THE OPEN KITCHEN restaurant has been a fixture in Charlotte, North Carolina for 75 years. The restaurant has an old-time feel, with memorabilia, including menus from years gone by, lining its walls. Those old menus provided David Enna, a financial journalist, with a laboratory for examining the effects of inflation.
What did Enna find? The oldest menu on display is from 1963. To state the obvious, today’s prices make those from the 1960s look quaint.

THE CHOICE BETWEEN a traditional retirement account or a Roth is a frequent topic on HumbleDollar. The choice is generally framed as a choice between paying taxes up front (a Roth), or deferring taxes until withdrawal (traditional). I thought it would be interesting to evaluate a real-life example of how this choice might work out.
In December of 2016 my wife and I had an opportunity to each open a Roth IRA. My wife took a partial sabbatical that year,

The title is a comment in response to my post on credit card use, including:
“I think it can be summarized, in most cases, as poor financial planning and irresponsible behavior.” 
Which I stand by 100%. 
As a reminder, Haughty describes an attitude of blatant superiority, arrogance, or disdain toward others, often characterized by a belief that one is inherently better, more refined, or of higher status.
I think that’s a bit unfair. 
After working from age 18 to 67 (mostly dealing with people) and reaching 83 years old one tends to become a tad cynical,

It’s 72 degrees and sunny as I write this, but September is nearly upon us, and I’ve been making inquiries for the supply and delivery of one cord of kiln-dried hardwood for our two log burner stoves. This year, the price is coming in around $1,000, and yes, firewood runs at a steep premium here in Ireland. As with everything, the price keeps rising every year. Inflation in action.
But here’s the thing: I don’t need to buy the wood.

The first time I sat down for dinner with Joey’s family in the Philippines, I did what I had always done at a restaurant: I picked up the menu and started deciding what I wanted to eat. I soon realized I had it all wrong. Nobody was ordering their dinner. Dishes were being chosen for the table, passed around and shared by everyone.
It was a small moment, but I didn’t forget it. In the years since,

In response to a recent rant of mine that “The Rent is too Damn High” a commenter responded that “Many customers have no idea what makes up [contractor] prices.” I had to respect this guy, as not too many civilians side with the contractor.
After a recent interaction with a cobbler, who humbly calls himself “The Shoe Master,” I’ve now realize that most business owners don’t provide pricing details as they have no idea how they came up with the price in the first place.

Americans spend $250 billion a year on credit card interest. That is one quarter of the trillion dollars spent annually on the national debt. Both are a considerable waste of money and will likely lead to not so good outcomes. 
Why do people use credit cards as they do? Some claim it is necessary for living expenses, some just overspend, some may be subject to various pressures like keeping up with the Jones’s, still others make no provision for emergency funds and get trapped in debt. 

SOME MILESTONES are auspicious. Others are not.
This week, the Treasury announced that the federal government’s debt had topped $40 trillion for the first time.
Government debt is nothing new, but the problem is now of more concern, for two reasons. First, the scale has grown. An apples-to-apples way to look at the government’s debt load is to compare it to GDP—the economy’s total annual output. On this basis, outstanding debt now exceeds 100% of GDP,

NOT TOO LONG ago, Treasury Inflation Protected Security (TIPS) was a relatively obscure investment for safe long-term fixed-income investments. For the first twenty years of the new century, consumer prices were mostly stable or rising at a too-slow-to-notice rate. Why bother with anything related to inflation?
Sadly, persistently low inflation made us complacent on the biggest long-term risk of bond investments — the insidious unexpected inflation that robs us of the purchasing power of our “safe” investments.

My wife Suzie and I have been travelling around the Iberian peninsula for three weeks now, moving between hotels as we go. Last night, over a brandy nightcap, she asked whether the one in my hand was cheaper or pricier than the ones we’d had at our previous two stops. I had no idea. Worse, I couldn’t even tell her what this one cost.
That’s not like me. I’m normally frugal to a fault, so not knowing the price of a drink I’m actively holding is close to a personality violation.

We all get notified on near regular basis on the compromised data but these numbers are staggering. Clark has some common sense advice on how best to play defense.
https://clark.com/credit/data-breach-credit-freeze/?utm_source=Email&utm_medium=Newsletter&utm_campaign=ClarkDailyNewsletter&_bhlid=909bb4deb2191a6a5b918be72d6953a9308bf113
I would add freezing your SSN via the e-verify site (so your SSN can’t be misused), and I think this is especially true for those of us who are retired.

In 2002 the Social Security Trustees explicitly called on Congress in their report summary to act sooner rather than later fixing SS funding
They emphasized that taking early legislative action would allow changes to be phased in gradually and give workers time to adjust. They issued the same warning in every report since.
For twenty four years Congress and each administration has ignored those warnings.
Those trustees reports were signed by the Secretary of the Treasury,

The US Treasury Department announced that the debt has increased to 40 Trillion dollars. In the articles explaining the debt, I keep reading about how Social Security payments are adding to the debt. Can someone please explain to me how that is? My understanding is the payments are made from collections of  Social Security taxes from current employees and employers, as well as taking money from the Social Security trust fund. So please explain how a self funded program adds to the deficit.

The national debt just hit $40 trillion and rising. Seems like possible dire consequences for the markets perhaps the economy as more borrowing may raise interest rates.
’What is the general consensus on the risks we may be facing. Time to go into bonds?

When my 76-year-old mother-in-law was told she needed a dual-chamber pacemaker, our family’s attention shifted to one thing: getting her safely through the surgery. Joey was especially anxious. Living thousands of miles away, he struggled with not being there for his mother. Thankfully, the surgery went well.
As relief replaced worry, I found myself thinking about something entirely different. Her surgery took place in the Philippines, and her family’s share of the cost, after government health insurance paid its portion,