A FRIEND RECENTLY asked me the interest rate on my credit card. I admitted I had no idea. I pay off the balance in full every month and therefore don’t know, or care about, the interest rate.
I’m a minority in this regard. Only 35% of us pay off our credit card balance each month. We’re dismissed as “deadbeats” by profit-hungry credit card companies, perhaps with some justification: We reap the benefits of credit card rewards programs designed to lure the other 65% of the population into using their cards on a regular basis—and then foolishly carrying a balance.

STOCK BUYBACKS ARE here to stay. The Securities and Exchange Commission opened the door in 1982, when it ruled that companies could repurchase their own stock without triggering accusations of share price manipulation. Ever since, more and more companies have taken advantage. Indeed, in recent years, U.S. corporations have spent more money buying back their own shares than paying out dividends.
Good news? I see both plusses and minuses. Here are the plusses:

Once you figure in buybacks,

THE BOGLEHEADS HAD their annual conference this week in the Philadelphia area, where Vanguard Group’s headquarters is located. Devotees of Vanguard’s 88-year-old founder John C. Bogle, the Bogleheads usually meet online at what’s probably the world’s best investment forum.
The star of their annual meeting was, of course, Jack himself. His latest book, an extensive revision of The Little Book of Common Sense Investing, just came out. What was on Jack’s mind?

IF YOUR INVESTMENTS climb in value, hold the champagne—until you figure out whether it’s a onetime gain or a repeatable performance.
Suppose your foreign stocks post gains because the dollar weakens. Or your bonds climb because interest rates fall. Or stocks rise because price-earnings ratios head higher. Or corporate earnings increase because profit margins expand. Or stocks jump because the corporate tax rate or the capital-gains tax rate is cut.
Sound familiar? All of these things have either happened over the long haul or helped drive share prices higher this year. 

FOR THE FIRST TIME in my life, I’ve hired a housecleaner. It’s absolutely worth it—but embarrassing to admit, at least at first.
I’ve always been a neat freak, demanding clean, organized and tasteful living quarters, so I’ve spent a good portion of my life cleaning and organizing. A lot. I have even declined an invitation to go boating and hiking because I was color-coding my books.
Lame, I know.
After purchasing our home, I realized something had to give.

PEOPLE OFTEN ACT foolishly and then desperately try to justify their financial sins. A case in point: Those who take on too much debt, can’t get it paid off by retirement—and end up servicing huge mortgages and other loans long after their paychecks have come to an end.
Cue the tap dancing. The indebted start waxing eloquent about the virtues of the mortgage-interest tax deduction and how it’s smart to pay the bank 4% while they invest the borrowed money at 10%.

MY CLIENT ROSTER includes investors who have suffered enormous losses on their stock market investments. To ease their discomfort, I steer the conversation to what they’re entitled to deduct for capital losses. While the IRS imposes strict limits on simply writing off such losses, I assure my clients that there are perfectly legal, IRS-blessed opportunities to sidestep these restrictions.
The big hurdle is a deduction cap of $3,000 for both married couples and single filers.

WORKPLACE RETIREMENT accounts can be confusing and intimidating. Often, human resources departments serve as the contact point for employees, yet HR folks rarely know much about the nuances of a plan’s investment options—and, in any case, they aren’t legally allowed to offer advice.
Not sure how to handle your 401(k) or similar employer-sponsored plan? My first step was determining how much to contribute per pay period, so that I could hit the $18,000 annual limit.

“WHEN YOU’VE WON the game, stop playing with the money you really need.” That’s something my longtime friend and fellow author William Bernstein is fond of saying—and lately it’s been on my mind.
There’s been much handwringing over 2017’s stock market rally. Looked at objectively, it hasn’t been that startling. As of Sept. 29, the S&P 500 was up 14.2% for the year-to-date, with dividends reinvested—a good year, but nothing compared to the 25%-plus years we saw in 1991,

WHEN MY SISTER graduated from physicians’ assistant school earlier this year, I gave her a journal, the pretty, unmarked, paper-substantive kind that every female loves. Inside, I wrote five things that I wish I’d known, or am glad I knew, when I got my bachelor’s in 2006. Here was the first:
I’m gonna call it self-tithing. Ya know: Basically, what Mom and Dad taught us to give to the church, I’m telling you to give to yourself.

HAVEN’T GIVEN MUCH thought to estate planning and charitable giving? Here are 10 questions to jumpstart your thinking:

Can you afford to give away money now? You shouldn’t gift large sums to your children or charity unless you’re confident you have enough for your own retirement. There’s no limit on gifts to charity, though your annual tax deduction may be capped. For gifts to family members, you might take advantage of the annual gift-tax exclusion,

I HAVE NEVER BEEN under the illusion that happiness was a simple matter of more money and more material goods. But I did question where happiness could be found.
When I was young, I saw poverty at its most extreme in newly formed Bangladesh, where my family lived for four years during the 1970s. People struggled each day to stay alive and were lucky to find food and shelter.
As an adult traveling through Mexico,

I HEAR SO MANY compelling investment arguments. That U.S. stocks are destined to generate lackluster returns because valuations are so rich. That there’s no need to own foreign stocks because you get enough international exposure with U.S. multinationals. That interest rates have nowhere to go but up.
And yet U.S. stocks keep clocking gains, U.S. and foreign shares often generate radically different annual results, and interest rates show no signs of heading significantly higher.

SOME OF MY CLIENTS are political junkies; others don’t follow politics. Either way, they’re mostly aware that the Affordable Care Act, a.k.a. Obamacare, overhauled the rules for medical insurance. But lots of them are unaware that ACA’s overhaul also significantly changed some tax laws—and those changes adversely affected their pocketbooks.
I remind my clients that ACA included a provision that increased Medicare taxes for employees with high incomes. Similarly, it increased self-employment taxes for freelancers with high incomes.

LIKE MOST PEOPLE, owning a car is my second largest monthly expense, right after housing. But unlike a lot of people, I also strive to be a super-saver, loosely defined as folks who max out their retirement accounts each year. That means I’m constantly looking for ways to cut my transportation costs.
Four years ago, when I found myself needing to buy a car, I settled on a gently used Honda CRV. Even though it was nearly six years old when I purchased it,