For over 30 years, I have collect quotes. It’s a great hobby since it is easy to start or stop, the cost is minimal, and I value the message whether related to investing, retirement, or daily life.
My collection includes about 1,300 quotes from 775 people. Some of the most interesting quotes represent that person’s sole contribution, while others, such as Mark Twain, are quite prolific. The contributors include politicians, philosophers, business leaders, sport celebrities, actors,

BEFORE 2022, OUR investments were held by multiple financial firms, more by chance than choice. Fidelity Investments was the 401(k) recordkeeper. My two individual stocks were held by separate transfer agents. My brokerage account was with Alight Financial. My two annuities and a small IRA were with RiverSource. It was a mess.

Each had different processes, websites with different functionality, and customer service that ranged from nonexistent to annoying. In one case, I couldn’t take a required minimum distribution online.

WE ALL HAVE NEEDS and wants. It’s easy to know our needs because we’re constantly dealing with them: buying groceries, paying rent, getting gas for the car. Our wants, by contrast, are only limited by our imagination.
Our wants are easier to satisfy if they’re close to our current needs. You drive an older Honda Accord. Want a new Honda Accord? Not too difficult. Want a red Ferrari? That’s a different story. Your usual car budget won’t pay for a Ferrari.

Times have changed a lot since we graduated from high school or college. We have experienced many ups and downs in life and observed what works and what doesn’t. Some financial and life lessons we learned are still valuable to the next generation.
Let us share it here!
Sundar Mohan Rao
 
 

MY WIFE AND I TOOK a hiking trip last fall that included wandering through the foothills of the Ozark Mountains in Arkansas. The leaves were just starting to change colors, something I so badly miss living here in Texas.
I returned exhausted and sore, yet mentally energized and invigorated. For the majority of the trip, we were untethered from technology: no cellphone service during the day, no newspapers or TV distractions, no political talking heads,

BACK IN THE 1980s, I was working for an insurance company on Wall Street. This was when I was between marriages. There was a nearby bar and restaurant called Harry’s, located below street level. The bond market was going strong, so the bond salesmen with their fat paychecks were there, which meant the pretty young girls were also there.
The place reminded me of Cheers, one of my favorite TV shows.

I’m curious what you wish someone had told you when you were in your 40s – doesn’t have to be career or even financial advice.  Thanks.

WHEN I WAS A TEENAGER, I didn’t have a girlfriend. Now that I’m older, I realize not everyone had a girlfriend during their junior high or high school years. But at the time, I felt like I was the only one.
By this time, my father had passed away, so I only had my mother and older brother to confide in. My brother thought I might have a problem that prevented me from seeking female companionship,

BRITISH PHILOSOPHER G.K. Chesterton, in his 1929 book The Thing, introduced an idea now known as “Chesterton’s fence.”
Here’s how he explained it: Imagine two people walking along a road when they discover a fence blocking the way for no apparent reason. As Chesterton tells it, the first person looks at the fence and says, “I don’t see the use of this; let us clear it away.” But the second person disagrees: “If you don’t see the use of it,

I PASSED ON MANY activities when I was younger because I didn’t think I could do them. I simply didn’t have a great deal of self-confidence. It was only after I had some accomplishments to my name that my attitude changed and I became bolder in my efforts.
Along the way, a saying I came across helped me overcome my lack of self-confidence. It’s attributed to Henry Ford, the father of the first broadly affordable mass-produced American automobile,

I’M A TERRIBLE READER. I have been my entire life. This was very upsetting to my mother, who felt reading was the key to success.
In fact, my entire family were great readers. Sunday’s New York Times was a fixture in my parents’ house. They’d spend hours reading every section. I hated it.
My father was born in the Hell’s Kitchen section of New York City. He attended Purdue University, studying chemical engineering,

LET ME PLAY THE contrarian. A dominant narrative today is that—compared to earlier generations—younger workers are both economically disadvantaged and less inclined to do anything about it.
Such notions have been bandied about for at least 2,000 years. Horace wrote that “the beardless youth… does not foresee what is useful, squandering his money.” For a more modern take, check out these comments from HumbleDollar contributors and readers lamenting the financial plight of today’s younger generation:

Company “loyalty to employees in large measure no longer exists.”
“Young people are forced to contend with the twin challenges of relatively low salaries and high student loan burdens.”
Baby boomers are “fortunate in a way that’s nearly impossible for Americans today.”
“Many workers are strapped today,

AS A KID, I WAS usually one of the last chosen for pickup games, be it softball, basketball or football. My athletic prowess was limited to being the fastest kid in my neighborhood, but it seems I lived in a slow neighborhood. I had moderate success on a local swim team, but again found that success didn’t translate to surrounding communities.
Into my teen years, I was plagued by allergies and asthma. It wasn’t until the late 1970s,

THE FIRST ROCK concert I attended was The Byrds at Bowdoin College in Maine. We stayed nearby at a cabin in the woods. It was there that I had my first experience with marijuana. It was not a good experience—thank goodness. My drug days were short-lived.
One of the songs made famous by The Byrds is Turn! Turn! Turn! The song was written by Pete Seeger, who derived it from verses in the Bible.