In the comment section of Jonathan’s recent newsletter, Dave Arey asks that I post the list of questions I referenced in my comment.
Background: Several months ago, my fellow deacons and I emailed a list of questions focused on personal financial readiness to the members of our church. Our small congregation includes single people, young families and older folk. A few are retired, but most still work. Also, most are not as financially sophisticated as the typical HumbleDollar reader.

Our oldest grandchild is off to college this September. Needless to say he is a bit anxious. I gave him some simple advice I learned many years ago in basic training. “Anticipate, be aware and plan ahead.” 
In basic training they do their best to break you down, to keep you on edge and then they build you up. The fear of what’s happening next is worse than the reality.
I remember the live fire training when they told us the machine gun was three feet above the highest point on the range.

GETTING OLD CAN, after a while, get really old. Here are 30 ways I’m reminded that I’m no longer a spring chicken.

Life insurance salespeople burst into laughter when I inquire about a policy.
My house is so warm I can cook without using the oven.
As I walk past the neighborhood funeral parlor, the undertaker’s eyes light up.
Decades ago, all my doctors were stern, serious men. Now, my primary care physician is a woman with a great sense of humor—who was born after I retired.

On other financial sites, you’ll find folks bragging about the hot stocks they own and the prescient market calls they made. But here at HumbleDollar, we favor a different sort of boasting.
Instead of trumpeting their market savvy, HumbleDollar writers and commenters are often looking to signal their financial prudence. How do they do that? Here are eight of my favorite HumbleDollar boasts:

How quickly folks paid off their mortgage.

I doubt there are any HumbleDollar readers who buy into the dozen notions listed below. But trust me: There are plenty of folks who do.
Trying to play financial coach to friends or family members? You’ve got your work cut out for you if:

They imagine they can achieve financial freedom without living well below their means.
They believe their car—or any other possession, for that matter—is an investment.
They think it’s easy to beat the stock market averages.

What does it take to be “rich?”  Answering that question is nearly impossible. There are as many answers as Google sites, but after trying, I have settled on being in the top 10% of income and net worth at around $200,000 per year and $2,000,000. Most people think that’s rich.
Keep in mind you can meet the net worth goal even falling short on income. 
What got me thinking about this was reading various social media sites where individuals were complaining about their inability to be wealthy and displayed strong envy over those who were.

I’VE ALWAYS ASSUMED my financial life wasn’t so different from that of others—and that made writing personal-finance articles a whole lot easier. I, too, wanted to own a home, buy the right insurance, pay for the kids’ college, and amass enough for a long and comfortable retirement.
On top of that, I wasn’t some financial minority—a highly paid executive, or a successful business owner, or the recipient of a hefty inheritance. Instead, I was like most everybody else,

This is a spinoff of Dick Quinn’s excellent rants post last week.  Bill Maher does a segment at the end of his show called “New Rules”.  It occurred to me that I have some societal rules of my own.  These would be self-enforcing (no citizens’ arrests please) but I am curious what you’d add to this list:
1.You may not look at your phone while driving, ever.  Not even at a red light!  If you need to look at your phone,

I’m not big on aphorisms—at least when talking to others. But there are certain things I say to myself all the time. Like what? Here are four mantras that I repeat to myself on an almost daily basis:
“First, do what you have to do, then do what you want to do.” This is my vegetables-first approach to the day. I have an ongoing to-do list that I typically revise each evening. When I look at that list in the morning,

Life if full of important things to be concerned about, some very important stuff – health, family, money. There are also little things that annoy us, things we should probably ignore, that are a waste of time worrying about. They nevertheless can stick in your craw.
The following list is the result of reaching 80 with nothing better to do and lots of time to become annoyed. 
Sorry if you find yourself on the list.
Here is what annoys me.

DEAR DAVID: LAST WEEK, you emailed me, “If you had $20,000, didn’t want to take risk and wanted the best return, how would you invest?” It’s a timeless issue, most likely first asked the day after money was invented.
You may be wondering why, besides asking where your money is currently invested, which turns out to be Bank of America at 0.2%, I haven’t asked about your risk tolerance, current financial situation and future financial needs.

THIS IS MY 150TH article for HumbleDollar. My first appeared on Aug. 12, 2019. I’m not sure when I became aware of the site, but it’s become an important part of my life. I’ve truly enjoyed the writing, along with reading the work of others and interacting with the editor, other contributors and readers.
For my 150th, I thought about looking back over the past five years and compiling a list of 150 observations.

IF YOU’VE READ MY articles, you know I don’t respond to readers’ comments very often. It’s not because I’m quiet or shy. Rather, it’s because I like to be thoughtful in my responses, rather than firing off a quick one- or two-sentence answer in the comments section.
That brings me to four comments that I’ve found myself pondering, often months or even years after the article appeared. Here’s my belated response to each.
Trading up.

IF YOU THINK IT’S irritating to debate an issue with folks who have already made up their mind, there’s one situation that’s even worse: debating an issue with those who have not only made up their mind, but also gone ahead and acted on their decision—especially if that decision is irreversible.
And, yes, many retirement decisions are irreversible.
Take issues such as when to claim Social Security, whether to take pension payments or a lump sum,

LAST WEEK, I DISCUSSED a key challenge in personal finance: In an endeavor where we’d expect facts and logic to drive decisions, we instead find that misconceptions and misunderstandings often take hold. In my previous article, I outlined five common financial myths. Below are five more:
1. “When a company’s doing well, its stock should go up.” Benjamin Graham, the father of investment analysis, was famous for the way he explained stock market behavior: “In the short run,