Life Events

MY FIRST REACTION ON hearing my cancer diagnosis: I’m okay with this. My reaction a few hours later: I’m being self-centered.
My time is short, though how short remains an open question. Still, my truncated life expectancy makes something of a mockery of my pre-diagnosis comments about how we should view retirement not as the finish line, but rather as the beginning of a journey that might last two or three decades and perhaps account for almost half of our adult life.

Check out my interview with longtime friend and WealthTrack host Consuelo Mack. Over the years, I’ve done numerous interviews with Consuelo, whose PBS show is now in its 20th season, and first met her in 1990, when we were both at The Wall Street Journal.
This most recent interview was recorded in my living room here in Philly. All the necessary equipment arrived in a hard-sided suitcase delivered by FedEx, and I then set up the camera,

Beautiful opinion piece, Jonathan  I tried to share as a gift article, but not sure if I figured out how to do.  Maybe someone else can?  Chris
 
 

Looking up at the ceiling recovering from major surgery has this 70+ boomer rethinking life. Everyone on here has an intense interest in personal finance. Most of us are boomers.  Our parents were the Greatest Generation who lived the Depression and fought the war then shared their stories of sacrifice. We’ve read the Wall Street Journal, especially when Jonathan was there, financial papers, magazines and websites galore. My guess is that our playbook is pretty much the same:  get an education,

FIRST WAS THE VOICE of my father’s friend. Then a policeman came on the line. While riding his bicycle, my 75-year-old father had been struck and killed by a speeding driver.
That was 2009. There were no goodbyes. Instead, seared into my memory are the photograph I was shown at the hospital, so I could identify my father’s body, and the details in his final medical report, which I never should have read.
My death will be far different.

How much of our success is due to luck?
As HumbleDollar’s U.S. readers have occasionally noted, we’ve all been lucky in one crucial way: We live in 2024 in what’s arguably the most economically successful nation ever. That’s meant large swaths of the population have enjoyed financial success, even if they weren’t the best students, or the hardest workers, or the most talented employees.
But our luck doesn’t end there. Before we persuade ourselves that our success was solely due to our own talents and efforts,

WHEN I REACHED AGE 70, I felt a sense of accomplishment, a bit of weird pride. At 75, I had a similar feeling. But when I turned 80 last year, things felt different. It was like I was an overachiever. Suddenly, the future wasn’t as long.

For many years, I’d searched for a high school friend who’d been my navigator at sports car rallies, but with no luck. Then, recently, I stumbled across his obituary.

I am a Baptist pastor.  Significant moment #1.  One day I was in a leadership meeting and a fellow pastor commented that he had just met with his financial advisor and was told he would have to work to age 81 to retire.  I didn’t laugh.  I was his age and had just lost 40% of my retirement from the economic downturn that began in October, 2007.  After that meeting I did some serious soul searching and decided I would become a student of understanding “money”

TODAY’S FINANCIAL lesson: We can manage risk—but terrible stuff can still happen. This thought, of course, was prompted by my recent cancer diagnosis. But the notion is also all too relevant to money management.
But let’s start with health matters. In 1995, I began training for my first marathon, which I ran in May 1996 in Pittsburgh and finished in just under three hours. Ever since, I’ve been a bit of an exercise nut.

What happened to HumbleDollar’s articles? They’re still here, just farther down the homepage. As I prep the site for a future without me, I’m shifting the focus away from new articles and to the Forum, where writers and readers can post their thoughts directly to the site without my involvement. That said, I monitor all Forum posts—as well as other comments on the site—to make sure nothing untoward ends up on HumbleDollar.

ON SUNDAY MORNING, May 19, I was enjoying croissants and coffee with Elaine at the kitchen table, while watching the neighborhood sparrows, finches, cardinals and squirrels have their way with the bird feeder. All was right in our little world, except I was a little wobbly when walking—the result, I suspected, of balance issues caused by an ear infection.
It was going to be a busy week, and I figured that it would be smart to get some antibiotics inside me,

“YOU’LL STILL HAVE a retirement. It just won’t be the one you planned on.”
I’ve had to share this sobering assessment with many patients who were hoping to be rewarded for a lifetime of hard work and responsible saving, only to have those hopes dashed by an unforeseen health crisis. The culprit may be an external event like a disabling car accident or crippling fall, or an internal one like stage-four cancer or early onset dementia.

THERE SEEM TO BE four subjects that folks are reluctant to discuss with acquaintances, friends, intimates and often themselves: money, sex, religion and death. A few months ago, I broached the subject of money, to wit, my investment history—territory well-trod by this readership.

I will now turn to the literal and figurative last item in the above lineup of forbidden subjects: death. As a physician, I have some knowledge about the death of others.

“I CAN’T GET DIVORCED.”
“But Randy, I thought you guys were moving toward one.”
“I mean, I can’t afford to. I just went to see my accountant and a lawyer.”
“And?”
“Remember, California is a community property state. Even though I made almost all our money, Sarah’s entitled to half of it. I know she was dedicated to raising Harris all those years, but wow, Steve, I’m cooked.”
“But you were such a sought-after internist.

IN 1954, THE SPANIELS sang, “Goodnight, sweetheart, well, it’s time to go.”
It may not be time for me to go, but it is time to hand over the keys to our rental properties to my wife, Alberta. Since 1983, I’ve had primary oversight over our family’s residential real estate. At age 79, I’m dogged by heart disease and cancer, and weary of scrimmaging with delinquent renters and dishonorable service people. After assisting me and grooming for the role,