Within a ten-minute walk of my vacation home there’s a lovely nine-hole golf course, its main lateral hazard being the river made famous as the source of water for Bushmills Irish whiskey. I haven’t lost a ball to the River Bush since I retired. That isn’t because I’ve gotten any better at golf. It’s because I’ve recently realized I haven’t played the course since losing my regular wage after retirement.
Instead, I’ve subconsciously started playing a nine-hole links course twenty minutes’

When my twin brother Nick and I sold our landscape business at the end of 2012, at the age of 52, we agreed to stay on for another three years. Looking back, that may have been one of the best retirement decisions I never consciously made.
Those three years gave me time to ease into retirement instead of falling into it. They also gave me time to think about something I believe is far more important than deciding when to retire.

I saw this on the back page of today’s Wall St Journal.
“On this day in 1971, Wells Fargo launched the world’s first stock-index fund. One mutual-fund manager’s reaction: “If people start believing this random-walk garbage and switch to index funds, a lot of $80,000-ayear portfolio managers and analysts will be replaced by $16,000-a-year computer clerks. It just can’t happen.”

We all remember the 2022 bond collapse, triggered by rising interest rates. Most of us were caught out, a supposedly safe asset class posting double-digit losses. Some of those bond funds are still slightly underwater four years later. Which brings me to a question worth thinking about.
Right now, Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS) are offering guaranteed real returns of roughly 2-3% above inflation. That’s a compelling, ultra-safe option for liability matching in retirement, and I think most people would do well to look into it.

TIPS are US Government securities that currently pay two to three percent real return depending on the maturity selected. You can buy them from your broker, Treasury Direct account, Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) and mutual funds. So, if inflation for a time period is three percent, your bonds earn five to six percent depending on the time period. These real returns are guaranteed by the US Treasury. I will not give all the details here and am not giving advice.

Social media is full of seniors complaining about inflation, the inadequacy of Social Security and its COLAs to keep up.
I was curious. Is that true and what has happened to my purchasing power since retiring in January 2010?
To match the purchasing power of $100 in 2010, you would need approximately $153.15 in 2026.
Meanwhile, $100 in Social Security benefits in 2010 has grown through compounded Cost-of-Living Adjustments (COLAs) to $147.36 in 2026. Not equal,

THE WIDOW TAX is sold to the wrong households. It gets pitched to affluent couples as the reason to convert to a Roth or buy life insurance. The pitch says that when one spouse dies, the survivor files single, lands in a higher bracket, and gets clobbered. I ran the numbers for three couples at three incomes, and at the comfortable end the widow tax often costs nothing, or even less than nothing.
The real cost lands lower down,

WHEN IT COMES to financial decisions, many investors subscribe to an approach known as evidence-based investing. The idea, as the name suggests, is to base decisions, whenever possible, on data rather than on intuition or other informal methods.
This sounds logical. It isn’t perfect, though. Economic and financial indicators have weaknesses which are important to be aware of. 
Consider, for example, the Cyclically-Adjusted Price-to-Earnings, or CAPE, ratio, developed by Robert Shiller, a Yale professor and Nobel laureate,

She was a beautiful young girl, going through some hard times, living on the street and surviving by the good will of others. A middle aged man and his wife, well, he considered himself to be middle aged but was actually well beyond the half way point, offered to take her in. She was a little creeped out by the offer. 
Always on guard, she wondered what was the catch, what was expected in return. But they seemed to want nothing in return,

This author says is better than I ever could, great perspective:
https://www.meaningfulmoney.life/post/go-while-you-still-can

Hi HD Community, I need your help.  Today is my last official day of work, having been abruptly terminated with a fellow group of Sr. Managers as part of a corporate restructuring.  To be honest, I was not surprised or even particularly upset with the decision as I know the company is struggling and I have been unhappy in my role for some time.  Some quick background…I am recently 59, happily married for 35 years with two adult children who are both out of the house and on their own. 

Costa Rica is a beautiful country, but even more beautiful are its people: Kind, welcoming and almost always smiling. Joey and I had never visited before, and we couldn’t wait to discover a country that so many had spoken fondly about.
Among the excursions we’d booked was a white-water rafting trip. Our guide Carlos who was in his twenties expertly navigated the rapids, ensuring each stretch of river was as exhilarating as the last. Between the bursts of adrenaline,

My friend recently spent five days with us at our vacation home. At some point our conversation turned to his work situation. He’s an independent IT systems rollout contractor in his early sixties, based in London, with years of experience and a large network of industry contacts. The trouble right now is a prolonged downturn in the market, and contracts have been few and far between for the last fifteen months.
As a result, he’s been burning through his cash buffer faster than the occasional job can replenish it.

Can any HD reader conceive of paying $5,000 and way more for a seat at a soccer match? Sorry, football.
That seems to go against any financial logic. 😎
I wonder if such spending is on the budget spreadsheet?

THE OTHER DAY, WHILE walking to my mailbox, I noticed a summer class schedule for a private gifted youth academy lying on the ground. I assumed it belonged to one of my neighbors, who has elementary-aged children.
Their interest in extra academics didn’t surprise me. Many families move to this area because of its excellent schools. Parents here clearly value education. On any given day, it’s common to hear children practicing the piano or violin as you walk through the neighborhood.