FOUR MONTHS AGO, I was told I might have just a year to live. It’s been a whirlwind ever since.
I’ve been inundated with messages from acquaintances and readers, gone to countless medical appointments, my diagnosis has received a surprising amount of media attention, I’ve been hustling to organize my financial affairs, and Elaine and I have taken two trips.
Where do things stand today? Here’s what’s been going on.
Medical update. After three radiation treatments to zap the 10 cancerous lesions on my brain and an intense opening round of infusion sessions,

Here are some proposals I’ve seen for fixing Social Security.
Remove the income cap on the payroll tax. Currently at $168.600, this would have people and their employer, as well as self-employed folks pay the tax on all of their income. It would not include any commensurate increase in their benefits. While I’ve never had the problem of earning over the income cap, it doesn’t seem entirely fare to me to put all of the load these people.

Connie and I just had our annual financial meeting- how best to give money away. 
Every since I discovered QCDs – you know what that is, right, I enjoy avoiding taxes on a RMD. 
As long as I have to take the money out of my IRA, I like putting it to good use – tax-free if possible.
Where does it go? A chunk goes to church and several religious organizations- Connie’s call. 
We give to a food pantry on Cape Cod and one local.

When I moved from London to New York City in 1986, I didn’t have a job lined up. But after a panicked search, I landed a position at Forbes magazine—as a so-called reporter, the title given to lowly fact-checkers. Almost two years later, I escaped that drudgery when I was promoted to staff writer and assigned the mutual-funds beat.
At the time, the fund world was a cesspool of dubious practices and misinformation, which was bad for investors but good for curious journalists.

There appear to be many wealthy folks trying to live longer. Billionaires, including Jeff Bezos, are making large investments in the research of the aging process. I read about one tech entrepreneur who spends $2 million a year in an attempt to turn back the clock.
Equinox, an upscale gym, offers a $40,000 a year membership that helps you live “100 healthy years.” It includes biomarkers and fitness tests to measure your health. Then they use the data to create your own personalized health and fitness plan that includes coaches and trainers.

I never meant that a consumer buying cases of water at the grocery was wasting money, my point was that at so many venues, water costs well over a hundred bucks a gallon. Why is my tap water only worth .003 cents per gallon, at the store maybe a buck a gallon, and at a concert 120.00 per gallon?
Which price is “correct”? Even at a store, if water is more than a nickel a gallon,

Following is the text of a post that has appeared over and over on social media. 
“ The Retirement Scam
The average lifespan is 76 years.
Middle age isn’t 50 – it’s 38.
They’ve tricked us into working until we’re 67.
By the time we retire, we only have 9 years left in this world.
Why do we only get to enjoy life when we’re old,

WHEN I WAS A YOUNG adult, my parents sat me down and explained that I might at some point inherit money from my grandfather’s trust, which had also helped put me through college. My grandfather passed away in 1984, and his wife—my father’s stepmother—became the trust’s beneficiary.
My father was an only child. The trust stipulated that, if his stepmother died before him, he would receive two-thirds of the trust, while my two siblings and I would share the other third.

I just received my annual water bill, a tiny 158 dollars. It informed me that I will pay .00375 cents per gallon.
When bottled water is even 5 a pint or 40 per gallon, that is roughly 10,000 times higher. It is often at 30,000 times higher.as many venues charge 15 a pint.
Even at a buck a pint  , that is still thousands of times more , for exactly the same stuff that falls, every time it rains.

I LOVE TO TRAVEL—and it runs in the family. My parents were avid travelers, with my father receiving a generous travel allowance from his work every four years.
In addition, my father always managed his time and budget for numerous other trips. After his passing, my brother and I took turns maintaining the travel tradition with our mom, until plans were disrupted by the pandemic.
After retiring this year, I eagerly anticipated visiting my mother in India and taking her on a grand tour.

I read Adam Grossman’s article Riding the Rails with great interest. He gave a well balanced perspective on retirement income strategies, but I came away thinking it’s complicated and scary no matter which approach is used – the point is these strategies are beyond the ability of many people and perhaps more so as we age.
There must be a better, that is, simpler way although I admit I don’t know what it is. Does anyone want to live in retirement knowing that to sustain their income at some point they may have to cut back on spending,

How many of us can proudly say we can cut through misinformation and disinformation, personal bias or prejudice?
As we enter the last month of a new election year, I’m wondering how many voters are truly informed. How many voters actually delve into the politics and issues put forth by the candidates. At first glance, some may sound good, but what are the calamitous consequences of their proposed policies, if enacted.  Have you studied history and educated yourself about the problems some of the policies that they have put forth have wrought?

YEARS AGO, I SAW a Looney Tunes cartoon starring Daffy Duck and Elmer Fudd. As always, good old Elmer was trying to kill a duck for dinner, only to be outsmarted by the much cleverer Daffy.
In this particular episode, Daffy is playing a game of catch with his duck friends outside Elmer’s house. An overthrown ball crashes through a window. Elmer comes out and says, “Who broke that glass? Someone is going to pay for that.” The ducks all bump into each other in their efforts to run away.

Jonathon, please, what type bond should I consider social security, short, long, etc. Or, is it more like an immediate fixed annuity and so forth. Thank You. Maybe somewhere in between,?

I’VE TAUGHT BEHAVIORAL economics, which holds that even our most important decisions are influenced by unrecognized biases. For my students, there’s no better example than the choice of where they went to college.
Although the cost is enormous, the decision of where to go hinges on the smallest things. A teenager who says, “I want to be close to my boyfriend,” will zero in on a nearby college, even if her high school romance is fading.