I’m curious about how many HD readers have arranged for long term care in some way, shape, or form.  My policy seems overly complicated, unsurprising since it is an insurance policy.  I know it was explained to me at the time.
In the year I turned 60 I used the cash value from a whole life insurance policy to purchase a long term care plan.  I no longer needed that life insurance.  The actuaries computed a maximum total long term care benefit,

WE MAKE FOREVER PLANS—and often end up shredding them in a few short days.
Think of the folks who hike their portfolio’s allocation to stocks, only to turn tail when the next market downdraft reminds them of their true risk tolerance. Or the families who are forced to move because of a job change, or the arrival of children, or the need to help aging parents. Or me, who thought he might have 30 more years,

My good friend Irving was about to open a Roth IRA with a $10,000 lump sum he had squirreled away in a savings account at his local bank. At thirty, he had just been promoted to manager of the production division of Widget Sure Repair, a manufacturer of easy-to-use tools for do-it-yourself homeowners. The promotion came with a large salary increase and my friend felt confident he could afford to make monthly contributions of $250 to the plan.

We’re probably financially independent (FI).  Based on multiple retirement calculators and hours upon hours of studying the issue, I’m confident, if my wife and I were to quit making money today, our nest egg, along with Social Security, would provide us a comfortable living for the remainder of our lives.  The only reason I’m still working is because my wife has the desire to travel more frequently and spoil our grandchildren in various ways.  I’m not certain we could safely generate the kind of income that would allow enough travel and spoiling to suit her. 

We live in a hyper-partisan world, and I’m not just talking about politics and cultural issues. Even among financial questions, I’m constantly surprised by what turns out to be controversial.
There are the obvious choices that affect retirees, such as when to claim Social Security and whether to annuitize part of a nest egg. These decisions involve significant dollars, so maybe it’s no great surprise that folks get hot and bothered.
But it isn’t just fairly straightforward financial issues that get fiercely debated.

Do you think we are moving toward a competency crisis in this country? I told this story in a comment on an article a few months back:
“Seven years ago, I bought a 2005 Outback. Despite the pink slip being clearly written by the dealer, the title came back with ‘Culter’ as my last name. I went to AAA for advice and they filled out a correction form for me. The title was revised to read ‘Renneth Culter’.

If you own a traditional IRA that has nondeductible and deductible contributions as well as earnings and you also have an employer sponsored tax deferred account like a 401(k) or Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) that will accept an IRA rollover, then here’s a way to do a tax-free Roth conversion. I learned about this maneuver from a comment to my comment on a prior HD article. It’s pretty slick although a little complicated, so I thought it deserved to be its own HD article.

A recent commenter requested that someone start a new post to discuss the apparent increase in credit card usage fees. I wrote about this almost exactly a year ago, so I thought I’d get it started. In the year since I wrote about how my wife and I were encountering more cash discounts, or credit card usage fees, it seems to have become a bigger topic.  One thing I’ve noticed is not every merchant follows the rules and makes the fees clear.

One of my pet issues is survivor income. Assuring a survivor, generally a spouse, is financially okay no matter what is very important IMO, but I rarely see it discussed on retirement planning sites.
I have many stories from my work experience where a spouse – typically the wife – was left floundering upon the husbands death because, except for Social Security, income ceased – these were people with the ability to select pension survivor annuities.

HOW DO YOU DECIDE whether to go with good, better or best?
My next-door neighbor always goes for the best, regardless of what it is. He pays more for everything. He’s a senior vice president, and I guess he feels he needs or deserves the best. God bless him.
That’s not my approach. I recently replaced my gas furnace and central air conditioner. My furnace was 23 years old and my air conditioner 10.

In addition to my dad, my mom wanted someone else to know of a stash of cash she had hidden in the hem of the bedroom curtains. A fall resulted in a hospital stay and rehab for mom, and my dad needed to move in with me due to his health. I went upstairs to retrieve mom’s mad money and found an envelope with 70 neatly stacked $100 bills.
A few years later my mother in law was forced from her condo by a fire.

I have become somewhat addicted to Threads. It is similar to X, but simpler and with generally shorter posts, but it is scary.
The misinformation and lack of understanding about taxes, wealth, Social Security, economics, and investing is staggering. If the posts reflect even a modest segment of our population, the financial challenges people face are easily understood. 
Nothing is fair according to these folks. Here is a recent complaint. I just paid $4 for a Gatorade at 7-Eleven…Why is everything so expensive?

Losing money was a great shame in my family, worse than not making any money at all. It was a shanda, Yiddish for disgrace. It didn’t take me long to learn the program. I’ve spent a lifetime trying not to be someone’s financial embarrassment, which includes managing money in my own family. I suffer from FOLM, or fear of losing money, not to be confused with FOMO, shorthand for the daredevils of the investment world afflicted with the fear of missing out on stocks hurtling toward glory.

DO YOU REMEMBER the headline, “Brooke Astor’s Son Guilty in Scheme to Defraud Her”? He swindled his famous mother out of millions, once by pocketing a $2 million commission on the sale of an Impressionist painting he purloined from her New York City apartment. She lived to age 105 but suffered from dementia.
F. Scott Fitzgerald purportedly said, “The rich are different than you and me.” But maybe not when it comes to elder fraud.

In 2024, it seemed like the stock market went in just one direction—up. That notion has been shattered in the past few weeks. The Nasdaq is well into correction territory. The Japanese stock market tumbled 12.4% on Monday alone. Legend has it that the great banker, John Pierpont Morgan, was once asked what was going to happen in the stock market. His answer: “It will fluctuate.”
Stock market volatility is nothing new. But investors have hardly mastered their nerves and emotions in the face of it.