INNOVATION IN THE world of retirement plans is decidedly slow moving. But as of July 4th, investors now have a new savings option known as a Trump account. In short, these are retirement accounts designed specifically for children.
Trump accounts share some similarities with traditional individual retirement accounts (IRAs), but there are also key differences. If you have children, grandchildren, nieces or nephews, this new option may be worth exploring.
Who is eligible for a Trump account?

WHEN READERS THINK of my younger brother Jonathan Clements, they often picture the longtime Wall Street Journal columnist or the founder of HumbleDollar. They remember the clear financial advice, the thoughtful essays and the quiet wisdom that helped millions make better decisions with their money.
But every writer has a beginning.
As I’ve been researching Jonathan’s life over the past several weeks, I’ve found myself drawn less to the career everyone knows and more to the people who helped shape it.

Many American’s perception of the taxes they pay is seriously distorted. Many seem to believe that withholding from their pay is the taxes they actually pay or that taxes due at year end reflect higher taxes rather than likely under withholding.
A major misunderstanding is that the tax bracket they are in represents their real tax rate. I know taxes are complicated, but not that complicated. 
I conducted a simple exercise. Using several AI tools I calculate the 2026 federal income tax for a household with two young children earning the US median income.

Do a Roth conversion in November or December and you’ve made a smart move in a low-income year. You’ve also just bought yourself a tax problem.
The IRS wants its money as you go, not in one lump next April. And for estimated payments, it grades you quarter by quarter. Say you convert $100,000 in December and the conversion generates a tax bill in the low $20,000s. Pay it all with a single January estimated payment and you might think you’re square.

Despite my protestation, we went to a big box store today, COSTCO to be specific.
I am not a fan of these stores. They don’t save people money, they encourage spending and for some people waste as well. It’s all hard to resist, but I try, yet sometimes fail. Today I bought a three foot bag of popcorn and a bag of dried apricots-I never bought those in my life). 
These stores encourage people to buy what they don’t need and in volume that may not be able to use.

While researching Jonathan’s early years, I came across this article he wrote as a teenager for Saga, the magazine at Bryanston School in England. Years later, Jonathan would say this was his “entrée to becoming a journalist.”
Reading it today, I was struck by something unexpected. Although he was still a teenager, I could already hear the voice that millions of readers would later come to know. He wasn’t simply writing about a school pipe organ.

During the last couple of months I’ve saved around $1000, and I’m not very happy about it. It’s money I really didn’t want to save. I’d rather have blown it big time. My most earnest efforts and hopes to do so were thwarted by circumstances entirely beyond my control.
During this timeframe I’ve had the misfortune of being hit by a string of low level, unrelated plumbing issues. A shower diverter valve jammed, a toilet cistern flush button broke,

We have recently considered buying another property closer to family.    Since selling our current home may take some time we were thinking we could possible use a retirement Roth account to come up with purchase price rather then take a bridge or other loan.  We also do not have enough after tax money in regular accounts to cover the total purchase.  We have been here for many years so it meets tax deduction for primary residence sale. 

IF YOU’RE IN YOUR early 60s and retired, you probably have a lot of financial questions on your mind. The next few years may be among your lowest-income and lowest-tax-paying years. Your salary and bonus years are behind you. Social Security and required minimum distributions from your IRAs and 401(k)s have not started yet. You are hearing advice about doing Roth conversions during this low-tax window, and the arguments are compelling. You may also be thinking about consulting or part-time work to stay active and bring in some income.

AS WE CELEBRATE 250 years since the Declaration of Independence, I’m reminded of an expression that’s popular in the investment world: “This time is different.”
The phrase dates to a 1993 publication titled “16 Rules for Investment Success,” authored by the veteran investment manager Sir John Templeton. Rule number 11 included the following admonition: “The investor who says, ‘This time is different,’ when in fact it’s virtually a repeat of an earlier situation, has uttered among the four most costly words in the annals of investing.”
Templeton’s message,

Last week I was driving home after finishing the grandkids’ school run when an amber engine warning light flicked on. Being the type of guy I am, I didn’t wait around wondering about it. I drove straight to my local mechanic to get it checked out.
They plugged it into the diagnostic system and gave me the likely verdict: the timing chain was starting to stretch. Nothing was confirmed yet, since they wanted to do a proper mechanical inspection first.

It’s been almost 58 years since my parents decided to immigrate to the U.S. for a better future for me. That’s the reason they gave as to why they uprooted our  lives in Athens, Greece.  I did not like their decision and for years afterward I let them  know that I preferred my life in Greece.  My parents knew what I didn’t know which was that America was a land of opportunity and I could educate myself and eventually have a better standard of living than in Greece.

“Does any part of your busy schedule stem from a feeling that you need to be busy?”
That sentence is part of a question posed by Edmund Marsh to Dr. Lefty. It ties in with an article I began to formulate a while back.  
Should I Start a New Business?
The obvious answer is a resounding NO. Still, there’s a little gremlin inside me who        sometimes shows his ugly little gremlin head; you should buy that building,

If stocks don’t win, everybody likely loses.
Stocks are a gauge of the global economy’s health. Are share prices in a multi-year slump? The world’s economy must be in the dumpster—and that’s bad news for all investors.
Conventional wisdom says we can avoid stock-market mayhem by hiding out in bonds and cash investments, and that’s usually true. But if economic growth stalls out or even reverses for multiple years, it won’t just be stocks that suffer.

My dad’s brother passed away two years ago. I liked him, but I didn’t really know him well; the last time I’d seen him was at my mum’s funeral, about a year before his own. I’d kept my distance from that side of the family; ours was really just a wedding-and-funeral relationship. My uncle was a character. A dodgy character.
Here’s one example of his pedigree. Unbelievable as it sounds, back in the 60s and early 70s,