Spring arrived bang on cue at the start of March, and the weather gods actually delivered some proper early sunshine. I seized the moment, dug out the power washer, and set about bringing the yard back to life. Forty-five minutes in, my trusty 20-year-old yellow Kärcher started making alarming noises and belching smoke. That was that.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Things don’t stop breaking just because you’ve retired. The last week has been a particular case in point.

According to a May 2025 Gallup survey, only 61% of Americans age 65 and older own stocks in any way, including IRAs, 401ks, etc. I found that a bit shocking and a little sad. I’m pretty certain HD readers and writers are not among the 39%. 
If that is an accurate percentage, no wonder many retirees are in poor financial shape, no wonder social media is full of videos with seniors claiming they need and deserve higher social security benefits and higher COLA adjustments.

Donating to charity used to be simple. Not anymore. I am reaching out for opinions on the most efficient way to donate in 2026. I have identified several ways to donate but can’t decide on the best approach.
The most direct way is to write a check which would be deductible; $2,000 for a married couple or $1,000 for a single taxpayer who takes the standard deduction. Itemizers can deduct up to 35% of AGI (I think).

One of the stranger paradoxes in finance is volatility — the degree to which an asset’s price swings up or down over time. Most investors hear the word and flinch. But once you understand what volatility actually is, and what it makes possible, you might start to see it very differently.
Think about it this way. A savings account is about as predictable as it gets, your money sits there, safe and stable, and grows at a modest rate.

It appears that Vanguard on 9/20/2025 changed their lack of an option to transfer a joint taxable brokerage upon the death of the last owner to survive via a Transfer On Death designation. My understanding is you now may do so via completing a online form, printing, executing the form and mailing the completed form to Vanguard. Making that change does not yet appear to be an action you can currently do online.
I think you can find their form here.

Here’s something that might surprise you. Until I retired, I don’t think I’d used an automated teller machine for at least twenty years. If I needed to use a credit or debit card, I usually had to spend a significant amount of time locating the AWOL cards. On more than one occasion, I discovered the card was out of date and had to get my wife, Suzie, to complete the transaction. In short, I had a very close relationship with physical cash.

I want to thank all forum members who commented on my last post about helping my adult son and his new wife.  Last night, my wife and I applied all of the lessons to have “the talk” with my son, his wife and my daughter over an impromptu family dinner at our house.  Just a quick background for context and then back to the conversation.  My daughter lives in Maryland, some 3.5-4.0 hours away.  My son also lives south of us about 2.5 hours away.  

HEALTH SAVINGS ACCOUNT (HSA) is the most efficient tax-advantaged investment account because it offers a triple tax advantage:

Contributions are tax-deductible
Earnings grow tax-free
Withdrawals are tax-free if used for medical expenses

One of the best uses of an HSA is to actually invest the balance.
For example, I keep $500 (the minimum required balance) in cash. The rest, I invest in low-cost index funds. This allows me to maximize compounding inside the HSA account.

BEFORE ITS FAILURE in 2008, Lehman Brothers had been one of the most prominent investment firms in the United States. After 158 years in business, what caused it to collapse so suddenly? In a word: complexity.
Lehman had been involved in the securitization of mortgages, a process that resulted in taking something relatively simple—a home mortgage—and turning it into something much more complicated, thus obscuring its true risk level. That was the proximate cause for the firm’s failure.

Finally, I’ve gotten around to building a ladder. I have procrastinated doing so because it seemed like a hassle; buy a one year, and a two, and a three, etc. Then after a year, roll the one year to a five, and on and on. If I knew how simple Fidelity made it, I would have acted sooner. 
Looking for ultimate safety, We decided to use Brokered Certificates of Deposit (CD). As most everyone here knows,

On January 1, 2004, a friend of mine was 46 years old. His IRA balance stood at $3,055.
He admitted he’d been late to the retirement game. “Beyond scared” might be more accurate. Reality had caught up with him. He felt behind and wasn’t sure it was even worth trying.
It would have been easy to ignore the problem. To assume it was hopeless.
Instead, he began contributing to his company’s IRA. He stayed invested. He let time and compounding do their quiet work.

Maybe not a scam, but certainly misleading. You have probably seen the ads for senior life insurance- no physical, no health questions- no problem protecting loved ones for $9.95 per month with premium guaranteed for life as long as you are not over age age 80.  What the ads don’t shout about is the $9.95 is “per unit”. Once you learn that, you need to find out what a unit of insurance represents.
What $9.95 a month will buy in terms of coverage varies by your age and the insurer.

Have you heard of the IP PIN?
(This is from the IRS website)
“An identity protection PIN (IP PIN) is a six-digit number that prevents someone else from filing a tax return using your Social Security number (SSN) or individual taxpayer identification number (ITIN). The IP PIN is known only to you and the IRS. It helps us verify your identity when you file your electronic or paper tax return.
If you don’t already have an IP PIN,

Occasionally I read about a new method or model for determining your portfolio withdrawal rate during retirement, or a formula to use when setting your asset allocation. While there’s nothing wrong with organisations trying to make things simple with these important questions, I sometimes wonder about how the research is framed.
Normally it’s a respectable financial institution, quite often backed by research from an in-house team or an academic institution, sometimes a combination of both. I’m sure the data and back-testing is rigorous and the intention is genuinely to help people figure things out.

This futuristic Research Report from June 2028 got Wall Street scared a few days ago. It predicts that AI will cause massive disruption and displacement in the economy which will lead to a terrible market decline.
It’s very scary reading not for the faint of heart.
Personally, with national debt at $38 trillion, I worry more about a looming debt crisis than AI.
What is your take on either of these topics? What are you worried about?