After years of retirement planning, the day has indeed arrived—almost. I’ve recently become a part-timer, working just three days each week in the outpatient physical therapy clinic, plus one Saturday per month at the acute-care hospital. Though I may be just semi-retired, the load already feels a whole lot lighter.
How so? For starters, I’m focusing less on gaining more from my job. Oh, I’m still keen to treat patients. That’s what drew me to physical therapy in the first place.

WHEN HUMBLEDOLLAR’S editor was The Wall Street Journal’s longtime personal-finance columnist and his children were little, he often joked that he had a special incentive to see them succeed financially.
“It would be a tad embarrassing,” Jonathan wrote, if his children “grew up to be financial ne’er-do-wells.” For that reason, he used his own home as a laboratory of sorts, testing strategies to help set his children on the right financial path.

WHEN MY TWO CHILDREN were ages nine and five, I opened Vanguard Group variable annuities for them. No, variable annuities aren’t my favorite investment. Far from it. Indeed, I don’t think they’re anybody’s favorite investment vehicle, unless you happen to be an insurance agent angling for a big commission.
Still, tax-deferred annuities differ from other retirement accounts in one crucial way: You don’t need earned income to fund the account. That means it’s possible to open a tax-deferred annuity for a toddler,

I want to thank Jonathan Clements for his article on allowances for children many years ago while I was raising my children. After reading the article I decided to give my two children age 13 and 5 at the time a monthly allowance. For this allowance they had to buy their own clothing. My daughter at age 13 was initially appalled at having to buy her own clothes. We did agree that we would buy big clothing items such as a.

This holiday can be a stressful one for many families.  Who plans it? Who hosts it? Do you go out for a meal or cook or cater in?  Who is invited?  Who can actually come (geographically and other commitments)?  How does everyone get along?
After an exhausting but great Mother’s Day at our Jersey shore home on a beautiful day here my wife and I collapsed as I reflected on how lucky we are compared to many families including many of our friends.

I’m in the process of completing my retirement paperwork. For context, I’m retiring on the same day from two systems—the University of California (where I work now) and CalPERS (which administers the pension fund for the university system I previously worked for). My husband, who worked for a state agency, retired from CalPERS in 2016 and has been drawing his pension as well as using his retiree health benefits for both of us. We elected pensions with full survivor continuance for all three.

In the final month of my mother in law’s life my wife felt like  her care was failing her mother.
First she was concerned that her mother seemed depressed. Her mother started not wanting visitors, she wouldn’t get out of bed one day when my son was visiting. She lived for social interaction, so this behavior was unusual. When she was downstairs sitting on the couch with us she spent more and more time with her eyes closed with a full back heating pad.

Note: This was a late comment to an earlier post that some may have missed. It’s still too early to post other lessons as there are more family gatherings to host.
Here is my take on being grateful: My mother in law is in the hospital now for the last time. When I was riding my stationary bike to relieve some stress the other day (That’s when my mind wanders and I do my best critical thinking/reflecting) I had an epiphany. 

As I have written before in April of last year my wife and I decided to take in my 102 year old mother in law when her second husband, whom she married at 93, was sent to a nursing home. Amazingly that resulted in moving her out of their independent senior housing apartment.
Well she peacefully passed way yesterday morning at the age of just days past 103 1/4. As my wife’s cousin said in call yesterday,

I have come to believe that we retirees can and should help younger generations understand the benefits to get going on their saving, spending, budgeting, planning and other aspects of life’s financial journeys. Yesterday’s article, which touched on this subject, was entitled “Getting Going” which also happens to be in honor of our humble editor’s Wall Street Journal byline.
We retirees have experienced the impacts of compounding, inflation, tax-creep, tax-law changes, up and down stock markets,

As I read through the comments and posts on HD I often see a comment related to a spouse’s employment/retirement. Is a two income family as common as it appears to be?
How does a dual income impact financial and retirement planning? Is it easier or more complicated? Are family finances viewed as one pool or separate?
Are there conflicts when one spouse retires while the other works?
Are financial/Investment decisions made by individual or as one portfolio?

Wanted to share a story. Our son started a new job at the first of the year that paid more than his last one. He got his first paycheck last week and the net amount was less than he expected. We talked about it and what the problem could be. He was not in a higher tax bracket.   I asked about W4 and he did need to adjust it. He also needed to get his taxable income down,

MY SON IS A FRESHMAN in high school, and I’m beginning to be more purposeful about his baseball aspirations. But after dropping $85 on a one-hour pitching lesson, I was wondering, was my money well spent?
My search for an answer began with the Netflix series Receiver. I tuned in to see football player George Kittle, a former University of Iowa Hawkeye and bigtime professional wrestling fan. Kittle was kind enough to send autographed memorabilia for a softball fundraiser we had a few years ago.

In a previous article I wrote about food waste in America even as 7 million Americans are reported as food insecure. 
I occasionally feel food insecure, but not in the real sense. My experience comes from fugal relatives and friends. Have you ever had dinner with family or friends and been afraid to take a reasonable portion of the food? I can’t imagine what some hosts are thinking. 
I was at a holiday dinner and when the turkey being passed around got to me only a wing was left.

I SPENT MANY HOURS reading articles and books about retirement before I actually retired. I knew I’d retire eventually because of how often I found myself out of work. Studying retirement became one more thing I needed to do so I could be successful.
Under the category of retirement, grandparenting was a frequent subject. This is understandable since many retirees are or soon become grandparents.
My situation is different. My special-needs son will not get married or have kids.