AUTHOR: Humble Reader on 7/7/2025 FIRST: David Powell on 7/7 | RECENT: David Lancaster on 7/8
Comments
I also take a plastic bag and pick up an average of about 6 beer cans per day, every day, on my 2 to 3 mile walk in my rural neighborhood. My states' 10-cent beverage container deposit law is useless. A $1 deposit would be a start. I have been fantasizing about installing dirt-bag cameras along the road to catch the perps… Sorry this is starting to sound like a rant, I will stop now.
I should have stated that the total payments to a Medicare Advantage insurance company for N users should be capped at no greater than the cost for N traditional Medicare users; not capping the benefits for individuals. The one and only reason to have the Medicare Advantage program is that it was promised to cost less than traditional Medicare since, after all, private enterprise always functions more efficiently than government, right? And why would the “illness burden” for Medicare Advantage be greater than traditional Medicare? Could it be due to “up coding” by the Medicare Advantage insurance companies to increase profit? This problem is very well documented. I hate to come off sounding so adversarial but I am absolutely certain that the Medicare system, Medicare users, and U.S. taxpayers would be better served if Medicare Advantage never existed. But this discussion branch is off-topic anyway since the article was about making individual Medicare enrollment choices and not about fixing the system. And I am sure that for some a Medicare Advantage plan could be the right choice.
I would add reason #8: Be a patriot and help reduce the federal deficit by choosing traditional Medicare. According to medicarerights.org Medicare Advantage is now costing the U.S. taxpayer 20% more per user than traditional Medicare. That adds up to an additional $84 billion per year. My simple engineer’s brain cannot fathom how a program that only existed to save costs was allowed to be gamed by the health insurance providers. My simple engineer’s solution would be to immediately cap the payments per user to the insurance companies at no more than what traditional Medicare costs.
How would you feel about grocery shopping where the price after you put an item into your cart is constantly changing until it is rung up by the cashier and the price for the same item is different for the person in line front of you and different again for the person behind you? That is how I feel when trading ETFs. But I do have ETFs when there is not a Mutual Fund alternative with the same low expenses and trading fees.
I have to admit that I never understood the advantage of “taxes withheld from RMDs are considered paid evenly throughout the year, even if paid near the end of the year” thing until I dug into it after reading some of the comments. This is an option we will keep in mind. Here is my summary on the withholding in retirement issue: Taking all of the withholding from one income source helps keep it as simple as possible. Social Security benefit voluntary withholding or RMD withholding are the likely candidates for the single income sources. Each has their advantages. Social Security voluntary withholding can start as soon your first benefit payment. RMD withholding can be used after RMDs start but does have the advantage stated above. Those with large enough pensions could use that. Avoiding risk and hassle (even if only minor) of quarterly reports and payments appears to be a consensus. But for some these may be a necessity. Automating the withholding helps, having whoever is providing the income take out the withholding as the income is received. Do an income and tax estimate near the start of a year and set the automatic withholding amounts/percentages at that time. Be prepared to make some adjustment toward the end of the year or when some other taxable event or change occurs. As for us, I will do our income and tax estimate as soon as the 2026 figures firm up. But I anticipate little if any change will be needed and our current Social Security benefit voluntary withholding will continue with no need for any action on our part.
“Why not have most, if not all, of the tax liability taken from the much smaller Social Security checks?” Two reasons. By taking a smaller percentage from the smaller benefit the “chunks” are smaller allowing for a better approximation of the correct withholding amount. And most importantly, since the smaller benefit is my spouses’ benefit I do not need to answer questions about why so little is left over, even though everything goes into one shared pile.
I remember on the day of the 9-11 attacks, while almost everyone in the office I worked at was huddled in front of the TV monitor in the lunch room, I spent the day working at my desk as usual, with only occasional updates about the day’s events. It is not that I did not care about the unfolding tragedy. It is because I had long learned how to compartmentalize my emotions. Once I understood what was happening, I also knew that there was not anything at all I could do on that day that would make any difference. So I continued my normal work routine. And yes, this separation of emotion from investment decisions is definitely a trait that would benefit any investor. After all, it’s only money.
I do feel much less nervous after recently rebalancing by slicing about one-third off of the YTD increase in our growth equities to buy additional stable-value investments. And since this was done within an IRA there were no tax consequences. Perhaps will do a little more to bring the total slice up to about one-half of the YTD increase. Depends on how much of the increase is “bubble” and how much is real long-term investment growth. Only the future will tell.
