IT’S BEEN MORE THAN 10 years since my retirement journey began at age 52. For almost 30 years, I’d worked hard, especially the last two decades, when my twin brother and I owned a landscaping company. Vacations were few and far between, and even on vacation I was always on call.
I was burned out and ready for a new chapter. Going into retirement, I was well-prepared financially. But how I’d fill my days was something of a mystery.

MY LATE FATHER SPENT his entire career, from the time he dropped out of college to marry my mother until the day he died at age 61, in the insurance business. My father was also a huge fan of the San Francisco 49ers, our hometown NFL team.
Last year, the 49ers cruised through the playoffs, led by the team’s dynamic young quarterback, Brock Purdy. But then, in the NFC Championship game against the Philadelphia Eagles,

FLAPJACKS IS LITERALLY on the other side of the tracks. The place is a throwback to the diners of the 1950s, when waitresses wore white aprons and took orders on little green pads, and where the red vinyl seats were cracked.
Charlie and me. I’ve been meeting Charlie at Flapjacks for weekly pancake breakfasts since I partially retired seven years ago. I spot him in our back booth and slide in across from him.

“WE CANNOT GET RICH doing dentistry, but we can get rich investing what we make in dentistry.” A nationally recognized lecturer on dental-practice management shared that piece of advice with me some 40 years ago.
I’d been out of dental school for a year when Dr. Dick Klein spoke at our local dental society’s annual meeting. The meeting’s organizer was a friend. He asked if my wife and I would take Klein and his wife out to dinner after his presentation.

BILLY JOEL WROTE a song that declares, “I love you just the way you are.” But as parents, sometimes it isn’t easy to say those words about our children.
We’re supposed to train them to succeed in life. We all probably think we’re excellent trainers, so—when our children don’t get it—it must be their fault. We did our part, so why don’t they learn?
For parents of special needs children, things are different, but also similar.

RETIRED HEDGE FUND manager Jim Cramer is the host of Mad Money, a staple of financial television. For years, critics have derided his investment recommendations—to the point where there’s now a fund designed specifically to bet against him: the Inverse Cramer Tracker exchange-traded fund (symbol: SJIM).
For investors who see Cramer as the P.T. Barnum of finance, this fund offers the ability to make bets that are precisely the opposite of what Cramer recommends.

MY FAMILY HAS BEEN regularly visiting a remote corner of southwest England since 1968, when I was five years old. My maternal grandparents retired to the area, and for a while my parents owned a holiday house nearby. It is, to me, the world’s most beautiful place.
Decades ago, while walking the country lanes, I came across the ruins of a church that was under the protection of a group called Friends of Friendless Churches,

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING completely different: I’d like to try a HumbleDollar meetup on Monday, March 4, at 5 p.m. at Pizzeria Vetri, 1615 Chancellor Street, Philadelphia.
All attendees will be responsible for their own bill, but it shouldn’t be wildly expensive, not least because happy hour runs through 6 p.m. I believe Vetri has the best pizza in Philly. The restaurant doesn’t take reservations, but the manager assures me that things should be quiet at that time.

MY FAVORITE CLASS freshman year in college was introductory psychology. I found the lectures interesting, the textbook fascinating, and the course much less time-consuming than my engineering classes. Based on my positive experience, I decided I’d take a class called psychology of personality as an elective. What I didn’t realize was that many students considered the professor to be something of an oddball.
My first—and only—day in the class was surreal. The professor kept repeating that his class was “designed to be a real system.” Multiple times,

WHEN I VISITED INDIA after working in the U.S. for a decade, it struck me that people seemed happy, despite harsh living conditions.
How could that be? “People compare themselves with others,” my brother said to me. “That’s human nature. If they’re better off than their immediate community, they’re happy. It doesn’t matter how bad their situation may be compared to more prosperous countries.”
That made sense. I was making the mistake of applying U.S.

HEY GUYS, DO YOU carry a rifle like Clint Eastwood when you invest—or are you a vulnerable romantic like Hugh Grant? My contention: Most of us lean toward a traditionally masculine or feminine orientation when building our portfolio, similar to how we handle many other life choices, from career to sports preferences.
This gender orientation is, I believe, a pervasive bias when buying and selling mutual funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs), not unlike the behavioral-finance biases you’ve likely read about,

REGULARLY CHANGING the oil is the most important step you can take to extend your car’s engine life. Oil is the engine’s life blood and changing it is one of the least costly maintenance steps. It’s also one of the dirtiest, crummiest, least pleasant jobs you can do.
Before I got married, I lived in a six-story apartment building in Brooklyn, with a parking garage in the basement. A friend of mine lived in the same building.

IN SPRING 1984, WHEN I was age 32, we purchased a little ranch house in need of tender loving care. That’s why I found myself in a musty crawlspace, removing clutter and installing vapor barriers.
I heard a booming voice from above. It wasn’t God telling me I should run for president. Instead, it was my new neighbor Ken. I came to the surface, dusted myself off and went inside the house.
Standing there was a 47-year-old,

I WRAPPED UP MY first HumbleDollar article by declaring that I’m no investment expert. I still stand by that statement.
But I also maintain that this insight is a strength, not a weakness. Recognizing my limitations allows me to settle on an investment strategy that gives me a better shot of arriving at my retirement goal, with less likelihood of a detour along the way.
My wife Sharon and I hold most of our retirement savings at Vanguard Group.

WE ALL HAVE BAD DAYS. But for some folks, it seems every day is a bad one. No matter how good things seem to be, they’ll focus on the one bad thing. Think about the negative thoughts that you have:

Are they helpful?
Are they true?
Does the bad in your life outweigh the good?
Has negative thinking become a habit?
Do others really need to know about all the bad things in your life?