DIVIDENDS ARE a seemingly mundane topic. But like many areas of personal finance, it’s one that still generates debate. The most common question: All else being equal, if one stock pays a dividend and another doesn’t, shouldn’t an investor prefer the one that pays the dividend? We’ll examine this question, and then broaden the lens to look at dividend strategies more generally.
To better understand how dividends work, let’s look at Procter & Gamble.

I implore the much more astute for information concerning Social Security benefits, mainly, what is the duration, maturity, credit rating and so forth, please? My bond knowledge is limited to knowing which actor starred as James Bond, Sean or Timothy and the like.
I have read here that Social Security retirement money should be a part of the fixed income allocation, etc. Thank you.
And now , on to a much less difficult question, ” Is the inertia of a body a measure of its energy content?”

DEATH AND TAXES are inevitable—and, as I keep getting reminded, also inextricably entwined.
I’m not so fortunate that I need worry about federal estate taxes. That privilege belongs to those who die with $13.61 million in 2024. But that doesn’t mean the taxman isn’t hovering over my demise, raising a host of lesser issues.
Paying the piper. Over the past few years, my focus has been on making big Roth conversions while staying within the 24% federal income-tax bracket.

A former CEO of my old company passed away this week at age 89. Of the half-dozen or so company CEOs that passed through during my tenure, Joe had made the biggest impression on me. Of course, I was way down the food chain so my interactions with him were limited.
My first encounter with him was as a newly hired engineer for the Philadelphia Electric Company. The company had a program in which engineers were exposed to different divisions of the company during their first year.

I have had a safe deposit box for a lot of years. When Wells Fargo took over the local bank I had used since moving to North Carolina and I needed a new one, a safe deposit box was a non-negotiable requirement. I have used it to hold “important” papers, and my “good” jewelry when I was out of the country for months. But I’m no longer taking long trips, and the “important” papers have dwindled to my birth certificate,

A mutual-fund company’s public relations representative once told me about what she dubbed the “conviction tour.” It was the late 1990s, and she and one of the firm’s star money managers toured the New York media talking about the importance of conviction when picking individual stocks. I guess they figured it was the sort of theme that would resonate with story-hungry financial reporters.
I like the idea of conviction. I think it can be hugely valuable to those with a prudent strategy.

Writing has always been my friend. Now uncertain about the direction to take it, I’ve been feeling a little lost. I became aware of this when Alberta discovered my high school yearbook while searching for papers she needed for a book chapter she was preparing.
It had been sixty years since I last opened the white book with “Hewlett High School Class of 1963” imprinted in dark blue across the cover. Slowly turning the pages, I became nostalgic reading the comments friends made alongside their postage stamp pictures.

I’VE DECIDED UPON MY retirement date: July 1, 2025. We just passed the one-year countdown point, so I thought I’d share some of my ideas and plans for my final year in the workforce.
This countdown idea, of course, isn’t original with me. Indeed, there are apps that you can put on your phone to count down the time until retirement. I was primarily inspired by a retirement blogger named Fritz Gilbert. He’s way more decisive than I am.

Not a day goes by that I don’t read something like “Americans say they will need $1.8 million to retire or $1.46 million or $X million” to retire “comfortably.”  “Experts” say it’s a multiple of retirement expenses –  25X I think – as if those expenses are steady and predictable over a retirement lifetime. 
Of course, many headlines talk about $1,000,000 as well. 
I see posts on social media- “I have $800,000 saved, can I retire?” The answers in reply are entertaining because based on the limited info given –

WHEN I LOOK BACK at my career, I see that the key to my long tenure with one employer was my desire to learn new skills and help expand the business. That mindset, I believe, helped me survive multiple rounds of layoffs.
I’m hoping that same mindset will help with retirement.
Many retirees say, “I just want to relax. Get rid of the alarm clock. No more classes or schedules for me.” While that feels good for a while,

DURING MY INSURANCE career, I worked for a company that focused solely on certain types of businesses, or what’s known as niche underwriting. One niche was called senior living, and it insured continuing care retirement communities, or CCRCs.
These communities typically consist of apartments where retirees live alongside an adjoining nursing home. One benefit: When residents need nursing home care, it’s right next door. If they’re married, the healthy spouse can just walk to the nursing home to visit his or her beloved.

This past weekend, my wife Lisa and I traveled to Middleburg, Virginia—a little over an hour west of Washington DC. My son’s father-in-law Matt, who also happened to be one of my college apartment-mates, is turning 60 soon and his family threw him a huge surprise party. Most of Matt’s immediate and extended family members were there, as well as key people from his career, church and other parts of life. I was part of the college friend contingent.

Recently Connie said she needed some makeup so off to the makeup store we went – and I do mean store, an entire rather large store selling just makeup. We were greeted by one of a dozen young ladies dressed in black. They are there to help you find what you are looking for or perhaps more accurately, to educate you on what you should be looking for.
I stood by the entrance patiently waiting until I was called for my opinion –

During my teen years, I loathed the feeling of pockets empty of money. I was happy to forgo most spending on food, entertainment or the other sundry treats that entice kids to part with their treasure. Instead, I liked to keep my pockets full–or nearly so.
Later, as my wife and I began our life together, we owned the adult equivalent of empty pockets—depleted savings and retirement accounts with a zero balance. On top of that,

WHEN WAS THE LAST time you got scammed? Mine was about a year ago, when I threw more than chump change into a red-hot newfangled exchange-traded fund called the JPMorgan Equity Premium Income ETF (symbol: JEPI).
Now, JEPI could be the name of someone’s pet poodle, but it’s actually one of the more misunderstood high-income products in the burgeoning world of actively managed exchange-traded funds (ETFs). Just how red hot is the fund? Around for only four years,