William Perry

Comments

• Mark Higgins in his 2024 book "Investing in U.S. Financial History" wrote the following about the development of mutual index funds - By 1963, (Benjamin) Graham concluded (in "The Future of Financial Analysis") that .. he (Graham) just knew with mathematical certainty that beating market averages was no longer a worthy endeavor for most analysts... More than a decade passed before several courageous innovators embraced Ben Graham's warning by creating funds that replicated indexes...These included people like Rex Sinquefield, Eugene Fama, and William Sharpe...In 1975, Jack Bogle commercialized the concept for the mass market when his firm, the Vanguard Group, introduced its first indexed mutual fund on December 31, 1975. Going a bit further back it should be noted that John Bogle's 1951 Princeton senior thesis was about the mutual fund industry. Graham taught investment and security analysis from 1928 to 1956 at Columbia University. Warren Buffett was a student of Benjamin Graham at Columbia University in the early 1950s.

  Post: Today in Financial History

  Link to comment from July 28, 2026

• Short Bio - Rob Berger is a former securities lawyer and former founding editor of Forbes Money Advisor. He hosts a live show he named "Financial Freedom Show" on YouTube which usually broadcasts every two weeks plus other broadcasts on hot topics in the news. I have subscribed to his free weekly newsletter which is usually full of links to articles and books he has read and found informative and links to his videos since his last newsletter. I think of Rob Berger as one of the white hat bunch.

  Post: Treasury Inflation Protected Securities (TIPS) are a Generational Bargain Right Now

  Link to comment from July 28, 2026

• I was again a purchaser of 10 years TIPS at the most recent 6 month auction earlier this month where the real yield at auction was the highest since 2008. If someone is new to considering buying TIPS I have found David Enna's comments on his website TIPSwatch.com to be a great resource. Like most things financial your individual circumstances will be key to the decision if owning TIPS and the quantity owned are right for you. Thanks for your post Howard.

  Post: Treasury Inflation Protected Securities (TIPS) are a Generational Bargain Right Now

  Link to comment from July 27, 2026

• I found the comments to date in reply to Regulatory Notice 26-02 where FINRA requested comment on proposed changes to help member firms protect senior investors from financial exploitation and all investors from fraud informative to me. My take, in a nutshell, is the current tools at some brokers have become inadequate to protect investors from ACATS fraud and their own self regulating body, FINRA, is striving to establish adequate tools to allow investors to protect themself.

  Post: Can we be completely safe?

  Link to comment from July 25, 2026

• Here is a link to Professor (emeritus) Edward F. McQuarrie's December 2023 article titled "Widow Tax Hit Debunked" where he concluded "the problem (in thinking about the impact of the widow tax issue) is a myopic focus on tax rates to the exclusion of a sounder analysis that keeps both tax dollars paid and the postmortem dollar reduction in expenditure at the center of the frame."  For our tax decisions, I like to focus on our current joint marginal tax rates rather than considering our joint current effective tax rates in tax actions I take, like Roth conversions, and also then consider the likely impact on future taxes on the survivor after either my wife or I die. As I cannot predict the future I often take a position in my tax decisions to do what is likely best for my spouse should I die a long time before she does. I would add to the list of tax consideration matters to think about is that if the spouse who is the likely survivor widow(er) has health conditions that would then require paid assistance with activities of daily living that are potentially tax deductible expenses that could have a major future impact. There is a recent Jason Zweig article in the WSJ in June 2026 titled "How to Build a Retirement That Actually Fits Your Life" about an upcoming book due out in March 2027 written by Professor McQuarrie and Dr. William Bernstein, to be titled “Retirement: How to Save Enough, Invest It Well, and Make Your Money Last” that I am looking forward to reading. I believe both gentlemen have been speakers at past Boglehead conferences. Thanks for your article John.

  Post: Widow Tax

  Link to comment from July 25, 2026

• Harry Sit who writes on his blog The Finance Buff recently emailed me a notice about a July 2026 article about outgoing transfer lock at Vanguard and Fidelity.

  Post: Can we be completely safe?

  Link to comment from July 24, 2026

• I was happy to read that the online Vanguard ACATS "Outgoing transfer lock" became available earlier in July 2026. I see no downside to adding this security measure.

  Post: Can we be completely safe?

  Link to comment from July 23, 2026

• From reading CFR 418.1110.  titled "What is the effective date of our initial determination about your income-related monthly adjustment amount?" it appears to me the likely answer is the SSA would have defaulted to using your tax information from three years ago until you file your return for two years prior to determine any IRMAA surcharges. If that is correct then that part of the Code of Federal Regulations states - "b) When we (the SSA) have used modified adjusted gross income information from IRS for the tax year 3 years prior to the effective year to determine your income-related monthly adjustment amount and modified adjusted gross income information for the tax year 2 years prior later becomes available from IRS, we will review the new information to determine if we should revise our initial determination. If we revise our initial determination, the effective date of the new initial determination will be January 1 of the effective year, or the first month you were enrolled or re-enrolled in Medicare Part B if later than January." Like other Humble Dollar commenters I would encourage you to get current with your tax filings to resolve this issue for you or so your executor does not have this mess to deal with after you are gone if you owe any additional amount for IRMAA income based surcharges.
  My guess is that absent meeting a statutory reasonable cause for late filing your 1040 that the determination of late IRMAA premiums may be followed with a non-payment demand for payment in full with the serious potential consequences of loss of insurance coverage if timely payment in full is not paid.

  Post: IRMAA & late filing of tax returns

  Link to comment from July 17, 2026

• Thank you Jo Bo for the gift article.

  Post: About that inflation in retirement

  Link to comment from July 13, 2026

• It appears the 2026 report from the Social Security trustees includes an "expected" inflation rate of 2.7% for 2026 and then 2.4% for subsequent years in the calculation of the depletion date of the retirement trust fund. So my take is to worry about unexpected inflation which currently appears to me may be higher than the "intermediate" assumptions used by the trustees. A balanced approach between current and future generations seems to be a reasonable approach. My understanding is FDR was deeply concerned that Social Security not be viewed as a traditional welfare plan to build long-term political durability to the program.

  Post: About that inflation in retirement

  Link to comment from July 13, 2026