FREE NEWSLETTER
I am a retired Physical Therapist and Certified Athletic Trainer. I obtained my BS in Physical Therapy at the University of Vermont, and Masters in Physical Education with a specialization in Athletic Training. I retired in 2019, and my wife retired in 2020, and we have spent the majority of our lives living in New Hampshire. I have managed my own portfolio for the past twenty years and have utilized a fee only Certified Financial Advisor on occasion to provide input to my financial plan on a few occasions, especially deciding if my assets were sufficient to retire. My financial guidance has come from years of following the principles of John Bogle and being an avid fan of Vanguard. My other resources for decision making are Christine Benz/Morningstar, and of course Jonathan Clements!
My Favorite Jack Bogle Quotes
5 replies
AUTHOR: David Lancaster on 1/12/2026
FIRST: Mark Crothers on 1/12 | RECENT: David Lancaster on 1/28
A Great Article on the Role of Elder Law Attorneys
8 replies
AUTHOR: David Lancaster on 1/20/2026
FIRST: baldscreen on 1/20 | RECENT: Ormode on 1/22
What Would You Do?
22 replies
AUTHOR: David Lancaster on 1/7/2026
FIRST: quan nguyen on 1/7 | RECENT: achnk53 on 1/12
Actuarial Services' Estimates of Proposals to Change the Social Security Program or the SSI Program
5 replies
AUTHOR: David Lancaster on 1/5/2026
FIRST: Dan Smith on 1/5 | RECENT: David Lancaster on 1/5
Calculating the Maximum Income While Staying in the 12% Tax Bracket
28 replies
AUTHOR: David Lancaster on 12/7/2025
FIRST: Humble Reader on 12/7/2025 | RECENT: Randy Dobkin on 12/15/2025
How Has Living in a CCRC Affected Your Monthly Bills?
39 replies
AUTHOR: David Lancaster on 11/12/2025
FIRST: Bill C on 11/12/2025 | RECENT: smr1082 on 12/9/2025
Another Data Breach
11 replies
AUTHOR: David Lancaster on 12/5/2025
FIRST: stelea99 on 12/5/2025 | RECENT: parkslope on 12/7/2025
IRS Adds New Reporting Code for Charitable IRA Gifts
8 replies
AUTHOR: David Lancaster on 11/13/2025
FIRST: baldscreen on 11/14/2025 | RECENT: DrLefty on 11/15/2025
Information on Jonathan’s Memorial Service
35 replies
AUTHOR: David Lancaster on 10/2/2025
FIRST: David Powell on 10/2/2025 | RECENT: David Lancaster on 11/4/2025
Medicare Open Enrollment Information
3 replies
AUTHOR: David Lancaster on 11/2/2025
FIRST: R Quinn on 11/3/2025 | RECENT: David Lancaster on 11/3/2025
Wait Until We’e 70
48 replies
AUTHOR: David Lancaster on 10/22/2025
FIRST: Mark Crothers on 10/22/2025 | RECENT: Brian White on 10/26/2025
Are You an Entirely Dividend Investor in Retirement?
9 replies
AUTHOR: David Lancaster on 10/15/2025
FIRST: OldITGuy on 10/15/2025 | RECENT: Ormode on 10/15/2025
Are You Invested in International Markets?
17 replies
AUTHOR: David Lancaster on 10/9/2025
FIRST: Mark Crothers on 10/9/2025 | RECENT: youthbudget on 10/13/2025
Are You a Dividend Investor? If so Read This!
6 replies
AUTHOR: David Lancaster on 10/9/2025
FIRST: Jack Hannam on 10/9/2025 | RECENT: quan nguyen on 10/9/2025
Are You a Trader or an Investor?
32 replies
AUTHOR: David Lancaster on 10/6/2025
FIRST: David Powell on 10/6/2025 | RECENT: normr60189 on 10/8/2025
USA Senior Care Network
3 replies
AUTHOR: David Lancaster on 9/9/2025
FIRST: William Perry on 9/10/2025 | RECENT: William Perry on 9/10/2025
How Are You Planning to Pay for Potential Long Term Care Expenses?
84 replies
AUTHOR: David Lancaster on 2/4/2025
FIRST: R Quinn on 2/4/2025 | RECENT: stelea99 on 9/6/2025
Sequence of Return Risk
48 replies
AUTHOR: David Lancaster on 9/27/2024
FIRST: Dave Melick on 9/27/2024 | RECENT: Ormode on 8/28/2025
An Excellent Morningstar Article on CCRCs
3 replies
AUTHOR: David Lancaster on 8/7/2025
FIRST: mytimetotravel on 8/7/2025 | RECENT: parkslope on 8/8/2025
Bond Conundrum
24 replies
AUTHOR: David Lancaster on 7/7/2025
FIRST: Jim Burrows on 7/7/2025 | RECENT: S on 7/26/2025
How Was I to Know?
