“WHERE’S THE QUALIFIED charitable distribution on Mom’s tax return?” Mom had never before executed a qualified charitable distribution, or QCD. Her tax return was 41 pages, and we weren’t sure where to find it.
There was a long pause. “I forgot your mom had made QCDs as I prepared her return,” allowed her tax preparer. “I’ll need to recalculate her taxes.”
A QCD can be a tax-efficient way to donate money for those who are charitably inclined—but only if it’s correctly documented on your tax return.

DON’T CONFUSE THREATS to your happiness with financial threats.
For instance, it would be devastating if one of your children died at a young age, and no doubt that’s why some folks buy life insurance on their children’s lives. But while the death of a child is a threat to your happiness, is it a threat to your finances? It’s terrible to say it, but just the opposite is true: You’d probably be better off financially.

MY WIFE HAS PLANS for retirement. Travel plans. For too many years, she’s lived a mostly travel-free life. We’ve logged just a few short excursions to hither and yon.
Yes, there have been reasons for this dearth of travel that were largely beyond our control. But her biggest obstacle has been—and continues to be—me. I’m mostly a homebody, and I’ve been reluctant to change my ways.
My wife didn’t choose to love traveling. Rather,

ONE OF THE MORE challenging changes that comes with retirement is the loss of your employer’s health care benefits—and I’m not just talking about regular health insurance. Two other benefits that employers commonly provide are dental and vision coverage.
Traditional Medicare doesn’t cover common dental procedures, such as cleanings, fillings, extractions, dentures, dental plates and other dental devices. Medicare also doesn’t cover the cost of eyeglasses, lenses or contacts, which many of us were used to obtaining using our employer’s vision coverage.

I’VE SEEN FINANCIAL advisors do great work and I’ve seen them do poor work. Which brings me to my late father’s experience.
Dad was a heck of a small businessman. Starting in 1956, he and his partner sold and serviced radios, televisions, appliances and furniture. Forty years later, he sold the business to four of my brothers.
By the mid-1960s, Dad had accumulated what was for him a small fortune. This was the time of the stock market’s so-called go-go years.

MY CONTENTION: ONE of the most egregious parts of the tax code is the stealth tax on Social Security benefits.
To be sure, if your income is low enough, your benefits won’t be taxed. But around 56% of retired Americans pay taxes on up to 85% of their Social Security benefits. And the number grows each year. Incomes rise, if only because of inflation-driven increases, and yet the thresholds for taxing benefits have never been adjusted for inflation or wage growth.

IN THE WORLD OF personal finance, there’s no shortage of formulas and frameworks for making financial decisions. But it’s also important, I think, to see these as guidelines rather than as rules. Consider the textbook view of money and happiness.
What the research says is that, all else being equal, we should opt to spend money on experiences rather than things. Let’s say the choice is between spending $1,000 on a new watch or on a weekend away.

THERE ARE CERTAIN things I did right during my financial journey, notably saving like crazy, tilting heavily toward stocks and favoring index funds. But if only all my doing had stopped there.
Looking back over almost four decades of investing, what I see is far too much tinkering. At various times, I’ve owned funds devoted to precious metals, global real estate, commodities, emerging market bonds and more. I know this tinkering devoured precious time—and I strongly suspect it hurt my investment results.

DURING THE 1990s, I subscribed for several years to Worth, a financial magazine that targets high-net-worth individuals. I enjoyed reading articles that were, for the most part, geared toward folks in a far loftier tax bracket.
One article, in particular, stayed with me: “The Rise and Fall of Retirement” by Stephen M. Pollan and Mark Levine, which appeared in the December-January 1995 edition. Pollan died in 2018. His daughter is Tracy Pollan,

A TIDAL WAVE OF workers quit the corporate world in recent years, starting an earlier-than-planned retirement. I can relate—because I did the same thing.
One reason these people left: Their psychological needs and values weren’t being met at work. We all want a sense that we’re accomplishing something important. We want to feel valued and respected by the company we work for, and we want a sense of autonomy and control.
What we don’t want is to work for bad bosses in a toxic environment.

I DON’T REMEMBER when my hearing started deteriorating. I suppose it came on gradually. I definitely remember when I developed tinnitus—ringing in the ears—and it was tinnitus that sent me to an audiologist in 2012.

She confirmed the information I’d already found on the internet: There’s no cure for tinnitus. While I would always miss the complete silence I’d previously enjoyed, at least mine was a tolerable background hum, unlike some horror stories I’d read.

MANY OF US ENJOY chasing discounts at grocery stores and other businesses. For instance, one of my favorite local wine shops gives discounts to club members. To sign up, all you have to do is provide your contact information.
Lately, the store has stopped requiring me to give my name when I make a purchase. Instead, employees automatically give me the discounted price. Maybe I’m buying too much wine and they recognize me.
In my area,

MANY OF US SAY THAT, if we have to die, we’d like to die comfortably in our home. Luckily, hospice—a Medicare-covered model of gentle, holistic end-of-life care—is ready to help with that goal.
Maybe.
At age 78, my divorced father was diagnosed with Stage 4 colon cancer. He later admitted that he’d skipped getting any colonoscopies. He was a savvy health-care researcher and, via drug trials, controlled the spread of his cancer for four long years.

MY WIFE AND I DROVE back from Arizona in June, so we could spend the summer months here in Minnesota. We took a longer but more scenic route through Utah and Colorado, and saw many natural wonders, including several national parks and the Rocky Mountains.
How did we spend our “windshield time”? Knowing we had an upcoming meeting with our financial planner, we discussed our work and our finances, along with when it might make sense for each of us to retire.

WE GET EXCITED WHEN our investments go up in price and disappointed when they fall. This is the logical “holder’s view” of a change in our immediate wealth. Some may feel the urge to buy more of the winners and sell any losers.
But there’s also an alternative way to view changing market prices: the “investor’s view.”
Consider that an investment’s price rise often indicates you’re taking a pay cut. Yes, you now have more money invested in that position,