Saving

This month I am hosting a couple evacuated from the Iran/US war zone. They each (ages 40 and 29) have been saving money, but not systematically, and asked for some coaching on how to get their affairs organized.
We’ve had one session so far. Here is what we covered:
– Understanding that 15% of gross income should be saved for retirement.
– First, set up an emergency fund. (How much, why, where, have all been covered)
-Second,

This month I am hosting a couple evacuated from the Iran/US war zone. They each (ages 40 and 29) have been saving money, but not systematically, and asked for some coaching on how to get their affairs organized.
We’ve had one session so far. Here is what we covered:
– Understanding that 15% of gross income should be saved for retirement.
– First, set up an emergency fund. (How much, why, where, have all been covered)
-Second,

Financial institutions frequently offer bonuses in exchange for transferring substantial amounts to new or existing accounts. I’ve taken advantage of these a couple of times at Schwab.
There’s a current promo at Marcus by Goldman Sachs, where I already have a savings account, which I’m seriously considering. It offers $1500 for $100,000 in new money , $750 for $50,000, and $100 for $10,000. In addition, the funds only have to remain there for 90 days after the initial funding period.

Everyone wants more security for their retirement savings, and outside of Social Security, the most reliable way to achieve this is often the much-maligned annuity. The main issue for many people is losing control of a large chunk of their retirement pot—they simply don’t like the idea. But what if you could get some of the security an annuity provides without giving up control of your cash?
No solution is perfect, but this idea might be of interest.

You do not need $1,000,000 to retire or $1.5 million or any number some expert throws out on YouTube or social media. Those numbers are generated by people selling advice, investments or videos.
Having a simple dollar target makes planning appear easy, but IMO more likely to scare people into inaction because they see an impossible quest. Besides, we know very few people come near that amount and given they still retire, demonstrates the value of such assumptions. 

Jonathan,
Since you haven’t posted much on HD in over last two months (that I’m aware of anyway), I assume you must be suffering the full brunt of your disease. Please know this community you built thinks of you often, and that we continue to offer our collective thanks and encouragement to lift your spirits in whatever small way we are able.
As a reminder to others, I sent a $1,000 gift to the Bogle Center for the Jonathan Clements Initiative,

I heard Christine Benz talk about this initiative (details at https://boglecenter.net/gettinggoing/) in which young adults (particularly from low income backgrounds) are given $1000 for a Roth IRA.
I started to donate, and then the ‘mind chatter’ started- is this the best way to help? how will they track whether this approach actually helps young people to become better savers and investors?, etc. ( I’m sure I’m not the only person here with many voices in our heads chiming in on financial decisions.) I donated to the Initiative and hope it will prove useful and life-changing in many ways.

I have a few hundred pounds of out-of-circulation notes. The Bank of England moved from paper to polymer notes a few years ago, and I had forgotten about some paper notes at the bottom of our safe. By the time I rediscovered them, they were no longer legal tender, and the period to exchange them at normal banks had ended.
Knowing I was flying to London, I decided to bring them with me and present myself at the Bank of England headquarters to exchange them for crisp,

Almost half of working-age adults are not paying into a private or workplace pension, the government revealed this week. This headline caught my attention while browsing the BBC News website the other day, and it really made me think!
This is an awful lot of people imperiling their future lives, and with the UK’s pension auto-enrollment system, now in its tenth year of operation, seeming to be pretty successful, it would suggest people are actively going out of their way to opt out of the system.

The best financial advice I know is “live on less than you earn and save the difference.” But what if there’s no daylight between what you earn and what you spend?
Many of us confront this problem because of four scary expenses: housing, healthcare, student loans and child care. Take housing alone. By my calculations, it would take a six-figure income to buy a $435,300 home, which is the median cost of a U.S. home today according to the National Association of Realtors.* The median U.S.

Saving money is the greatest of the financial virtues—and, for much of my adult life, I could hardly have been more virtuous.
This frugality didn’t come naturally. I wasn’t a “born saver.” Rather, I had no choice. Within a few years of graduating university, I found myself married to a PhD student and raising a family in one of the world’s most expensive urban areas. On my junior reporter’s salary, scrimping and saving were the only options.

Just weeks into my retirement, while sitting on a beach beside the Giant’s Causeway on Ireland’s north coast, a profound sense of gratitude washed over me. It was for a person whose name I couldn’t recall and a face I’d forgotten.
Forty years prior, in my very first job, I served a customer who turned out to be a pension salesman. To make a long story short, he persuaded an 18-year-old me to open a personal pension,

Oh my, I’m beginning to think that some of the articles I find on the internet aren’t really news at all. Below is one I clicked on today. It reminds me of those free dinners that Mike Flack recently posted about. I also think it ties in well with Dave Lancaster’s post about calculating net worth. 
The article didn’t define how it calculated net worth. I assume it includes checking and savings, IRAs and similar accounts,

Here is an interesting article I just read on my weekly Boldin (previously New Retirement) newsletter.

For more years than I remember I have saved my pocket change. Every day I put it in a tray on my dresser. When it overflows, Connie bags it and eventually rolls it for deposit. That happens at around $80.00.
I never pass a penny on the ground. In fact, on occasion I dig one out of the soft tar. Some coins are so mangled it’s hard to tell what they are at first. Sometimes people stare at me,