I agree that the current AI frenzy is kind of like the dot com bubble but different in that this time the companies are real with real business plans and enormous current revenues and profits that fund billion dollar investments with the expectation of even greater future profit. And I agree that current AI equity pricing is above where it should realistically be and there will be a decline of some degree, at some point of time. But I also believe that AI technology is already a productivity-adder and will greatly improve societies economic well being in the near and long term future. I especially believe AI applications beyond the large-language models that are now the public face of AI will provide the most significant advances in science and technology and productivity. I disagree that an “AI bust” will result in a long-term period of flat markets. There seems to be a tendency to more rapid business cycles, and specifically of shorter down markets. I am not sure if this is due to technological change or more wiliness on the part of financial regulators to take action. I am concerned that investing in the broad market indexes no longer provides the amount of diversification that it should. The top 10 holdings in both the S&P 500 index (37%) and the U.S. market index (33%) are identical and even the NASDAQ 100 index top 9 holdings (50%) are the same identical group of almost exclusively technology companies. And yes, I do find myself holding more in technology and growth investments than any financial advisor would prudently recommend for a recent retiree. But between inflation, and not yet being at my “enough” threshold, there does not seem to be any alternative. In the past two years I have increased my fixed investments from about 10% when I was fully employed to about 22% now and believe that I can handle any reasonably probable market decline whether shallow or deep, brief or prolonged.
Isn’t the market price paid for stocks and ETFs dynamic pricing? I invest in both ETFs and Mutual Funds but much prefer Mutual Funds simply to be assured that everyone else who buys or sells the fund on the same day as I do gets the same price. I always get stressed when making an ETF trade.
Comments
I also take a plastic bag and pick up an average of about 6 beer cans per day, every day, on my 2 to 3 mile walk in my rural neighborhood. My states' 10-cent beverage container deposit law is useless. A $1 deposit would be a start. I have been fantasizing about installing dirt-bag cameras along the road to catch the perps… Sorry this is starting to sound like a rant, I will stop now.
Post: Shopping carts. Please don’t consider this a rant. It is a lamentation.
Link to comment from November 5, 2025
I should have stated that the total payments to a Medicare Advantage insurance company for N users should be capped at no greater than the cost for N traditional Medicare users; not capping the benefits for individuals. The one and only reason to have the Medicare Advantage program is that it was promised to cost less than traditional Medicare since, after all, private enterprise always functions more efficiently than government, right? And why would the “illness burden” for Medicare Advantage be greater than traditional Medicare? Could it be due to “up coding” by the Medicare Advantage insurance companies to increase profit? This problem is very well documented. I hate to come off sounding so adversarial but I am absolutely certain that the Medicare system, Medicare users, and U.S. taxpayers would be better served if Medicare Advantage never existed. But this discussion branch is off-topic anyway since the article was about making individual Medicare enrollment choices and not about fixing the system. And I am sure that for some a Medicare Advantage plan could be the right choice.
Post: Don’t make the wrong Medicare decision
Link to comment from October 26, 2025
I would add reason #8: Be a patriot and help reduce the federal deficit by choosing traditional Medicare. According to medicarerights.org Medicare Advantage is now costing the U.S. taxpayer 20% more per user than traditional Medicare. That adds up to an additional $84 billion per year. My simple engineer’s brain cannot fathom how a program that only existed to save costs was allowed to be gamed by the health insurance providers. My simple engineer’s solution would be to immediately cap the payments per user to the insurance companies at no more than what traditional Medicare costs.
Post: Don’t make the wrong Medicare decision
Link to comment from October 25, 2025
How would you feel about grocery shopping where the price after you put an item into your cart is constantly changing until it is rung up by the cashier and the price for the same item is different for the person in line front of you and different again for the person behind you? That is how I feel when trading ETFs. But I do have ETFs when there is not a Mutual Fund alternative with the same low expenses and trading fees.
Post: Mutual Funds Vs. ETFs Which do you prefer and Why?
