There is a fund run by Cathie Wood, the ticker is, ARKK ,Ark innovation fund, it gets a negative rating from Morningstar, alas, perhaps with the climate change, it could be suitable if we ever get another flood of biblical proportions?
There is an old movie, ” Arachnophobia”, about some troublesome spiders. I suggest to buy the S and P the Standard and Poors  Depository receipts,  Spiders fund, perhaps.
For the hep and cool cats, I suggest trading both AT and T,

I’m not much of a musicals guy, but I’ve always loved the song “Try to Remember” from The Fantasticks. Maybe it’s because as a kid growing up in Dallas, my parents took me to see a local production of the show. It ran 42 straight years off-Broadway, quite a record.
The first and best version of the song was by Jerry Orbach, who most folks know as the sarcastic cop Lenny from Law and Order.

As a country with only a couple of centuries under its belt, I think that our nation has beaten the odds. When the intrepid souls left England and crossed the pond to start a new country, what were the odds of success?
England was a tremendous world power, a strong navy, territories covering the globe, etc., and it must have seemed foolhardy to fight that. Yet, here we are, and thanks to the native Americans, and the millions of immigrants that have come here from 200 nations,

Well, it’s that time of year again. No, I don’t mean the holiday decorations and music in the stores, although it’s certainly that time of year as well. I’m talking about looking at this year’s tax picture and what actions one might take before the year ends.
There are several items that pop to mind for many people – optimizing giving to charity, making gifts to family, contributing to IRAs (consider doing this earlier!), and others.

BEFORE HE DIED LAST year at age 99, a friend asked Charlie Munger if he planned to leave his considerable wealth to his children. Wouldn’t it impact their work ethic, his friend asked?
“Of course, it will,” Munger replied. “But you still have to do it.”
“Why?” his friend asked.
“Because if you don’t give them the money, they’ll hate you.”
Few of us are billionaires. Still, I find Munger’s comment instructive. It illustrates a reality about personal finance: that the notion of a perfectly optimal answer to any financial question is just that—a notion.

I was making a payment on Zelle recently which our landlord requires us to use to pay our rent. I had completed the process when I suddenly got an alert that I needed to make the payment again as they were having technical problems. This was a red flag to me so I did not make another payment.
I then looked at our checking account online and saw that my payment had been deducted. I also got a text confirmation from the bank.

This has nothing to do with HD finances, but much to do with HD living.
Every six months or so we see newspaper or online articles questioning the value of Daylight Saving Time (DST). Some argue that it should never be implemented, while others say it should be permanent, with no changes. Others like it the way it is.
Before I retired, DST really had a minimal impact on me. Except for a short stint on a construction site,

WHEN HANNAH AND HENRY were children, I talked a lot about money. This was partly self-preservation: It would have been embarrassing if the kids of a personal-finance columnist grew up to be financial ne’er-do-wells.
Fortunately, they didn’t. Hannah and Henry are now in their 30s. Both have good financial habits, and today I typically don’t talk to them about money except when they have questions. Still, given my cancer diagnosis, perhaps a few final reminders are in order—13,

Mine are:
1) John Bogle- founder of Vanguard
When I was beginning my investing journey I discovered this icon. His sage advice such as costs matter, and most investors can’t beat the market so just use index funds led me to financial independence and a comfortable retirement. Also there is most likely no individual who has saved individual investors more money saving because of his push to lower  investment fees.
2) Christine Benz- Personal investment author at Morningstar
When I read her articles on bucket portfolios,

A 10 dollar investment in Berkshire-Hathaway in 1965 would now be worth about $ 500,000 large. Not bad. Or, to quote the late Bob Newhart, ” Oh boy.” ( no exclamation point)
A very financially unsophisticated  woman in New York worked for the same company for 67 years, never earning very high salaries, and when she passed away a few years ago, she had a net worth of almost ten million dollars. Long Term Capital Management had tremendous computers,

Who knew dividend-paying stocks were so controversial? Some view them as a great way to generate retirement income and lower a portfolio’s risk level, while others shun such stocks as tax-inefficient and dismiss their owners as irrational.
But wherever you stand on this issue, keep a key notion in mind: At some point in their life, we need publicly traded companies to start returning cash to shareholders—or there’s a risk they’ll disappear without creating any wealth for investors over their lifetime.

Please, why would anybody buy any actively traded fund, especially in the large market cap category and especially in conventional accounts? As a whole, every investor , large and small, must collectively earn less than the market’s return.  For every buyer there is a seller, of course, and once bid-ask spreads, fees, etc., are factored in, there has to be a slight loss.

Also,  the active funds, due to the frequent trading , often have returns that are often  30,

I’ve always been a growth investor. But as retirement nears I’ve been questioning whether it is better to stay investing for growth and sell some of it monthly for income or to invest in dividend paying stocks or stock funds for income.
Which is a better path to take and why? Thank you all as always for your input

I recently listened to a podcast discussing “longevity income” ETFs from an outfit called LifeX. It appears that the money is invested in treasuries, and the fund returns both interest and a portion of capital each month, with the expectation of exhausting the fund by a target date. It seems to be intended as an alternative to a TIPS or bond ladder, but costs 50 basis points initially and carries no guarantee.
I’d appreciate others’ views on this.

I view it a matter of when, not if, large companies will be hacked. A list of breaches from this year alone  shows hacks at Truist, JPMorgan Chase, and Bank of America. I don’t think the likes of Vanguard, Fidelty or Swchab are immune. And while I practice reasonable infosec hygene (2FA wherever possible, etc) I KNOW I’m not immune: the computers, smartphones, etc that I use to manage my accounts can be hacked.
That said,