At ten years old, my twin brother and I stood in a dark hallway trying not to cry.
The suitcases had already been taken from the car. Around us stood other families saying goodbye to children far too young to understand why they were being left behind. Then suddenly it was our turn.
Two frightened boys clinging to their mother, tears streaming down our faces as we watched home disappear behind us.
“An ominous dark hallway,


I’ll be honest — I’m a little worried.
A few months ago, in a moment of weakness, I agreed to run a 10k road race. That’s 6.25 miles, for those of you who’ve never had cause to think in kilometres. The problem? Although I’m retired and theoretically swimming in free time, I’ve somehow managed to be too busy to train properly. I’ve done a few 5k fun runs, my comfort zone distance, and told myself that was close enough.

Our own long-time contributor Adam Grossman was this week’s guest on one of my favorite podcasts Morningstar’s The Long View.  You can listen anywhere you hear podcasts or at this link:
Adam Grossman: Asset Allocation Is an Investor’s Best Defense | Morningstar
Congratulations, Adam!

The U.S. tax system only taxes realized income—meaning money from a paycheck, a dividend payment, or the actual sale of an asset. If a billionaire owns $100 billion in stock and that stock grows by $10 billion in a year, they do not owe a single dime of income tax on that $10 billion increase until they sell the shares.
And neither does anyone else. I don’t pay on the growth in my IRA or any investment.

The Kindle version of Jonathan’s Money & Me has appeared in my Kindle Online Amazon library a few minutes into the early hours of 5/26/2026. I am looking forward to reading it.

My wife asked me yesterday “did you know that 93% of seniors age in place?”. Really? That didn’t sound right. Where we live on Mercer Island (next to Seattle) there are many retirement communities, including a large one on the lake called Covenant Shores that was converted from Shorewood Apartments where I delivered newspapers more than 50 years ago. Folks in my yacht club live there, I see constant advertising for the Aegis Living, a higher end one from Era called Aljoya,

You or your parents may think a will is enough — until probate creates costly delays and stress. One simple document could help your family avoid a financial nightmare.
I recently helped a friend go through probate after her father passed away. Although he had a will, he did not have a Revocable Living trust — the document that can help families avoid lengthy and costly probate.
What many people do not realize is that a will alone does not avoid probate.

JUNE MARKS THREE years since my mum passed from complications of vascular dementia. It was a tough couple of years, watching her mind slowly fail and her world shrink a little more with each passing month. Anyone who has cared for a loved one in the late stages of dementia will know how difficult and disjointed even the simplest conversation becomes. The loops, the confusion, the frustration of trying to redirect someone you love from a thought they can no longer find their way out of.

ECONOMICS IS KNOWN as “the dismal science,” and perhaps for good reason. Oftentimes it can be abstract and overly academic. There are, however, certain economic concepts that can be helpful to individual investors. Below are two that I see as especially important.
When it comes to the government’s ability to control—or least influence—the economy, there are two main levers. The first is fiscal policy, which refers to Congress’s (as well as state and local governments’) ability to levy taxes and to spend money. 

I confess. Sometimes I push the envelope of frugality so far it crosses into tightwad territory. I’ve recently taken a detour down that particular avenue with outcomes that, as I explained to my wife Suzie, were “not uniformly aligned with projected benchmarks.” I’ve taken to calling it taste bud training.
I’m a creature of grocery habit, same brands, same shelf, barely a second thought. So when my usual spaghetti was out of stock, I found myself actually browsing the pasta aisle for once.

I mentioned this in a recent HD comment, but I think it deserves more discussion.
It’s time to scrap all tax-advantaged defined contribution retirement plans and replace them with one plan, one set of rules, uniform limits. No IRAs of any kind, no 403b,  no 401k, no nothing else.
Just a Universal Retirement Plan- Individual or employer sponsored. All contributions on an after-tax basis and tax and distribution rules following the Roth model. Everyone could contribute up to one (generous) limit. 

Upon graduating in the early 1990s with a degree in English, folks would routinely ask: “Are you gonna teach?” That wasn’t in my plan, though. Instead, I landed an office job as a writer at a major magazine. The pay wasn’t great, but I could say I was a professional writer.
While there, I became eligible for my very first 401(k), administered through Vanguard.
Lucky for me, around that same time, Human Resources brought in a financial advisor to meet with my department,

My Father: The Peace He Never Found
My grandfather left school at 14 with little formal education. Determined that his children would have opportunities he never had, he pushed both his son and daughter toward academic success.
My father, Richard Clements, rewarded that faith.
He attended University of Cambridge, became an economist, worked as a financial journalist for the Financial Times and The Daily Telegraph, and later accepted a position with the World Bank in 1966.

Have you ever come across a clever idea, and kicked yourself because you didn’t think of it first? Well this is one of those times for me. Tom Walton is the retired editor of my home town newspaper, and one of my favorite writers. Tom writes a humorous article for the paper every other Sunday. A recent piece hit home and cracked me up.
Among the thoughts he submitted, is the idea that, if your age begins with the number eight,

A friend shared an interesting idea from David Bach’s “IRA Flat Tax” proposal, and it got me to thinking.
Here is the white paper if you haven’t read it:
IRA Flat Tax White Paper – David Bach.pdf – Google Drive
The basic idea is simple: for a limited window, maybe 2026–2033, retirees could voluntarily withdraw money from traditional IRAs, 401(k)s, and similar retirement accounts at a flat federal tax rate — possibly around 12%.
The goal would be to make it easier for retirees to use the money they spent decades saving,