While there are thousands who have been following Jonathan’s columns and articles for decades, I started reading his articles only about a year and a half ago.
His articles influenced me to change my investing behavior. Now I am focused only on broad market ETFs and not reacting to frequent market gyrations. I am sure many of you have learned much from him and made changes to how you think about investing.
This goes beyond financial lessons.

I MOVED FROM LONDON to New York City in 1986, when I was age 23. That’s when my financial education truly began.
I’d previously studied economics for three years and spent a year writing about the international financial markets for Euromoney magazine. Still, I knew almost nothing about investing, insurance, homeownership and other topics crucial to managing a household’s finances.
I’ve learned a ton since, and the focus of that education keeps changing,

WHEN I ATTENDED Sunday school as a child, I was taught that God is always watching over me. It was a frightening notion, but one I grew accustomed to. My mother would often remind me to “watch your Ps and Qs,” though I wasn’t entirely sure what that meant. Nonetheless, I understood the importance of behaving properly.
Today, it seems we have a different form of surveillance. As George Orwell so aptly depicted in his book 1984,

THERE ARE TWO TYPES of mistake I make: those that are unintentional and those where I should have known what would happen.
After an unintentional mistake, I’m perplexed by what went wrong. I might say to myself “I’ll never do that again” or perhaps “what the heck just happened?” These are genuine mistakes, and I try to learn from them.
By contrast, stupid mistakes are those that I should have known would occur. No matter how many college degrees we have or how many years on the job,

I read an article recently and was shocked to learn that a small percentage of college students feel they deserve a B just for showing up for class. A survey seems to support this. In addition, many feel that effort, even without results, should be rewarded with good grades.
I once had an employee who had grand ideas about her own ability and ideas. One of her ideas involved controlling health care costs with wellness programs.

I’VE SPENT MUCH OF MY life trying to better understand the world, especially the financial world. But I wonder whether I should have spent more of that time trying to better understand myself.
Why do some financial situations scare us, while others leave us unperturbed? Why do we spend time and money in ways we later regret? Why do we find our bad habits so difficult to change? Why do we admire some folks,

HUMANS HAVE ALWAYS celebrated the good times in their lives. These can be massive occasions, such as New Year’s Eve in New York City’s Times Square, or small and personal, such as birthdays. Celebrating is good. But what happens when it’s not?
Adults tend to celebrate with alcohol. For people like me, who lean toward shyness, alcohol can allow us to let loose. It feels good. We smile. People smile back. All is good.

Time for resolutions:
•Logging off social media: No Facebook, no YouTube, no X—basically, no scrolling my life away.
•Call the doctor and finally trade in these knees for the deluxe model.
That’s it. Let’s not get crazy—baby steps!

IT’S SEVEN MONTHS since I received my terminal diagnosis. Cancer is now the reality that looms over each day, and it’s been a rocky road, though the latest abdomen scan suggests I’ll be around for a while longer.
Where’s my head at? Here are four questions I’ve been asking myself—questions, I suspect, that might also be interesting to those who aren’t facing a terminal diagnosis.
1. Am I afraid of dying? No,

DURING A PROJECT meeting at my old employer, a member of our team was constantly raising questions without offering any solutions. Afterwards, the team leader commented, “This guy always thinks his cup is half empty. Nothing will ever satisfy him.”
We’ve all known such people. Is there anything wrong with their attitude? It depends. My boss told me during my first week, “Never be satisfied with the status quo. Find ways to improve everything.

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.

MANAGING MONEY IS about managing risk. But which risks? We all have a different collection of financial worries, and that drives the investments we buy and the insurance we purchase.
Problem is, every choice we make comes with a tradeoff. If we seek to fend off one risk, we often open ourselves up to other dangers. Consider five such tradeoffs:
1. Dying young vs. living long. When should we claim Social Security?

We often talk about narratives—the stories we cook up to explain why, say, the stock market went up yesterday or why our favored political candidate didn’t get elected. These stories are simplified versions of what actually happened and they may take liberties with the truth, but they also help us to make sense of the world.
But what about the narratives we tell about ourselves?
Most of us have a collection of jokes and anecdotes that we tend to repeat,

November is my birthday month. A good time for reflection. With advancing age, we can all give more thought to how we can improve the quality of our lives—enjoy our days and gain peace of mind. When we don’t have as much life left, we want to maximize the time we have.
One of my pet peeves has always been dealing appropriately with rude and disrespectful people. With maturity, we are motivated to avoid jerks and futile conflicts.

MY LIFE’S GOAL WAS to make money. I make no apologies for this. I’m not particularly gifted in this pursuit, but I did persevere.
I take satisfaction that I stuck to my goal despite all obstacles. There were many trips, falls, mistakes and failures along the way. I had to work hard and seek a new job each time my old employment ended. I set out to do something—and I did it.
That all changed when I retired.