FREE NEWSLETTER

If the answer necessitates making a short-term market prediction, you’re asking the wrong question.

Latest PostsAll Discussions »

FIFA Financials

R Quinn  |  Jul 19, 2026

"Really, I would. But it's a fantasy that's never going to occur 😕"
- Mark Crothers
Read more »

Lessons on the Ground

ArticleDennis Friedman  |  Jul 18, 2026

THE OTHER DAY, WHILE walking to my mailbox, I noticed a summer class schedule for a private gifted youth academy lying on the ground. I assumed it belonged to one of my neighbors, who has elementary-aged children. Their interest in extra academics didn't surprise me. Many families move to this area because of its excellent schools. Parents here clearly value education. On any given day, it's common to hear children practicing the piano or violin as you walk through the neighborhood. I admire parents who encourage their children to excel in school. But as I looked over that schedule, I found myself wondering about the lessons that aren't taught in a classroom. Coincidentally, another neighbor's son had just graduated from college and was preparing to begin his career. If he were my son, what advice would I give him as he stepped into adulthood? After some thought, I settled on five ideas. Invest to Build Wealth. The most reliable way for ordinary people to build wealth is to become owners instead of just consumers. Buying shares of businesses allows you to participate in the growth of the global economy rather than relying solely on a paycheck. The good news is that you don't need much money to begin. What matters most is time. Starting early allows compounding to work its magic, with investment returns generating returns of their own over many years. Be a Long-Term Investor. If I could offer only one piece of investing advice, it would be to keep things simple. Invest regularly in low-cost index funds and stay invested. Trying to pick winning stocks or predict market swings is tempting, but history suggests that patience usually beats prediction. I recently read a New York Times column by Jeff Sommer that made this point well. Long-term market returns are driven by a surprisingly small number of extraordinary companies. The problem, of course, is knowing in advance which companies those will be. Broad diversification through index funds allows investors to own tomorrow's winners without having to guess who they are. Even if you think you're smart enough to spot those superstar companies, holding onto them for the long haul is a rollercoaster. They can be incredibly volatile. I've learned that lesson firsthand. A few years ago, my wife and I bought a small position in Nvidia (NVDA). It represented only a tiny fraction of our portfolio, but the stock's wild price swings made us uncomfortable. We eventually sold our shares too early for about $112, and the last time I checked, it was trading at $204.  Do I regret selling? Not really. The vast majority of our stock holdings remain in Vanguard's Total Stock Market Index Fund (VTI), which owns Nvidia along with thousands of other companies. That approach has allowed us to sleep well at night while still benefiting from the market's long-term growth. Cultivate Friendships. Money matters, but people matter even more. Looking back, some of the biggest turning points in my life came because of friends. One college friend, Chuck, helped me get my foot in the door at an aerospace company when I was a history graduate struggling to find work. That opportunity led to a rewarding career. Another friend, Steve, introduced me to the woman who became my wife. That single introduction changed the course of my life far more than any investment decision ever could. But those special bonds don’t happen by accident; they require making time for them despite a busy career. Good friends encourage us, open doors we never expected, and help us through life's inevitable setbacks. Those relationships are among the greatest investments anyone can make. Give Every Job Your Best. I learned the value of hard work from my parents. When I was growing up, my father routinely left for work before sunrise and often didn't return until evening, six days a week. At the same time, he and my mother managed a 36-unit apartment building. My mother prepared dinner for our family before leaving for her own job each morning, returning home in the evening with just enough time to spend a few quiet hours with my father before doing it all again. Watching them taught me that meaningful accomplishments usually require persistence more than brilliance. There will be phases in your life when long hours are unavoidable. During those times, give your work your best effort. A reputation for reliability and diligence has a way of creating opportunities that talent alone cannot. Protect Your Greatest Asset. For someone just beginning a career, the greatest financial asset isn't an investment account. It's the ability to earn a living. Poor health can quietly undermine that ability. Regular exercise may not seem like a financial strategy, but it helps protect the income that makes every other financial goal possible. I recently came across a quote from a doctor in the comment section of an article in The New York Times that captured this idea perfectly: "Exercise, by its effect on skeletal muscle, can in part preserve cognition, prevent depression, prevent cardiovascular disease, prevent diabetes, prevent some cancers, prevent osteoporosis, and preserve independence. And the list goes on. There isn't a single pill on earth that delivers all of those benefits." Taking care of your health isn't simply about living longer. It's about preserving your independence and giving yourself the opportunity to enjoy the life you've worked so hard to build. As I walked back from the mailbox, I hoped the child whose summer schedule I'd found would do well in every class. Academic success opens many doors. But I also hope someone teaches lessons like these along the way. Years from now, I doubt anyone will remember a report card or a test score. They'll remember the habits that shaped a life: investing patiently, working hard, nurturing friendships, and taking care of their health. Those lessons may never appear on a syllabus, but they can make all the difference.   Dennis Friedman retired from Boeing Satellite Systems after a 30-year career in manufacturing. Born in Ohio, Dennis is a California transplant with a bachelor’s degree in history and an MBA. A self-described “humble investor,” he likes reading historical novels and about personal finance. Follow Dennis on X @DMFrie and check out his earlier articles
Read more »

