I read here and elsewhere concern about profits. It seems people are concerned about the profits made by car dealers, health insurance companies, drug companies, health care providers, mutual funds, etc.
On the other hand, we seem unconcerned over profits made by professional sports teams, concert producers, casinos, gaming companies, celebrities, etc.  This group provides very little real value to us.
The first group provides goods and services we need or want.
Is that the difference?

This is going to seem dark, but it’s not my intention to scare anyone, but I’ve had an through about our operational security as investors that I can’t shake.
We’re all already doing complex passwords and two-factor authentication, which I completely agree with.  Be as safe as you can.  But how can any of us fully protect against a home invasion type attack where we’re coerced by force to divulge passwords.  Allow me to explain.
Imagine the worst (Heaven forbid,

I’m planning to rebalance at year-end, and I’m going to do something index purists might consider heresy: deliberately tilt away from the market’s weighting.
Lately, I’ve become increasingly uncomfortable with the portion of my portfolio devoted to the Magnificent Seven tech stocks, currently pushing towards 25%.
The index purist view would say that cap-weighted indices by definition represent the market’s collective wisdom about valuations. When the Magnificent Seven grows to nearly 25% of my developed world tracker,

I see a fair amount about how index funds will ruin the stock market. According to this Wall Street Journal article there is a different and more immediate issue. Seems that there is a drop off in companies raising capital on the open market, instead restricting IPOs or their equivalent to a hand-selected group of insiders. Is this a case for some kind of regulation? Hard to see what kind.

When it comes to our health care “affordable”takes on unique meaning.
For many (most) people affordable then means $0. I have been aware of and thought about this conundrum for over sixty years when I first became involved with healthcare benefits. I have seen it in action more times than receiving HD down arrows.
Health insurance evolved from true insurance in the 1940s to covering virtually all spending from the first dollar and then we made gradual attempts –

Walking past the shiny cars in the dealership towards the exit with the mortified 23 year old daughter of a friend trailing behind me, her face bright red with embarrassment, the thought crossed my mind: When did it become normal not to ask “how much does this car cost?” and start asking “what’s the monthly payment?”
I was walking out the door because, unbelievably, the sales person refused to engage with that simple question.
A recent trip to help this young,

Modern life depends on constant upgrade; but I am sitting this one out.
My 5-year-old laptop runs on Windows 10, and it cannot be upgraded to Windows 11 due to hardware requirements. Turbotax 2025 cannot run on it, and I’d rather avoid using the online version. Schwab’s ThinkorSwim app for stock market data display and transactions will stop supporting the Windows 10 version. Since Windows 10 support already stopped, I also worry about the security of my laptop with all the personal data stored locally.

Today, December 14, is our 57th wedding anniversary. Like back then, the weather is terrible, it’s snowing. In 1968 it was raining and that night  there was a blizzard and we were stranded at Kennedy airport for almost 24 hours before getting out for our shortened honeymoon for which I had taken advance leave from the army. 
Looking through some old papers I found the receipt for our tickets to Freeport. One ticket cost $143 round trip.

EARLIER THIS WEEK, the Federal Reserve’s Open Market Committee met and decided to lower interest rates by a quarter-point. This immediately sparked a war of words.
At a press conference, Fed chair Jerome Powell took a swipe at the White House, blaming the president’s new tariff policies for an uptick in inflation.
President Trump wasted no time in responding. All year, he has been lobbying Fed officials to move rates lower. And while they have been taking steps in that direction,

THE IRS JUST provided some guidance on how the tips and overtime deductions will work. I wanted to spend a few minutes going over the details so that you can learn how it would be reported on your taxes and share this with friends and family.
Overtime
As a reminder, the OBBBA created Section 225, which allows you to deduct qualified overtime compensation.
This deduction is capped at $12,500 per return ($25,000 for joint filers) and is subject to a phaseout based on modified adjusted gross income.

I posted a link earlier today about a scam perpetrated on a retired attorney in an article in the New York Times. So here is another article from the Washington Post on how your info can be stolen from one of the credit bureaus, TransUnion. This is scary as well. Here is a free link:
https://wapo.st/4pZzLcm
 
 

27 months. No, I’m not talking about the gestation period of a Black Alpine Salamander.
It’s been just 27 months since I responded to Jonathan’s request for new writers to come forward with their stories. In my first attempt, I talked about the unlikely path that my work life followed. From driving a beer truck for 30 years, to being the owner of a tax preparation practice, to my present situation as a full time retiree,

Another day, another article about a scam perpetrated by fraudsters. This one from the New York Times that starts with a retired lawyer having problems with his iPad and connecting to Microsoft outlook and wanting to get technical assistance. He googled Microsoft’s number and wouldn’t you know it, the number google provided was that of a scammer. To read the rest of the story go to:
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/12/business/tech-support-scam-bank-fraud.html?unlocked_article_code=1.8E8.0Dgr.Bku6U1c1S2Yo&smid=url-share
 

During his final months, my husband Jonathan worked tirelessly to complete his last book, Money and Me.  The book is now available to order .
What’s so special about this book?  This book features Jonathan’s best and most personal HumbleDollar articles.  The articles are curated in such a way to teach everyone about personal finance through Jonathan’s own money journey.  And sadly, his terminal cancer diagnosis is part of this journey about which he candidly writes.

Is there such a thing as a perfect “normal” day? I don’t mean vacations and special occasions, just a normal day. I’m not sure if there is: but I can easily describe my days that come closest.
For me, any Wednesday is an ideal candidate. That’s when automatic payments from two separate annuities drop into my checking account—easily covering all my essential spending. Getting to this point took decades of consistent saving, long hours and some luck,