I am going to make a recommendation that likely goes against the HD ethos - I suggest you get yourself “A Really Nice Car”. Assumptions from your many posts: 1) You have the financial resources, 2) you seem to travel so you are likely reasonably healthy and will survive for quite some time to make an expensive purchase last, 3) similar to # 2, you’re driving to Florida, where a “Nice Car” would lend itself to a more pleasurable drive - analogous to many recent posts on this blog about paying for first class seats when flying, e.g.,“If you don't buy a nice car, your kids will” !! I splurged a fair bit, but easily affordable for us, 2 years ago, with no regrets at all. We also drive to Florida (leaving winter soon, thank God) and it makes a VERY long drive more tolerable. Finally, “They” say to pay for experiences, rather than things, as the pleasure from the latter declines quickly….I am not at all a car guy, but after 2 years, I am very happy to find an excuse drive somewhere to do an errand,😜. Happy to share my car details privately with you Dick.
I would NEVER buy a whole life policy again - mine was a variable universal life policy. Mixing life insurance with investing is a no-no. These are policies meant to be sold, not bought. The sales commissions are enormous, which is why they are pushed on the unsuspecting. While the cash value of my policy has appreciated over time significantly, I would have to pay 5% interest once I withdraw above my basis. Basically, paying interest for the “Privilege “ of accessing my money ! The annual dividend is tiny and is totally wiped out by the premium cost of maintaining the policy death benefit. The premium will of course rise/get worse as i get older. By coincidence, I am in the process of converting my policy via a 1035 exchange into an annuity - not my preference but better the keeping the policy.
For those interested in taking a FAR deeper dive into whole life insurance, The White Coat Investor blog has published many highly persuasive articles over the years about the lack of suitability of these products for nearly everyone.
Driving back from Toronto to home/Cleveland last Friday, I spent 6 hours at a standstill on I-90, right at the PA/NY border, after a semi slid off the road. A 4.5 hour trip took 14 hours. Worst storm I’ve ever driven in, and I Canadian !
Actually, compared to what I pay for my coverage from The Marketplace / ACA / Obamacare, it is pretty close to free - I’m age 62. For 2024 my annual premium for a Silver plan is $12,000, and for 2025 it will be about $ 14,400, for rhe same plan. And thats before I get one iota of actual medical care. I can’t wait to turn 65 !
I retired 4 years ago from my job as a Medical Oncologist. When I introduce myself to someone, do I say I “am” a physician or I “was” a physician? BTW, I still have my medical license 😜
Sheila:
1) re. It was only well after my mom’s death (following a 12 year dementia journey) that I really understood that the common dementias (vascular, Alzheimers, Lewy-Body) are terminal diseases. None of my mom’s doctors explained that clearly to me.I’m afraid all of us (doctors, patients, and their families) all share some “credit” for this problem. Notably, I had patients with metastatic cancer, on treatment for quite some time, who were SHOCKED, despite my best efforts, to make them understand they had a terminal illness. 2) r.e “My mom’s doctors were competent and well-intentioned, but clearly not trained or comfortable in actually communicating anything about terminal disease to my mom or her family”I trained at an excellent program in Boston. No complaints about my education, except ; we were taught to never take away a patients “Hope”. I always felt that this was code to sugar coat, or even lie, about a patients prognosis. My take away was that the only thing worse than no hope, was false hope. So I tried to be empathetic and caring, but not deceptive.
not common - but not rare - for a patient with cancer to be found to have asymptomatic blood clots. As Jonathan pointed out, correctly, cancers of all types make one much more prone to developing clots
re above, try to stay hydrated and move/walk around frequently on long trips. Even moving your legs in your seat can be helpful.
Pills: every doc throws pills at patients 😂 The numbers of pills can rise dramatically. The risk of interactions increases, especially in older folks. Periodically, ask your PCP, or whichever doc is your central player, to go over your meds, and get rid of as many as possible. Bonus: you may even save money !
Even docs are lousy at talking to people about death or cancer. More than rarely, patients were sent to see me and the referring doctor didn't tell them they were coming to me for a new cancer diagnosis 🤷♂️
LOL re "playing your C card"........... my wife does the same thing and that is exactly what we call it !