Many seniors think we paid for our Social Security benefits based on the FICA taxes we paid. Let’s dispel that myth- we didn’t

R Quinn  |  Jun 15, 2026

"And a number of elderly never married women (and men) who never made a high income. I bristle when people say " they should have saved more". As my mother used to say " There but for the grace of God go I""
- Julie C
Read more »

A Can of Worms

Dan Smith  |  Jul 17, 2026

"OK, we bought a sports car in 2018, but we still have it, it has low mileage, and we’ll be driving it until we’re too old and feeble to climb in and out of it. The amount of enjoyment we’ve already received from it is worth a lot to us. A convertible in California is a beautiful thing. Other than that, I don’t think I’ve opened any other of your cans of worms! ✅"
- DrLefty
Read more »

Will Your Death Double Your Spouse’s Tax Bill?

achnk53  |  Jul 15, 2026

"I just read it. It didn’t look like the Uncle Joe/Uncle Jerry scenarios accounted for RMDs, which is what we were discussing. If you have a huge amount of retirement account savings and became a widow(er) after RMD age, it makes sense that your tax hit, including IRMAA, would be (much) larger. Plus there’s the loss of one Social Security check. I take the point that, depending on how the couple spends money, the survivor’s expenses could go down, but that also doesn’t change your tax hit—it just makes it somewhat less painful. Maybe I’m missing something?"
- DrLefty
Read more »

