Behavior

I’ve listened to my friend Richard complain about being broke for years now. Every month, like clockwork, around the 20th, I hear the same thing: “Dude, I’m broke again. Don’t know what happened.”
I know exactly what happened. The same thing that happened last month, and the month before that.
Richard makes decent money, he’s a goldsmith for goodness sake. He shouldn’t be living on ramen for the final ten days of every month. He’s got a budget too,

Humble Dollar is a hangout for a lot of people who’ve managed to navigate their way to a comfortable retirement. I’m sure we have younger readers who come to the site for financial education. I thought a short article illustrating the importance of the emergency fund concept would be of interest to that demographic.
For many people trying to build their financial foundation, a basic tenet is establishing an emergency fund. In the hustle and bustle of everyday life,

I used to think that if people just knew the basics of personal finance, they would take action to better their lives.  Over the years, I’ve changed my stance.  I can now see that only people who come naturally to taking an interest will ever even seek the information.  This tracks with the ancient saying, “when the student is ready, the teacher will appear?”
Why is that so true?  In a way it’s a slight of hand. 

The other evening I looked at the clock for the fifth time: 3:26am. I just couldn’t get to sleep. My mind was like a merry-go-round with different payment obligations occupying the funfair horses: wedding dress 1, wedding dress 2, vacation home property tax, a $10,000 down payment for a wedding reception here, an upcoming $6,000 payment for a summer trip there. They all revolved around my mind, and they all had one thing in common—an end of January payment date.

I’m sure there’s a few readers on Humble Dollar with a Scottish heritage and you might also be aware that tonight in Scotland, the air will be thick with the scent of haggis and the sound of bagpipes. It’s Burns Night, the annual celebration of Robert Burns, Scotland’s national poet. While he’s famous for “Auld Lang Syne,” Burns wasn’t just a romantic; he was known as a “Ploughman Poet” who knew the weight of debt and the grind of manual labor.

Since May 2024 I’ve “spent” approximately $8,000 on a strange concept called “peace of mind”. I think it’s been an absolutely excellent 20 month trade and well worth the cost, but a lot of people would take issue with my thoughts.
My wife Suzie retired at the end of May 2024 and insisted we pay off our small mortgage balance of $70,000 before she pulled the trigger. I wasn’t fully onboard with the idea, preferring to keep the money compounding in our portfolios.

I’d like to share my book review of Gautam Baid’s book, “The Joy of Compounding.” For those who prefer watching over reading, an enjoyable podcast is available here.
This book is a principles-based investing guide that focuses on psychology, behavior, and discipline rather than tactical market timing. Baid draws inspiration from Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger and emphasizes the development of personal traits that reinforce discipline. He emphasizes the importance of history over forecasts and cultivating discipline in stock selection and portfolio management.

I recently encouraged a couple to see a financial advisor because the couple could not agree on family finance issues and one spouse would not even discuss the matter. She (in this case, but not gender unique) just wanted to spend and ignore the matters of future retirement and college costs or how income from one spouse was generated for the family.
I thought an independent third party could evaluate their finances and then explain the situation and make recommendations to the couple in an unemotional way. 

I’ve been thinking of how I got interested in the HD ecosystem and was wondering your take. What proportion of your ideal HD would be dedicated to retirement content vs investment content (that’s general and not retirement related)?

Have you ever heard of a film called “Cash on the Barrel Head” or Chester A Riley or William Bendix?
William Bendix played Riley in a sitcom, “ The Life of Riley” the story of a middle class factory worker for whom life, including financial life, was an ongoing challenge.  Nothing seemed to go right for the good-hearted, but inept Riley. 
I remember the film from my early days in employee benefits around 1961. It was an educational/training film trying to make a point to workers. 

I’ve been thinking of writing this post for a while, and my early morning scroll through recent Forum posts finally pushed me to it. When I author a post, I try to go back to it every so often and reply to comments. That was something Jonathan hoped for from the authors he published. In going through the thread of a post I made a few days ago, I noticed that one or two people had systematically downvoted every comment I made,

Isn’t it great? We’ve had forum posts from five new contributors recently! It’s wonderful to see fresh voices joining the conversation. Keep it up into the new year, people—I’m loving the new perspectives you’re bringing!
Who else has a story or an idea to share? We’d love to hear from you!

I’ve been reading HumbleDollar for the past few years, and I wanted to share a brief reflection and invite discussion.
Like many here, my thinking about money has been shaped by a mix of books, websites, and experience. One thing I’ve appreciated about HumbleDollar—and Jonathan Clements’ writing more broadly—is the consistent emphasis on simplicity, behavior, and long-term thinking. The idea that saving rate, costs, and consistency matter more than complexity or clever strategies has stayed with me.

You’re Warren Buffett’s second coming. You’re almost 6 (kids don’t tell you how old they are—only how old they’re about to be), and you’ve just helped a neighbor clean out his garage. Now you have a shiny $10 bill in your pocket.
Good start, but you’re WB2 and aiming for the stars. New neighbor, new mark: another $10, and you’ve doubled your fractional shares in VOO at Fidelity! Soon you’re covering multiple neighborhoods and employing a crew of kids to multiply your profits.

I dusted off this never published post after reading Mark Crothers’ recent post about killing a party by trying to offer advice. 
Have you ever been at a social gathering where the conversation turned to money matters?
I know a fella who has a reputation as an ace stock picker. I overheard someone recommending to a friend that they should talk to the guy for advice. The stock picker guy happened to be a tax client of mine.