I just looked at my investments for the last month. It’s not a pretty picture and I have a big chunk in bonds and cash. 
Have we entered a period of concern? Are assumptions under stress? Do we do anything or nothing? Should short-term spending be adjusted? 
For those who are relying on investments in retirement what are your thoughts – just an anticipated blip or something more?

My father-in-law, while certainly not a wealthy man, holds assets in the mid six-figure range. The subject of inheritance came up during a recent visit to his home in Spain, sparked by a conversation that my wife, Suzie, and I had just finalized updates to our own will due to the sale of my business.
I raised a specific suggestion for his estate planning: given that his three children are all financially secure and truly don’t need the inheritance money,

Every year, like clockwork, I gripe over cost of health insurance premiums. Am I paying too much?
The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics measures year over year changes in the health care component of the consumer price index (CPI). The monthly health care inflation rate for September, 2025 reflected a 3.28% annual rise. Our perception is that this is a relatively high increase, although in reality the current rate represent is slower annual growth when compared to the past 50 year average rate of 5.09%.

People and money, especially when not actually their money, generates some interesting points of view and confusion. It sometimes seems to bring out the illogical. 
Health care and health insurance are especially volatile topics. I spend a great deal of time writing about health care on my blog and I spent most of my working life dealing with health insurance and related health care issues. I helped organize three HMOs. 
The cost of healthcare is a significant issue for most people and yet finding a workable solution is greatly hampered by misinformation and what people want to believe.

From September 2023 to October 2024 I penned nine articles for HumbleDollar, all were all edited by Jonathan. With each article submitted, I asked Jonathan if he thought my stories fit in with HDs mission. You see, they provided scant financial advice, and leaned heavily on humorous things I picked up at places like my tax office or even the local watering holes where I used to sell beer. Still, Jonathan liked them because they leaned on the human side of money and relationships. 

I seem to fit the profile of a typical guy who had the good fortune of retiring in his late fifties. I spend a considerable amount of time doing physical activities: racket sports, cycling, running, hiking. I’m also a keen reader of history, science and financial content. I volunteer my time coaching sports development courses and volunteering at a local church youth group, lots of very fruitful and productive activities to be getting on with.
When you add in working in my large garden,

 
The Wall Street Journal reported last week that the brokerage Robinhood is partnering with Gopuff to deliver cash directly to customers’ homes. For $6.99 (or $2.99 if you’ve got over $100K in your account), skip the teller, skip the ATM, and get your money in a sealed paper bag at your doorstep.
I’m already picturing it: an alert pops up—“Your money has been delivered!”—complete with a photo of a cash bag on my front stoop next to the Amazon delivery.

A Cautionary Tale: What I Learned Trying to Leave an Employer-Sponsored Medicare Advantage Plan
This is the story of a friend I helped when she tried to move from her employer’s Group Medicare Advantage plan to Original Medicare and a Supplement. Her experience is a cautionary tale.
I want to share this story because I don’t want others to go through the stress, confusion, and sleepless nights that we did.
When I retired, the company I worked for offered my husband and I a Medicare Advantage plan ,along with a $50,000 Future Health Account credit. 

I work with US citizens scattered across ~26 countries, so I recently asked my go-to AI which U.S. investment firms handle expats the best. Here’s the short version on Schwab, Fidelity and Vanguard.
1. Charles Schwab — Best for U.S. Expats
Schwab is easily the most expat-friendly of the major brokerages. It allows U.S. citizens abroad to open and maintain accounts, including its dedicated Schwab International Account. Trading stocks and ETFs is usually unrestricted, customer service understands expat needs and the linked Schwab Bank makes moving money internationally simple.

I’ve a sore back and I’m a bit irritated at the moment, but not because of the lower back pain, but another more irritating pain, namely people. I spent today locked in combat with the leaves in our garden, a battle I was destined to lose, as four separate pedestrians felt compelled to inform me. There I was, hunched over, rake in hand, working the grass verge out front. This is where things got interesting, by which I really mean deeply irritating.

If you win a million dollars in a lottery, you will pay approximately $370,000 in federal taxes. An X post complained about the tax on such a windfall and said that we should tax billionaires the same way. 
Of course that is exactly what we do. Everyone is subject to the IRC and the same type of income is taxed the same way for all. I think billionaires get a bad rap. 
A 2021 study by economists from the Council of Economic Advisers and the Office of Management and Budget,

This past week I received notice that my radiologist’s office experienced a “data security event”. Name, social security number, date of birth, driver’s license, incriminating pictures of my herniated lumbar disc, etc., could have been obtained. I’ve lost count of how many similar letters I, my spouse, and my children have received over the past years. For early ones, I took them up on their offer of one free year of credit monitoring. Several years ago,

From Benjamin Graham in 1972: “Any approach to moneymaking in the stock market which can be easily described and followed by a lot of people is by its terms too simple and too easy to last.”
 
Why wouldn’t this apply to indexing?

American social security advice is admirably clear, I’ll give you that. Delay Social Security until seventy to maximize your monthly benefit and create the ultimate hedge against outliving your savings. The maths is clear and unarguable, an eight percent per year, guaranteed return for every year you wait past your Full Retirement Age. It’s presented with such confidence, if only one’s life was such a tidy actuarial table.
But for millions of Americans, watching this from my perch in the UK,

I’m sure we could swap stories about working particularly hard at some point in our life. Feeling exhausted, worn out, temperamental and not performing at our best. In an ideal world we would avoid such stresses and strains, but in reality going “above and beyond” seems to be part of securing some financial stability, raising a family, buying a house, funding retirement, or whatever your financial goals might be.
But a recent local news article got me thinking about where each of us draws the line and says “enough”.