The Missouri legislature recently passed a wide-reaching tax bill that includes ending the capital gains tax. The House passed the legislation 102-41. Since it had previously been approved by the Senate, it now goes to Gov. Mike Kehoe.
Rep. George Hruza, R-St. Louis County said this is one of the best things the legislature could do for Missouri.
Now I’m not sure it really is the best thing the legislature could do in a state that is #5 in the country in “gun death rates,”

I want to share the sad news that Mr. T. V. Narayanan passed away in India, two days ago, of a brief illness. He is survived by his wife, son, daughter-in-law, and 3 grandchildren. We will miss him dearly.
Here is an article he wrote for HD: https://humbledollar.com/2023/07/come-a-long-way/
He says in this article that he must have read just about every column that Jonathan Clements wrote as a personal finance columnist for the Journal and learned much from them.

I have expressed my opinion on the need for and desirability of a steady income stream in retirement, as guaranteed as possible. Next Friday my pension will be deposited in our bank account. On the second and forth Wednesday each month our Social Security will be deposited. All that has happened each month for the last seventeen years.
I don’t worry about withdrawal strategies, withdrawal percentages, guard rails, tip ladders or any similar strategy. The IRC tells me what I must withdraw from my IRA. 

Who Is the Victim of a Ponzi Scheme?

Age: Often 50 or older, particularly retirees looking for stable income or to preserve capital.
Education: Many victims are college-educated—some with advanced degrees.
Financial Status: Typically middle to upper-middle class, with meaningful retirement savings or liquid assets.
Investment Experience: Usually have some experience, but not deep technical knowledge—confident, but not always skeptical.

Sounds like a typical HumbleDollar reader, doesn’t it?
Each year, 20 to 40 Ponzi schemes are uncovered in the U.S.,

My view is that nothing will be done to fix the funding of Social Security through 2028 thus leaving people with concern for their future and to ponder rumors and misinformation. The latest report from the Trustees that should have been released by now is not available yet, but here is a summary from the last in 2024.
My opinion is to be conservative when planning your retirement in the next few years, and use 80% of your current projected Social Security benefit.

Make no mistake: Stocks are expensive, with the companies in the S&P 500-index currently at 28 times trailing 12-month reported earnings, offering a dividend yield of just 1.3% and sporting a Shiller price-earnings ratio of 37. All three metrics suggest stocks are pricey by historical standards.
Meanwhile, with far less risk, investors can collect 4.5% in annual interest with 10-year Treasury notes and an inflation-adjusted 2.1% with 10-year inflation-indexed Treasurys. Alternatively, for those who favor cash investments,

Hypothetically, say you lost your nerve and pulled you money out of the market because you thought it was obvious the entire economy was ready to collapse due to incredibly high valuations for both stocks and real estate and finally implementing tariffs, only to witness the market quickly recover. How would you get back in?
I suppose this person (not me, of course, since I am a long term index investor) would be best served using a dollar cost average,

I find the “liability matching” concept as outlined in Dr. Wad Pfau’s “Funded Ratio”  helpful based on our household-specific inputs I provide.  This analysis, while based on different inputs than those of Monte Carlo simulation, has given me another way to project whether we expect to have adequate financial resources for the remainder of mine and my spouse’s life.
I have used Mike Piper’s simplified funded ratio example spreadsheet to “run the numbers” using the following inputs for each year of our expected life spans:

1) Select a conservative,

This floated across my screen a couple of days ago.
Bill Bengen introduced the 4% rule in 1994.  It suggested that a one may safely withdraw 4% from a portfolio in the first year of retirement and it would be likely that portfolio would last for 30 years.
Bengen is publishing a new book A Richer Retirement: Supercharging the 4% Rule to Spend More and Enjoy More
In it he updates the rule but also provides a 55/45 model portfolio. 

On Friday, May 15,  I received the attached email Alert from the IRS Office of Professional Responsibility. The email topic, When a Practitioner Passes Away, is mostly focused directly at anyone subject to Circular 230 that practices before the IRS, typically attorneys, certified public accountants, enrolled agents and others who prepare tax returns for pay. I think it likely that every state also has their own additional laws and regulations regarding protection of your data.

After years of retirement planning, the day has indeed arrived—almost. I’ve recently become a part-timer, working just three days each week in the outpatient physical therapy clinic, plus one Saturday per month at the acute-care hospital. Though I may be just semi-retired, the load already feels a whole lot lighter.
How so? For starters, I’m focusing less on gaining more from my job. Oh, I’m still keen to treat patients. That’s what drew me to physical therapy in the first place.

It has been written here and elsewhere that there is more value in using your money for experiences instead of buying stuff. I fully agree. 
Experiences with family and friends are most important especially as you get older, but beyond those, what experiences stand out for you? 
Most of our traveling was after we retired. We isolated funds for that purpose. While working, our travel was limited to business events, mostly employer paid. That’s how I had dinner at Mar-a-Lago Club.

Great article in the WSJ about aging. I hope the link below is non paywall.
https://www.wsj.com/health/wellness/americans-in-their-80s-and-90s-are-redefining-old-age-5f8ae8a6?st=JfYzbJ&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

WHEN HUMBLEDOLLAR’S editor was The Wall Street Journal’s longtime personal-finance columnist and his children were little, he often joked that he had a special incentive to see them succeed financially.
“It would be a tad embarrassing,” Jonathan wrote, if his children “grew up to be financial ne’er-do-wells.” For that reason, he used his own home as a laboratory of sorts, testing strategies to help set his children on the right financial path.

I woke up this morning at 4, wide awake and couldn’t sleep. I laid there reading google news on my phone. Finally I got out of bed and made it out into the living room. It was pitch black outside, yet my path through the house was well illuminated by little, mostly blue lights. About 30 of them. Smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, routers, scanners, label maker, alarm clocks, microwave, coffee maker, toaster oven, range, bathroom nightlights,