K-shaped Economy

ArticleAdam M. Grossman  |  Jul 18, 2026

A TOPIC THAT'S been in the news recently is the so-called K-shaped economy.  Imagine a chart plotting the relative standing over time of those with higher incomes and those with lower incomes. Owing to a strong stock market and rising home values, the shape of the chart for those with higher incomes would extend up and to the right and has been moving increasingly in that direction since Covid. Folks with lower incomes, on the other hand, haven’t benefited as much from rising markets. Instead, they’ve had to contend with higher prices on key budget items, including housing, tuition and healthcare. For this group, unfortunately, a chart of their financial progress would extend down and to the right. Put these two charts together, and they form a K—hence, the K-shaped economy. Because this divide has been especially pronounced for young people, more parents are asking how they can help their children. But they aren’t always sure of the best way to approach this. You may have heard the story about the late Charlie Munger. Some years ago, a friend asked Charlie if he planned to leave his considerable fortune to his children. Specifically, his friend wondered whether too much wealth would impact his children’s work ethic. “Of course it will,” Munger replied. “But you still have to do it.” “Why?” his friend asked. “Because if you don’t give them the money, they’ll hate you.” On the one hand, this is funny, but it also gets at why this topic can be so difficult. In fact, I’ve often referred to it as the hardest question in personal finance. But it isn’t impossible. If you’d like to help your children—either today or as part of your estate—here are four questions I suggest considering as you develop your plan. 1. What problem are you most trying to solve? Some families are clear that they just want to help their children as much as they can today, to combat the challenges of the K-shaped economy. Other families are focused on the long term and just want to see their assets pass to their children tax-efficiently at the end of their lives. Both are reasonable objectives, but it’s important to have clarity on what’s most important to you as the first step. 2. To what degree do you value simplicity over tax savings? With the federal estate tax at 40%—and many states levying their own taxes on top of that—folks with assets above the lifetime exclusion often conclude that it’s worth spending virtually any amount on legal fees in an effort to defray that tax.  But not everyone agrees. Other families see it this way: While estate planning strategies can be effective in reducing taxes, they can be costly to set up and to maintain. For that reason, other families decide to spend little or nothing on estate tax strategies. They accept that their estates might—and likely will—end up facing a larger tab at the end of the day. But, they argue, if their estate is large enough for the estate tax to apply, then by definition, their heirs will nonetheless still receive a significant sum. 3. Do you worry about the problem Munger’s friend highlighted? If you’re worried about impacting your children’s work ethic, then counterintuitively, it may make sense to start making gifts sooner rather than later. The key is to make modest gifts and to make them incrementally. When you start making gifts like this sooner, it can serve two purposes. As a parent, it gives you the opportunity to see how your children handle these smaller sums. Do they immediately head to Bora Bora, or do they save and invest the dollars they receive? Making gifts incrementally can also help the recipient. To the extent that the first—or the second—gift is spent frivolously, modest gifts provide children the opportunity to acclimate and hopefully to adjust. 4. To what degree would you like to control your children’s use of assets down the road? If you go the route of an irrevocable trust and plan to leave assets to your children as a bequest, you won’t have the opportunity to iterate in the way I described above. That said, you may still prefer to leave assets to your children in this way. The key challenge with trusts is how to structure the distribution provisions. Put too many restrictions in place, and you risk causing your children a lifetime of stress or, worse yet, resentment. But put too few restrictions in, and the trust assets could be spent unwisely and deplete too quickly. How can you thread the needle? There’s no single right approach, but here are four distribution strategies you might consider. Based on age or stage: You might stipulate, for example, that a child reach age 30 before receiving any funds. Or you might require that a child have finished college or be married before receiving funds. The benefit of this approach is that it doesn’t leave room for debate between your children and the trustee. The downside is that this sort of structure can be too rigid, because children’s needs don’t always align with specific ages or stages. The reality is that everyone takes different paths through life in ways that no formula can fully contemplate. I often reference the movie The Bachelor, which is a comedy but illustrates how an overly rigid structure can have unintended consequences. Annual percentage with no discretion: This structure also has the benefit of being straightforward, with no room for debate between beneficiaries and the trustee. In addition, a fixed percentage can help preserve a trust’s assets for many years. The downside is that children’s needs typically vary from year to year. They’ll want to buy homes and may have tuition expenses for their own children. For those reasons, a fixed percentage, while attractive in theory, runs the risk of being an obstacle to your children’s most important goals. Annual percentage with an override for specific needs: The benefit of this structure is that it provides flexibility if a child wants to buy a home or has other higher-than-normal expenses in a particular year. The downside is that it opens the door to debate between beneficiary and trustee. The trustee might deem a proposed home purchase too expensive, for example.  Trustee’s discretion: A final approach is to leave distributions entirely up to the trustee. That’s the most flexible but also the most potentially fraught. If a trustee and a beneficiary don’t get along, this setup would give the trustee wide latitude to make the beneficiary’s life miserable for decades. No distribution structure is perfect, but it’s for this reason that I tend to recommend against this approach, common as it is.   Adam M. Grossman is the founder of Mayport, a fixed-fee wealth management firm. Sign up for Adam's Daily Ideas email, follow him on X @AdamMGrossman and check out his earlier articles.  
Read more »

Buying a car in retirement

Julie C  |  Jul 11, 2026

"I once represented a guy who'd spent his long career in car sales. He told me that "in the old days" some dealers would bug the salesman's office. So when the salesman left to go "run this by my manager," they could listen in on any conversation in the office. It was obviously helpful if they heard the wife tell the hubby, "This is the car I want---buy it!""
- Andrew Forsythe
Read more »

Danger, Junk Mail

Sonja Haggert  |  Jul 16, 2026

"I hope you'll be as pleased with the shredder as I have been with mine: When I retired and thus no longer had free access to a shredder at work, one of the best purchases I made as soon as I moved to my CCRC was an Aurora compact micro-cut shredder. Convenient, small, easy to use, and no way could someone piece together the shreds. With simplicity and security being my priority in retirement, this is one less thing to worry about."
- 1PF
Read more »

The Paradox of Wealth

Mark Crothers  |  Jul 15, 2026

"Mark, with time being our most valuable resource, it's unfortunate that most people don't put as much effort into managing it as they do their financial portfolio."
- Mark Crothers
Read more »

A Letter 40 Years Later: What Mrs. Dolezal Remembered

Andrew Clements  |  Jul 1, 2026

"Jeff, thank you so much. I couldn’t agree more. Kindness has a remarkable ripple effect, often reaching far beyond the moment itself. Mrs. Dolezdal’s kindness touched my family all those years ago, and through her letter, it continues to touch others today. I think that’s a wonderful reminder of the difference even the smallest acts can make."
- Andrew Clements
Read more »

IRMAA & late filing of tax returns

Danbo  |  Jul 15, 2026

"you are correct, Luigi."
- DAN SMITH
Read more »

