I’VE BEEN THINKING a lot about my mortality. I’m sure it has to do with Jonathan’s battle with cancer, along with losing some close friends over the past few years. Maybe that’s one reason I’ve been thinking about contacting some long-lost friends.
Roger was a college friend who I’ve considered getting in touch with. I believe I’ve found his current address, and I was going to reach out to him by sending him a Neil Young album with my phone number attached.

The Employee Benefit Research Institute,  surveyed 3,600 retirees in 2024. The survey found younger retirees were much more reliant on Social Security than older ones. The oldest retirees, ages 74 and 75, reported that 52% of their income came from Social Security. The youngest, ages 62 and 63, said they drew 67% of their income from the retirement trust fund.
What is that telling us? Older retirees are more likely to have a pension. Younger retirees are not accumulating sufficient retirement assets?

How much should we rely on studies, surveys, academically-generated tools and guides? I’m not sure, but they are used by policy makers so I guess we should pay attention. 
However, that doesn’t mean they are meaningful in personal retirement planning- that is unless you are average or typical. I’m guessing HD readers know that, but just I case. 
Consider the Elder Index from the University of Massachusetts. According to their website:
“The Elder Index can be a powerful tool for state and local advocates and aging service providers to educate policymakers,

Among the many options we have in retirement such as travel, volunteer work, and spending more time with children and grandchildren; we also have a host of hobbies to consider.  While too numerous to list, hobbies provide more than entertainment.  They can elevate your mood, and improve memory and problem solving skills. You also get a brain boost and a sense of purpose and achievement when you undertake a new hobby.
One of the best things about having a hobby is that if one becomes more of a bother than a pleasure,

MY WIFE WENT TO New York for five days with a friend. I don’t mind because I could use the rest. Over the past year, we’ve traveled from the West Coast to Europe three times, flown across the country to visit my sister and brother-in-law in Tennessee, and taken a number of car trips.
My wife loves traveling and has a lot of energy. Because of all the air miles she’s logged, she’s now qualified for United Airlines Premier Gold status.

WHEN I WAS a teenager in the 1960s, the popular expression was, “Do your own thing.” We baby boomers were supposed to reject our parents’ ways of thinking and do what we thought better. These better things included growing our hair long, wearing blue jeans, having beards, not wearing bras and making love, not war.
I liked this “do your own thing” way of thinking. But I also discovered that doing your own thing,

It’s a new year and another RMD. My practice has been to wait until October to begin withdrawals with QCDs and then the balance before year end. My thinking is to let the funds keep growing, but of course the opposite is possible. 
Is there a better way? Should RMDs be taken early in the year, periodically throughout the year? 
Any thoughts? 

It’s Friday, I drove 5-1/2.hours yesterday to get to my happy place – yeah, Cape Cod. We are here for a few days. 
It’s very quiet, silent is a good word and it snowed an inch or so last night. 
But as I sit here, I’m thinking what do we have to do today? Yesterday before leaving NJ there was a doctors appointment. Today there is nothing, I feel like there should be something to do,

Youth is not making the scene the way it used to.  It has been said that baby boomers will redefine the concept and process of aging.  America is growing older. “ Gerontology, the science of aging, is a booming field because so many of us are outlasting the biblical span of “three score and ten”. So writes James Chappel, author of “Golden Years: How Americans Invented and Reinvented Old Age.”
Our population is aging. This not only brings challenges to the elderly,

I’m a long-time lurker/reader and a first-time forum poster. I wanted to share something interesting that I recently discovered with Mike Piper’s very helpful Open Social Security (OSS) tool that seems worth sharing.
As discussed numerous times in Humble Dollar articles and posts, the typical optimal timing for a couple filing for Social Security is to have the higher earning spouse wait until 70 and the lower earning spouse to file at 62. While there are definitely exceptions to this,

RETIREES ENDLESSLY debate how best to draw down their retirement savings, and yet it all comes down to two simple rules: Don’t spend too much each year, and don’t sell stocks during down markets.
How do we put these two rules into action? Retirees can pick from a host of withdrawal strategies, including the five popular choices listed below. You’d likely fare just fine with any of the five strategies—but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t pick carefully.

Given the quality of the articles and the comments on Humble Dollar, I get the sense that people here are (A) much more financially literate than the average person, and (B) consequently, probably more financially secure. Yes – I’m painting with a broad brush regarding those assumptions, but I’ll bet they apply to the vast majority of regular content contributors /consumers on this site.
Given that, and given that I try to keep things simple, my question is this: Which are you more likely to run out of first: Money or time?

The three phases of retirement are often classified as “go-go”, “slow-go” and “no-go”. 
In the earliest phase (the ‘go-go’ years), it’s assumed many retirees will choose to focus on those activities that require good health and stamina. Often mentioned is the idea that most of the travelling a retiree desires to do should be done during these earliest years. 
As someone who retired at 55, I stand a good chance of spending more time in the ‘go-go’ years than most.

Adam Grossman’s last article, “Self Defense” really got me thinking. How would I deal with spending in retirement if my income was like most folks – investments and Social Security. I know the answer – not well.
In our house, the last workday of the month is still referred to as “payday,” the day my pension arrives at our bank. There are no withdrawal decisions, no looking at investments and thinking about the next month’s withdrawal. 

We sat down this afternoon and did an end of the year sort of recap of this year and started working on our end of year net worth. I wasn’t sure how things would go, but so far my estimates of how much we would spend were pretty close to actual spending. I was especially happy that the balances in our regular bank stayed pretty constant from last year to this. And all our investments grew.