We are starting to consider booking a trip for 2026. We would like to go outside the US, if possible.  Some of you have encouraged me to make a post asking advice about where to go, what to do, and other things we might need to know about traveling out of country. (We do already have our passports from when we took a cruise in 2019 when we paid off our house.)   So, HD friends,

This past weekend I did the 200k Ride To Conquer Cancer.
On Saturday we rode from Toronto to Hamilton and on Sunday from Hamilton to Niagara Falls.
I knew it was going to be hard because I had only done one 100k training ride so far this year because of the bad weather we were having.
Also I suffer from bad allergies as well as exercise induced asthma and the day before it looked like it was snowing here due to all the white fluff in the air never mind the smoke from the forest fires out west.

Dear HD readers:  We had so much fun with the original version of this post, that I thought it might be fun to add a 3rd possible route to funding retirement at $138,000/yr.   Of course, there is no reality in this, no real personal info, it is just a scenario.  And, most important, any legal route that get you to your desired retirement income is the right one for you.
 
One of my friends is hitting 73 in August and we were discussing his need to do an RMD this year. 

What triggered this post was a Facebook meme claiming the wealthiest 0.1% have gained $4.4 trillion in the past two years, that they have grown their wealth at the expense of average Americans and that “without them your wealth would have doubled”
When I read that, my reaction is “that’s just wrong and so what, they earned it.”  I wish I was that smart. But that is not the typical reaction. Many people readily believe such a meme and are willing to bash the wealthy.

Of the things I have learned from HumbleDollar, and more specifically from Jonathan, is that increasing birthrates and immigration alone won’t solve our Social Security and Medicare quandaries. People need to work longer. 
I have pushed back on that idea by pointing out that for many employed in what I call the brutal occupations, working longer is easier said than done. While I stand by that sentiment, I know people who have changed lanes, expanded their wheelhouse and learned some new tricks. 

We live in a small town in NJ, population 6,600. The median household income is $203,000, the median home value is $1,358,400 and the median property tax is $29,600. I feel like we live in a bubble and given these numbers are much higher than our state averages, which are third highest in the Country, I guess we do.
Between property taxes and HOA fees the minimum annual cost to live in our condo is $24,900.

Focus on the causes, not the symptoms.
There’s been a heap of handwringing this year over both federal government borrowing and possible cuts in Social Security benefits, and the current budget bill before Congress is only exacerbating those fears. But I worry folks are focusing on the wrong things.
As Adam Grossman noted recently, the federal government collects $5 trillion in revenue each year and spends $7 trillion. Why? You might point the finger at Medicare,

LAST WEEK, I MENTIONED the 17th century Dutch tulip bubble. There’s a lot we can learn from history. Current events, however, can teach us just as much. Below are three valuable lessons I see in today’s market.
Myopia. Open any finance textbook, and you’ll find that most of its ideas are built on the notion of “present value.” This simply means an investment should be worth the sum of its future cash flows.

On my way to better things
(No time left for you) I found myself some wings
(No time left for you) Distant roads are callin’ me
(No time left for you)
– The Guess Who
It had been a while since I had been mailed the opportunity to “get guaranteed income that you can’t outlive,” “preserve your capital,” and most importantly “enjoy a complimentary dinner.” I was concerned that there might have been some sort of cosmic shift away from financial planners who charge 1% of assets or even worse that my name had fallen off the free steak mailing list.

An article in Employee Benefits News paints a dim picture of retirement. One that may reflect the real world beyond the HumbleDollar community.
Here again we are relying on a survey so who knows how accurate, but I bet worrying and anxiety over money in retirement is not uncommon. Can you imagine retiring with no clue about the viability of your finances?
It says retirees are struggling to make their savings stretch.
According to Schroder’s 2025 U.S.

Are doctors overpaid?
That’s a tricky question for several reasons. Getting good data is hard and mostly based on surveys, there are variations across the country and among specialists plus few doctors work a 40 hour week. 
If you are a patient and your doctor provides life saving care, I suspect what they earn doesn’t matter, it wouldn’t to me. In any case, chances are you aren’t paying the bill yourself. 
After looking at the data from several sources,

When we deploy our hard-earned dollars, we all have our financial reasons. But are we focusing on the right thing? Consider four examples:
Homes. When folks buy a home, they’ll often dwell on the potential price appreciation, the tax benefits and the advantages over renting. But I’d contend there are two reasons that are even more compelling: Buying a home locks in our housing costs and, with every monthly mortgage payment, forces us to save.

I’m 58 and my wife is 56. We’ve been planning our retirement with care and intention for years—no debt, solid retirement savings, a well-diversified portfolio, and a liability-matching plan (LMP) that covers us until Medicare kicks in. We’ve talked through our priorities, run the numbers, and built our plan together. The core approach to our plan was heavily influenced by Bill Bernstein and Wade Pfau’s writing and we are content with a good funded ratio.
One thing we agreed on early: when one of us loses or leaves work,

Another great link from Mike Piper’s Oblivious Investor newsletter is this interview on the Bogleheads Podcast:
https://bogleheads.podbean.com/e/episode-82-jonathan-clements-jason-zweig-and-christine-benz-are-special-guests-on-this-podcast-host-rick-ferri/

I receive Mike Piper’s Oblivious Investor newsletter. Today I saw the above interesting title of an article he linked to
https://www.advisorperspectives.com/articles/2025/05/19/revealing-question-personal-investing-how-warren-buffett-helps-answer
The question was: What is the lowest risk-free, after-tax, after-inflation rate of return you would accept in order to forgo all other investment opportunities for the rest of your life?1
Although the article itself was waaaay too technical for my pion mind, my knee jerk answer was 2%. I’m not greedy.