Family

My Thanksgiving Wishes
May you share your table with the ones you love most.
May your hearts be as overflowing as your plates.
May warm conversation and laughter ring through your home.
May you hold space for the ones you’re missing and find solace in memories.
May you savor the perfect dessert.
May you feel peaceful, restful, and most of all … Grateful.

In a recent post about a child who doesn’t seem to have it all together, Molly McIlhenny reminded us that kids are likely more savvy than we give them credit for. That got me thinking about my younger self. Maybe my story can help in some small way.
I have always had a good work ethic. You can ask my high school sweetheart if you like. She would get so frustrated because I would often pick up extra hours at the supermarket and destroy whatever plans we had made.

My dad was the oldest child of a successful rancher. When my grandpa needed someone to help him with the farm, Dad reluctantly left his career as a fighter pilot in the Air Force and came back to Nebraska. He always made it clear that he did not enjoy ranching, but he loved the time he had to spend with his family.
Growing up, we never wanted anything but our expenditures were also not extravagant. My parents purchased new Chevy Suburbans,

If you have young children or grandchildren, you may know the answer to this question.
How much do families spend on their children’s sports activities? 🏈🏒🥍⚾️⚽️
The answer is a lot, often thousands of dollars a year. I know that from experience in our family. My children each spend four thousand more or less for their children’s equipment, team fees, travel costs and in some cases lessons.  
And then there are the fund raisers each team conducts.

HUMBLEDOLLAR FOUNDER and longtime Wall Street Journal columnist Jonathan Clements passed away earlier this week. He was 62.
I reached out to several of Jonathan’s close friends and colleagues to ask for their remembrances. Taken together, they paint a picture of someone who was as beloved by his peers as he was by his readers.
As Jason Zweig put it, “I have just lost a friend, and so have you.”
Christine Benz,

A Family Correspondence. Letter from the Son…
Dear Mom and Dad,
When I stormed out of your house, I was furious. It just didn’t seem fair that you taxed me for my morning tea—especially when it wasn’t even that good. In hindsight, it was probably a blessing. I switched to coffee, which at least wakes me up before my workday rather than lulling me back to sleep.
Of course, it didn’t help that a few years later you burned down my house.

I’ve just got a hug from my daughter as she heads out our door to make her way home. I always have a sense of regret when a visit from one of our children ends. It’s always lovely to see them, but with my youngest child I admit to normally heaving a sigh of relief. Not very fatherly, but she truly vexes me.
Let me explain my difficulty. My daughter is 27 and, to my mind,

I think I’m getting in the way. Nothing specific drives this feeling—it’s just a tingling sense from a longtime marriage. Although a suggestion from my wife Suzie about “perhaps taking yourself out for a dander would be helpful” could possibly be concrete evidence of my suspicion.
My getting underfoot arises from the fact we’re organizing to return to our permanent home after spending the summer at our vacation house. There’s a lot of things to do,

WHEN IT COMES to financial decisions, there are, as I’ve argued before, two answers to every question: what the calculator says, and how you feel about it. There’s a fly in the ointment, though: Calculator answers might appear to be based in logic, but they’re still imperfect.
Why?
Ian Wilson, a former executive at General Electric, explained it this way: “No amount of sophistication is going to allay the fact that all knowledge is about the past,

This morning, as I was drinking my coffee, I realized it was September 1st. Today, with the kids returning to school in Ireland, grandparents across the country will be taking on after-school care duties.
This got me thinking. Just after I retired and before heading to my vacation home, I had an eight-week window into one aspect of my retirement future: helping out a couple of days per week minding the grandkids.
This was a new and unique adventure that I’m looking forward to resuming in late September.

I noticed a bit of a trend over the summer at my holiday home. Suzie and I were a part of it, as our 10 year old grandson stayed with us for a large portion of the school holiday period. It was wonderful to see so many grandparents helping out in this way.
Our holiday community is gated and has a large play park with extensive grassy areas and a few soccer nets for the kids.

Suzie and I have been together for 44 years and married for 36 of them. It goes without saying that a relationship of that length is achieved by many means, but I think a fundamental characteristic is the ability to compromise and be mindful of each other’s wishes.
A strong partnership where both people work can also supercharge wealth generation through the decades, especially if you both think in lockstep on humble lifestyle choices and the importance of saving for the future.

“TRUMP ACCOUNT” WAS created as part of the OBBBA signed on July 4, 2025. But is this account anything special? And how could we use it strategically to build wealth?
There’s been a lot of confusion about how it works, who qualifies, and whether they’re actually useful. I’ll walk through the rules, highlight key opportunities, and give my take on when (if ever) this account makes sense.
First and foremost, I want to point out that no contributions are allowed before 12 months after the date of the enactment of the OBBBA,

My grandparents were all gone while I was still in college. Looking back, I don’t think I ever bonded with them. None of them was born here. They never shared their stories, dreams, or advice with me. Was that my fault or theirs?
Fortunately, that distance I experienced is not being repeated with my grandchildren. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
When we married, I explained to everyone that the word “step” did not exist in our blended family.

If you thought my posts on family estrangement and supporting adult children were doozies, wait until you dig into this one.
My musings on all three of these topics are specifically related to how complicated the interaction between family dynamics (especially if it’s a “difficult” family) and our finances can be. This one focuses on how caring for parents as they age can raise challenging questions.
Like many of you, I’m at the stage of life where I view these questions both as a daughter and as a parent.