I remain puzzled why so many have an unrealistic view of what dividends are, and aren’t, such that they would structure their whole portfolio around it. The two following paragraphs come from the WCI (White Coat Investor) blog, which spells it out better than I could : 1) It's important to understand what a dividend is. A company has a choice with what to do with earnings. It can retain them and reinvest them or it can give them to the owners. But either way, the owners own those earnings. It's more tax-efficient not to give them to the owners until the owners actually need them. That's what declaring your own dividend (by selling shares) does. An automatically paid dividend is just forcing you to pay taxes you wouldn't otherwise have to pay. I currently pay 28.8% on dividends that I wouldn't have to pay for decades (or maybe ever) if the company could find a good way to reinvest the money instead. A tilt toward dividend paying stocks (or even an entire portfolio full of them) is really just a value tilt, and probably not the best way to do it.2) I think a good portion of the population that invests does not seem to understand, dividends don't make a stock worth more. What makes a stock worth more is better earnings. If a stock returns profits as a dividend, the price of the stock goes down by the same amount, therefore a net zero sum gain, except you get to pay the taxes now instead of latter (bolding by me).
I will respectfully disagree. The major and perhaps “only” variable on when to claim SS, is knowing how long you will live - for most, unknown. By contrast, some/ many of the other financial decisions we are required to make have, albeit not always perfectly reliable, some financial history to help guide these choices - a 60/40 portfolio is likely to succeed; a 4% withdrawal rate is likely to succeed ; annuities, though quite unpopular will likely help you to succeed ; a diversified portfolio portfolio is likely to help you succeed, etc. One has essentially nothing to fall back on when choosing when to start SS because its based on survival, and there is minimal to no data on how long any given person will survive. Even those with advanced cancer (I am a retired medical oncologist) can survive for vastly different amounts of time.
Comments
I am going to make a recommendation that likely goes against the HD ethos - I suggest you get yourself “A Really Nice Car”. Assumptions from your many posts: 1) You have the financial resources, 2) you seem to travel so you are likely reasonably healthy and will survive for quite some time to make an expensive purchase last, 3) similar to # 2, you’re driving to Florida, where a “Nice Car” would lend itself to a more pleasurable drive - analogous to many recent posts on this blog about paying for first class seats when flying, e.g.,“If you don't buy a nice car, your kids will” !! I splurged a fair bit, but easily affordable for us, 2 years ago, with no regrets at all. We also drive to Florida (leaving winter soon, thank God) and it makes a VERY long drive more tolerable. Finally, “They” say to pay for experiences, rather than things, as the pleasure from the latter declines quickly….I am not at all a car guy, but after 2 years, I am very happy to find an excuse drive somewhere to do an errand,😜. Happy to share my car details privately with you Dick.
Post: Ok HD community I need car advice
Link to comment from January 24, 2025
I would NEVER buy a whole life policy again - mine was a variable universal life policy. Mixing life insurance with investing is a no-no. These are policies meant to be sold, not bought. The sales commissions are enormous, which is why they are pushed on the unsuspecting. While the cash value of my policy has appreciated over time significantly, I would have to pay 5% interest once I withdraw above my basis. Basically, paying interest for the “Privilege “ of accessing my money ! The annual dividend is tiny and is totally wiped out by the premium cost of maintaining the policy death benefit. The premium will of course rise/get worse as i get older. By coincidence, I am in the process of converting my policy via a 1035 exchange into an annuity - not my preference but better the keeping the policy. For those interested in taking a FAR deeper dive into whole life insurance, The White Coat Investor blog has published many highly persuasive articles over the years about the lack of suitability of these products for nearly everyone.
Post: Whole Life Insurance Worked for Me
Link to comment from January 23, 2025
Sam Ro posted a Substack yesterday 1/15/24 titled, “There is no evidence of mean reversion in equity valuations” based on Goldman Sachs analysts evaluation. https://open.substack.com/pub/samro/p/goldman-no-evidence-equity-valuation-mean-reversion?r=tz2r&utm_medium=ios
Post: Is There a Change Coming in the Direction of the Markets’ Winds?
