My wife, Jiab, was cautiously excited when she told me she received a strange message from a fellow member of her group-messaging app. Containing over 200 members, the group is dedicated to discussing the where and when of pickle ball in Dallas. It has members of all adult ages.
The person contacting my wife called herself Lissa. She said she was an artist and her profile pic showed a woman in her thirties in an art studio.

OUR FIRST GRANDCHILD recently arrived, which naturally has us thinking about the smartest ways to build a strong financial foundation for her future. In 2019, I wrote Take a Break, which outlined saving strategies on behalf of children. Since then, the landscape has changed with the introduction of Trump accounts and Roth-conversion pathways for 529 accounts. 
Families have four tax-advantaged savings approaches on behalf of young children plus the Roth IRA option once the child has earned income – 529 education savings account,

RECENTLY I TOOK a free ride on a driverless bus trialling its proposed route, part of my local administration’s ten-year rollout plan for self-driving public transport and taxis. I see real potential in this technology, and I’m hoping the infrastructure and implementation stay on schedule. That hope is mostly selfish, I’ll admit.
In fifteen years I’ll be in my mid-seventies, and I’d love to ditch my car and rely on cheap, dependable robo-taxis instead.

IN THE INVESTMENT world, May 1st is a notable day. It was on May 1, 1975 that the Securities and Exchange Commission deregulated the brokerage industry. For the 183 years prior to that, trading commissions on the New York Stock Exchange had been fixed at uniformly high rates. But when deregulation arrived, competition got going. That’s when discount brokers like Charles Schwab got rolling, and over time, May Day, as it’s now referred to,

I do the grocery shopping. I just returned from such an adventure. It’s one way I get exercise as a walk up and down the aisles, intentionally – .75 miles today.
Shopping is not easy. First, you need to locate things, which, eventually after shopping in the same store, you figure out. It would help though if the aisle signs actually reflected what was on those shelves. 
Then there are prices, different prices. There is the regular price,

During a recent trip to the Philippines, I found myself watching the people who keep everything moving. From construction workers under the heat of the midday sun, laborers doing jobs that most would quietly avoid, jeepney drivers bringing people from A to B while barely making a profit. After that visit, I sat down and wrote a poem about their struggles. This is my attempt to turn that reflection into something more.
What I saw stayed with me.

The IRS still has not processed my mother’s 2024 amended tax return, which they received May 2, 2025.  In a few days, they will have had her return a full year.
My mother submitted her 2024 Form 1040 prior to April 15, 2025.  It said she owed money, so she paid it.  We subsequently found some additional information.  She filed an amended return April 30, 2025.  According to that return, she is due a refund of $2,161. 

In January 1948, welcomed by family wearing sunglasses, my dad and grandma arrived at the Santa Fe train station in Pasadena, California.
Several months earlier, just before my dad graduated high school, his father died unexpectedly following surgery. Grandpa was hurt moving a large beam at their home, an old farmhouse fixer-upper on the outskirts of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
The family moved to that home during the Great Depression when finances forced them out of their home in the city.

On April 28, 1989, my wife Suzie and I said “I do.” As we walked out of the church, the S&P 500 was sitting at a modest 309 points. Unfortunately, nobody thought to gift us a pre-funded index fund that day. What we actually received was three toasters, a bread maker, and enough crystal glassware to open a small shop.
But here’s a question worth asking as our anniversaries have stacked up: what if someone had slipped a $10,000 index fund certificate into one of those cards?

I posed this question to an AI program (because I don’t know how to use a spreadsheet).
“If my income is $3,000 per month, I save 10%, I expect to earn 8% per year on invested money and my income will increase by 2.5% per year (basically inflation). How much will I have in 40 years?”
Here’s the answer.
You’d have about $1.29 million after 40 years, assuming you invest the savings monthly, earn 8% per year compounded monthly,

Last weekend, my wife and I returned to our former southeastern PA home town.  The occasion was a series of events with family and good friends, many former colleagues of mine.  On Friday night we had a happy reunion with a group that made up a wine making team, beginning in 2012, and continuing until Covid shut us down.  Most of the team is now retired, and much of the talk was about retirement, pensions, Medicare,

“Everyone” knows that Social Security was never intended as the sole source of retirement income or even the majority of income – but apparently not everyone knows it if you believe the rhetoric. 
Many people claim that the COLA in inadequate, even unfair, some rage that what they receive from Social Security is not what they were promised or what they paid for. 
Truth is that it is what was promised and we did not pay for our benefits,

“JOIN US”
“PASSIVE INCOME SOLUTIONS FOR YOUR RETIREMENT”
The tri-fold color high-gloss mailer went on to say, of course, that “SEATING IS LIMITED. REGISTER TO ATTEND!”
Registration required entering a code at WWW.YOURSVP.COM, which makes it clear that not only has financial advisory services become an industry but so has signing up for their free steaks (in this case BBQ, though at one of Kansas City’s finer establishments). I had previously been to JackStack Barbecue for a previous “COMPLIMENTARY DINNER PRESENTATION” that was a whole bunch of nothing but decided to return as the thought of unlimited beef brisket and writing “Jack .

We’re reaching a milestone. Our oldest is going off to college and I’m curious how much parents provide their young adults on a monthly basis for food and incidentals. My son has worked consistently since age 15 but is only now finally getting the importance of saving. As such he doesn’t have much to show for his efforts except a bunch of Uber Eats receipts, shoes and clothing that he purchased. He’ll be staying on campus,

My Youtube feed lately seems to be filled up with a lot of “10 things that are no longer worth your money” videos. Sometimes the number varies ….. 5, 12, whatever. But the message is always similar – avoid expenses that will hurt your financial health over time. And generally the message is pretty sound – avoid car loan repayments, multiple subscriptions, take away food deliveries.
But a recent video from Christina Mychas left me feeling sort of sad.