While driving on the highway recently I noticed the vehicle in front of us was a Bentley – an SUV no less. My immediate thought was that this SUV would never be part of an off road adventure – neither are most SUVs for that matter.
I had another thought too. Why would you spend that kind of money on a depreciating asset that costs a fortune to maintain? The price tag is about $279,000. That’s a lot of cash to get from A to B even in comfort.

I’m on the cusp of turning 67. Since I’ll be spending my birthday in Slovenia, we went to NYC yesterday to have a picnic celebration with our older son and family on the Hudson in lower Manhattan. It was wonderful, with food, wine, and a delicious lemon meringue pie. We tossed the football and enjoyed the beautiful weather and setting.  Later that evening we had dinner with our younger son and family at a marina-side restaurant,

FORMER NEW YORK CITY Mayor Ed Koch used to frequently ask the city’s residents, “How am I doing?”
When I was younger, I’d ask myself that same question. I was always trying to keep up with others, whether it was socially, academically, athletically or financially. My big fear was that I wasn’t going to make it. I could never let down my guard, relax and take it easy. I was always having to compensate for whatever I was deficient in.

I am looking to get on to Medicare early next year and while reading up on this topic, I see this line, “All plans with the same letter have the same coverage, but prices can vary based on the insurance company” repeated often regarding the Medigap policies.
For example, when I look up Plan G for my state (SC), I see that there are “47 plans” and the premiums range from a low of $90 all the way up to (gulp) $493.

When I was a freshman in high school, my earth science teacher once started out a class by playing Pink Floyd’s song Time, from their album The Dark Side of the Moon. He played the uncut version, which runs almost seven minutes. His reasoning for having us listen to the song was that musicians probably know more about time than the typical person. Two years after that science class, a song called Time Passages by Al Stewart became popular.

On August 31, 2024 Jonathan wrote What We Believed which included the following. How right he is. I experienced it first hand over my near fifty years working for the same employer.
“Employers care. My parents worked for a paternalistic employer, and I certainly thought of my initial employers in those terms. But how many folks today believe that, if they work hard, their employer will return that loyalty and that their job is truly safe?

I TOOK MY REQUIRED minimum distribution, or RMD, at the end of July. I was planning on taking it at the end of the year, but my allocation to stocks was more than five percentage points above my target of 40%. I thought selling some of my stocks would be a good way to rebalance my portfolio and fund my RMD, so I sold a portion of my overweight in Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF (symbol: VTI).

Covid. Third time and pretty bad. Feels almost over after thirteen days. That Paxlovid’s a miracle medication, but I’m afraid I’ll rebound from it. All very scary for a 79-year-old with an immune system compromised by an anti-cancer drug. Very little fever though, surprising given how out of it and weak I’ve felt.
Actually, most of my fever has not been of the temperature kind. It was more about my money or, more accurately, my fear of losing control over my money.

Her life is slipping away as I compose this forum topic. Both her daughters, my daughters, have been camped at her bedside for the past 10 days as hospice provides comfort care until my ex-wife dies. No words of sympathy need be offered to me, she and I fell out of love a long time ago. Still, this is the person responsible for 11 beautiful family members that would not be in my life without her.

COULD SOMETHING like the Great Depression happen again? During that unpleasant episode, the stock market dropped 90%, unemployment rose to 25% and gross domestic product fell 30%. In making a financial plan, is this a scenario we should worry about?
While no one can predict the future, it’s worth taking a closer look at one key variable: the Federal Reserve. Today, the Fed has a reputation for helping smooth out economic cycles. But those who worry about Depression-like scenarios point out how powerless the Fed was to prevent the collapse that occurred in the 1920s and 30s.

My investing strategy is closely aligned with the game of darts. Aim and hope my picks land in the right place. Does it work?
I make no claim to investing acumen. However, I am proof that even those who know little of what they are doing with no patience for nitty gritty analysis can make money. 
Since all my investments are with Fidelity I used their analysis of my account to evaluate where my darts landed.

As a compulsive list maker, I’m updating my list of finance-related
action items and analysis to do around year-end. Here are a few things on my list:
– Estimate taxes
– Consider year-end contributions
– Target income levels to maximize ACA credits
– Consider Roth conversions
– Assess prior year’s returns
– Analyze last year’s spending
– Project “safe spending” for the coming year
– Re-balance investments if needed
What’s on your list?

THE OLDER WE GET, the easier it is to see the progress we’ve made, both as individuals and as a society. But I’m not just thinking about personal wealth, higher standards of living, better health care and extraordinary technological advances.
As I look back, I also see impressive progress in our financial thinking. Here are eight notions that were conventional wisdom half a century ago—but which today aren’t universally accepted and, in my estimation,

If you’ve ever wondered whether Vanguard’s S&P 500 or total stock market fund is the better core holding in your portfolio, you’re probably not alone. Each ETF has over 400 billion in net assets, each has an expense ratio of .03, each has essentially the same dividend (1.25%) and each is categorized by both Vanguard and Morningstar as large blend. Both funds trade at very high volume, making the spread on purchases and sales all but nonexistent.

The Forum has been live for more than two months, and it’s been a hit with readers. Each day brings an impressive number of comments and often at least a few new discussion threads. But—as your most irritating boss would remind you—there’s always room for improvement.
Here are six suggestions for Forum participants:

Don’t refer to stocks and funds by their ticker symbols or, at a minimum, not on first reference. I’ve spent my career focused on this stuff,