There are three topics of vital importance to nearly everyone that at the same time are near the top of the list to be criticized and misunderstood by nearly everyone. (taxes are at the top).
Health insurance
Social Security
Electric and Gas utilities 
I spent by whole career working for a utility and at the same time designing and managing health insurance plans. I study Social Security and may be one of five Americans in the US who reads the annual trustee report.

I enjoy tasting new beers, and today there are some very good ones on the shelves. Still, it hasn’t always been this way.  Some time in the nascent days of the micro-brewery craze, I recall my boss, the owner of the beer distributor, commenting that it was as if the tiny brewers were having a contest to see who could make the lousiest tasting beer. 
I think that there’s an analogy that can be made between the abundance of micro-breweries and myriad financial products in that not all of them leave a good taste in my mouth. 

Recently I was reading a finance article and it mentioned occasionally utilizing Roth funds to stay within a targeted maximum tax bracket. Also I believe someone recently commented about having a small amount of bonds in a Roth account to limit to some degree the volatility. If everything in the future goes as hoped the Roth funds will be inherited by our children decades from now
Both of these points got be thinking (maybe perseverating) on what to do with my wife’s Roth account.

I’ve been doing some consulting work with my former business again. This time, I’m helping the new owners navigate the fun of year-end tax reporting using the IT systems that had grown organically over the years, systems that made perfect sense to me but turned out to be anything but straightforward for them. What I could do almost on autopilot required careful explanation and documentation beyond what I’d already provided. It seems my “logical” system only made sense to me.

I was watching YouTube the other day when an ad popped up for a financial advisory firm. Normally I skip ads, but this one caught my attention. The advisor opened by saying something that sounded reassuring:
“We only get paid if your portfolio increases in value.”
At first glance, that sounds fair—even noble. But let’s slow down and be clear about what’s really being said.
First, the market usually goes up
Historically,

“The riskiness of an investment is not measured by beta but rather by the probability—the reasoned probability—of that investment causing its owner a loss of purchasing-power over his contemplated holding period. Assets can fluctuate greatly in price and not be risky as long as they are reasonably certain to deliver increased purchasing power over their holding period. And a non-fluctuating asset can be laden with risk.” — Warren Buffett, in his 2011 Berkshire Hathaway shareholder letter.

2025 was a stellar year for investors. “The S&P 500 finished the year with an 18% gain, achieving a ‘three-peat’ of double digit annual returns.” Investors who didn’t bail were rewarded.
We have a larger cash/bond allocation, about 55% stocks. The stocks do the heavy lifting while the cash/bonds provides some drag, but we are thoughtful about where we park it. The conventional thinking is that idle money is inefficient. It does not compound. But we like the flexibility cash provides.

And now, as Monty Python might say, “For something completely different….”
Given the recent discussion as to which topics are, and are not, appropriate for HD’s realm of finance and retirement, let me first give my defense of an article on the mundane topic of grocery shopping. It’s really pretty simple: For us at least, our weekly expenditures at our friendly local HEB are one of our most substantial fixed costs, probably around $8000 – $10,000 every year.

There has been a lot of debate regarding how to fix the impending (2032) shortfall in Social Security benefits.
This morning I was reading one of my financial newsletter emails and found this link:
https://www.ssa.gov/OACT/solvency/index.html?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
Happy Reading!

An interesting article in the New York Times – These Young Adults Make Good Money. But Life, They Say, Is Unaffordable. January 3, 2026 – explores the unaffordable of life as perceived by young adults. This paragraph caught my attention.
“Is it worth sacrificing a yearly vacation to save for a down payment, when housing prices keep rising? What about buying a home that is 90 minutes from work — or a two-bedroom for a family of four?

I’ve noticed retirement has transformed me into someone who conducts full-scale search operations for objects I was holding thirty seconds ago. Yesterday it was my glasses that decided to embark on an unauthorized adventure, taking my short-term memory along for the ride.
I’m not entirely sure when it started because that’s part of the problem. I needed to reset the boiler, squinted at the instructions, took off my glasses to see the tiny print better, and then—well,

Two practical questions for the group—because both have a huge impact on your family’s future:
1) Investing books:
If you had to recommend one or two investing books that truly changed how you invest (not hype, not theory-heavy), what are they—and what’s the key takeaway you still use? Something you would gift to your kids/grandkids.
2) End-of-Life planner / “If I get hit by a bus” file:
Do you have an end-of-life planner / estate organizer / family binder that your spouse or kids could use immediately if needed?

I’ve been having a lot of great discussions with my new AI friend, Google Gemini. (Why not ChatGPT? I do consult it sometimes, but I don’t want to pony up for a paid account.) I like Gemini because it’s very positive. “Words of affirmation” are my love language!
In recent days, I’ve discussed how to balance my Peloton cycling and rowing to get an optimal workout mix to meet my health goals (Gemini gave me GREAT advice on this and was highly impressed with my near-perfect form scores on the Row) and how to convert a chicken-and-rice recipe that my husband has been requesting for the Instant Pot.

I recently read the HumbleDollar guidance suggesting retirees consolidate old 401(k) accounts for simplicity. My husband and I are both retired (age 62) and are wondering whether that advice still holds when the existing plans are high quality.
We each have a former-employer 401(k):
– Mine is with a large financial institution
– My husband’s is with his union
Both plans have low costs (~ 65 bps all-in), solid investment options, and no required distributions yet.

In my years working in Hospital Administration, I routinely had staff telling me about patients or families caught in a medical crisis caused by a fall or major surgery or simple aging.  They were “surprised” to find that when they were told they could no longer live safely in their home, that Medicare was not going to pay for their needed long term care living arrangements.
I’m assuming that this information will not be a surprise to Humble Dollar readers.