Martin McCue

Comments:

• I've eaten at enough good restaurants in my life that highly-rated or exclusive restaurants don't really attract me any more. There isn't too much out there that draws me in. So my basic "eating-out" expense every year is surprisingly low. But I've found that what really reduces the cost when we eat out is that we just don't drink alcohol any more. Mainly, we focus on the quality of the entrees. A bottle of wine or a few drinks can easily add 25-50% to a restaurant bill, if not more, without really enhancing the meal very much. We don't miss it.

  Post: Food for Thought by Ken Cutler

  Link to comment from October 5, 2024

• I delayed hearing aids as long as possible, mainly because of the cost. My Medicare Advantage plan finally added them as something I could buy at a greatly reduced rate, so I jumped. I truly appreciate them, but they aren't always essential for me, and so there are stretches when I just don't wear them. (Four obvious examples: when I mow my lawn and do yard work, when I am by myself for any extended time, when I exercise and when they are likely to get wet.) I chose batteries over rechargeables because I don't ever want to be caught in a situation where the aids die and I can't do anything about it for a long while. Plus batteries last 4-6 days for me. When I compare what aids do for hearing with what artificial lenses do for sight, the latter wins, hands down. That eye surgery is a miracle. But aids have their place. I have never been embarrassed about having hearing aids - I am open about them, talk freely about them, and often take them out to show people how they work. No big deal. Separately, while I have learned to hate the taste of Jello (a dessert I used to really love), I will never forego (or even delay) my next colonoscopy. I'll grit my teeth and live with it. A substitute will have to prove itself very clearly before I'll change my view about that. The risks are too real.

  Post: Two Innovations That Can Improve Your Health by Dennis Friedman

  Link to comment from October 5, 2024

• Every new day on earth is a gift, no matter how many or how few you have left. Don't angst over it. So many people around you love you and just want you to be happy (and feel no pain). If you are undecided about what to do next, just use the moment to think about and appreciate what you have now. I was intrigued by the "clearing out" section of this missive. I have boxes and boxes of well sorted but unculled papers, photos and other documents in my basement. Will my kids care about what I earned as a teenager, or how my 1040s changed over the years? Are there stories buried in those boxes that even I have forgotten about? Is there a photograph that was meaningless when I took it, but that is memorable today? And, as you note, how many things in those boxes would I want my kids to NOT see! I'd sure appreciate more of your take on how you approached that process.

  Post: Turned Upside Down

  Link to comment from October 5, 2024

• The question at the bottom of this article is perhaps the most critical one for the average investor today - how do I diversify better than what the S&P 500 or a total market index offer, now that a small group of market leaders controls so much of those indexes? That is especially important for me as I approach my mid-70s and would like to sidestep the next big downturn as best I can. Your article is excellent, but I'm not sure that VIG is THE answer for me. (I already have some money in VIG, so it remains one possible answer, and your article makes me think maybe I should put more into that fund.) I look at the top individual stocks in every fund I consider, and take into account the extent of interlocks - the same stocks that appear in a number of funds. And there are some individual stocks I have learned to respect ... or not. If a few of those stocks are in a top holdings list, it affects my investment decision, too -- pro or con. Alas, my search seems destined to persist for a long time.

  Post: A Cautionary Tale: The S&P and the Perilous Sequence of Returns by Steve Abramowitz

  Link to comment from September 24, 2024

• I am better off today compared to 2020 not because of public policy or party politics. I am better off today because I have worked hard my whole life and have been a steady saver and investor. I've had faith in American capitalism throughout my life, not just through the pandemic. I've built a portfolio of stocks (mainly index funds for mid-size and large companies) that reflect that faith. That portfolio is now much more robust than it was in 2020. But it is more robust because it relies on the efforts of millions of people who work in the private sector and who want their businesses to succeed. I've shared in their success. And I wish them even better luck in the future. And I want everyone in this country to be able to share in that, too. I like the fact that there are some regulatory guardrails that experience has shown to be necessary, and that tend not to interfere with the free market. Trust in the fundamental integrity of the stock market is essential. One can argue ad infinitum about what we should do with the taxing power, and the printing of new money that expands the deficit. But I would put a pox on anyone who thinks we need people to come in and comprehensively restructure and run our economy, many of whom have never spent real time struggling for success inside a competitive business.

  Post: Quinn ponders – Are you better off than you were four years ago?

  Link to comment from September 21, 2024

• I think it is important as a matter of principle to seek the right price. It is one of the ways that an individual can add some discipline to the operation of the competitive marketplace. In most cases, I'd get the overcharge fixed, and in most cases, there is someone empowered to do just that for you without a lot of hassle. There are a few cases where I'd say who cares, or just ignore the issue because I like the business (like a struggling small business or a store I use a lot.) But you invite a business to let the problem get larger by not standing up for yourself. Just about 5 days ago (it is September 21, 2024), Home Depot agreed to pay nearly $2M to Los Angeles County to settle scanner/shelf pricing discrepancies, when the UPC code led to overcharges at checkout, and pricing that was higher than the consumer had been led to expect when comparing products on the shelves. That's just one company in one county. I assume most of the time, this activity is not intentional, and is just a store administration detail that fell through the cracks. No matter. Every store has a legal duty not to exploit its own failure to increase its profits.

  Post: Getting Rolled by Jonathan Clements

  Link to comment from September 21, 2024

• This article is excellent, but I have to admit I am not following it. The stock market has been so good in recent years that even with a few big down years, the cumulative returns dwarf bond returns (and offer the only way to outrun inflation, too.) I do diversify in a few bond funds (and my pensions and Social Security also operate like bonds), but I figure I'lll stay way overinvested in stocks for a while more - I've been playing with house money now for a long time, and only a big drop (like from a war or other catastrophe) will bring me back to the returns I would have had from a classic stock-bond allocation.

  Post: Giving Credit

  Link to comment from September 14, 2024

• Great opening line. An excellent article that points out a very common truth. If you don't like what is par for the course, just set your own, so your score will always look better against it. This reminds me of how executive pay is sometimes set. When a CEO has to negotiate a new employment agreement, he or she will often recommend to the board that it use a particular consultant (or his or her most supportive board member will make that recommendation.) That consultant, desirous of future business, will often cherry-pick among other CEOs' salaries in comparative companies to come up with a recommendation, and that recommendation will usually be that the CEO should earn a lot more. Elon Musk won't show up on the list of comparables, of course, but the conclusions will still lead to more, more, more.

  Post: False Comparisons

  Link to comment from September 14, 2024

• TIPS as a form of self-created annuity makes sense. But don't necessarily think of TIPS as an investment. They have some of the same flaws as bonds, in that the underlying value of a TIPS portfolio can swing wildly as interest rates go up or down. There were a few years in the last decade where TIPS were real dogs, and other years where they were stellar performers.

  Post: Laying Down a Floor

  Link to comment from September 14, 2024

• Since you did not specify that it be "financial", the field is wide open. For me: (1) having people to love and be loved by; (2) experiencing a positive viewpoint and a sense of basic happiness; (3) good mental and physical health; (4) a mind that remains alert, active and curious; and (5) a nest egg in which you can have some confidence and that easily supports what you want to do.

  Post: Everything About Retirement on a 3×5 card

  Link to comment from August 17, 2024