This week marks the 50th Anniversary of Vanguard, and through that time, John Bogle’s company has saved investors on the order of One Trillion dollars – yes the total savings approach a huge T, not just B’s!!!
Vanguard serves over 50 million investors, has over $9 Trillion assets under management, and has fund expenses that average a meager $0.07%. We have about half our assets invested through Vanguard, and particularly appreciate that Mr. Bogle’s fee savings have been adapted across large segments of the brokerage industry.

HumbleDollar has hosted a lot of interesting and useful discussion recently about the benefits of buying an annuity to provide guaranteed income to a retiree. Once you have decided to purchase an annuity, you are faced with the complicated choice of what annuity to buy. In 2012, Boston College’s Center for Retirement Research published a paper that posited that delaying your Social Security benefits and using other resources to fund your lifestyle was akin to purchasing an annuity from the Social Security Administration (SSA).

Like many HD contributors, I don’t own a Single Premium Immediate Annuity (SPIA). Social Security and pensions cover most all of our spending, I don’t need no stinkin’ SPIA.
Or do I? I’ve done the math. The calculators tell me I’m in good shape. But I know this sense of security I feel is precarious. There are any number of things that could blow up my plan. Lengthy care in a nursing home, victim of fraud,

The Cancer Center seemed a little bleaker and colder during my last session.  My husband usually accompanies me to my sessions but I was alone for the first time.
I noticed the woman in the cubicle next to me, as we had both been there at the same time for the past 4 weeks.  She was also alone, getting her treatment, wearing a bonnet- the bonnet type hat many women wear who have lost their hair to chemotherapy.

Often when a person dies the surviving spouse or executor receives huge medical bills from the last illness or accident of the decedent. Hopefully most of such final medical expenses are covered by medical insurance but as anyone who has been tasked with dealing with the after death financial matters knows this is a long, complex and time consuming process.
Any medical expenses of the decedent not paid before death are by default liabilities of the decedent’s estate.

On April 25 Morningstar published an article “Retirees: Here’s How to Tweak the 4% Rule to Protect Your Nest Egg”.  It includes a link to their Report “State of Retirement Income 2024”.  The report requires an email address.
With recent stock gyrations I thought that their most recent look at withdrawals and retirement accounts might be helpful.
Here are a few points made in the article:

“Morningstar researchers have investigated and identified their latest starting safe withdrawal rate.

One thing (?) really bothers me and that is the idea that Social Security is a bad deal. That view is based on the theory that a person would be far better off if the FICA taxes instead of going toward Social Security, were invested by the worker.
There are two major flaws in that view. First, Social Security is far more that a individual retirement income – disability benefits, survivor income, dependent income, ex-spouse income are included. 

I saw this article in the Washington Post and thought that I haven’t sent a check by mail in years.  Am I the minority in this?
I pay all my bills electronically and once in a blue moon, I pay a few bills by the Wells Fargo app.
Also, if you pay by mail, what do do to protect yourself from what is described in the article?

Three Points
It’s a simple lesson I learned when I piloted an 18 wheeler in order to make ends meet while getting my business up and running. If you ever stood next to semi-trailer truck you would have noticed that the last step into or out of the tractor is a doozy. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that HD’s resident physical therapist Ed Marsh treated a few injuries that occurred when a driver fell getting out of his truck.

When I sought a good plan for investing during the 1960s,  women were discouraged from having too much interest in the male-dominated Investment world.  Then I discovered dividend investing,  and found that income is not only a path to steady returns, but also a source of comfort when the market hits maximum turbulence, as it has recently.
I discovered this strategy has also become popular with people who are planning to retire early and need income—but also growth.

FRENCH HISTORIAN Alexis de Tocqueville toured the U.S. in the 1830s and chronicled his observations in a book titled Democracy in America. What mainly impressed him was Americans’ focus on trade and commerce.
They have a “purely practical” mindset, he wrote, and concluded that “the position of the American is quite exceptional.” In the years since, others have picked up on this concept of “American exceptionalism.”
Despite recent political and economic crosscurrents,

https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-dft/i1099r–dft.pdf
Thanks to HD for fixing the problem in the link.
 
On April 15, 2025 the IRS issued draft instructions for the 2025 version of form 1099-R with a new box 7 code of “Y” to indicate the distribution is a qualified charitable distribution (QCD).
A good addition in my opinion.

From an early age, we are influenced by our parents, friends, relatives and society in general to get us on the treadmill of achieving success. By the time we are in college, career choice and what we want to do with our life have been heavily influenced by everyone around us.  After several decades of pursuing someone else’s dream, it is hard to switch and focus on what we really want to do. It is too late and most just carry on.

We seniors do not DESERVE anything from society or government. This is especially true when giving extra benefits to seniors takes away from younger generations or shifts more tax burden to them.
We do deserve to receive what we contributed toward and were promised by law – Social Security, Medicare, but that also applies to every American. 
The vocal movement on social media to eliminate property taxes for citizens age 65 + is especially disturbing to me –

I’M TRYING MY HAND at retirement. It isn’t going so well.
As a teenager and when I was in my early 20s, I would take to the couch and happily spend the day consuming a novel. Could I do that at age 62? It seems not.
At some point over the past four decades, I lost the ability to do things solely for my own enjoyment. It seems the endless demands of work, family and household chores have crushed my inner self-absorbed teenager.