12 replies
AUTHOR: David Lancaster on 7/23/2025
FIRST: Mark Crothers on 7/23/2025 | RECENT: S on 7/26/2025
Selling Your House and Reaping Tax Free Capital Gains May be in Jeopardy
7 replies
AUTHOR: David Lancaster on 7/24/2025
FIRST: bbbobbins on 7/24/2025 | RECENT: stelea99 on 7/25/2025
Are You Going to Get the Social Security Benefits You First Started Paying For?
8 replies
AUTHOR: David Lancaster on 7/18/2025
FIRST: R Quinn on 7/18/2025 | RECENT: DAN SMITH on 7/18/2025
Morningstar’s Historical Review of the Benefits of the 60/40 Portfolios During Market Downturns
1 reply
AUTHOR: David Lancaster on 7/14/2025
FIRST: normr60189 on 7/14/2025 | RECENT: normr60189 on 7/14/2025
Securing Lower Taxes
13 replies
AUTHOR: David Lancaster on 7/10/2025
FIRST: stelea99 on 7/10/2025 | RECENT: Nick Politakis on 7/11/2025
Increased Deduction for Seniors
43 replies
AUTHOR: David Lancaster on 7/4/2025
FIRST: eludom on 7/5/2025 | RECENT: Randy Dobkin on 7/7/2025
Does a Happy Country lead to Happy Individuals?
31 replies
AUTHOR: David Lancaster on 6/20/2025
FIRST: bbbobbins on 6/20/2025 | RECENT: R Quinn on 6/24/2025
Interesting White Coat Investor on Lessons Learned Dealing with a LTC Company
6 replies
AUTHOR: David Lancaster on 6/17/2025
FIRST: 1PF on 6/17/2025 | RECENT: smr1082 on 6/20/2025
Let’s Stir Up the Bee’s Nest Again- Another Way of Calculating Net Worth
76 replies
AUTHOR: David Lancaster on 6/13/2025
FIRST: David Mulligan on 6/14/2025 | RECENT: bbbobbins on 6/19/2025
Medicare Advantage with No Premiums vs Traditional Medicare with Plan G Deductible
32 replies
AUTHOR: David Lancaster on 6/14/2025
FIRST: R Quinn on 6/14/2025 | RECENT: DrLefty on 6/15/2025
“Most Revealing Question in Personal Finance”
22 replies
AUTHOR: David Lancaster on 6/4/2025
FIRST: Jo Bo on 6/4/2025 | RECENT: normr60189 on 6/8/2025
Jonathan Is Everywhere on the Internet
1 reply
AUTHOR: David Lancaster on 6/4/2025
FIRST: Andrew Forsythe on 6/6/2025 | RECENT: Andrew Forsythe on 6/6/2025
Lesson Four From Taking Care of a 102 yo in Her Last Year of Life- The Final Hours of Life Can be Beautiful
13 replies
AUTHOR: David Lancaster on 4/12/2025
FIRST: Edmund Marsh on 4/13/2025 | RECENT: David Lancaster on 5/29/2025
Another Great Post by Mike Piper
7 replies
AUTHOR: David Lancaster on 5/6/2025
FIRST: luvtoride44afe9eb1e on 5/6/2025 | RECENT: Rick Connor on 5/7/2025
Lesson Five From Taking Care of a 102 yo in Her Last Year of Life- Politics and the News Has the Potential to Ruin Relationships
14 replies
AUTHOR: David Lancaster on 4/19/2025
FIRST: DAN SMITH on 4/19/2025 | RECENT: David Lancaster on 4/20/2025
What to do as the Bear Approaches
15 replies
AUTHOR: David Lancaster on 4/8/2025
FIRST: DAN SMITH on 4/8/2025 | RECENT: Michael1 on 4/13/2025
Lesson Three From Taking Care of a 102 yo in Her Last Year of Life- The Role of Faith in Dying
8 replies
AUTHOR: David Lancaster on 4/6/2025
FIRST: Jonathan Clements on 4/6/2025 | RECENT: David Lancaster on 4/7/2025
Lesson Two From Taking Care of a 102 yo in Her Last Year of Life- Preparing Oneself for Death
2 replies
AUTHOR: David Lancaster on 4/4/2025
FIRST: mytimetotravel on 4/4/2025 | RECENT: DAN SMITH on 4/4/2025
Lesson One From Taking Care of a 102 yo in Her Last Year of Life- Be Grateful
6 replies
AUTHOR: David Lancaster on 3/30/2025
FIRST: Edmund Marsh on 3/30/2025 | RECENT: David Lancaster on 4/3/2025
Lessons Learned from Taking Care of a 102 Year Old in Her Final Year
10 replies
AUTHOR: David Lancaster on 3/28/2025
FIRST: Rick Connor on 3/28/2025 | RECENT: Dan Wick on 3/30/2025
How Do Allocate the Bond Portion of Your Portfolio?
