FIRST WAS THE VOICE of my father’s friend. Then a policeman came on the line. While riding his bicycle, my 75-year-old father had been struck and killed by a speeding driver.
That was 2009. There were no goodbyes. Instead, seared into my memory are the photograph I was shown at the hospital, so I could identify my father’s body, and the details in his final medical report, which I never should have read.
My death will be far different.

Ever have one of those moments?  You you’ve been reading HumbleDollar for a couple years and your 26 year old son calls and says “Dad, work is going to start kicking in %5 for a 403(b), what should I do?” “Well, son, let me tell you about low cost index funds…”
Anybody else had softballs teed up like this ?  🙂

Can you identify your biggest blind spot? Sure, you’re smart. You’ve worked hard, planned ahead, marshalled your resources over the years. Heck, you even read Humble Dollar to check all the boxes.
But I can guarantee you there’s one aspect of life you haven’t considered.  Have you considered what happens as you get older and need help with your day to day life?  You see, we suffer from a lack of imagination.  With all the workouts,

We have multiple insurance programs – based on age and income, there are differences among the states, who pays how much is a mess – many seniors pay more than younger Americans at the same income level.
Enrollment periods and rules differ by type of coverage. Out of pocket costs frequently ignore ability to pay. Employers try to mask costs via FSAs, HSAs and HRAs – if you can afford to contribute. Trying to deal with out-of-pocket costs jeopardizes the ability to save for retirement.

The Social Security trust fund is a foolish piece of accounting nonsense—and the blathering about how the trust fund is running out of money is just a gigantic distraction from the Social Security system’s fundamental problem. To understand why, ask yourself two questions.
First, when the trust fund cashes in some of the special Treasury bonds it holds, where does the Treasury Department get the money to buy back those bonds? The same place that money comes from to fund all government operations: by levying taxes and by issuing more debt.

IF YOU WORKED AT Vanguard Group, you felt like a kid in a candy store when it came to picking investments. There were so many well-run, low-cost funds to try. Yet my favorite fund wasn’t offered as an investment option in the Vanguard 401(k) plan. Ironically, it’s the fund that made Vanguard’s reputation.
Vanguard opened its S&P 500 index fund (symbol: VFIAX) in 1976. This first commercially offered index fund was designed to earn the U.S.

To travel or not is right up there with when to claim Social Security, if a Roth conversion is desirable or the amount of retirement income needed – many answers and personal choices.
I will admit travel can be a hassle, mainly the getting there and back if flying is involved and while trying to get through customs. Because of an incompetent desk agent we missed being stranded in Istanbul by seconds. Leaving Moscow was a nightmare as we were intentionally ignored while Russians were put ahead of us,

THESE DAYS, IT SEEMS every other article on retirement talks about a neat division between the go-go, slow-go and no-go years, with retirees moving seamlessly from one to the next.

I don’t remember seeing anything about these stages back in the late 1990s when I was contemplating early retirement. Instead, when I quit full-time work in 2000 at age 53, I just wanted to travel before I got too decrepit.

I did travel—extensively—right up until 2017,

Here’s the 3×5 card challenge: Summarize everything essential for retirement on a 3×5 card, and then share your summary here. For the sake of this post, please limit your advice to eight to ten bullet points.
This is the first in a series of posts on: Everything You Need to Know on a 3×5 Card.
Have fun…
Bill

In going back over the comments on my last couple of articles, two reader concerns popped out at me. One, many of you still had faith in the Vanguard 500 S&P ETF (VOO/VFIAX) despite its concentration in giant AI-infused technology stocks. But, two, some readers would like to know how they might increase their diversification by adding a fund that did not always fluctuate in tune with one of the country’s most trusted large cap index funds.

My wife and I moved from PA to NJ about 3 years ago. After we moved I looked into whether we should update our estate documents since we changed states. It seemed like a smart thing to do, but it took us 3 years to get around to it.
We recently met with a local estate attorney and reviewed our wills and POAs. There was some specific Pennsylvania language having to do with setting up a trust for contingency heirs – our grandsons – if one of our sons pre-deceased us.

A Pew Research Center study (here) found that 23% of 50-year-olds in the United States have never had children.
As a 57-year-old who chose not to raise a child, I wonder how others feel about how this lifestyle choice has, or hasn’t, changed their retirement plans.
For myself, choosing to remain childless allowed me to save more of my salary than would have been possible if I had chosen to raise a family. I’ve seen online articles that suggest it costs nearly $250K to raise a child from infancy to adulthood.

How do you “stay the course”—in Vanguard founder Jack Bogle’s oft-used phrase—when those around you are losing their heads?
That can be exceedingly difficult, as the late July-early August market swoon demonstrated.
I like the old aphorism from legendary financier and advisor to U.S. presidents Bernard Baruch: “The main purpose of the stock market is to make fools of as many men as possible.”
You can easily appreciate that sentiment when the market seems to be gunning directly for you,

IT’S ONLY BEEN relatively recently that mankind has come to rely on banks, brokerage firms and investment companies to build wealth.
Tangible property—land, gold bars, houses, livestock and so on—was the standard of wealth just a couple of centuries ago. The Bible frequently cites cattle to signify someone’s wealth. If folks had “cattle on a thousand hills,” they were a billionaire in that era. Wealth was something that you could physically lay your hands on.

Ken Cutler’s question about his retirement status made me think about how my retirement started. I’m curious about what path you all followed. As I approached retirement in 2020, I considered how much notice to give my employer. I had worked for the company for 20 years. I was not a manager, but I was an expert technical professional and had carved out a very specialized niche within the organization. Substantial organizational changes were implemented during the first three months of the calendar year and as a result I had three different managers over a very short span of time.