Billy’s Certificate - 1937
18 replies
AUTHOR: W.D. Housley on 6/24/2026
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Time to Be Fearful
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How to Use AI With Your Portfolio
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Investing Fundamentals: A Simple Guide for Beginners
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Financial Tension
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What, Me Worry?
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It’s Never Too Late
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AUTHOR: W.D. Housley on 2/26/2026
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How Far Back Would a 40% Drop Take Us?
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AUTHOR: W.D. Housley on 2/20/2026
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Should You Stop Contributing To Your IRA?
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AUTHOR: W.D. Housley on 2/9/2026
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Sleeves or Buckets?
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AUTHOR: W.D. Housley on 2/3/2026
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Average vs. Humble Average
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AUTHOR: W.D. Housley on 12/28/2025
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You DRIP?
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AUTHOR: W.D. Housley on 12/8/2025
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Thanksgiving: The Keeping Story
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AUTHOR: W.D. Housley on 11/26/2025
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THE REAL RETURN ON DELAYING SOCIAL SECURITY
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AUTHOR: W.D. Housley on 11/12/2025
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Which Brokerage Works Best for U.S. Expats?
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AUTHOR: W.D. Housley on 11/18/2025
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Does My Sister Need a Financial Advisor?
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AUTHOR: W.D. Housley on 11/4/2025
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The Conversation: Contrarian Meets Momentum
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Contrarian Thinking About Roth Conversions
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Your Portfolio, Your Business
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Our Special Relationship
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Laughter, the Best Medicine
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AUTHOR: W.D. Housley on 9/8/2025
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Smarter Giving in Retirement and the Medicare Gotcha
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AUTHOR: W.D. Housley on 9/7/2025
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Paper Certificates to Real-Time
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AUTHOR: W.D. Housley on 8/23/2025
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Outliving Your Money? Let’s Do the Math on Annuities
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AUTHOR: W.D. Housley on 8/13/2025
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The Silent Compounding Cost of a 1% Fee
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AUTHOR: W.D. Housley on 5/13/2025
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When an Index Fund Is Not an Index Fund
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Dividend Days
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“A Complex Portfolio, a Modest Account”
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The Victim Might Be You
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AUTHOR: W.D. Housley on 5/21/2025
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Safety Net or Gambling Chip? Wrestling with Wealth and Wisdom”
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AUTHOR: W.D. Housley on 4/7/2025
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What Kind of Loss Is This?
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AUTHOR: W.D. Housley on 4/4/2025
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Luck or Providence?
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AUTHOR: W.D. Housley on 3/6/2025
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My Favorite Websites
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AUTHOR: W.D. Housley on 3/13/2025
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Resolutions:
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AUTHOR: W.D. Housley on 12/28/2024
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No tax on your Social Security?
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AUTHOR: W.D. Housley on 11/23/2024
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Comments
Dick Thanks for keeping it fun.
Post: Frittering away Frugality
Link to comment from July 11, 2026
My dear Wormwood, Your report on the warehouse expedition reached me, and I read it twice with real pleasure — not for the popcorn or the apricots, amusing as those touches were, but for the report itself. You have found, I think, the finest trick available to a tempter of your generation: convincing a man that his own sourness is a form of clear sight. Every sentence dripping with suspicion of hot dogs, every dark hint about the sinister geometry of a rotisserie chicken — this is not commentary, Wormwood, this is liturgy. You have your Patient narrating his own small joys as though he were filing a police report. A man who cannot buy a bag of popcorn without diagnosing the moral collapse of retail is a man who has stopped noticing he is having a rather nice Tuesday. That is superb work, and you did it without so much as raising your voice. You are ready now for apple pie, baseball, and the hot dog cart. I don’t think you’re ready yet for mothers. Keep developing your craft. Screwtape
Post: Frittering away Frugality
Link to comment from July 11, 2026
I always thought it a lot of money too.
Post: Billy’s Certificate – 1937
Link to comment from June 28, 2026
My percentages: 33% Cash (online money market) 38% Growth – VOO, VTI, VUG 28% Income – SCHD, VNQ, VDE, VYM 2% Risk Plus – MRNA, USAR But here’s the reality: eight tickers across two sleeves don’t represent eight different bets. VOO, VTI, and VUG all hold the same mega-cap names — Apple, Microsoft, Nvidia, Amazon — as their top positions. VTI is just VOO plus some small/mid-caps, and VUG is a growth-tilted slice of largely that same large-cap universe. So 38% “Growth” is really one concentrated US large-cap bet, counted three times. The Income sleeve has some real diversification — VNQ (REITs) is genuinely different — but SCHD and VYM overlap heavily in the same dividend-paying large caps, and VDE’s energy names show up in SCHD too. And those same large caps already appear in VOO/VTI from the Growth sleeve. So there’s overlap within sleeves and across them. Net result: my 8-ticker, 4-sleeve portfolio is really “US large-cap” + “REITs” + “energy tilt” + cash. Three asset classes, not eight bets. And here’s your reality, Larry: your 70/10/10/10 has the same issue, just more elegantly disguised. VT (Total World) is a market-cap-weighted blend that already includes value and growth stocks globally — it’s the whole pie. VTV and VUG are just slices of that same pie, split by factor. So your “three equity funds” are really one global equity position with a slight value/growth tilt layered on top. The lesson for both of us: counting tickers isn’t counting diversification. What matters is the underlying holdings, asset classes, and correlations — not how many fund names appear on the statement. A portfolio with 10 funds that all hold the same top-5 positions isn’t more diversified than one with 2 — it’s just more paperwork. I will be making changes
Post: What’s in your portfolio ?
Link to comment from June 13, 2026
As are mine 😏 but still I was able to catch something by using AI. - Cheers
Post: How to Use AI With Your Portfolio
Link to comment from June 10, 2026
Of course, but AI is getting better and better all the time. Right now it may be in grade school. But it seems that High School and College are around the corner. Question did these writers evaluate AI too soon?
Post: How to Use AI With Your Portfolio
Link to comment from June 9, 2026
Yes I believe it can be a goodbsecond set of eyes
Post: How to Use AI With Your Portfolio
Link to comment from June 9, 2026
Not knowing the acronym myself, I first thought YMMV meant “Your Mongoose May Vanish.” It’s no big deal, but aren’t the The Humble Dollar comment guidelines supposed to discourage acronyms for exactly this reason?
Post: Direct Indexing Anyone?
Link to comment from May 11, 2026
Nick, Young or old there are many people who don’t have a clue. I’m helping a neighbor who is 67, and newly retired. He was on auto pilot with his company plan and his government pension. He is one of the fortunate few who will be OK.
Post: Investing Fundamentals: A Simple Guide for Beginners
Link to comment from May 6, 2026
William, Thanks.
Post: Investing Fundamentals: A Simple Guide for Beginners
Link to comment from May 4, 2026