20 replies
AUTHOR: David Lancaster on 3/20/2025
FIRST: R Quinn on 3/20/2025 | RECENT: Casey Campbell on 3/23/2025
Great Ideas from Ed Slott for Estate Planning Using Roth Savings
12 replies
AUTHOR: David Lancaster on 3/20/2025
FIRST: William Housley on 3/20/2025 | RECENT: William Perry on 3/22/2025
The Status of Inherited IRAs in 2025
13 replies
AUTHOR: David Lancaster on 3/17/2025
FIRST: William Perry on 3/18/2025 | RECENT: David Lancaster on 3/20/2025
A Simple Way to avoid Phone Scams
11 replies
AUTHOR: David Lancaster on 3/17/2025
FIRST: DAN SMITH on 3/17/2025 | RECENT: mytimetotravel on 3/18/2025
Morningstar’s Report on Comparing 10 Year Returns on Active vs Passive Funds
8 replies
AUTHOR: David Lancaster on 3/12/2025
FIRST: Jonathan Clements on 3/12/2025 | RECENT: Edmund Marsh on 3/12/2025
Acorns
9 replies
AUTHOR: David Lancaster on 2/23/2025
FIRST: David Powell on 2/23/2025 | RECENT: bbbobbins on 2/25/2025
Is There a Change Coming in the Direction of the Markets’ Winds?
20 replies
AUTHOR: David Lancaster on 1/14/2025
FIRST: normr60189 on 1/14/2025 | RECENT: normr60189 on 1/18/2025
Costs Matter
28 replies
AUTHOR: David Lancaster on 11/30/2024
FIRST: Rick Connor on 11/30/2024 | RECENT: Jack Hannam on 12/31/2024
How Often Do You Calculate Your Net Worth And Why
57 replies
AUTHOR: David Lancaster on 11/29/2024
FIRST: Patrick Murphy on 11/29/2024 | RECENT: Will Schenk on 12/5/2024
What is The 10 Year Return on Your Portfolio?
22 replies
AUTHOR: David Lancaster on 11/26/2024
FIRST: stelea99 on 11/26/2024 | RECENT: Steve Spinella on 12/2/2024
What Was in Your Portfolio?
4 replies
AUTHOR: David Lancaster on 11/23/2024
FIRST: R Quinn on 11/23/2024 | RECENT: evan rayers on 11/24/2024
HELP, I Want My Money Back!
10 replies
AUTHOR: David Lancaster on 11/16/2024
FIRST: DAN SMITH on 11/16/2024 | RECENT: David Lancaster on 11/18/2024
Who’s Comments Do You Look Forward to Most?
30 replies
AUTHOR: David Lancaster on 11/14/2024
FIRST: Randy Dobkin on 11/14/2024 | RECENT: mytimetotravel on 11/15/2024
Two to Follow
6 replies
AUTHOR: David Lancaster on 11/14/2024
FIRST: R Quinn on 11/14/2024 | RECENT: Ken Shelley on 11/15/2024
T Rowe Frequent Trading Policy
11 replies
AUTHOR: David Lancaster on 11/11/2024
FIRST: 1PF on 11/11/2024 | RECENT: David Lancaster on 11/12/2024
Who is on Your Personal Investing Mount Rushmore, and Why?
11 replies
AUTHOR: David Lancaster on 11/8/2024
FIRST: luvtoride44afe9eb1e on 11/8/2024 | RECENT: Steven Duncan on 11/10/2024
IRAs in a Trust
3 replies
AUTHOR: David Lancaster on 8/29/2024
FIRST: William Perry on 8/29/2024 | RECENT: David Lancaster on 8/29/2024
Comments
All I have done is move two months of conversions forward.
