I talked about my first paying job, at the local public library, in Learned From Less. I discussed experiences from my second job in Not Long Remembered. My third job, as a temporary factory worker, also made a big impression on me.
During the second part of the summer after my college freshman year, I signed up with a temporary employment agency. They would call me most weekday mornings to offer work assignments at pay slightly above minimum wage.

I posted the following as a comment on another forum topic, but I think maybe it merits a stand-alone conversation. In my time as a tax preparer I witnessed at least a dozen instances where large refunds were held up either by the IRS or the state.
I have mentioned this cautionary warning before regarding over withholding. A client had about $8k withheld from a $10k distribution. Her situation changed one year and she was due an $8k tax refund.

BENJAMIN GRAHAM was Warren Buffett’s teacher and mentor. He also ran an investment fund that specialized in uncovering demonstrably undervalued stocks.
One day in 1926, Graham was at his desk, reading through a government report on railroads, when he noticed a potentially important footnote. It referenced assets held by a number of oil pipeline companies. But there wasn’t a lot of detail, so Graham boarded a train to Washington and found his way to the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC),

There are alternatives to the 4% rule that are not complicated. Here are three ways to calculate your first-year spending rate. All the calculations show the percentage of your investment assets so you can compare them against each other and the 4% rule.
The first one is from the Society of Actuaries:
Retirement age / 20 / 100
At 65 the calculation would be 65 / 20 / 100 = 3.25% and if you retire at 75,

According to the Federal Reserve, 64% of current retirees age 65 and older have a defined benefit pension. That includes me and today (last work day of the month) is payday as Connie calls it. Our “house” checking account as it’s labeled, is replenished. The pension deposit has not changed in fifteen years and will not change in the future.
The second and fourth Wednesdays are also paydays when our Social Security arrives at our bank.

AT A FAMILY DINNER in the early 1980s, I remember one of my brothers—probably then age 20 or so—saying, “But isn’t the economy built on sand?”
My economist stepfather offered one of his trademark droll responses: “The economy’s always built on sand.”
The same could be said for the stock market. In the minds of many investors, it’s always teetering on the verge of collapse. After two years of rising share prices, and amid concerns about high stock valuations,

Ran across this. Not HD content or indeed probably the average HDer being discussed but interesting on the general problems faced by over 60s
https://sherwood.news/personal-finance/boomers-money-secrets-millennial-gen-z-troubles/
I’ve always thought inheritance would eventually be the only way many of their grandkids would achieve real financial security but it seems some may be passing on a millstone in legacy.
 

Manhattan was purchased from Native Americans, hundreds of years ago, for something like 23 dollars. At first glance , it appears to be the greatest bargain, ever,  for the purchasers, while the biggest rip off ,for the sellers.
I have no idea what even the approximate value of Manhattan is currently, other than more than 23 bucks, so I respectfully ask those far more astute at real estate values, compounded returns and the like, to approximately value the entirety of Manhattan,

When investors talk about dollar-cost averaging, they often confuse two strategies—one widely used, the other more controversial.
Do you regularly add new savings to your investment portfolio? During our working years, many of us do that. When we get our paycheck, we slice off a few dollars and toss them into our employer’s 401(k) or 403(b). We might call this dollar-cost averaging (DCA), but it’s less a strategy we consciously adopt and more a function of how we get paid.

I’m getting ready to take my annual RMD (minus QCDs), which seems like a good time to take a look at re-balancing my portfolio. My stock percentage has crept up from 50% to 53%, and while I’ll take my RMD from my stock funds, I’m not going to spend it, so it will be going into Total International (VTIAX) and Total US (VTSAX) funds in taxable.
About 10% of my funds are in a CD ladder and a money market fund in taxable.

Seeking to conserve my driving time, energy and long term parking rates, I decided to drive to my regional PA airport, Scranton/Wilkes Barre, an easy one-hour highway drive, rather than 2 1/2 tense, traffic – ridden hours to LaGuardia or Newark for a direct flight to St. Louis. It’s a tiny, empty airport with honor system self checkout at the souvenir and snack shop. As I’m sitting at the gate, I hear an announcement that our “landline flight” to Philly (where I’ll be transferring for the St.

MANY FOLKS CLAIM TO be ready for retirement, both financially and psychologically. But they’re often surprised to discover that the reality is different from what they expected.
I started planning well in advance of my 2023 retirement. I read dozens of books on the subject, and talked to many classmates and friends who’d already retired. Of all the books and videos that I reviewed, one talk on YouTube stood out: a TEDx Talk by Dr.

WHEN I WAS A NEWSPAPER reporter in Florida in the early 1980s, we were preoccupied with the chance that a hurricane would spin out of the Gulf of Mexico and slam into Florida’s West coast. It would be the biggest story of our lives if a big one struck the low-lying coastal city of St. Petersburg. It never came our way, fortunately for everyone.
The most serious storm I covered back then was called the “no-name storm” because it didn’t muster hurricane-strength winds.

IT WAS 1982 OR thereabouts. After attempting to be a landlord for several years, I decided it wasn’t for me. I sold the house and the four-family apartment building I’d been managing.
The final task in closing out this adventure would come at tax time. Keeping the books was the one aspect of being a landlord that I didn’t mind. I understood how accumulated appreciation would be recaptured and how capital gains tax would affect that year’s taxes.

Connie and I had four children between July 1970 and September 1975. That was a fun decade especially given I was going to school three nights a week until 1978 when after nine years I received a degree.
Those fun times were only surpassed by the ten years when we had one, two or three children in college at once. Our oldest went to Carnegie Mellon on a required five-year program and the others all went to Franklin and Marshall –