Hello Ed - sounds like you and your wife have done the hard work of building a nest egg that gives you peace of mind and the confidence to make that big step into retirement - invest, spend, enjoy. A fellow frugalista myself, I understand well where you’re coming from regarding your hesitance to “let the brakes off” and start spending more freely. One of the disadvantages of retiring healthy and planning on a 30-year or longer retirement is the lack of a sense of urgency around getting on with it. I retired at 58 and my 8 years younger wife quit when I was 63. Since then I found a group of retired guys that meets for lunch monthly; and some of them go on a weekly bicycle ride. I’m one of the younger ones - most them are in their 70s and we have a few in their 80s. The one thing I hear repeatedly when I tell them about a trip we’re planning, or relating tales from one we just finished is how wise it is of us to do as much of this as we can now, while we’re still interested and have the energy to do it. They all pretty much say the same thing - it goes fast and the day comes when you’re not able or no longer up for those adventures. We only have so much time - that’s why you decided to take a step toward freedom from others telling you how to spend your time. I hope you’re able to lean into the spending and exercise that muscle. Denying yourselves now that big trip, nice car, expensive bike, giving with warm hands, etc etc is potentially a recipe for future regret. (For more on that, read about the King Tut Problem - you don’t want to be buried with your gold!).
Anything less than 0.1% is considered excellent for the entire portfolio. That has been and continues to be my target. We’d be at 0.11% except for this private stock position which is throwing off 10% fixed and compounded daily, so it’s worth giving up a few bps for that level of return.
Great rundown - love it (and the opening quote from St. Vincent ;-)
While rocket science it is not, I find it helpful to remind myself that there was a time when I (and everyone else on this forum) didn’t know these obvious truths either. I’d add that in addition to the concise list of five bullets to remember, it’s helpful to measure what can be measured. One of the easiest is expenses. What is the total expense ratio you’re paying for your entire portfolio? Do you know? I’d be willing to bet that the majority of folks on this forum don’t know. I didn’t know what our total expense ratio was until a year or two ago, despite having spread-sheeted and pivot-tabled our portfolio to death for the last 15 years. It’s now standing at 0.137%, which is higher than my target of 0.10%. But I know why - it’s due to the fees charged by the custodian for a self-directed IRA position that has quite a high yield. So it’s worth the extra cost. Also, looking at concentration by asset type and sector can be a useful metric that can be easily calculated and used to help you objectively determine whether you are needlessly exposing yourself to concentration risk.
Sometimes the value of planning isn’t the resulting plan, but the actual planning activity itself. So lay it all out as best you can, even write it up if you need to, and then be prepared to crumple it up and toss it in the bin, secure in the knowledge that you’ve thought through as much as possible all of the if/then’s and contingencies that you can reasonably anticipate based on where you are now. That’s the good work. Of course it will change - no one can predict the future.
Fantastic article - thanks for sharing. I’ve been a DIYer, too, for the last few years. Finally ‘cut the cord’ with my robo-advisor who was charging us around $6k/year to manage a chunk of our portfolio. The value add was putting us in some more complex equity and bond sleeves than I would’ve come up with on my own that did seem to generate some alpha. The downside to me was that not a lot seemed to be happening with it for long stretches of time, and I started questioning whether the juice was worth the squeeze, so I finally quit using them about a year ago. The standout part of his experiment for me was item 6, Recommended Actions, that Claude gave him, about rebalancing to his target AA and which specific positions to buy or sell. This is the last piece of the puzzle for me in terms of managing our decumulation plan. I know in broad brush strokes how much I want to liquidate, but from which positions (given the complexity of our portfolios) has never been clear to me. Great stuff. Thanks.
Now what was that other article, something about doing nothing? Seems to me stock tokens might be appealing to the day-trading set, but for those of us who are adhering to a more boring regimen of buying index funds and tuning out the thrum of the news cycle they have not a lot to offer. My other observation is related to the techies who are behind these. “Techies are gonna tech.” They’re enamored of new software and technology tricks, and love finding ingenious ways of putting them to work - sometimes regardless of the actual value their innovations create by way of improved quality or productivity. Witness earlier years of the web when Java Script and Flash were just coming into play. There was an old joke around Silicon Valley about web developers penchant for playing with new toys: “OK, yeah sure, the UI sucks, but look at that Flash.” In other words, admitting that all their coding work didn’t really do anything to improve the user experience, but the page sure did look cool. So now we have stock tokens.
“No matter how hard I work, I will never be able to afford a home I really love.” Just wait’ll they find out they’re not all going to get a trophy for doing a half-a**ed job at work… Mass affluence and constant affirmations have led to high expectations, and I see many young people expecting to start out their adult lives living at the same level they left behind when they moved out of their parents’ quarters. It’s a rude awakening to find out that for many, if not most, real life don’t always turn out that way.
