When I was in my early 40s, I went through a divorce and found myself facing a radically changed financial landscape. Because I had stayed home for a few years off after my son was born, I didn’t have the same earning potential or job security I would have had otherwise. I don’t for a minute regret taking that time off, but as the academics on this forum know, once you hop off the tenure-track, it’s not easy to get back on.

The old adage “money can’t buy you happiness” is a concise articulation of a simple truth: there are much more important things in life than the accumulation of riches. A reminder of the shortcomings of wealth can be a positive step toward embracing other, more meaningful uses of our time rather than focusing on the value of one’s portfolio and constant low-level worry about the markets. And, after all, we all love a little list.
So what are these intrinsic values,

I’m pretty sure we can agree when using the word “affordable” there are as many definitions as the number of people involved.
I observe the debate in Congress over the premium subsidies under the Affordable Care Act and wonder, what they are thinking.
Regardless of your views on that, we tend to forget we are all subsidized for our healthcare. It may be through the ACA, more often our employer, perhaps Medicaid and for many of us Medicare. 

I’m pretty much a non-judgmental person, though this isn’t a virtue I’ve cultivated or a moral position I strive toward. As my wife Suzie has pointed out on many occasions, normally in an exasperated tone, I tend to wander through life in a state of “fuzzdom.” Suzie’s phrase, not mine.
Case in point: last week my opinion was asked about the dress sense of the weird guy with the high heels, lime green miniskirt, and shocking pink topknot hairstyle we passed while crossing the road.

Thank you to all who attended the service. It was good to have met so many of you. Here is a video of the service.

LAST WEEK, OPENAI founder Sam Altman sat down for an interview with venture capitalist Brad Gerstner and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. Both are investors in OpenAI, so it seemed like a friendly audience. But Gerstner posed a question that seemed to make Altman uncomfortable.
Since introducing ChatGPT three years ago, OpenAI has posted impressive growth, but Gerstner wondered whether the company was, nonetheless, getting ahead of itself.
“How can a company with $13 billion in revenues make $1.4 trillion of spend commitments?” Gerstner asked.

MANY PEOPLE ARE familiar with tax loss harvesting, where you sell a losing security/ETF and rebuy a similar, not identical, security/ETF.
But often we don’t really think about the opposite side of the coin: sell a winning security/ETF and rebuy the exact same, or a different, security/ETF.
That strategy is called tax gain harvesting, and because it’s a gain, the wash sale rule doesn’t apply.
 
Execution
Long-term capital gains can be taxed at 0% depending on your income.

By William Housley and my thinking partner AI (GPT-5)
A Changing Market Mood
William: It seems like the market is running on excitement. The big AI stocks are still climbing, and anyone who hesitates feels like they’re missing the boat. When everything moves that fast, can a contrarian approach really work anymore?
AI: That’s a question investors have wrestled with for centuries — what happens when momentum becomes the market itself?

Goodness. A trillion dollars—$1,000,000,000,000.00 That’s a massive potential compensation package and an awful lot of zeros. I guess if you’re already worth 400 billion, you might as well take a leap of faith and shoot for the stars. I really doubt Elon Musk will hit all the numbers to unlock the full amount. The sales and profit targets seem very ambitious, maybe even beyond Musk’s ability to achieve.
Although I personally think the possible compensation package is an obscene amount of money,

Connie and I were out to dinner recently with two other couples – longtime friends.
During the conversation one of the wives asked the other if they had received their $1200 state property taxes rebate. Yes, we got it yesterday was the reply. Connie looked at me and asked if we received it. I tried to give her a visual high-sign, but she asked again. I said no. “I guess you forgot to apply, right? I was silent and tried another “look” to signal “cool it” on the conversation.

As HD regulars know, Jonathan sought to have a meaningful legacy in the form of helping young people, especially those who otherwise might not have the opportunity, get started early with saving and investing. Thus, with the help of some of his many friends in the investing community, the Jonathan Clements Getting Going on Savings Initiative was born.
Jonathan spoke about the Initiative here and here. There’s also a thread about it on the Bogleheads forum. I wanted to make a QCD (Qualified Charitable Distribution) donation to Jonathan’s Initiative and so thought I’d outline the process I went through in the hope it might help others who are considering a QCD (or other type) donation.

The thought came into my mind the other morning when drinking coffee in the sunroom. Over the years have you ever prevaricated or had doubts about spending money on specific things, then with the gift of hindsight realised it was a great use of your hard earned cash?
The sunroom in question very nearly didn’t happen. My wife Suzie and I had closed on an old two bedroom house. We could see past the surface state and knew the plot had massive potential for refurbishment and expansion into a great home.

I’m a bit of a history buff (nerd), and lately I’ve been reading “The Roman Army: A Social and Institutional History,” a very good read if you have any interest in ancient Rome. I came across an interesting fact I was unaware of.
We have a lot to thank the 19th-century German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck for. He created the first state pension in 1889. But you might be surprised to learn that nearly two thousand years earlier,

I’m an optimist. And proudly so. Perhaps too optimistic, but that’s a risk I’m willing to take.
Having this mindset and reflecting on how I engage with money, and the world more broadly, got me thinking of two things.
Firstly, it takes a lot of work to remain an optimist in the modern media landscape. The default position of financial media is that bad news is either here or right around the corner. If the market is down,

Jonathan’s memorial service will be held at Saint Peter’s Episcopal Church, Philadelphia on Saturday November 8th beginning at 11am EST.   The event will be live streamed using Facebook.  Here is the link to the event:
https://facebook.com/events/s/jonathan-clements-memorial-ser/1159281123061275/?
My thanks to all for your condolences and best wishes. Jonathan’s reach was far and wide.  Nick.