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. 

I seem to fit the profile of a typical guy who had the good fortune of retiring in his late fifties. I spend a considerable amount of time doing physical activities: racket sports, cycling, running, hiking. I’m also a keen reader of history, science and financial content. I volunteer my time coaching sports development courses and volunteering at a local church youth group, lots of very fruitful and productive activities to be getting on with.
When you add in working in my large garden,

 
The Wall Street Journal reported last week that the brokerage Robinhood is partnering with Gopuff to deliver cash directly to customers’ homes. For $6.99 (or $2.99 if you’ve got over $100K in your account), skip the teller, skip the ATM, and get your money in a sealed paper bag at your doorstep.
I’m already picturing it: an alert pops up—“Your money has been delivered!”—complete with a photo of a cash bag on my front stoop next to the Amazon delivery.

A Cautionary Tale: What I Learned Trying to Leave an Employer-Sponsored Medicare Advantage Plan
This is the story of a friend I helped when she tried to move from her employer’s Group Medicare Advantage plan to Original Medicare and a Supplement. Her experience is a cautionary tale.
I want to share this story because I don’t want others to go through the stress, confusion, and sleepless nights that we did.
When I retired, the company I worked for offered my husband and I a Medicare Advantage plan ,along with a $50,000 Future Health Account credit. 

I work with US citizens scattered across ~26 countries, so I recently asked my go-to AI which U.S. investment firms handle expats the best. Here’s the short version on Schwab, Fidelity and Vanguard.
1. Charles Schwab — Best for U.S. Expats
Schwab is easily the most expat-friendly of the major brokerages. It allows U.S. citizens abroad to open and maintain accounts, including its dedicated Schwab International Account. Trading stocks and ETFs is usually unrestricted, customer service understands expat needs and the linked Schwab Bank makes moving money internationally simple.

I’ve a sore back and I’m a bit irritated at the moment, but not because of the lower back pain, but another more irritating pain, namely people. I spent today locked in combat with the leaves in our garden, a battle I was destined to lose, as four separate pedestrians felt compelled to inform me. There I was, hunched over, rake in hand, working the grass verge out front. This is where things got interesting, by which I really mean deeply irritating.

If you win a million dollars in a lottery, you will pay approximately $370,000 in federal taxes. An X post complained about the tax on such a windfall and said that we should tax billionaires the same way. 
Of course that is exactly what we do. Everyone is subject to the IRC and the same type of income is taxed the same way for all. I think billionaires get a bad rap. 
A 2021 study by economists from the Council of Economic Advisers and the Office of Management and Budget,

This past week I received notice that my radiologist’s office experienced a “data security event”. Name, social security number, date of birth, driver’s license, incriminating pictures of my herniated lumbar disc, etc., could have been obtained. I’ve lost count of how many similar letters I, my spouse, and my children have received over the past years. For early ones, I took them up on their offer of one free year of credit monitoring. Several years ago,

From Benjamin Graham in 1972: “Any approach to moneymaking in the stock market which can be easily described and followed by a lot of people is by its terms too simple and too easy to last.”
 
Why wouldn’t this apply to indexing?

American social security advice is admirably clear, I’ll give you that. Delay Social Security until seventy to maximize your monthly benefit and create the ultimate hedge against outliving your savings. The maths is clear and unarguable, an eight percent per year, guaranteed return for every year you wait past your Full Retirement Age. It’s presented with such confidence, if only one’s life was such a tidy actuarial table.
But for millions of Americans, watching this from my perch in the UK,

I’m sure we could swap stories about working particularly hard at some point in our life. Feeling exhausted, worn out, temperamental and not performing at our best. In an ideal world we would avoid such stresses and strains, but in reality going “above and beyond” seems to be part of securing some financial stability, raising a family, buying a house, funding retirement, or whatever your financial goals might be.
But a recent local news article got me thinking about where each of us draws the line and says “enough”.

This is a thought exercise…
Suppose you are the son or daughter of a reasonably tech competent older person. They have asked you to step in to act on their behalf should they be unable to do so on their own. The would name you as primary on their Durable Power of Attorney. You have agreed and are in the process of trying to understand how your parent deals with their finances now.
In your research you have discovered the following information:
1) Your parent uses a variety of tech equipment to deal with finances.

IN APRIL 2005, art dealers Robert Simon and Alex Parish traveled to New Orleans to attend an auction. They were particularly interested in a work titled Salvator Mundi. The painting was in bad shape, having been neglected for years. But Simon and Parish ended up bidding on it and taking it home for $10,000.
After some restoration work, the pair succeeded in having it authenticated as a work of Leonardo da Vinci.

SECTION 415(D) OF the IRC requires the Secretary of the Treasury (IRS) to annually adjust limitations for cost-of-living increases. So, let’s dive into some of the changes:
 
401(k), 403(b), and Most 457 Plans:

For 2026, the 401(k)/403(b)/457(b) amount you can contribute is increasing from $23,500 to $24,500. If you are in a 24% marginal tax rate, that’s an additional $240 of federal taxes you can defer. If you are over age 50, the catch-up contributions are also increasing by $500,

Have I got a job for you.
As a boy I was into tropical fish. I had several tanks, I raised fish and tried to sell them – anything to make money.  At one point I had eight large tanks of fish. 
At 13 I wangled my way into a job after school and Saturday at a pet store for $5.00 a week and the occasional free fish.
After all these years I finally learned the money in tropical fish is not in the fish,