Last February, just before I retired, I was wrestling with how to generate my retirement income. I flirted with the idea of moving 25% of my portfolio into a Vanguard UK equity income fund. I thought deeply about it—the fund historically yields above 4%, and combined with an annuity I was considering, it would have nicely solved my paycheck dilemma.
Eventually I decided against it, mainly because of the concentration risk. Betting that heavily on a single economy felt like too many eggs in one basket.

I don’t have the right stuff to be an engineer, as the math involved boggles my mind. But that didn’t stop my infatuation with spreadsheets in the nascent days of computer ownership. That was around 1990, roughly the same time-frame as the implementation of my employer’s 401k. 
Oh boy, enabled by my new love of Excel, my life was planned out via extrapolations of future earnings, savings rates, and stock market performance. My plan had me comfortably retired at age 55.

I spent 9 hours yesterday helping one of the three girls I’m buying a wedding dress for move into her very first house. It’s amazing how much stuff needs sorting during a move.
After the contract was signed and the keys were handed over, we drove to the house with our first load of stuff in a fleet of three cars. They were surprised that a letter had already reached the property from the mortgage lender—just a letter detailing the date and amount of the first payment.

Seems like a simple question until you think about it. “Means” as living within ones “means” may mean something different to different people😳.
To me, “means” means no debt other than a mortgage and maybe an auto loan (maybe). Certainly no credit card balance at the end if the month  
What makes up the “means?” I say it’s all earnings that are or could be subject to FICA taxes if there were no limit. That means,

I’ve listened to my friend Richard complain about being broke for years now. Every month, like clockwork, around the 20th, I hear the same thing: “Dude, I’m broke again. Don’t know what happened.”
I know exactly what happened. The same thing that happened last month, and the month before that.
Richard makes decent money, he’s a goldsmith for goodness sake. He shouldn’t be living on ramen for the final ten days of every month. He’s got a budget too,

I can’t help myself. I have to know.
For folks not retired and who use a budget — does your budget determine how much you can save or do you save first and then develop your budget and allowable spending funds available after saving?
No judgement, just curiosity.

So probably all of you with big wallets have discovered this years ago, but I just tripped over the NIIT for the very first time.  Like all good engineers with an interest in personal finance, I have spreadsheets of my spreadsheets.  I have been working the last few years to do some ‘bracket bumping’ with my Roth conversions and I thought this year I had it totally dialed in.  Like down to the dollar.  I put all of my numbers into freetaxusa.com and zipped right along…

Most personal finance advice is beautifully simple: save more.
Early in life, that advice is almost always right. But like most good rules, it has limits.
There comes a point in a saver’s life when retirement growth is driven far more by compounding than by new contributions. Past that point, continuing to save aggressively still increases your balance—but it may no longer be the best use of every additional dollar.
Recognizing when that shift has occurred can create flexibility without recklessly undermining your future.

Sharing an article from the NYT on 2025 Tax Changes.  A good overview, a few items have a bit more nuisance that the headline, e.g. “No Tax on Tips.”  Feels like the SALT changes will be the biggest opportunity for most filers.  I’m hopeful the charitable donations for those who don’t itemize ($1k single and $2k joint filers) will be helpful for the nonprofit world.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/06/business/2025-taxes-return-refund-income.html?unlocked_article_code=1.K1A.iHXT.kv9jMyWndiZh&smid=url-share
Happy Tax Filing!
 

Just a reminder, all those little charitable contributions that we make in 2026, outside of Qualified Charitable Distributions (QCD), are deductible as an above the line tax deduction. The maximum deduction is $1000 single, $2000 married filing joint, and you need to save your receipts. 
Just to be clear, this isn’t for our 2025 tax returns. This is for tax year 2026.

Home affordability has been the talk of the town for a while and it inspired me to get a feel for the forest in a domain largely cluttered with political opinion instead of scientific method. My objective was to distill the relevant data as much as possible, but no more than that.
The first thing that came to mind was inflation-adjusted home prices. Robert Shiller’s CPI adjusted methods are my favorite and offer the largest view of the forest.

Hi HD community.  I am a longtime reader and first time writer so please be kind with your feedback.  The topic on my mind today is helping my adult children financially.  I have read previous articles on the topic, but do not recall any addressing this specific angle.  I am interested to hear your thoughts on helping adult children who, by virtue of their financial discipline and decision-making, are in very different financial situations.  Simply put,

Humble Dollar is a hangout for a lot of people who’ve managed to navigate their way to a comfortable retirement. I’m sure we have younger readers who come to the site for financial education. I thought a short article illustrating the importance of the emergency fund concept would be of interest to that demographic.
For many people trying to build their financial foundation, a basic tenet is establishing an emergency fund. In the hustle and bustle of everyday life,

Having a choice is a wonderful thing. Something that I suspect many of us take for granted. Which vocation to pursue. Which meal to order at a restaurant. Which car to buy. To even have the luxury of a choice means we are in a very fortunate position, relative to so many in the world.
And with every choice, we actually make two decisions – what we accept, and what we reject. I was pondering this whilst reading an old article by Mr.

With online savings accounts still paying pretty good interest rates and with Fidelity’s money market SPAXX paying good rates as well, why bother with bonds?