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From September 2023 to October 2024 I penned nine articles for HumbleDollar, all were all edited by Jonathan. With each article submitted, I asked Jonathan if he thought my stories fit in with HDs mission. You see, they provided scant financial advice, and leaned heavily on humorous things I picked up at places like my tax office or even the local watering holes where I used to sell beer. Still, Jonathan liked them because they leaned on the human side of money and relationships.
Many of Jonathan’s writings had little or nothing to do with how to make money, but rather how to live your best retirement. Being happy is more important than having money, although money sure can help. But as Mark Crothers recently wrote, it’s one thing to have money, and another to know what to do with it. HumbleDollar can help you with both.
There is literally a smorgasbord of content on the website to choose from. If you are new to HD, I encourage you to check out every one of Jonathan’s articles since the time of his cancer diagnosis in May of 2024. They are both deeply personal and instructive, and you don’t need to be looking death in the eye to benefit from the advice.
For the newer readers, if you come across a writer that you like, just click on their name, and you can find everything they have posted, either on the forum, or the articles that were edited by Jonathan.
And don’t be shy about starting a conversation, as the folks here are happy to share their experiences.
Dan, your article reminds me of “Car Talk” on PBS radio. Often, they talked about anything other than cars.
Click and Clack were brilliant, literally, they both graduated from MIT. Their story is very cool.
I have gifted two old autos to my local NPR station that otherwise were on their way to the junk yard because of the “Car Talk” show and the brothers known as Click and Clack. I liked the idea of a proper transfer of title for the junk cars.
Good post.
My impression, however, is that postings generally have become more often about retirement lifestyle issues and personal anecdotes, which may have “money angles” or which may have very attenuated ties to personal finance issues, and less often directly about the “money angle.” It seems like an example of mission creep. As a result, I read HD now more for entertainment value and less for educational value. I also share another commenter’s concern about the negative tone of some comments & often ignore comments or read them only until they become too negative or argumentative.
HD’s direction & future success after Jonathan Clement’s passing seem uncertain to me.
Agreed. I have already asked for more moderation. If Bogdan doesn’t take action soon he may find he no longer has a website to moderate. I apologize for any past negativity on my part, and am now avoiding the triggers.
Gary, well said. Although I still read many of the posts, I stopped commenting or adding anything due to negative tone of comments directed toward some of my comments/opinions. I hope the site can continue as Jonathan had intended and shepherded it so well.
Great reply, Gary, I agree about the content. I don’t have a problem with the mission creep, like I said, I can choose which writers to read. At the same time, I hope we can police ourselves in order to eliminate the negative and argumentative tones.
Well said. Thank you Dan!
Dan – I appreciate your life experiences and the engaging humor of your delivery. Please keep on keeping on.
As others have said, there are tons of spot-on financial articles and forum pieces, along with many financial-adjacent pieces to read.
Dan, I think your posts are are appropriate for HD even if some have little relation to finance.
The posts I object to are those that criticize the behavior of others, especially when they do this repeatedly. IMO, self-defeating financial behavior can be discussed if it is done so in a manner that is aimed at understanding its causes and/or how to help people with this problem instead of simply criticizing people in a manner that implies that they have no one to blame but themselves.
In October 2024 I wrote to Jonathan asking about the connection to money that articles and posts should have. Here is his reply.
“HD is a personal finance site, so posts should have a money angle.
cheers,
jonathan”
Right, the connection between money and a healthy, fulfilling retirement lifestyle is an angle that interests me and many other readers.
I have been an occasional sinner. I can think of a couple recent posts; one was about my early days in the beer business and drinking on the job, another was about the circuitous route that a package I ordered online took before finally arriving at my house.
Neither of my posts had anything to do with money, and that’s the complaint that some are lodging. With Jonathan gone, we all need to make a greater effort to keep our posts relevant.
Great article, Dan. HD is definitely a true retirement resource with a financial focus, but its ethos and content lean heavily toward the human side of retirement—all the messy, chaotic stories that come with it. There’s a rich vein here for mining both humor and genuine retirement insights.
Thanks, Dan! ❤️
Nicely said Dan. As you mentioned, there is a wealth of older articles on the site. So if the front page doesn’t interest you, a bit of poking around in the back catalogue should do the trick.