When my daughter was a baby, I used to walk with her to the supermarket and carry home two bags of groceries (that's what I could carry with her) for a cost of $30 to $35.
Thirty years later, those same two bags of groceries cost $60 to $70, and sometimes more.
During this period, my partner and I each had substantial increases in salary. Over the thirty years, hers increased 4x to 5x. Mine increased 2x. I kept up with inflation; hers exceeded inflation. But in retirement, we will both have substantial cuts to income and it looks like the income retirement accounts generate will only be enough to keep up with inflation. Yet we will have to withdraw capital.
Inflation is a very serious concern.
I keep hearing about how boomers are hoarding houses. Maybe if boomers could sell their houses without having to pay a huge amount in capital gains, they'd be more willing to move. The gains are going to be stepped up anyhow if they hold on to the property until they die, so why not give them the option to sell tax free a few years earlier?
It's going to be very interesting to see how AI changes our ideas about data driven prediction. No doubt it will find trends people have overlooked.
This week at my job a colleague asked me for help with an image analysis problem. After trying a few traditional approaches with minimal success with one metric of feature differences, I uploaded eight images to our firewall protected AI and prompted it to define morphological measurements which would be relevant and on each to rank the images. In about 20 seconds it had ten different features measured and ranked the images with explanations for each too. It correctly grouped the images from their sources, which we knew. Very impressive.
But will it be any more accurate at predicting? Financial markets, or in the case of the images of biology at work, may change suddenly based on events extrinsic to existing data.
A huge help is paying for college or for professional training so that the kids start off debt free. I think we all agree that no debt means less stress,more agency, and a foundation for building wealth. As a general issue, I don't believe that having money damages work ethic. It's not having a work ethic that leads to not working. In my experience, since I was a little kid growing up along side some very wealthy classmates and now as an educator, and just by looking around, how hard people work is not correlated with pre-existing wealth. Also, why is the idea of working for money considered such a virtue even when you may not need to do it?
This comment in another article here addresses an aspect of this:
https://humbledollar.com/forum/the-paradox-of-wealth/#comment-2096040 Also, I think we all need to work harder to change the system because the low and high ends of the K are unfair and unsustainable.
Don't knock Costco; their stock is doing great in my gambling portfolio!
But I won't go there. The parking lot is always packed and is the cause of the single highest traffic intersection in the city. Except for diapers, the volume packaging is usually too big. Their hours are too limited.
Whether to take the first $1000 and any additional donated money to open a Trump account is a no brainer. Do it.
Whether to donate more? It looks like it's only worth doing after exhausting other options.
Also, another app? Another account to keep track of? And trusting the gov't to manage low cost index funds and not redenominate them as crypto? When will brokerage firms like Schwab, Fidelity, Vanguard have these accounts? (Or maybe they won't because the accounts are too small to be profitable.)
Comments
The 1971 view is obsolete. There is no need for a computer clerk.
Post: Today in Financial History
Link to comment from August 1, 2026
When my daughter was a baby, I used to walk with her to the supermarket and carry home two bags of groceries (that's what I could carry with her) for a cost of $30 to $35. Thirty years later, those same two bags of groceries cost $60 to $70, and sometimes more. During this period, my partner and I each had substantial increases in salary. Over the thirty years, hers increased 4x to 5x. Mine increased 2x. I kept up with inflation; hers exceeded inflation. But in retirement, we will both have substantial cuts to income and it looks like the income retirement accounts generate will only be enough to keep up with inflation. Yet we will have to withdraw capital. Inflation is a very serious concern.
Post: Inflation, prices, COLAs, retirement and the last 16 years
Link to comment from August 1, 2026
A question about TIPS: what is the risk that the politicians will grab control of the inflation index and downplay it?
Post: Taking a Loss?
Link to comment from August 1, 2026
I keep hearing about how boomers are hoarding houses. Maybe if boomers could sell their houses without having to pay a huge amount in capital gains, they'd be more willing to move. The gains are going to be stepped up anyhow if they hold on to the property until they die, so why not give them the option to sell tax free a few years earlier?
Post: $400,000 Mistake
Link to comment from August 1, 2026
It's going to be very interesting to see how AI changes our ideas about data driven prediction. No doubt it will find trends people have overlooked. This week at my job a colleague asked me for help with an image analysis problem. After trying a few traditional approaches with minimal success with one metric of feature differences, I uploaded eight images to our firewall protected AI and prompted it to define morphological measurements which would be relevant and on each to rank the images. In about 20 seconds it had ten different features measured and ranked the images with explanations for each too. It correctly grouped the images from their sources, which we knew. Very impressive. But will it be any more accurate at predicting? Financial markets, or in the case of the images of biology at work, may change suddenly based on events extrinsic to existing data.
Post: Market Indicators
Link to comment from July 25, 2026
I lesson I've failed to internalize. I wish I could, but my work ethic gets in the way.
Post: The Paradox of Wealth
Link to comment from July 18, 2026
A huge help is paying for college or for professional training so that the kids start off debt free. I think we all agree that no debt means less stress,more agency, and a foundation for building wealth. As a general issue, I don't believe that having money damages work ethic. It's not having a work ethic that leads to not working. In my experience, since I was a little kid growing up along side some very wealthy classmates and now as an educator, and just by looking around, how hard people work is not correlated with pre-existing wealth. Also, why is the idea of working for money considered such a virtue even when you may not need to do it? This comment in another article here addresses an aspect of this: https://humbledollar.com/forum/the-paradox-of-wealth/#comment-2096040 Also, I think we all need to work harder to change the system because the low and high ends of the K are unfair and unsustainable.
Post: K-shaped Economy
Link to comment from July 18, 2026
Don't knock Costco; their stock is doing great in my gambling portfolio! But I won't go there. The parking lot is always packed and is the cause of the single highest traffic intersection in the city. Except for diapers, the volume packaging is usually too big. Their hours are too limited.
Post: Frittering away Frugality
Link to comment from July 11, 2026
It's refreshing to hear celebration of how young talented people are recognized. When we have the chance, we need to help promote them now.
Post: The Making of Jonathan Clements
Link to comment from July 11, 2026
Whether to take the first $1000 and any additional donated money to open a Trump account is a no brainer. Do it. Whether to donate more? It looks like it's only worth doing after exhausting other options. Also, another app? Another account to keep track of? And trusting the gov't to manage low cost index funds and not redenominate them as crypto? When will brokerage firms like Schwab, Fidelity, Vanguard have these accounts? (Or maybe they won't because the accounts are too small to be profitable.)
Post: Trump Accounts
Link to comment from July 11, 2026