This month’s AARP bulletin has an article titled “Make your Retirement savings last”.
 
 
This article points out that retirement investing is for the longer term and one should not sweat short term market movements. It also points out that there is one short term danger, however, that we should all be aware of.
 
 
Let us assume when you retire, the stock market is doing very well. You take a lump sum pension payment or consolidate accounts into an IRA and fully invest your nest egg.

The IRS on Thursday issued final regulations regarding Required Minimum Distribution (RMD) requirements for those who inherit retirement accounts which were published in the Federal Register today 7/19/2024. The final regulations requires Non-Eligible Designated Beneficiaries to take RMDs starting in 2025 if the decedent had already reached their required beginning date.
The full final regulations can be read here –
https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2024/07/19/2024-14542/required-minimum-distributions
The summary of the rule as published in the Federal Register is effective 9/17/2024 follows-
This document sets forth final regulations relating to required minimum distributions from qualified plans;

Social Security is an important program. Millions of Americans rely on it and millions more will in the future. At the same time it is widely misunderstood. Rumors of its demise are exaggerated. Some people unfortunately act on such misinformation by starting benefits early. 
Making the program solvent for the foreseeable future is actually quite easy and relatively painless using a combination of changes For example, just making Section 125 employer cafeteria plans subject to the payroll tax would reduce the funding gap by 10% according the the Committee For a Responsible Federal budget calculator –

The new kid’s back in town and he’s a bully. Remember active mutual funds? Get ready because here come active ETFs. In 2019, there were only about 350 of those guys, but now that number has ballooned to almost 1,500. Remarkably, active ETFs gobbled up over 20% of the net asset flow into stock ETFs in the first half of this year.
According to one active ETF advocate, actively management has become more popular as heavyweight asset managers have entered the fray.

My family has been using HSAs as stealth Roth IRAs (with the added benefit of a tax deduction), in that after a couple of years in the beginning, we no longer make withdrawals for current medical expenses.
One neat trick we were able to pull off is that my son, while on our insurance before age 26, made the family contribution to his HSA (in addition to my wife’s family contribution and $1000 catch-up contributions for me &

Our oldest grandchild is off to college this September. Needless to say he is a bit anxious. I gave him some simple advice I learned many years ago in basic training. “Anticipate, be aware and plan ahead.” 
In basic training they do their best to break you down, to keep you on edge and then they build you up. The fear of what’s happening next is worse than the reality.
I remember the live fire training when they told us the machine gun was three feet above the highest point on the range.

GETTING OLD CAN, after a while, get really old. Here are 30 ways I’m reminded that I’m no longer a spring chicken.

Life insurance salespeople burst into laughter when I inquire about a policy.
My house is so warm I can cook without using the oven.
As I walk past the neighborhood funeral parlor, the undertaker’s eyes light up.
Decades ago, all my doctors were stern, serious men. Now, my primary care physician is a woman with a great sense of humor—who was born after I retired.

ONE OF THE biggest health risks seniors face recently happened to me. I tripped in a parking lot and fell. It was a pretty serious fall. I hurt my left shoulder, left wrist, right elbow and right knee. There was a lot of scraping on the asphalt and lots of blood. To add insult to injury, the left side of my head hit the right taillight of a Subaru, smashing the lens and running a nice pair of sunglasses.

A wonderful book by Nick Murray, an advisor to advisors. Most important themes are controlling ones behavior and the stock market has a permanent trend and that’s up
Well worth the money

Anticipating that I would soon be starting the decumulation phase, I recently set up a five year CD ladder, using brokerage CDs bought through Vanguard. Yesterday I ran Vanguard’s Portfolio Watch. Aside from finding that my stock percentage had gone from 50% to 54%, and my international stock percentage from 20% to 10%, I found that Vanguard counted my CDs as bonds, not as “short term reserves”. Can anyone explain that?
Also, since I need to do some rebalancing,

As John Yeigh points out in his article this morning, https://humbledollar.com/2024/07/driven-by-taxes/ taxes dive a lot (too much?) of our behavior.
What do people do for mid-year tax planning?   I’m currently doing a version of the |”spend from taxable to keep income low to qualify for ACA credits but fretting about whether I should be doing Roth conversions and/or geting out of positions in highly appreciated individual stocks that comprise too much of my portfolio” dance.   I’ve got a spreadsheet going,

EXPERTS OFTEN ARGUE that tax-avoidance strategies shouldn’t drive our financial plans, especially as Congress is forever fiddling with the tax rules. And yet many of us end up making decisions based on federal tax policy, which is loaded with incentives designed to change behavior and advance social goals.
That’s certainly true for my wife and me. Despite the tax code’s many provisions—and its 75,000 pages of complexity—four big-picture tax considerations have largely shaped how our financial lives have turned out,

Exactly who are them and they?
It seems these two folks, them and they, are responsible for most of our problems, especially financial problems, a least that’s the way some – many – people see things.
A women on Treads this morning was complaining she had to pay a Medicare premium bill – before starting Social Security – within 12 days.  According to her the Medicare system is a joke. Her plan to get even was going to the doctor just to make them have to pay for that bill.

MY FAVORITE ROCK group is the Beach Boys. I particularly like their song Wouldn’t It Be Nice. It’s about young love, and how life would be so wonderful if only they were married and lived together.
I believe that phrase “wouldn’t it be nice” has been voiced by most of us at one time or another. The notion: If things were different, all would be good.
Unfortunately, few people display the persistence needed to turn their dreams into reality.

Years ago I bought some Gold Eagles. Now with gold trading at near historic highs, I figure it may be a good time to sell. If you have sold your gold, I’d be very interested to hear your thoughts on the process, especially in regards to maximizing the sales price.