Mr Market visits Art Basel

ricardodiaque  |  Jun 29, 2026

"what a masterpiece, bridging the perceived gap between art and other established asset classes.. Ricardo has said everything that i always wanted to say and more.. to quote "In a nutshell–risk does not always come from whether something hangs on a wall or trades on an exchange. More likely, risk tends to be related to how prices are formed. So, if markets are irregular, and each of them follow an underlying set of logics, then why is collecting as an investment such a niche?".. while Ricardo moved from art to finance, i followed the reverse trajectory.. from my 11 years in finance (and taxation) followed by 18 years in art (and finance), i have come to exactly the same conclusions.. to add my 2 bits, since i have professionally valued equity and realty in my former role (at Andersen/ EY) and now value art (at Aura Art), i can say (with many real instances to back) that there is just as much method in the madness to valuing art as equity and realty (and much more then some other asset classes, like crypto, commodities etc).. thanks again for this piece.."
- Rishiraj Sethi
Read more »

FIFA Financials

R Quinn  |  Jul 19, 2026

"Really, I would. But it's a fantasy that's never going to occur 😕"
- Mark Crothers
Read more »

Lessons on the Ground

ArticleDennis Friedman  |  Jul 18, 2026

THE OTHER DAY, WHILE walking to my mailbox, I noticed a summer class schedule for a private gifted youth academy lying on the ground. I assumed it belonged to one of my neighbors, who has elementary-aged children. Their interest in extra academics didn't surprise me. Many families move to this area because of its excellent schools. Parents here clearly value education. On any given day, it's common to hear children practicing the piano or violin as you walk through the neighborhood. I admire parents who encourage their children to excel in school. But as I looked over that schedule, I found myself wondering about the lessons that aren't taught in a classroom. Coincidentally, another neighbor's son had just graduated from college and was preparing to begin his career. If he were my son, what advice would I give him as he stepped into adulthood? After some thought, I settled on five ideas. Invest to Build Wealth. The most reliable way for ordinary people to build wealth is to become owners instead of just consumers. Buying shares of businesses allows you to participate in the growth of the global economy rather than relying solely on a paycheck. The good news is that you don't need much money to begin. What matters most is time. Starting early allows compounding to work its magic, with investment returns generating returns of their own over many years. Be a Long-Term Investor. If I could offer only one piece of investing advice, it would be to keep things simple. Invest regularly in low-cost index funds and stay invested. Trying to pick winning stocks or predict market swings is tempting, but history suggests that patience usually beats prediction. I recently read a New York Times column by Jeff Sommer that made this point well. Long-term market returns are driven by a surprisingly small number of extraordinary companies. The problem, of course, is knowing in advance which companies those will be. Broad diversification through index funds allows investors to own tomorrow's winners without having to guess who they are. Even if you think you're smart enough to spot those superstar companies, holding onto them for the long haul is a rollercoaster. They can be incredibly volatile. I've learned that lesson firsthand. A few years ago, my wife and I bought a small position in Nvidia (NVDA). It represented only a tiny fraction of our portfolio, but the stock's wild price swings made us uncomfortable. We eventually sold our shares too early for about $112, and the last time I checked, it was trading at $204.  Do I regret selling? Not really. The vast majority of our stock holdings remain in Vanguard's Total Stock Market Index Fund (VTI), which owns Nvidia along with thousands of other companies. That approach has allowed us to sleep well at night while still benefiting from the market's long-term growth. Cultivate Friendships. Money matters, but people matter even more. Looking back, some of the biggest turning points in my life came because of friends. One college friend, Chuck, helped me get my foot in the door at an aerospace company when I was a history graduate struggling to find work. That opportunity led to a rewarding career. Another friend, Steve, introduced me to the woman who became my wife. That single introduction changed the course of my life far more than any investment decision ever could. But those special bonds don’t happen by accident; they require making time for them despite a busy career. Good friends encourage us, open doors we never expected, and help us through life's inevitable setbacks. Those relationships are among the greatest investments anyone can make. Give Every Job Your Best. I learned the value of hard work from my parents. When I was growing up, my father routinely left for work before sunrise and often didn't return until evening, six days a week. At the same time, he and my mother managed a 36-unit apartment building. My mother prepared dinner for our family before leaving for her own job each morning, returning home in the evening with just enough time to spend a few quiet hours with my father before doing it all again. Watching them taught me that meaningful accomplishments usually require persistence more than brilliance. There will be phases in your life when long hours are unavoidable. During those times, give your work your best effort. A reputation for reliability and diligence has a way of creating opportunities that talent alone cannot. Protect Your Greatest Asset. For someone just beginning a career, the greatest financial asset isn't an investment account. It's the ability to earn a living. Poor health can quietly undermine that ability. Regular exercise may not seem like a financial strategy, but it helps protect the income that makes every other financial goal possible. I recently came across a quote from a doctor in the comment section of an article in The New York Times that captured this idea perfectly: "Exercise, by its effect on skeletal muscle, can in part preserve cognition, prevent depression, prevent cardiovascular disease, prevent diabetes, prevent some cancers, prevent osteoporosis, and preserve independence. And the list goes on. There isn't a single pill on earth that delivers all of those benefits." Taking care of your health isn't simply about living longer. It's about preserving your independence and giving yourself the opportunity to enjoy the life you've worked so hard to build. As I walked back from the mailbox, I hoped the child whose summer schedule I'd found would do well in every class. Academic success opens many doors. But I also hope someone teaches lessons like these along the way. Years from now, I doubt anyone will remember a report card or a test score. They'll remember the habits that shaped a life: investing patiently, working hard, nurturing friendships, and taking care of their health. Those lessons may never appear on a syllabus, but they can make all the difference.   Dennis Friedman retired from Boeing Satellite Systems after a 30-year career in manufacturing. Born in Ohio, Dennis is a California transplant with a bachelor’s degree in history and an MBA. A self-described “humble investor,” he likes reading historical novels and about personal finance. Follow Dennis on X @DMFrie and check out his earlier articles
Read more »

