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Mike is a former naval officer and 20-year veteran of the oil and gas industry. Born on Long Island and trained as a nuclear engineer, he tries to write with a little New York skepticism, an engineer's sense of logic and hopefully some humor. Now retired, he enjoys traveling, blogging and spreadsheets.
Comments
Bill C, When I started reading your comment (btw: thanks for the reply), I, of course, mentally started to prepare a very pointed and insightful rebuttal. That is until you criticized the balance of HumbleDollar, at which point I just wanted to shake your hand.
Post: Financial Lessons
Link to comment from October 2, 2026
Joey!!!! Adam Grossman is money manager, I mean the founder of a fixed-fee wealth management firm. If you think he writes these articles purely to enrich Humble Dollar readers, you may want to take a tighter hold of your wallet. Also, I don't want to be entertained, I want to be informed. Though thanks for the tip about Quinn. He's quite informing and even more importantly, he replies to my comments.
Post: Financial Lessons
Link to comment from October 1, 2026
Martin, I don't ask that writers reply to every comment or even more importantly my comments. How about starting by replying to one comment per article and then seeing where it goes?
Post: Financial Lessons
Link to comment from September 27, 2026
I just don't like the fact that this guy publishes a weekly column but yet can't be bothered to reply to comments--which seems antithetical to the whole HumbleDollar thing. It all may make a commenter that much more strident in his replies: While I agree that at some point self insurance may make sense for an older car (i.e. drop your collision and comprehensive), the idea of raising your deductible is laughable and makes me doubt all the other "lessons" lectured. My insurance company (USAA) is better than most and does not offer a homeowners or auto deductible greater than $1,000 (I've just checked . . . again). Also, when the Board of my condominium asked to increase the property deductible from $5,000 to $10,000 we were informed that the savings would be less than a penny on the dollar. Can I get insurance advice that is actionable instead of banal?
Post: Financial Lessons
Link to comment from September 26, 2026
Unlike your the balance of your article, I agree with you.
Post: I will still take the dividends
Link to comment from September 18, 2026
I must admit I’m more interested in the names of the two stocks then in your unique analysis. You make it seem all so mysterious. Are their names some sort of secret?
Post: I will still take the dividends
Link to comment from September 15, 2026
Dunn, You may want to edit your reply when it’s longer than article you are replying to.
Post: I will still take the dividends
Link to comment from September 14, 2026
If this keeps up you may want to get some embossed tissues for yourself.
Post: A Wedding Too Far
Link to comment from September 7, 2026
Nick, XOM used to match the first 6% of 401(k) contributions with a 7% match, if the employee took the 7% in XOM stock. That's what I did for many years. After Enron, it was changed to allow a 7% match no matter how an employee took it. At that point I started taking the match in various index funds (where I was putting the balance of my contributions). I never sold my XOM shares to allow for a future NUA. Now that I realized that NUA is not very useful, I'm (very) slowly selling my XOM shares.
Post: Blood Money
Link to comment from September 1, 2026
Nick Politakis, Thanks for your comments but I need to clarify things: XOM supplies the world with a much needed product that is required by all aspects of civilization--a product that starts off in some of the most dangerous and unfriendly places on the face of the earth. A product that costs at most $4.00 a gallon. KO on the other hand manufactures a product that is completely unneeded by civilization and costs over $7.00 a gallon.
Post: Blood Money
Link to comment from August 28, 2026