Income, living P to P, even retirement security is relative. You can’t apply just one set of numbers, but HD folks know that. I intuitively knew it too, but I never looked closely at some variables. Relocating and downsizing are often a part of retirement and can have positive or negative financial consequences. It’s something to think about. 
For  example:
In New Jersey the lower limit of middle class is nearly $70.000 a year, but in Mississippi it is about $40,000.

I’ve always been vaguely reassured by the idea that the stock market is run by very serious people with very serious computers, all doing very serious maths so that prices reflect reality. It seems like a reasonable arrangement. Sometimes I think I’m giving the whole operation considerably more credit than it deserves.
I was watching the news a while back when a story came on about a market “flash crash,” billions wiped out in minutes, recovered almost as fast,

I have found, especially as I get older, that there is a real benefit to simplifying many aspects of my life.  For me the reasons include:

Saving time
Easing decision making
Limiting behavioral mistakes, including thrashing or freezing, due to complexity 
Preparing for cognitive decline or physical incapacity
Preparing for ease of transferring responsibilities to spouse or children

Do you find that simplification helps you and if so what things have you done to simplify your financial situation and other aspects of your life?

After some of the site’s recent Forum posting and commenting activity, I’d like to share the following rules for posting and commenting.
Rules for posting to the Forum: 

Must illustrate something financial whether it be a lesson, an observation, or a story. The financial component can be obvious, a hidden nugget within a well written story, or something in between. The majority of posts achieve this.
No polls to readers. Polls to the readers will come from me or Bogdan.

In some of my previous posts I have touted the Australian Superannuation program as a possible solution to America’s retirement funds problem. I admit that this was based on limited knowledge. This is Morningstar’s take on if this is the answer to our problem:
https://www.morningstar.com/retirement/what-us-could-learn-australias-retirement-savings-system?utm_source=eloqua&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=MorningDigest&utm_content=None_73036&utm_id=38090
I would be interested in our Aussie HD readers take on this assessment of their system, and whether they agree with the conclusions about their system.

It’s not hard to find articles about high prices, the burden inflation puts on seniors, those with a so-called fixed income, which is a myth. Virtually no retiree is on a fixed income and the more they depend on Social Security the less so. 
Of course, high inflation, actually any inflation creates financial stress for many retirees, but is it a surprise? Isn’t being aware of and planning for inflation a key part of retirement? Inflation is nearly always with us. 

A paper by Northwestern University and University of Chicago researchers concluded that Gen Z “are spending more of their earnings than they are saving, they’re working less, and they’re making risky investments.” 46% of Gen Z respondents agreed with this statement: “No matter how hard I work, I will never be able to afford a home I really love.” 
The emphasis is mine and I think that’s important. One of the challenges we face in life is “unrealistic expectations.” In the current market,

Connie has a relative who likes to claim her admittedly very successful son owns a hotel in Florida. I checked that out and the reality is he participates in a real estate trust or holding company that actually owns various properties.
That knowledge told me there is more than one way to claim smart investing. I violated my standard of knowing what I was buying – sort of.
I just purchased 1,000 shares in the Empire State Building.

On February 28, 2026, “a war began when the United States and Israel launched surprise airstrikes on multiple sites and cities across Iran, killing Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and several other Iranian officials. Iran responded with missile and drone strikes against Israel, US bases, and US-allied countries in the Middle East” per Wikipedia.
Soon after, the Strait of Hormuz was closed to shipping, and by March 10, 2026, crude oil increased from $67 to $87 per barrel.

A couple of years ago, as I started to plan my retirement, I published an article called “When and Where?” Later, I followed up with a post explaining that I’d chosen the “when” (July 1, 2025) and that my husband and I were still thinking about the “where” but were inclined to stay put in the college town in Northern California where we’ve lived for almost 35 years.
One option we’ve been seriously considering is purchasing a home for ourselves with a floor plan that could accommodate our adult daughter,

My portfolio is about as eventful as it gets right now — I’m on the verge of a threshold rebalance. My Vanguard Developed Asia Pacific fund is flirting with my 15% rebalance trigger, sitting at -14% as of Friday evening.
What makes this one interesting is that I’m sitting on an unusually large cash balance in my money market fund. Right now it’s actually my star performer — the only holding in the green. Bonds are a close second,

IF YOU HAVE a Money Market Fund (e.g. VUSXX, VMFXX), Treasury fund (e.g. SGOV), or any other Treasury ETF (e.g. VBIL), you need to know how to report it on your taxes correctly. If you don’t, you are overpaying on your state taxes unknowingly. 
How and why?
These funds hold U.S. Treasury Bills. Treasuries are exempt from state and local taxes. Of course, this only matters if you hold these funds in a taxable brokerage account,

WHEN PAUL EHRLICH’S obituary appeared a few weeks ago, it came and went without much notice. But during his lifetime, he was enormously influential.
By training, Ehrlich was a biologist, but he was most well known for his 1968 book, The Population Bomb. It opened with this dire prediction: “The battle to feed all of humanity is over. In the 1970s and 1980s hundreds of millions of people will starve to death.”
In his writings and speeches over the years,

I just spent the last two months with a bunch of nerds. This was my second year as a volunteer tax preparer for AARP, in Bowling Green, Ohio. If I wasn’t a nerd when I signed up, I certainly am one now. Just kidding, I’ve been a nerd all along.
I’ve jotted down some comments from clients as well as some things that made a mark on my memory from the season. 

In preparation for the phasing out of refund checks in the mail next year,

It was not a wise thing to do—and it’s not an example I’d want my kids or grandkids to follow. But I’ll tell you a tale anyway. It’s a story of loss and comeback, of fear… and, truthfully, more fear. I guess confession is good for the soul.
Quite a few years ago, I noticed something simple: the price of gasoline was falling. From that observation, I made a leap. I began buying oil companies and energy ETFs.