Link to comment from October 23, 2025
I have to admit that I never understood the advantage of “taxes withheld from RMDs are considered paid evenly throughout the year, even if paid near the end of the year” thing until I dug into it after reading some of the comments. This is an option we will keep in mind. Here is my summary on the withholding in retirement issue: Taking all of the withholding from one income source helps keep it as simple as possible. Social Security benefit voluntary withholding or RMD withholding are the likely candidates for the single income sources. Each has their advantages. Social Security voluntary withholding can start as soon your first benefit payment. RMD withholding can be used after RMDs start but does have the advantage stated above. Those with large enough pensions could use that. Avoiding risk and hassle (even if only minor) of quarterly reports and payments appears to be a consensus. But for some these may be a necessity. Automating the withholding helps, having whoever is providing the income take out the withholding as the income is received. Do an income and tax estimate near the start of a year and set the automatic withholding amounts/percentages at that time. Be prepared to make some adjustment toward the end of the year or when some other taxable event or change occurs. As for us, I will do our income and tax estimate as soon as the 2026 figures firm up. But I anticipate little if any change will be needed and our current Social Security benefit voluntary withholding will continue with no need for any action on our part.
Post: How do you pay income tax withholding in retirement?
Link to comment from October 16, 2025
“Why not have most, if not all, of the tax liability taken from the much smaller Social Security checks?” Two reasons. By taking a smaller percentage from the smaller benefit the “chunks” are smaller allowing for a better approximation of the correct withholding amount. And most importantly, since the smaller benefit is my spouses’ benefit I do not need to answer questions about why so little is left over, even though everything goes into one shared pile.
Post: How do you pay income tax withholding in retirement?
Link to comment from October 15, 2025
I remember on the day of the 9-11 attacks, while almost everyone in the office I worked at was huddled in front of the TV monitor in the lunch room, I spent the day working at my desk as usual, with only occasional updates about the day’s events. It is not that I did not care about the unfolding tragedy. It is because I had long learned how to compartmentalize my emotions. Once I understood what was happening, I also knew that there was not anything at all I could do on that day that would make any difference. So I continued my normal work routine. And yes, this separation of emotion from investment decisions is definitely a trait that would benefit any investor. After all, it’s only money.
Post: The Edge of Indifference
Link to comment from October 15, 2025
I do feel much less nervous after recently rebalancing by slicing about one-third off of the YTD increase in our growth equities to buy additional stable-value investments. And since this was done within an IRA there were no tax consequences. Perhaps will do a little more to bring the total slice up to about one-half of the YTD increase. Depends on how much of the increase is “bubble” and how much is real long-term investment growth. Only the future will tell.
Post: Make My Day Punk, Harvest the Bubble.
Link to comment from October 14, 2025
I agree that the current AI frenzy is kind of like the dot com bubble but different in that this time the companies are real with real business plans and enormous current revenues and profits that fund billion dollar investments with the expectation of even greater future profit. And I agree that current AI equity pricing is above where it should realistically be and there will be a decline of some degree, at some point of time. But I also believe that AI technology is already a productivity-adder and will greatly improve societies economic well being in the near and long term future. I especially believe AI applications beyond the large-language models that are now the public face of AI will provide the most significant advances in science and technology and productivity. I disagree that an “AI bust” will result in a long-term period of flat markets. There seems to be a tendency to more rapid business cycles, and specifically of shorter down markets. I am not sure if this is due to technological change or more wiliness on the part of financial regulators to take action. I am concerned that investing in the broad market indexes no longer provides the amount of diversification that it should. The top 10 holdings in both the S&P 500 index (37%) and the U.S. market index (33%) are identical and even the NASDAQ 100 index top 9 holdings (50%) are the same identical group of almost exclusively technology companies. And yes, I do find myself holding more in technology and growth investments than any financial advisor would prudently recommend for a recent retiree. But between inflation, and not yet being at my “enough” threshold, there does not seem to be any alternative. In the past two years I have increased my fixed investments from about 10% when I was fully employed to about 22% now and believe that I can handle any reasonably probable market decline whether shallow or deep, brief or prolonged.
Post: Same But Different: The AI Bubble That Isn’t (Quite)
Link to comment from October 12, 2025
Isn’t the market price paid for stocks and ETFs dynamic pricing? I invest in both ETFs and Mutual Funds but much prefer Mutual Funds simply to be assured that everyone else who buys or sells the fund on the same day as I do gets the same price. I always get stressed when making an ETF trade.
Post: Hit With Dynamic Pricing! Has this happened to you?
Link to comment from October 9, 2025