Okay, my level of financial and retirement simplicity is not for everyone. I get it, people want details, they like to analyze, to plan and project the future. But tracking every penny spent? Hey, if that makes you happy and you feel better, go for it.
I try to cover all the bases too, I want to be prepared for the vicissitudes of life as FDR said about Social Security. For me that boils down to big picture stuff.

I’m betting that a large number of fellow HumbleDollarians have never heard of a podcast called Down the Middle (Down the Middle Archives | Creative Planning).  It is a pod hosted by our fearless founder Jonathan Clements and co-hosted by Peter Mallouk of Creative Planning. You can find it on Apple or anywhere podcasts are found.
It’s released only once a month at the beginning of the month. It’s one of the pods I most look forward to. 

Well, I tried to stay up until midnight to pop a cork, but it just wasn’t happening. So today I woke up as a retired person!  If you’ve read my articles from 2024 on the topic, you know this didn’t sneak up on me.
My road through the logistics of retiring from two university systems and applying for Medicare went…somewhat smoothly. I was pretty meticulous in my preparation. I attended webinars for both systems last year and put the application dates on my calendar.

My wife, Suzie, and I have just uncovered the biggest financial oversight mistake we’ve probably made in a very long time.
Since entering retirement, we have been reorganizing our everyday finances, including consolidating our two separate current accounts (a checking a/c without a checkbook) into one for the majority of our recurring bills. During this process, we realized we were paying for three mobile phone plans, two coming from my wife’s account. It turns out Suzie had always assumed my plan was taken from her account.

I was reading an interesting article by Kristine Hayes, a contributor to Humble Dollar a few weeks ago. In it, she discussed her introverted nature. Since then, a thought’s been developing in my mind: Could an introvert have a distinct advantage when accumulating wealth for retirement and an above-average chance of enjoying a successful retirement?
I consider myself, for want of a better description, a “closet introvert.” While many people who know me genuinely think of me as the “life and soul of the party,”

I’m excited this morning! Why the excitement, you may ask? It stems from the fact that, for the very first time, my wife Suzie and I are decamping to our holiday home in Portballintrae, a small coastal village on the North Coast of Ireland, for the next three months. This is only possible because we’re now both retired, allowing us to fully utilize the home we purchased six years ago. As we’ve been organizing for departure,

The 4th of July, my anniversary, my birthday, and Christmas light up my year, but Easter might just be my favorite day of the year. On a monthly basis, though, payday steals the show—that spark of adrenaline when dollars hit my bank account is hard to beat. Four times a year, dividend paydays bring a similar thrill, maybe even more. This is why I’m hooked on dividends.
Dividends have trade-offs, but their potential to grow over time makes them irresistible.

IN A RECENT INTERVIEW, Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, a leader in artificial intelligence, grabbed headlines. Amodei argued that the next generation of AI systems could replace half of entry-level jobs and drive up the unemployment rate to 20%. All of this could occur in the next five years, he said.
Recent data seem to support these glum predictions. Mark Zuckerberg said AI will be as capable as a mid-level programmer by the end of this year.

I was sitting on the deck of my holiday home, enjoying the morning sunshine and breakfast, when a deep rumble announced the arrival of an expensive, sporty car. It was my neighbour. He’s a very nice man in his 40s who always dresses impeccably, with two well-turned-out kids and an immaculate wife – to all intents and purposes, a family living the dream.
Contrast that with me: I drive a seven-year-old SUV with 70,000 miles on the clock,

Recently, on the Saving and Gifting thread, I listed the organizations I support: “a reading service for the blind, the local hospice, Planned Parenthood, public radio and TV, and the [retirement] community’s benevolent fund”, to which I should have added Royal Oak, the US affiliate of the National Trust. I added that “having grown up in what some Americans no doubt consider a Socialist country [UK], I consider charity to be the job of the government,

Callie’s 5 mind blowing facts!
I’ve always liked these kind of facts/research. Hope you do too!

I’ve been working to educate myself on the US pension system, particularly the retirement decumulation landscape. It’s a challenging endeavor, but through diligent research, I’m slowly grasping the essentials. From an outsider’s viewpoint, the complexity that various US administrations have introduced into this system is striking. As a UK citizen, I find several aspects particularly perplexing:
The Sheer Number and Variety of Retirement Accounts: In the UK, it’s largely about defined contribution and defined benefit pensions,

There is a Boglehead Conference in October.  Has anybody attended previous conferences? I’m considering attending and I’d appreciate your hearing about your experience. Did you find it valuable?
Thanks,
Jackie

I met a few months back with the vice-president  of Fisher Investments. One of the benefits of our meeting was a hardcopy brochure titled “99 Retirement Tips.” You can get an electronic version via this link, without having to attend an actual meeting, though it may still come with some very persistent phone calls from Ken and Company.
It makes for a brisk though useful read as every retiree could benefit from going over the basics every now and then.

Read any article on retirement planning and there will be something about the expenses that go away upon retirement.
Usually the top two are no more mortgage payment or saving for retirement followed by commuting and other work related costs, less driving hence less gasoline, less spent on clothes. Some articles mention no longer paying life insurance premiums, less dining out and fewer subscriptions. 
Some of these may be significant and others not so much. Certainly if a mortgage is paid off at retirement that is a big reduction and no doubt most will see a drop in their savings rate especially if saving was a significant percentage of income.