March 10 market sell-off was a good example of two kinds of investing risks: overall market and stock-specific risks.
When you invest in a single stock, you are not only subject to overall market risk, but also risks that are unique to that company.
When you invest in a broad-based index fund, you can minimize both risks by diversifying.
March 10, 2025 Stock Market sell-off:
Dow Jones  –
Dow Jones Industrial Average       -2.08%
S&P 500
Standard &

Need a vacation from our turbulent market? Go first-class with Vanguard’s Total International Stock Index Fund. Why do I need foreign stocks? After all, they’ve drastically underperformed the S&P in the last few years—and let’s face it folks—the world is in turmoil.
The whole idea of plunking some money down on foreign stocks gives many investors the heebie-jeebies. You’re not a victim of home country bias, you’re just being prudent, right? Aren’t almost all foreign economies—especially government-heavy and 

The risk of sensitive personal data leaks is higher than ever, fueling identity theft, phishing attacks, financial account hijacks, and scams. It’s also a time when nation-backed hackers skillfully target critical infrastructure like mobile networks. A major hack revealed last year led the FBI to advise trusting only end-to-end encrypted communications.
No security is foolproof against a determined attacker, but you can make yourself a harder target. Nancy and I have so far avoided major cybercrimes but have faced fraud attempts.

One of the biggest financial questions I wrestle with is when to spend. Saving has never been an issue for me—my thrifty habits make that easy. What I struggle with is knowing when (if ever) to splurge.
For example, I love rock climbing with my kids. It’s a weekly ritual, and I have no hesitation spending money on those experiences because I know I’m investing in memories before they grow up and move on.

It’s now been 18 months since I retired from my primary career as an electrical engineer. In a previous post, I talked about financial moves I’ve made since retiring. What other changes in my life have occurred since retiring from full-time work? Here are a few:
Parks and Recreation.  For over three decades, my opportunity to enjoy the beautiful Pennsylvania autumn season was limited. As an engineer at a nuclear power plant, I was required to support refueling outages every two years for each reactor.

“It’s déjà vu (all over again),” is a quip often attributed to beloved baseball philosopher Yogi Berra. He might as well have been referring to the highly regarded and much awaited 2024 S&P Global Report on the comparative performance of actively managed and passive mutual funds. Its conclusions will come as no surprise to readers of Humble Dollar: Index funds drubbed those run by portfolio managers.
Here’s a quick read. Most actively managed stock funds underperformed their relevant benchmarks.

It’s been a long and wonderful journey. I have nothing to complain about, but I was reading an article that triggered a thought. Did I have it easier simply because of the years in which I grew up? Are things that much harder now? They are very different for sure. 
Was I just fortunate even when things weren’t so great after all?
I grew up in an apartment with my parents and two sisters. My father was a car salesman,

NINE MONTHS AGO, Jonathan Clements shared with readers that he’d been diagnosed with an incurable form of cancer. It was devastating news, especially for longtime readers, many of whom regard Jonathan not only as a journalist but also a friend. I count myself among them, so I was grateful that Jonathan agreed to sit for an interview to share more about his background, his early years and his current thinking. 
You’ve joked that,

I own two individual stocks, both utilities. One I follow closely. 
Over the last year it reached $94.00 but today it is $77.00
Some analysts predicted $101, others in the 80s and 90s. At any point you could find upbeat predictions and more depressing ones.
Buy, hold, sell they said, all at the same time, all after looking at the same data. 
All the company reports and forecasts are positive. Earnings are good, it all looks good…but 

Connecting with younger people is like a rejuvenating fountain of life for me.  Since many of us are fortunate to have children and grandchildren  nearby, we can enjoy being a part of their everyday life,  allowing us to share a special bond with them.
But some of us are restricted by the confines of chronology, and cut off from interaction with younger people. Small wonder that so many seniors retire to college towns. Being around younger people reminds me how thrilling it was when I was young—when the future was bright,

Given that we seem to be entering “interesting” times, I’m revisiting my rebalancing strategy
to ensure my approach remains calm and rational.
I’ve generally got a vanilla approach with a 60% stock and 40% bond and cash mix with low-cost index funds and 3-5 years of cash/cash equivalents worth set aside for living expenses.
My re-balancing strategy is generally “Do it once a year or if any one major category drifts more than 5% from it’s target.” 

I’m breaking up with my bank, my credit cards, and my mutual fund company.
My reasons were influenced by three things.

Many years back Roy and Pauline came to me for tax prep. Though not wealthy, they had about two dozen disparate investments in everything from amusement parks to oil wells. My first thought was that if Roy died first, Pauline was going to have a difficult time dealing with this veritable spaghetti bowl of K1s.

We need words of wisdom dealing with the stock markets.

This is not criticism, it’s an inquiry.
Over the years I have read many times on HD about tracking expenses/spending. Some people pursue this in great detail, some seem to approach it like a hobby. There may be something motivating in knowing how every penny is spent. 
As you may suspect, I don’t know in detail where or how we spend our money. As long as the big picture is in balance I am happy. 
What I do know is the bank balance is $X at the end of the month,

We sold our S&P 500 shares from one retirement account to roll them into another, perfectly timing the market peak. I’d love to boast it was our shrewd insight that nailed the sale, but honestly, it wasn’t. We were just moving money from our 401(k) to our Vanguard IRA. Picture a typical morning—coffee in hand, idly glancing over our account balances during our usual monthly check-in.
No brilliance needed—just sheer luck. Some label it dumb luck,