A couple of days ago I chanced on this following very detailed and very lengthy article from the SF Chronicle:
https://www.sfchronicle.com/california/article/underinsured-home-what-to-do-20250824.php
This is behind a paywall, but if you haven’t been to the newspaper website recently you can probably read it. I am going to try to summarize some of the content.
Let me begin by putting a personal spin on this topic. I spent 30 years in the property and casualty insurance world. But, like you I have to insure my own home.
I recently sold some bond ETFs to harvest the capital losses. I want to re-deploy the proceeds into fixed income as my stock allocation is where I want it to be.
I subscribe to Jonathan’s and Adam’s philosophy of taking risk with my stocks, not bonds. I was initially inclined to reinvest in Treasury ETFs, around 75% short term and 25% intermediate term. But with the turmoil reaching even Treasuries over the last couple of days,
I wore a gown of Chantilly lace—the sun caught the sparkles in my bridal headdress. My husband was resplendent in his tuxedo—the sun was shining on a beautiful April morning —Our wedding day, 60 years ago, April, 1965.
While The choice of a spouse is among the most important decisions most people ever make, it’s a choice that comes with no guarantees of long term happiness. That said, we all have an ideal vision of the person we would like to marry.
Have HD readers lost their faith in the bond market after the last few days of declines in bonds?
I would appreciate it if one or more of the smart people on this blog can explain the following : what causes individual stocks prices to change – be it higher or lower ? For every seller there has to be a buyer, so what exactly is causing a stock price to move up or down? What determines how much that movement will be ? Is there a mechanism that continuously, and at millisecond or nanosecond intervals,
Despite my recent Ozempic nightmare and near suicide (see my article “My Ozempic Nightmare“) I’ve decided to go ahead with my Ironman Ottawa attempt this August at age 70.
I don’t want to live with the regret of not trying although physically I still have a long way to go. I lost a lot of muscle while on the drug and my energy levels are still low but I need to give it a shot as I consider it unfinished business.
I feel like I am in ranter’s heaven. There is so much to rant about, the choices are confusing. I’ll skip the political scene.
Still there are dangerous drivers who ignore the rules -and common sense- of the road. There are those who insist on parking next to your car – sometimes making it nearly impossible to open your door- when there are 100 empty spaces a few feet away. Then there are the shopping cart inconsiderates
I’m withdrawing a bit from IRAs, ahead of RMDs in a few years, which will decide for me how much I’ll be taking out each year. For those of you who make voluntary withdrawals, do you go with a fixed percentage, like 4% every year, plus an inflation boost, calculated on Jan. 1 and taken at the beginning of the year? Or do you recalculate to reflect market change, and withdraw gradually throughout the year? Or wait till Dec.
I have written in the past about how I approached the COVID market decline. My plan was to increase my equity position gradually as the market declined, first at correction (down 10%), then bear (down 20%), then every 5% decline thereafter. This way I didn’t have to determine when the market reached the bottom, just be methodical in my approach. I then sold shares as the market recovered and made a decent profit from my efforts.
My son is 30 something working in Silicon Valley paying outlandish rents and looking at expensive housing. Is it still a good option to purchase in this market? I was burned on real estate as a young adult and don’t want to advise him If it is not a good idea.
I spend a lot of my free time reading, especially newspapers, which may seem odd to you given the dramatic drop in newspaper subscriptions over the years. I subscribe to three digital newspapers, and their breaking news alerts—which find their way into my email account—keep me busy.
Lately, I’ve been bombarded with news about tariffs and the recent stock market decline. I have no idea how long this economic turmoil will last, and from what I’ve read,
It’s rough out there but peeking at your balances does little to alleviate angst over the market meltdown. A recent Barron’s article reminded me that “it’s all paper losses anyway, unless you sell. if you do that, you lock in your losses, and then you have to worry about getting back in. Typically, by the time Investors feel comfortable returning to the market, stocks will have already appreciated and investors will have missed.out on the recovery.”
Many are looking to this week to provide a clearer picture as to the markets direction.
I’ve recently lived by the principle of keeping about 20% of my assets in cash as a safety net—not as “dry powder” ready to be fired off in some speculative move. But lately, I’ve caught myself eyeing that safety net differently, wondering if it could be more than just a cushion. Am I starting to see it as dry powder after all?
I keep hearing the word “play” tossed around in financial circles. “What’s your play?” they ask.
I’m back in the Philadelphia suburbs today, heading to a funeral later this morning. My best friend’s Mother passed away at 91. She’s the last of my friend’s parents to go. Of my in-laws, two mothers are still alive – one healthy and super-sharp, one quite infirm. We attended a neighbor’s funeral last Friday at the Jersey Shore. She made it 85, and lived an active life almost to the end. An acquaintance recently died suddenly at 80.
In January, I outlined a host of money moves I’d made in the first 16 months after retiring from full-time work. Financially, things did not slow down in the first three months of 2025. Here are some of my first quarter financial actions and experiences:
Distributed gifts to charity. We cluster charitable contributions so that we can itemize on our Federal tax return every other year. During the year that we take the standard deduction,