 2024

• For the past month I've been aggressively leaving my smart phone off, exploring alternatives and just living with the pain to avoid turning on. The motivation is primarily to regain control of my own attention (no beeps, buzzes, dings, poup-ups, ads) and to break the compulsive urge to check the phone every 30 seconds. You'd be amazed what you can get done with 90s tech. Bonus: advertisers targeting your connected smart phone can't pop up ads when you're playing a CD on a boombox :-) Latest musings on the subject here: https://curious.port111.com/2024/11/05/just-turn-it.html

  Post: Dealing With Tech Changes

  Link to comment from November 7, 2024