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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”?
Sounds awful doesn’t it?
The Article in the WSJ was so painful to read but it led me to the awareness of how to protect myself and those I love.
in the article the problem was the spouse trusted the other spouse who was starting the long road of dementia. How do you protect your financial well being from something like that?
HumbleDollar readers, how do you protect yourselves? I need your wisdom.
I stole the idea for this essay from our very own Mr Quinn and in particular from a short reply I gave him. Sorry about that, Richard.
Have you ever thought about how your view of wealth shifts depending on who’s around you? I have, and my experience with two different homes offers a peek into the complex world of social comparison. I’ve found that contentment isn’t about what you have, but the context you see it in.
A great deal of wrath these days seems to target the wealthy although that generally means billionaires or close to it. However, being wealthy is very relative. I suspect many HD readers are looked upon as wealthy by their peers while perhaps not feeling so themselves. I admittedly fall in that trap.
Many comments on HD by those retired indicate to me being relatively wealthy or pretty close to it.
So, look at the data as estimated as it may be,
A PLANE’S ALTIMETER measures the airplane’s altitude. It’s a critical instrument—so important, in fact, that planes are typically outfitted with two. That’s for redundancy, in case one fails. In addition, because different altimeters work better in different conditions, the two readings offer pilots multiple points of reference.
I was speaking recently with a retired pilot, who explained this to me and asked how he could apply the notion of redundancy to his finances. It was a good question,
In my childhood, I grew up in public housing. From the age of 11, I attended what in the UK is the rough equivalent of a public high school. This was during a very volatile and violent phase of societal change in my country, set against a backdrop of illegal paramilitary organisations. They effectively “hoovered up” a high portion of my childhood friends, regurgitating them as dead bodies or incarcerated prisoners with no future. This was the reality of my childhood and formative years.
My wife started her professional career in 1979, and I in 1980.
I previously wrote an article on Humble Dollar where I tried to research the points covered below by Mark Miller who is considered one of the nation’s leading experts on retirement and aging. In a recent article on Morningstar’s website he warns of the effects of the bill recently signed into law. He writes that if congress does nothing to shore up Social Security the trust fund is projected to be emptied by 2032,
In recent years, I’ve regularly heard from readers who have faced service snafus at Vanguard Group. Many of these folks have stuck with Vanguard’s exchange-traded funds, but moved their accounts to Charles Schwab or Fidelity Investments, with an eye to getting better service.
Over the past 12 months, however, I’ve heard far fewer complaints from readers. Does that mean service has improved—or does that just reflect the fact that the disgruntled have moved on and those who remain are willing to live with occasional poor service?
I thank everyone in advance for any assistance and advice you can provide regarding my Roth conversion scenario. I am currently 56 with a potential retirement age of 58 (approx. 2 yrs). My wife is younger and will continue working for another 8 years following my retirement. I plan on deferring Social Security as long as possible, age 70. I have $850,000 in a regular IRA and an additional $600,000 in a company sponsored 401K. My wife and I file jointly and are currently in the 24% tax bracket ($206,700- $394,600).
When news on the radio says that a given investment instrument’s price is up or down by some stated percentage or monetary amount, but it doesn’t say what that’s compared to, is there a convention defining this? For example, do they mean a year ago, a day ago, a minute ago, since the last opening or closing, or since some event that is in the news about that instrument, such as a board choosing a new company president?
