As I shared a few weeks ago, I’m in the process of moving the money from my workplace retirement accounts at Fidelity to my rollover IRA at Schwab.
This, like other aspects of my retirement transition, has had its bumps in the road. Fidelity will only mail a check to your home, no electronic or direct transfers, so I called them a couple of days before we left San Diego last week to begin the process.

In January 2020, I invested 150K I had inherited from my parents from the sale of their house. I knew it would be years before I would tap this money, so I invested in Vanguard’s intermediate bond fund in my brokerage account. I had learned that bonds were a safer investment than stocks and I could earn a somewhat higher return than in CDs that were paying next to nothing in interest. By September of ‘21 I was looking like a genius as I had earned 10K.

I’m booking flights at the moment. Suzie and I are heading to the South of England to visit my brother-in-law and family in a couple of weeks’ time. They’ve just recently hit a major life milestone by purchasing their first home together, and we’re looking forward to getting a tour by the proud owners. I’m very happy for them; I’m also very happy for myself because I’m getting free accommodation by staying with them.
My brother-in-law is in his mid-forties with a wife ten years younger and has expressed nervousness at taking on such a large debt at his age,

As I mentioned in my last post, I’ve been thinking about various ways that complex family dynamics can affect one’s own finances, especially when we’re in or headed toward the retirement years. Today’s topic is about having adult children on the “family payroll,” long after one might have assumed they’d be completely independent.
A 2024 study published by the Pew Research Center reported that about one-third of young adults (ages 18-34) still live with their parents and that about 55% of American parents provide varying degrees of financial assistance or support to their young adult children.

Trying to guide some “30 somethings” on appropriate holdings for a taxable account. I’m a little out of my element as almost all my personal investment experience has been in some type of qualified account where taxes don’t matter. Christine Benz recently did a piece that suggested 3 exhange-traded funds – Vanguard Total US Stock (VTI), the Total International (VXUS) and a Tax Free Municipal Bond (VTEB) in varying asset allocations depending on risk.  I’m just wondering if this is “too simple”

I’m seriously sticking my neck out with this speculative, non politically correct observation and expect to get it chopped off by someone. And deservedly so!
Last week, my wife, Suzie, spent a considerable sum of money on hair care, nail salons, and other female-focused purchases. Certainly enough to make my right eyebrow twitch slightly. I only highlight this for the sake of my speculation, not as a manly moan about female spending choices. But the spending got me thinking about retirement calculators.

I have an exasperating and ever-increasing case of double FOMOitis. Today’s stretched stock market valuations have given me a case of fear of missing out (FOMO) for not selling and locking in assured gains – sensible rebalancing theory suggests that we should all be selling on the way up. On the other hand, I have FOMO even considering selling because of the potential opportunity cost of not capturing further gains in a market with clear upward momentum – sensible investing theory (and Jonathan recently) suggests that we should ride the winners while they are hot.

Generating a reliable source of income is one of the most important, and often challenging, parts of a successful retirement. Those of us fortunate enough to have a decent defined benefit pension have a leg up on this. Combine this with an inflation protected social security benefit, and some savings, and a retiree has a chance at a modest, yet comfortable retirement.  I’ve seen this firsthand. My in-laws were a truck driver and a part-time registered nurse.

This post explores another aspect of Dr. Lefty’s exceptional article of July 10, 2025, “Estrangements and Estates”.  Specifically that of Reconciliation. People are just beginning to talk about estrangement even though one out of four families —or 30% of American families have an estranged member, as cited in Dr. Lefty’s article.  That’s a pretty big number.
When someone severs ties, it’s not about a day that went wrong, or even one event that happened. It’s an accumulation of things that 

I have a confession to make: Over the past year, I’ve been moving money out of U.S. Treasuries and into international stocks. For someone who’s long preferred safety over risk, this marks a major shift.
The catalyst, somewhat surprisingly, was a 2024 memo: Howard Marks’ “Sea Change.” Marks—a legend in the investment world—made the case that we’re living through only the third true inflection point in markets since the 1970s. He highlighted structural shifts: the end of a four-decade era of declining interest rates,

Who doesn’t like to give advice and these days and I would have Gemini and ChatGTP to help.  
To keep it friendly I’m thinking of going by Dear Dickie.
Think of all the good I could do encouraging people to give up their budgets and spreadsheets and aim for 100% base pay replacement in retirement, including use of an immediate annuity, dividends and interest. I’d tell them to make sure they leave a modest legacy if possible,

It would have been my mum’s 91st birthday this week. She passed two years ago this June after the long goodbye from the thousand small cuts of dementia. Although I experienced grief and sadness, it truly was a relief to bid my mum the final farewell after the long marathon of loss over many years. I gave a final kiss to the echo of the woman before me as the heat of life left mum’s body.

I remember calls from “boiler room” investment salesmen back in the 70s.
How about “airplanes”? Those chain letter type scams. I actually fell for one of those. I felt so bad that I refunded the people that got in below me.
The Iraq Dinar? I know two people who have died waiting for the currency to revalue, and another guy who still believes it’s going to happen.
The Nigerian Prince scam. A friend of mine lost a couple $k on this one. 

While attending a recent wedding, something rare happened to me—an event so unique, I’d say it hasn’t occurred in at least thirty years.
My main task before the wedding, anticipating significant spending, was to transfer extra funds to my debit card. Understandably, or so I thought, I forgot. My wife, Suzie, disagreed with my assessment, suggesting I was simply a bit “daft.” The result of this oversight? I was extremely intentional with my spending throughout the three-day event.

After nearly a four decade career, I sometimes wonder how I survived many early retirement offers and frequent company downsizing initiatives.  One reason may be that I picked up a lot of career advice from colleagues and bosses along the way. I listened to some, but not all. Here are some:
– My first boss on the first day told me, “Be nice to people on the way up. You need their help on the way down.”
 -Always ask “why”?