Love and heartbreak are human experiences.  Heartbreak is not restricted to the end of a relationship. It can be unrequited love, the death of a loved one, divorce, unmet expectations we have of another. Or other severe emotional conditions.
Harvard Medical School recently published an article about a phenomenon known as Broken Heart Syndrome. It is a real condition known as Stress Cardiomyopathy or Takotsubo syndrome, and can be deadly. But most people recover quickly without any long lasting effects.

On a recent family trip to the UK I learned something new about car rental insurance. During my many years of business travel, we were always told to turn down the collision damage waiver, or CDW, insurance offered by the rental company. Our personal credit card provides rental car insurance, but you must decline the CDW and reserve and pay with that card.
When we picked up our car hire just outside of Oxford we were pleased to see we’d been upgraded to a BMW 500 sedan. 

A few days ago Connie and I went to a unique NJ restaurant for a light dinner.
We each had a root beer, we shared a pastrami and turkey sandwich and one bowl of matzah ball soup. The bill was $108 before tip. Now you know why Harold’s NY Deli is unique. 
Have you concluded it is a upscale, white table cloth place or just a rip off? Now, the rest of the story. 
The sandwich is so large they give you six extra slices of bread to break it down.

https://obliviousinvestor.com/the-value-of-a-second-opinion/

I’m in the process of completing my retirement paperwork. For context, I’m retiring on the same day from two systems—the University of California (where I work now) and CalPERS (which administers the pension fund for the university system I previously worked for). My husband, who worked for a state agency, retired from CalPERS in 2016 and has been drawing his pension as well as using his retiree health benefits for both of us. We elected pensions with full survivor continuance for all three.

It’s been a topsy-turvy year in the financial markets. Has that prompted you to make any changes to your portfolio’s asset allocation? I’m thinking about four key dimensions:

Stocks vs. bonds vs. cash investments
U.S. stocks vs. foreign shares
Large-cap vs. small-cap stocks
Growth vs. value stocks

If you’ve tweaked your asset allocation, I’d love to know what changes you’ve made—and why.

While I was in Savannah last week, PBS was filming an episode of Antiques Roadshow, a show I’ve always enjoyed. On a lark, my girlfriend Patricia and I walked over and took a backstage tour with a woman who worked for Georgia Public Broadcasting. This is what we saw:
Hundreds of people who had won free tickets in an online lottery lined up at the entrance to the Georgia Railroad Museum. Most carried small items in tote bags.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and a spike in unemployment federal tax law was modified and the Employee Retention Credit (ERC) was born. The ERC was a refundable tax credit for certain eligible businesses and tax-exempt organizations that had employees and were affected during the COVID-19 pandemic. The business, tax community and the Internal Revenue Service continue to deal with compliance aftermath of the ERC.
On March 20, 2025 the IRS updated their frequently asked questions about the employee retention credit in the section headed “Income tax and the ERC”.

I’d like to pose a question to fellow HumbleDollar readers: What would you think about creating a dedicated space on the HD site where we can share book reports on titles relevant to the community—books on topics like investing, asset allocation, behavioral finance, risk management, financial history, and similar subjects?
Personally, after I read a book that I find valuable, I like to write a short report highlighting the ideas that stood out to me. It helps reinforce what I’ve learned,

Last year I decided to try the advice of a “Financial Advisor”.  This trial was to be for a three month period at no cost to me.  What could go wrong.  The advisor is associated with a long running newsletter that deals primarily with Fidelity products, but they are as far as I know, NOT representatives nor endorsed by Fidelity.
My wife and I each have our separate Fidelity accounts, since she like her independence, but I have managed her investments since our marriage 37 years ago. 

https://www.wsj.com/finance/stocks/dividend-stocks-midcap-recession-protection-e6f33c2d?mod=series_investmonav
The Wall Street Journal today ran this timely article for investors who wish to further explore this strategy.

https://www.advisorperspectives.com/articles/2025/04/23/us-bonds-never-risk-free-never-will
The above article, I believe provides interesting food for thought. It speaks to our latent recency bias, that people often make decisions based on how current things will get projected into the future.
I wonder if things get labeled “risk-free” as a selling point, so that we’ll pay more, own more, beyond it’s real value.
Well it’s got me thinking.

Throughout my working years, one thing that disturbed me greatly was the lack of concern even disregard shown by many workers for a spouse, especially a surviving spouse and nearly always a woman.
I remember the “good old days” when the husband’s earnings were his money, his pension was his pension. I remember when workers hid their overtime pay from the wife and when they elected a single life annuity pension because only they earned it,

ABOUT 10 YEARS AGO, Steve Edmundson, manager of the Nevada state pension, became a folk hero in the investment world when The Wall Street Journal profiled him in an article titled, “What Does Nevada’s $35 Billion Fund Manager Do All Day? Nothing.”
It was an exaggeration to say he did “nothing,” but Edmundson definitely did things differently. Since the 1980s, the trend among pension and endowment managers had been to follow in the footsteps of Yale University’s David Swensen.

I have bought books, including My Money Journey by Jonathan Clements, from Harriman House. I received a email today advising me that Harriman House will no longer be selling our books directly to customers from 9th May 2025.
My question is which of the book stores I decide to buy from pay the book authors the best book royalties.