In an article published today titled Retiring from Farming is Complex and Not Always Planned the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College discusses the additional challenges that farmers face in their retirement planning.
https://crr.bc.edu/retiring-from-farming-is-complex-and-not-always-planned/
My wife and I are just back from a road trip Christmas visit with two of our adult children and their families that included driving across Indiana twice. After again seeing the vast farm lands and work I wanted to express my gratitude and appreciation to our farmers who keep us fed and whose efforts helps make my comfortable retirement possible.

AT LEAST ONCE A YEAR, I watch the hilarious short YouTube clip by personal-finance author JL Collins. If you aren’t around small children and can handle liberal use of America’s favorite four-letter word, check it out. Some may recognize it as a parody of actor John Goodman’s soliloquy from the film The Gambler starring Mark Wahlberg.
The clip, however, is more than just entertaining. Its content is what keeps me and, judging from the half-million views,

SIPPING MORNING coffee on the porch of my 40-year-old aluminum box in the Sonoran Desert, I’m pondering the cost of housing.
My affordable unit sits on cement piers at the end of a street within an age-restricted park, at the sparsely populated edge of Tucson. Few jobs exist nearby. Civic amenities are modest. Summer weather is challenging, with heat, thunderstorms and seasonal rattlesnakes. Still, these conditions have created a financially comfortable place for a retiree to live.

I have a friend who calls me wealthy even while he sold his business last year, owns three homes and lives in the largest condo in our community. My wealth according to him is the result of having a pension.
Am I wealthy? I don’t look or act wealthy, I don’t dress like a wealthy person – whatever that may be? I don’t have a yacht and my once “luxury” car is now over ten years old and has a trade-in value of $6,000.

WHEN I STARTED learning about investing, I stumbled upon a book at my library that immediately grabbed my attention: The Lazy Person’s Guide to Investing by Paul B. Farrell. A portfolio championed by the book consisted of just two mutual funds—one stock index fund and one bond index fund, with 50% of your portfolio invested in each.
With only two choices to make, decision-making becomes far more straightforward. Farrell’s suggested 50-50 split simplifies the process even further.

This morning I found this very good summary of this issue on USA Today.
Check out this article from USA TODAY:
Seven reasons why Americans pay more for health care than any other nation
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2024/12/15/why-americans-pay-more-for-health-care/76900978007/

A married couple that are both receiving Social Security will lose the low income advantage to reduce Social Security taxes if they file married filing separately.  The designation creates an 85% tax on most of their Social security income.  Once your income exceeds the point of making SS 85% taxable, there may be advantages to filing separate returns, but not when income is low.
 

In some situations thousands of tax dollars can be saved by using the married filing separate filing status. However, doing so can trigger a larger income-related monthly adjustment amount (IRMAA) to your Medicare premium.
For example, the surcharge for a single taxpayer with modified adjusted gross income of $104,000 is $69.90 per month, while the same for a married taxpayer filing separately is $384.30. In that situation it will most likely be better to file a joint tax return and pay the extra income tax.

LOOKING TO CONDUCT a review of your investments? Below is a five-point end-of-year housekeeping checklist.
Suitability. When it comes to the world of investments, the most common types of assets are stocks and bonds—but they aren’t the only ones. There are alternatives like real estate and commodities and, of course, there’s bitcoin, which has more than doubled this year. Which of these is right for you? Since everyone is different, the first litmus test is to assess the suitability of the types of assets you own.

At Thanksgiving, my son-in-law was asking me a number of financially related questions about retirement.  He’s about 10 years away from retirement, but he knew I retired last year, so it was fresh in my mind.  I created the following pre-retirement list for him to think about.  Update: The list has been updated based on comments from the HD community.
 HD Community:  Are there any financially-related things you did to prepare for retirement that aren’t listed below? 

One of the most well known advocates for elder care, who worked for a prominent national health center, was talking with me about a year ago.  When I asked him what his plan was for he and his wife, as they aged, he replied “ I have four daughters”.
This was pretty shocking to me, given that he worked in this industry, and specialized in helping adult children and their parents to talk about future health care planning.

Oh, index funds have a tale to tell,
Of how they invest and invest quite well.
They’re cheap, they’re easy, they’re widely adored,
But here’s the twist that can’t be ignored:
They lean on the work of those active and wise,
The managers, experts, with sharp, watchful eyes.
While index funds follow the market’s parade,
It’s active decisions that have the path laid.
Active managers toil, they measure, they scheme,
Allocating the dollars, fulfilling the dream.

THE STOCK MARKET HAS been one of my life’s enduring interests. No, it’s not because I try to pick market-beating investments. I gave up on that nonsense more than three decades ago.
Rather, I’m fascinated by the way we humans engage with this maddening market that promises both riches and peril, and which seems both ruthlessly efficient and utterly nuts. What have I learned from a lifetime of following the stock market? The sad truth is,

Growing up in the 70s and 80s, the conversation around money was stressful in our home. I was the third oldest in a family of ten (seven boys, three girls). Yes, we’re Irish and Catholic. As you can imagine, the regular paycheck from my dad’s job came in and went out even quicker. Typically, all the money was spent even before the next paycheck. Despite my mom working intermittent part-time jobs, they had no savings to access.

In a previous post I outlined what I see as the dilemma Americas face when it comes to paying for health care. 
Since then I have been tracking social media comments on the topic. If the people posting are close to reflecting a significant portion of the population, we are in trouble. 
I suspect the lack of a fundamental understanding of insurance, how companies operate and individual responsibility is not limited to health issues, but also explains a lot about how people manage their finances and use the resources available to them –