I’ve been getting lots of balance transfer offers from credit card companies. For a small transfer fee of only 4%, I could transfer my debt and receive an interest free period of 12 months to pay it off.
For example, one could transfer $10K, pay a transfer fee of $400, pay $867 over the next 12 months. The payments plus the transfer fee would amount to $10,400, making the true cost of the loan 7.3%. (The higher interest rate is due to the ever shrinking loan balance).

After reading Kristine’s post on luck and timing, it brought to mind the one opportunity we passed over that cost Suzie and me a seven-figure sum. It’s come to mind on occasion over the years. Although it causes me a pang of regret, it’s not really something I dwell on.
It was during the Irish property boom that started in 2000 and peaked in 2007. Property values tripled, driven by the peace process and deregulation of the local financial markets.

I was sitting in the car outside my grandkids’ school this morning while my wife Suzie dropped our granddaughter into preschool. I noticed my grandson’s friend being dropped off in a shiny new VW Transporter Multivan. I know his parents, they don’t do camping. It seems like an awful lot of cash and car for a family of four. They’re everyday folks with normal-paying jobs.
This trend for large, expensive vehicles seems prevalent with the thirty-something drop-off crowd at my grandkids’

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for giving to charity, but I would never give 10% of gross income plus we are very selective about the charities we give to. We look to those that can best directly serve people. St Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital is our priority.
In my opinion, tithing 10% can create undue pressure and financial hardship and a skewing of priorities. 
To me the first priority is family and their security and eventually helping children and grandchildren when appropriate.

Hello, everyone!
I have been lurking for a few months, getting to know you from afar, and enjoying your posts and comments. Since I have wanted to chime in on a few threads, I figured it would be good to introduce myself.
My wife and I retired on July 1, 2025 from teaching (I ethics, she English) at the university level. While only three and a half months into it, retirement has been more wonderful than we expected.

Longtime readers of Humble Dollar will know a semi-recurrent theme to my writings involves the idea that luck, timing and not-following-certain-financial-rules have helped shape my financial journey. 
Perhaps most notable is the purchase of a home I made in late 2018. I was well-acquainted with the rule that stated nobody should purchase a home if they don’t intend to live in it for at least five to seven years. And yet I really had no choice.

I found a dead cockroach, feet up in the air, in the kitchen, and it struck me that I haven’t done anything productive either over the last two months. Even sleeping late has proven impossible, thanks to my Shih Tzu. My efforts to start a second, part-time career is bogged down in paperwork—far more than I ever anticipated. Apparently, working in my field for over 40 years with a solid reputation is enough to convince recruiters of my competence,

People think being an income tax preparer is all about possessing some super-human knowledge of the income tax code. It’s not. With the proper amount of continuing education and good computer software, you too could become a tax preparer. But to be a good one, you have to excel at customer service. You have to be accurate and thorough, you need to answer the phone and to be there for your customers. 
Still, sometimes, I had to let a client go.

As a business owner, I was constantly required to be in the customer spotlight, which unfortunately meant adopting an extroverted façade—a sharp contrast to my naturally introverted self. My professional life, with its constant interaction and performative elements, was the biggest stage for this alter ego. Essentially, I was an entrepreneur with a separate, exhausting full-time job: character actor.
My favourite part of the day was 5 a.m., sitting in the sunroom with a coffee while my wife Suzie and the children were still asleep—the calm before donning my character mask and heading out for the day’s business.

Have you ever met “they?”  Me neither, but from what I hear, he or she is a pretty bad dude.
“They” is responsible for every ill we face from rent prices to mortgage interest rates and student loans. “They” have caused housing prices to rise and inflation too.  “They” have rigged the system, even health insurance premiums. “They” made Social Security a scam. “They” is why people don’t earn what they think they should. 
“They” seem have total control over our economy with the ability to Ignore supply and demand and prices. 

I wanted to share this article and I hope our dear HD readers comment and tell us if they are doing what is suggested in the article and how it’s working out.  I am at the beginning of trying to figure out my housing options and what is described in the article sounds good.
https://www.wsj.com/lifestyle/relationships/new-housing-options-emerge-for-older-americans-dfa4c8f5?st=Sp9vyR&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

It’s time to rewatch the 1986 Tom Hanks/Shelley Long cautionary tale about their dream house gone wrong.
After spending last year’s home improvement efforts on my newly-acquired tin can casita, my used car of a fishing cabin in the Sonoran Desert, I’m back in the city for some long-pondered home renovation. It ain’t been pretty, at least when I review the hit to my portfolio. Everything from a piece of lumber to a square foot of cement is more expensive than I’d imagined.

I would like to dedicate this post to Jonathan.
My spouse and I started with nothing. We left college with debt and moved to a HCOL area in the mid 1980s. We knew nothing about money other than “if you can’t pay your credit card off each month, quit charging until it is paid off”.
We are Christians and felt called to tithe our income, so we worked up to the full 10% of gross income that is traditional.

STOCK MARKET INVESTORS are enjoying yet another strong year. The S&P 500 has gained about 14% so far, shrugging off, for the most part, uncertainty over tariffs, interest rates and the latest government shutdown.
Should this worry us?
Since ancient times, soothsayers have been attempting—without luck—to forecast the future. As it relates to investment markets, the frustrating reality is that no one knows what the future will bring. But that doesn’t mean there’s nothing we can do.

ROTH IRA IS A powerful account. It grows tax-free and withdrawals are tax-free during retirement. Roth IRA also has income limits.
For 2025, if you are filing your taxes as single and make less than $150,000 ($236,000 if married filing jointly) of modified adjusted gross income, you can contribute a maximum amount of $7,000.
But if you make $165,000 (single) or $246,000 (married jointly), you are ineligible to contribute to a Roth IRA directly.