Wayne Koppa

Comments:

• Question made me smile. Years ago we had a high school student from Latvia for a school year. I swear he went home with every original dollar he arrived with and more. Never brought books home. Moved him to AP Calc mid year, still no books. 4th in his class ranking. Took him to the Detroit auto show and we come up to the Bentley area and are looking at something that goes for a couple hundred grand. I say to him "there is a car for you", he stares into his wallet, then looks me in the eye and says "but what would my friends think?" Thanks for taking me back with your article.

  Post: Quinn is considering buying a Bentley 🤑

  Link to comment from September 8, 2024

• Thank you for another excellent article. With friends and family passing away I have had final arrangements and transition of responsibilities and finances on my mind. I seem to be going backwards instead of forward and your details will help spur me on. My file I place important to do information is called Last Call. Thank you Johnathon for all you do.

  Post: No Slowing Down

  Link to comment from July 28, 2024

• I like these a lot. Jonathon always has the good stuff. When I was overseas we had four short rules, maybe I should call them mantras. No matter how bad it gets - it can get worse. (Many people experiencing bad times falsely think times will improve and are taken back even more when they don't.)The information is not entirely correct.When they say it's over - its most likely not.They get tired - you don't get tired. (This is the most important of the four.)

  Post: Four Mantras

  Link to comment from July 10, 2024

• This is terribly sad news. I still have many many of your articles cut from the WSJ. I am amazed but not surprised on your mental approach to the challenges ahead. I have had friends and family depart and have been recruited to get rid of their stuff. Converted most of it into scholarships at the local community college. This all causes concern over getting rid of my own stuff that I really don't use or need. Your appreciation for the simpler things in life, the first cup of coffee, is as always very instructive. Thank you for not only making us financially smarter but much more grounded, and I think purposeful, as individuals.

  Post: The C Word

  Link to comment from June 16, 2024

• Go Army - The Salvation Army.

  Post: What are your favorite charities?

  Link to comment from June 8, 2024

• Great subject. We have a local community college that will create an endowed scholarship paying $500 a year for $15,000 based on a 3.5% distribution rate. Early years can be iffy on earnings so sometimes they need to take a year off on paying. Here is the best part, if you come up with the first 10k the college will go into their own foundation account and provide the last 5k. You can establish the scholarship in the name of someone or a cause for 30% off. My wife and I both have inherited stretch IRAs that we have used annual distributions to fund a scholarship for the last few years. My distribution is a RMD but because of my wife's birthday this year, June 4th and 70, she misses the chance to do for a Qualified Charitable Distribution until next year, by four days. With the stretch IRAs we should have plenty of years ahead that we can choose to do this.

  Post: Not Dead Yet

  Link to comment from May 11, 2024

• Once you spend money it's just like its gone. Maybe my own.

  Post: What’s your favorite financial quote?

  Link to comment from April 7, 2024

• Live within your means.

  Post: What’s the most important financial concept?

  Link to comment from April 7, 2024

• Great article. I agree with Honor Earlier Generations in a big way. My parents were financially responsible to the greatest level possible. My Dad worked two full time jobs for four years to pay off a house on the wrong side of town after WW II. Asked my mother after his passing if that was for the fear of a recession? She said he hated paying interest. If you had a bill in our family you paid the bill and paid it on time. I think if I would have done otherwise I may have had to change my name and move to another city. Years later we had to get a credit report and my hair was on fire with all the statements and score on the report. We had a score of 840 and I wanted to know why we were not higher, like maybe over 900. The bank officer told me that 850 was the highest score possible and said she had never seen an 840. That happened because I was fortunate to have my Mom and Dad.

  Post: What Our Dollars Buy

  Link to comment from April 7, 2024

• When working overseas in the former Soviet Union in the early 90's we were faced with difficult situations helping prepare the host country for NATO membership. We came up with four basic rules from I don't know where. Rule 1. No matter how bad it gets, it can always get worse. Rule 2. The information is not entirely correct. Rule 3. When they say it's over, it's not over. Rule 4. They get tired, you don't get tired. Just because the situation is bad, you should always prepare mentally for it possibly getting worse. Don't take bad information to heart and never get tired, the problems you have will go away before you do with the right attitude. In the end there is more good than bad, if you make it that way.

  Post: Taking Charge

  Link to comment from October 21, 2023