Post: Volatility is your Best Friend
Link to comment from March 5, 2026
We recently performed water and air radon tests. For those of you who don’t live in NH radon is a radioactive gas that is emitted by granite. NH is called the granite state for a reason. As you can imagine breathing radiation into your lungs is not good. Radon is actually the leading cause of lung cancer in non smokers. Remediation is a 10 K+ cost which must be addressed. If you have read my posts in the past you know we do not have a dedicated emergency fund. My philosophy is that all of our retirement money is available as an emergency fund. So although it’s not fun to spend money on something this, nor is the thought of having a mini municipal water treatment plant in my basement, it is a necessary evil. So how will we pay for it? Every quarter I perform a quarterly review of our finances and top off our estimated 1 year cash reserves. For now we will expend the cash and April 1 replacement cash will be raised by rebalancing our portfolio to our target allocation. Guess the dream of having an on demand generator will have to wait for next year, which is what I said last year when our loosely defined home improvement budget went towards a top coat of asphalt on the driveway.
Post: Smoke, Sparks and Retirement Spending.
Link to comment from March 5, 2026
I have read that it makes more sense to have the bond ladder in your traditional account for two reasons: 1) Bonds have a lower return which leads to lower RMDs and thus taxes for you 2) Equities have a higher return, and the Roth assets are usually tapped last. Thus if the plan is for your beneficiaries to obtain your investment assets they will inherit a potential greater balance, and it will be tax free as apposed to inheriting a traditional account.
Post: New to building a CD or Bond Ladder?
Link to comment from March 5, 2026
Good article Mark. Here is a simple math equation I use in volatile market times: Volatility = Opportunity How so? When markets go down it is an opportunity to do two things: 1) Buys stocks at a discount- you can either invest cash in stocks, or rebalance. 2) Convert more shares of your traditional IRA to a Roth- You can convert more shares as each share costs less. As an example if you want to convert $1000, if shares are $100 you can only convert 10 shares. If shares are $50 you can convert twice as many shares. I took advantage of this concept during COVID, the tariff tantrum, and am doing so now. I am converting shares of my wife’s target date fund which contains both domestic and international stocks (the latter of which dropped 3-7% yesterday) and bonds. Once converted the shares will be sold and then I will purchase only Vanguard Total World (VT). I just have to hope that the markets will be depressed for a week or two to complete the plan. If not this procedure was going to happen anyways only over the course of this year, and not at a discount. Of note is the last two opportunities have unfortunately occurred due the actions of primarily one person.
Post: Volatility is your Best Friend
Link to comment from March 4, 2026
Hey Bill, I think it’s well known here that I am a big Vanguard fan. This post is timely because tomorrow we are going to our elder law attorney to sign updated estate documents. It’s monetarily painful but as Vanguard advises we are going to follow his counsel.
Post: Vanguard’s Transfer on Death Plan Kit
Link to comment from March 3, 2026
“If you earmark specific dollars that you intend to leave to future generations, invest those like they should for a longer time line in low cost, well diversified equity funds.” This is not directed towards Richard, but in general. As I have written before for the past several years I have been in the process of converting all of my wife’s traditional IRA (about 1/3 of our retirement assets) to a Roth. This way I will only have to take RMDs from my traditional. As a result my traditional is more conservative in order to meet our overall allocation. My traditional is, and hopefully will be the only fund tapped to supplement our Social Security income, and my small pension. My wife’s Roth is invested 100% in Vanguard Total World ETF (VT) as hopefully this portion of our portfolio will never be touched and thus both grow and be inherited tax free. Under current tax law, always subject to change, our children can also wait to tap these funds for an additional 10 years after we are gone for further tax free growth. If my wife lives to approximately the same age as her mother did (103), and my children wait 10 years after our passing that could result in a total of more than 45 years of tax free growth.
Post: Critique my investment strategy or lack thereof
Link to comment from March 3, 2026
ATMs mainstream in the 90s? I remember when I moved to Phoenix in 1980 straight out of college getting my first ATM card. I also remember in 1982 when we got married and moved to Illinois for me to attend graduate school taking out $10 at a time from the ATM because we had no money.
Post: Loose Change
Link to comment from March 2, 2026
I could never tolerate change in my pocket for some reason. Years ago when money was tight when we raising children we almost exclusively paid with a debit card to avoid overspending, but we would carry a small balance on the credit card. We had the same local credit union card for 30+ years and by the end our interest rate was very low. It’s been maybe a decade now that we use a credit card exclusively as we pay it off monthly. This usually results in at least one free flight per year for both of us for our travel.
Post: Loose Change
Link to comment from March 2, 2026
I filmed when my children were opening the envelopes with the checks: their responses: Daughter: OMG Son: Holy S**T Every year or so I watch the video- heartwarming
Post: Helping Adult Children, pt. 2
Link to comment from March 1, 2026
Paper tube? I didn’t even know that was an option! 👏
Post: The $9.95 scam…
Link to comment from March 1, 2026