Comments
Hello Ed - sounds like you and your wife have done the hard work of building a nest egg that gives you peace of mind and the confidence to make that big step into retirement - invest, spend, enjoy. A fellow frugalista myself, I understand well where you’re coming from regarding your hesitance to “let the brakes off” and start spending more freely. One of the disadvantages of retiring healthy and planning on a 30-year or longer retirement is the lack of a sense of urgency around getting on with it. I retired at 58 and my 8 years younger wife quit when I was 63. Since then I found a group of retired guys that meets for lunch monthly; and some of them go on a weekly bicycle ride. I’m one of the younger ones - most them are in their 70s and we have a few in their 80s. The one thing I hear repeatedly when I tell them about a trip we’re planning, or relating tales from one we just finished is how wise it is of us to do as much of this as we can now, while we’re still interested and have the energy to do it. They all pretty much say the same thing - it goes fast and the day comes when you’re not able or no longer up for those adventures. We only have so much time - that’s why you decided to take a step toward freedom from others telling you how to spend your time. I hope you’re able to lean into the spending and exercise that muscle. Denying yourselves now that big trip, nice car, expensive bike, giving with warm hands, etc etc is potentially a recipe for future regret. (For more on that, read about the King Tut Problem - you don’t want to be buried with your gold!).
Post: Slow on the Draw
Link to comment from May 9, 2026
Anything less than 0.1% is considered excellent for the entire portfolio. That has been and continues to be my target. We’d be at 0.11% except for this private stock position which is throwing off 10% fixed and compounded daily, so it’s worth giving up a few bps for that level of return.
Post: Investing Fundamentals: A Simple Guide for Beginners
Link to comment from May 2, 2026
Great rundown - love it (and the opening quote from St. Vincent ;-) While rocket science it is not, I find it helpful to remind myself that there was a time when I (and everyone else on this forum) didn’t know these obvious truths either. I’d add that in addition to the concise list of five bullets to remember, it’s helpful to measure what can be measured. One of the easiest is expenses. What is the total expense ratio you’re paying for your entire portfolio? Do you know? I’d be willing to bet that the majority of folks on this forum don’t know. I didn’t know what our total expense ratio was until a year or two ago, despite having spread-sheeted and pivot-tabled our portfolio to death for the last 15 years. It’s now standing at 0.137%, which is higher than my target of 0.10%. But I know why - it’s due to the fees charged by the custodian for a self-directed IRA position that has quite a high yield. So it’s worth the extra cost. Also, looking at concentration by asset type and sector can be a useful metric that can be easily calculated and used to help you objectively determine whether you are needlessly exposing yourself to concentration risk.
Post: Investing Fundamentals: A Simple Guide for Beginners
Link to comment from May 2, 2026
Sometimes the value of planning isn’t the resulting plan, but the actual planning activity itself. So lay it all out as best you can, even write it up if you need to, and then be prepared to crumple it up and toss it in the bin, secure in the knowledge that you’ve thought through as much as possible all of the if/then’s and contingencies that you can reasonably anticipate based on where you are now. That’s the good work. Of course it will change - no one can predict the future.
Post: A Bit More Humble
Link to comment from April 18, 2026
Fantastic article - thanks for sharing. I’ve been a DIYer, too, for the last few years. Finally ‘cut the cord’ with my robo-advisor who was charging us around $6k/year to manage a chunk of our portfolio. The value add was putting us in some more complex equity and bond sleeves than I would’ve come up with on my own that did seem to generate some alpha. The downside to me was that not a lot seemed to be happening with it for long stretches of time, and I started questioning whether the juice was worth the squeeze, so I finally quit using them about a year ago. The standout part of his experiment for me was item 6, Recommended Actions, that Claude gave him, about rebalancing to his target AA and which specific positions to buy or sell. This is the last piece of the puzzle for me in terms of managing our decumulation plan. I know in broad brush strokes how much I want to liquidate, but from which positions (given the complexity of our portfolios) has never been clear to me. Great stuff. Thanks.
Post: One Good Call?
Link to comment from April 18, 2026
Now what was that other article, something about doing nothing? Seems to me stock tokens might be appealing to the day-trading set, but for those of us who are adhering to a more boring regimen of buying index funds and tuning out the thrum of the news cycle they have not a lot to offer. My other observation is related to the techies who are behind these. “Techies are gonna tech.” They’re enamored of new software and technology tricks, and love finding ingenious ways of putting them to work - sometimes regardless of the actual value their innovations create by way of improved quality or productivity. Witness earlier years of the web when Java Script and Flash were just coming into play. There was an old joke around Silicon Valley about web developers penchant for playing with new toys: “OK, yeah sure, the UI sucks, but look at that Flash.” In other words, admitting that all their coding work didn’t really do anything to improve the user experience, but the page sure did look cool. So now we have stock tokens.
Post: Stock Tokens
Link to comment from April 11, 2026
Anyone who is reading this (i.e., HD readers) is likely not concerned, and likely waiting for the real drop so they can add to their equity positions.
Post: Any concern?
Link to comment from April 4, 2026
“No matter how hard I work, I will never be able to afford a home I really love.” Just wait’ll they find out they’re not all going to get a trophy for doing a half-a**ed job at work… Mass affluence and constant affirmations have led to high expectations, and I see many young people expecting to start out their adult lives living at the same level they left behind when they moved out of their parents’ quarters. It’s a rude awakening to find out that for many, if not most, real life don’t always turn out that way.
Post: Giving Up on Owning a Home
Link to comment from April 4, 2026