About 5% of the population accounts for nearly half of total health spending, and many of these are older adults with multiple conditions.
Do seniors (65+) pay as much as perceived for health care?
Seniors pay a lot for health care, but it is not that simple. Many, perhaps most, seniors pay no more, even less, out of pocket, than many younger families. 
The bulk of spending by seniors is premiums, not the actual cost of care.

I came across the following Kiplinger article recently:
https://www.kiplinger.com/retirement/social-security/minimum-savings-to-retire-by-state
It postulates that you would need to save a minimum of 1.6 M to retire comfortably in California, the third most expensive state in which to retire. There are a lot of unknowns in how they calculate this, but alarmingly the median savings of people 65-74 in $200,000 the average is $609,230. On social media sites, people ask if they can retire on social security alone. I know this is preaching to the choir,

“INVESTING IS SIMPLE,” observed HumbleDollar’s editor Jonathan Clements. “To be sure, you can make it ludicrously complicated.” And, indeed, Wall Street does just that.
According to a recent analysis by Bloomberg, the fund industry rolled out more than 640 new exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the first half of this year—an average of more than three a day. There are now more ETFs in the U.S. than there are stocks (4,300 vs. 4,200).

THE OBBBA CREATED A NEW tax deduction for “qualified passenger vehicle loan interest” effective 2025 through 2028. 
It comes with a lot of rules and nuances, so I wanted to cover this topic a bit more in depth in case you are planning to acquire a vehicle soon.
So, what is “qualified passenger vehicle loan interest”?
It means any interest that was paid during the taxable year (e.g 2025) on a loan started after Dec.

I realize this is an anomaly, but my wife Suzie is in a much better financial position today because she cashed out her Defined Benefit pension for a lump sum payment.
Neither Suzie nor I understood the reasons why the offer was so generous. The financial advisor we consulted about the proposed surrender value also didn’t get the logic but strongly suggested we take the deal.
I don’t like little mysteries that defy normal thinking, so over the last while,

I spent most of my early 20s not knowing what I wanted to do with my life – I lost track of how many times I changed my major! After graduating, I moved to Japan and spent a couple of years teaching English and exploring SE Asia. I knew I eventually wanted to go to graduate school, but I also knew that I didn’t want to continue in the field in which I’d (finally) majored. In a twist no one who knew me saw coming,

I recently came across the tax estimation tools page on the Bogleheads Wiki. I found the information and links useful and think it is likely that other HumbleDollar readers will also.
It was interesting to me to learn to that the AARP free tax calculator that I often use appears to be a licensed version of the current Dinkytown program referenced in the Wiki article with the Dinkytown version being updated more frequently and thus the Boglehead’s recommend over the licensed versions.

I know I and many others mockingly complain in a joking manner about our grandkids costing us a “fortune” when they visit—but with no malice intended, did you actually consider these costs when crafting your retirement spending plan?
I certainly never thought about this; it didn’t even cross my mind. Maybe I’m being too generous, or perhaps I’ve had a run of bad luck. In recent months, my granddaughter dropped an iPad, requiring a replacement, and my grandson accidentally let a toy car slip from his hand while spinning around,

As I struggled out of the electrical retailer with an enormous box, a thought crossed my mind. I was grateful I had taken a pessimistic view of life in one particular area. The box contained a new flat-screen TV to replace our old one, which had recently given up the good fight. My pessimistic thoughts had led me to create a large emergency fund on my retirement spreadsheet specifically for replacing items that wear out.
I suspect,

Regular readers of HumbleDollar may recall some of this as it has been mentioned by me in various articles over the years.  In essence it is a summery of my adult life. 
There were no moments of financial brilliance. It was mostly just plugging along with an absence of misfortune while trying to avoid doing anything exceptionally stupid. 
I don’t recommend any similar actions for anyone. In fact, if I had to do it over, I suspect I would not recommend all of it for me either. 

Here are the 1-year trailing returns for various asset classes according to Morningstar:
Bloomberg Commodity 9.16%
LBMA Gold Price PM 34.59%
Morningstar Global Core Bond GR 2.17%
Morningstar US 5-10 Year Treasury Bond 3.09%
Morningstar US 10+ Year Treasury Bond -5.85%
Morningstar US Cash T-Bill 4.63%
Morningstar US Core Bond 2.61%
Morningstar US HY Bond 8.18%
Morningstar US Market 16.79%
Morningstar US REIT -1.17%
Morningstar US Small Cap 10.85%
A portfolio which contained an equally weighted amount of each of the above would show a gain of 7.7%.

I had just dropped my grandson off at soccer practice and was heading home when my car’s overheating warning light began flashing, accompanied by a piercing “ping ping” noise. I quickly pulled over and turned the engine off. Shrugging my shoulders, and since I was in my normal uniform of shorts and a t-shirt, I decided to jog the two miles home.
The next morning, the mechanic called to let me know it was a coolant system failure.

The secret is revealed at the end.

TIME VALUE OF MONEY, asset class, diversification, dollar-cost averaging: This is the language of investment professionals. But it isn’t the language of everyday Americans, including those saving for retirement in their employer’s 401(k) plan.
Trust me, I know. During my nearly 30 years overseeing 401(k) plans, including providing financial education to participants, it became clear to me that using such plans as intended wasn’t easy for most people.

I’m gifting a WSJ opinion piece on how to achieve FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) by 30. It’s not about podcasts and side gigs, but about ignoring work-life balance and front loading earning. I wouldn’t want to live that way, and was happy to retire at 53, but looks like the author may well achieve his goal. He suggests that others his age are following the same path.
 

“U.S. Stocks Are Now Pricier Than They Were in the Dot-Com Era
The S&P 500 has never been this expensive, or more concentrated in fewer companies” – WSJ 9/1/2025
Edited 9/2/2025 per Morningstar:   Morningstar US Market Index +10.90%  since June 1, 2025!  Tech stocks +16.1% over the same period.
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Summary 200 Day Simple Moving Average:

As of today (September 1, 2025), SPX index 200-day simple moving average is 5959.47,