Link to comment from January 16, 2025
Driving back from Toronto to home/Cleveland last Friday, I spent 6 hours at a standstill on I-90, right at the PA/NY border, after a semi slid off the road. A 4.5 hour trip took 14 hours. Worst storm I’ve ever driven in, and I Canadian !
Post: Things That Don’t Much Interest Me No More
Link to comment from December 6, 2024
Actually, compared to what I pay for my coverage from The Marketplace / ACA / Obamacare, it is pretty close to free - I’m age 62. For 2024 my annual premium for a Silver plan is $12,000, and for 2025 it will be about $ 14,400, for rhe same plan. And thats before I get one iota of actual medical care. I can’t wait to turn 65 !
Post: Quinn thinks “free” is a dirty word.
Link to comment from November 17, 2024
I retired 4 years ago from my job as a Medical Oncologist. When I introduce myself to someone, do I say I “am” a physician or I “was” a physician? BTW, I still have my medical license 😜
Post: Enjoy the moving walkway, embrace retirement, don’t look back RDQ
Link to comment from November 14, 2024
Sheila: 1) re. It was only well after my mom’s death (following a 12 year dementia journey) that I really understood that the common dementias (vascular, Alzheimers, Lewy-Body) are terminal diseases. None of my mom’s doctors explained that clearly to me. I’m afraid all of us (doctors, patients, and their families) all share some “credit” for this problem. Notably, I had patients with metastatic cancer, on treatment for quite some time, who were SHOCKED, despite my best efforts, to make them understand they had a terminal illness. 2) r.e “My mom’s doctors were competent and well-intentioned, but clearly not trained or comfortable in actually communicating anything about terminal disease to my mom or her family” I trained at an excellent program in Boston. No complaints about my education, except ; we were taught to never take away a patients “Hope”. I always felt that this was code to sugar coat, or even lie, about a patients prognosis. My take away was that the only thing worse than no hope, was false hope. So I tried to be empathetic and caring, but not deceptive.
Post: Eyeing the End by Jonathan Clements
Link to comment from October 26, 2024
Retired Oncologist here:
Post: Eyeing the End by Jonathan Clements
Link to comment from October 25, 2024
I remain puzzled why so many have an unrealistic view of what dividends are, and aren’t, such that they would structure their whole portfolio around it. The two following paragraphs come from the WCI (White Coat Investor) blog, which spells it out better than I could : 1) It's important to understand what a dividend is. A company has a choice with what to do with earnings. It can retain them and reinvest them or it can give them to the owners. But either way, the owners own those earnings. It's more tax-efficient not to give them to the owners until the owners actually need them. That's what declaring your own dividend (by selling shares) does. An automatically paid dividend is just forcing you to pay taxes you wouldn't otherwise have to pay. I currently pay 28.8% on dividends that I wouldn't have to pay for decades (or maybe ever) if the company could find a good way to reinvest the money instead. A tilt toward dividend paying stocks (or even an entire portfolio full of them) is really just a value tilt, and probably not the best way to do it. 2) I think a good portion of the population that invests does not seem to understand, dividends don't make a stock worth more. What makes a stock worth more is better earnings. If a stock returns profits as a dividend, the price of the stock goes down by the same amount, therefore a net zero sum gain, except you get to pay the taxes now instead of latter (bolding by me).
Post: Growth Investing or Dividend Investing in Retirement?
Link to comment from October 24, 2024
I will respectfully disagree. The major and perhaps “only” variable on when to claim SS, is knowing how long you will live - for most, unknown. By contrast, some/ many of the other financial decisions we are required to make have, albeit not always perfectly reliable, some financial history to help guide these choices - a 60/40 portfolio is likely to succeed; a 4% withdrawal rate is likely to succeed ; annuities, though quite unpopular will likely help you to succeed ; a diversified portfolio portfolio is likely to help you succeed, etc. One has essentially nothing to fall back on when choosing when to start SS because its based on survival, and there is minimal to no data on how long any given person will survive. Even those with advanced cancer (I am a retired medical oncologist) can survive for vastly different amounts of time.
Post: Just the Facts by Jonathan Clements
Link to comment from October 18, 2024