SOME PEOPLE ARE BORN clumsy. Tools never seem to fit their hands. Their hammer finds a thumb more often than a nail. For them, running looks and feels like an ungainly, uphill battle—even on level ground.
I don’t claim to be physically gifted. But my clumsiness shows up in a different way. I have a notable social deficiency: I’m naturally clumsy with people. Why is this important? It defined the first quarter-century of my life,

Morningstar, that indispensable fund advisory service, has a freebee, but it’s missed by many folks who could benefit mightily from its wisdom and data. True, to monitor your holdings via the invaluable Portfolio Manager, you’ll have to pony up the $249 admission price. But many investors are unaware they can pull up comprehensive analyses—both quantitative and qualitative—of their individual mutual funds and ETFs without a subscription.
Why would Morningstar allow you to squeeze in without paying for its coveted fund reviews?

I’M DUMB MONEY, as are all so-called recreational gamblers. That’s why, during the recent basketball playoffs, we sports spectators were bombarded with wildly seductive commercials glamorizing sports betting.
Fortunately, I learned my limits early on. My last notable gamble ended badly more than four decades ago, when some IBM options I bought expired worthless.
But I’ve also come to appreciate that not all individual gamblers are dumb money. I’ve lately been serving as the sounding board for my 36-year-old son Ryan,

In yesterday’s post, “Navigate Your Portfolio in Morningstar in 20 Minutes,” we introduced the highly respected advisory service and walked through how to enter your funds into its Portfolio Manager platform.  We put special emphasis on Morningstar’s hallmark 5-Star Ratings, enumerating some of the system’s strengths and weaknesses. You have access to the Stars without a subscription by simply searching for your fund, but other information on Portfolio Manager and the invaluable X-Ray tool we will navigate today does require one ($249 annually).

Reading Richard Quinn’s recent article on 55+ communities it seemed that some of people posting comments thought that a CCRC was where you went when you could no longer live independently. This is far from the case. In fact, if you wait that long a CCRC is highly unlikely to admit you.
The initials stand for Continuing Care Retirement Community, and that continuum of care is key. Although there are different models, a typical CCRC will offer Independent Living (IL),

I have irrefutable evidence that Americans have more stuff than they need, and spend more than necessary on (expensive) items.
The evidence is clear. Walk-in closets and garages stuffed while the cars are in the drive way are the culprits.
I grew up without a walk-in closet, my grandparent’s houses didn’t have walk-closets. In fact in our apartment with five people there were two regular closets. Today in our condo the two of us have three walk-ins filled to the rafters.

IF YOU’RE LIKE ME, you aren’t eager to spend down your investments. What fun is that? Aren’t you curious to see how big your portfolio could grow? Of course, you are.
After my wife and I are gone, my son will have dibs on the money we’ve amassed. We’ve set up a special needs trust to provide him with income when we’re no longer around. My son has no siblings, so we needed the trust to make sure he’s taken care of.

When it comes to managing my fund investments, Morningstar has been my crème de la creme for about 25 years.  It’s comprehensive, hugely informative and reasonably user friendly. It is one of the most responsible and ethical services around, periodically evaluating its usefulness both quantitatively and quantitatively.
Another thumbs up—Morningstar neatly complements Humble Dollar. It encompasses both traditional topics of personal finance like saving for retirement and sophisticated treatment of how to clear long-term investing hurdles like an unlucky sequence of returns.

Math was never my strong subject. In high school I never took algebra or anything beyond arithmetic- there is an archaic word for you. When I ventured into college many years later I had to take a non-credit course in algebra to get accepted. Years later calculus was required. I liked the course so much I took it twice. It didn’t matter that the professor barely spoke English. I didn’t understand her or the subject.
Here I am 55 years later and still looking for an occasion to use algebra or calculus.

I doubt there are any HumbleDollar readers who buy into the dozen notions listed below. But trust me: There are plenty of folks who do.
Trying to play financial coach to friends or family members? You’ve got your work cut out for you if:

They imagine they can achieve financial freedom without living well below their means.
They believe their car—or any other possession, for that matter—is an investment.
They think it’s easy to beat the stock market averages.

Every three years or so, I can’t resist the temptation to buy disposable razors at Costco. Given the disposables are about $1 each, they are about a third of the price of buying razor cartridges. About a week into the purchase, however, I am reminded why I prefer the cartridges. While more expensive, the cartridges provide a better shave and they last about 3 times as long. While the initial impression I get is that I am getting a bargain,

An earlier discussion on Forum nearly exhausted the debate on the percentage of pre-retirement income needed in retirement. I rarely win the argument, but I press on. 
First, my argument is not replacing income, but base salary. For me base salary was around 60% of total compensation. 
Second, being able to live on say, 50% replacement is easier the higher starting Income. After all, 50% of $300,000 a year is still a hefty amount. 50% of $80,000 working income not so much. 

FROM THE COLOSSEUM in Rome to the palace at Versailles, look around Europe and you’ll find artifacts of once-great empires. What happened to them?
Each faced its own challenges, but there was also a common theme: They had poor financial management and became overburdened by debt. That’s why a recent analysis in The Wall Street Journal—titled “Will Debt Sink the American Empire?”—is worth our attention.
In 2024, the federal government’s budget deficit will come in at $1.9 trillion.

What does it take to be “rich?”  Answering that question is nearly impossible. There are as many answers as Google sites, but after trying, I have settled on being in the top 10% of income and net worth at around $200,000 per year and $2,000,000. Most people think that’s rich.
Keep in mind you can meet the net worth goal even falling short on income. 
What got me thinking about this was reading various social media sites where individuals were complaining about their inability to be wealthy and displayed strong envy over those who were.

I’VE ALWAYS ASSUMED my financial life wasn’t so different from that of others—and that made writing personal-finance articles a whole lot easier. I, too, wanted to own a home, buy the right insurance, pay for the kids’ college, and amass enough for a long and comfortable retirement.
On top of that, I wasn’t some financial minority—a highly paid executive, or a successful business owner, or the recipient of a hefty inheritance. Instead, I was like most everybody else,