I DID ACHIEVE financial independence and retire early—if you count age 64 as early. My friend Jose, a true believer in FIRE, or financial independence-retire early, celebrated his retirement at 44. That took a steely nerve that I lacked, plus I had big college bills to pay before retiring.
One big challenge of FIRE, of course, is that your savings might need to last 40 or even 50 years. Vanguard Group recently published a research paper to help FIRE followers go the distance.

THE SECURE ACT, which took effect Jan. 1, 2020, made inheriting an IRA even more complicated. Before 2020, beneficiaries typically had the option of taking distributions from an inherited IRA over their lifetime, potentially squeezing many more years of tax-favored growth from these accounts.
The SECURE Act drew a new line, eliminating some beneficiaries’ ability to make use of the so-called stretch IRA. Beneficiaries now are divided into two groups. Some have to empty an inherited IRA within 10 years of the original owner’s death.

HI, MY NAME IS MIKE and I’m a stock picker. Actually, I stopped picking a few years ago after I hit rock bottom and finally realized I had a problem. But there’s no such thing as an ex-stock picker.
I still frequent Seeking Alpha, read the occasional Barron’s article and, every now and then, have the urge to buy an individual stock. I still occasionally fall off the wagon, but nothing like the ol’ days.

THE S&P 500 JUST HAD its worst week since March 2020’s COVID-19 crash. Ironically, the decline happened as coronavirus cases were finally dropping after the December surge. Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (symbol: VOO) fell 5.7%, while Vanguard Small-Cap ETF (VB) lost 7.3%.
Returns were not as bad overseas. Vanguard FTSE All-World ex-U.S. ETF (VEU) dropped 3.1%. Coming as a surprise to some index fund investors, Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets ETF (VWO) is actually positive so far in 2022.

WE RETIRED AND MOVED to Spain in 2018. We were excited and eager to explore our new home and a new culture. We traveled a lot, mostly in Spain, but also the rest of Europe and Asia. But since the pandemic started, our travel has been limited.

Indeed, COVID-19 sped our return to Dallas. I’m happy that we’re now closer to our sons, and can see family and friends in person. But having lived in Dallas for 28 years,

I DESCRIBED A SET of ideas last year that I called truisms of financial planning. They’re concepts I’ve found helpful in navigating the world of personal finance. Below are seven more.

1. Jeff Bezos is a bad role model. So are Bill Gates, Elon Musk and pretty much every other billionaire. Of course, they’re all great geniuses, so why would I say that? The problem is how they made their money. In each case,

LIKE SOME OF YOU reading this, I get a thrill from seeing my 401(k) contributions start at zero in January and tick up to the annual limit. I’ve been fortunate to maximize my contributions for most of my 24 working years. Last year, my contributions topped out at the 2021 limit of $19,500. In 2022, I’m aiming to make the maximum contribution of $20,500. For those age 50 and older, you can contribute up to $27,000 in 2022.

WE’VE BEEN BRAINWASHED by advertisers and financial firms into believing that retirees are a homogeneous group who all want the same things. They aren’t. Instead, they have differing needs, values and wants, and this divergence is getting greater because of things like increasing longevity, dwindling job security and the elimination of pensions.
Let’s consider the standard bell-shaped distribution curve—and then apply it to people’s retirement behaviors. On the far left and far right of the curve are the outliers,

DESPITE WHAT’S SHOWN on TV medical shows, cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) can be a traumatic procedure that has a low likelihood of success. Even if successful in immediately restarting the heart, the fact that it was necessary doesn’t bode well for long-term survival.
Some injuries or illnesses happen so suddenly that there’s little time to consider options. But for many, old age creeps up slowly or a serious illness drags on and worsens. This is the point where it’s helpful to have not just a living will and a health care power of attorney,

QUICK FINANCIAL scores can be thrilling. The idea of plopping down a few bucks to hit it big with a lottery ticket or the roulette wheel is alluring to many. Even folks who know the odds are stacked in favor of the house engage in these gambles.
That brings me to a recent M1 Finance survey of more than 2,000 investors. A particularly sobering stat involved alternative assets: 73% of those who described their situation as “struggling to survive financially” planned to invest in some form of alternative asset,

OVER THE PAST 25 years, the Federal Reserve has become more transparent than ever. Much of this is the result of political pressure. Still, the Fed has taken it further, believing greater transparency to be a good thing in helping the public understand the likelihood of future policy changes. Talking more may have helped us move past the 2008 financial crisis. But it isn’t helping us now.

Congress created the Federal Reserve in 1913.

MY PORTFOLIO GAINED some 4% in 2021. While I certainly didn’t expect to match the S&P 500’s impressive 28.6% performance, I was surprised at how low my return actually was. This surprise is a lesson unto itself: We often overestimate our own performance.
There’s a number of reasons for my portfolio’s middling returns. First, I began 2021 with my stock allocation at around 40%. Bonds, cash, and gold and gold mining companies rounded out the rest of my portfolio.

WHEN FOLKS TALK about their best financial decisions, they’ll often mention the investments they bought. But my list is quite different. Here are the five best money moves I’ve made during my dozen years in retirement:
1. Updating my estate plan. When I was my mother’s primary caregiver, she was the major beneficiary of my estate. If something happened to me, I wanted to make sure she could afford the care she needed.

WHEN I STARTED flying for American Airlines in 1978, the industry was regulated. Routes, fares, airline size, pretty much everything the airlines did was controlled by the Civil Aeronautics Board. Then, later that year, the Airline Deregulation Act became law. Overnight, rules governing the industry changed.
This had far-reaching effects. But the biggest change was the cost of airline tickets. They became a lot cheaper.
Over the next 40 years, established carriers went bankrupt and disappeared.

BACK IN NOVEMBER, I wrote about using options to bet that shares of Peloton Interactive would decline. This was my first options trade. I purchased the put option when Peloton was trading in the low $50s. The option cost me $200, and it gave me the right to sell 100 shares at $35 per share in March 2022.
Since then, Peloton’s shares have indeed tumbled. It was recently announced that the stock will be booted from the Nasdaq-100 index,