Many seniors think we paid for our Social Security benefits based on the FICA taxes we paid. Let’s dispel that myth- we didn’t

R Quinn  |  Jun 15, 2026

"And a number of elderly never married women (and men) who never made a high income. I bristle when people say " they should have saved more". As my mother used to say " There but for the grace of God go I""
- Julie C
Read more »

A Can of Worms

Dan Smith  |  Jul 17, 2026

"OK, we bought a sports car in 2018, but we still have it, it has low mileage, and we’ll be driving it until we’re too old and feeble to climb in and out of it. The amount of enjoyment we’ve already received from it is worth a lot to us. A convertible in California is a beautiful thing. Other than that, I don’t think I’ve opened any other of your cans of worms! ✅"
- DrLefty
Read more »

Will Your Death Double Your Spouse’s Tax Bill?

achnk53  |  Jul 15, 2026

"I just read it. It didn’t look like the Uncle Joe/Uncle Jerry scenarios accounted for RMDs, which is what we were discussing. If you have a huge amount of retirement account savings and became a widow(er) after RMD age, it makes sense that your tax hit, including IRMAA, would be (much) larger. Plus there’s the loss of one Social Security check. I take the point that, depending on how the couple spends money, the survivor’s expenses could go down, but that also doesn’t change your tax hit—it just makes it somewhat less painful. Maybe I’m missing something?"
- DrLefty
Read more »

K-shaped Economy

ArticleAdam M. Grossman  |  Jul 18, 2026

A TOPIC THAT'S been in the news recently is the so-called K-shaped economy.  Imagine a chart plotting the relative standing over time of those with higher incomes and those with lower incomes. Owing to a strong stock market and rising home values, the shape of the chart for those with higher incomes would extend up and to the right and has been moving increasingly in that direction since Covid. Folks with lower incomes, on the other hand, haven’t benefited as much from rising markets. Instead, they’ve had to contend with higher prices on key budget items, including housing, tuition and healthcare. For this group, unfortunately, a chart of their financial progress would extend down and to the right. Put these two charts together, and they form a K—hence, the K-shaped economy. Because this divide has been especially pronounced for young people, more parents are asking how they can help their children. But they aren’t always sure of the best way to approach this. You may have heard the story about the late Charlie Munger. Some years ago, a friend asked Charlie if he planned to leave his considerable fortune to his children. Specifically, his friend wondered whether too much wealth would impact his children’s work ethic. “Of course it will,” Munger replied. “But you still have to do it.” “Why?” his friend asked. “Because if you don’t give them the money, they’ll hate you.” On the one hand, this is funny, but it also gets at why this topic can be so difficult. In fact, I’ve often referred to it as the hardest question in personal finance. But it isn’t impossible. If you’d like to help your children—either today or as part of your estate—here are four questions I suggest considering as you develop your plan. 1. What problem are you most trying to solve? Some families are clear that they just want to help their children as much as they can today, to combat the challenges of the K-shaped economy. Other families are focused on the long term and just want to see their assets pass to their children tax-efficiently at the end of their lives. Both are reasonable objectives, but it’s important to have clarity on what’s most important to you as the first step. 2. To what degree do you value simplicity over tax savings? With the federal estate tax at 40%—and many states levying their own taxes on top of that—folks with assets above the lifetime exclusion often conclude that it’s worth spending virtually any amount on legal fees in an effort to defray that tax.  But not everyone agrees. Other families see it this way: While estate planning strategies can be effective in reducing taxes, they can be costly to set up and to maintain. For that reason, other families decide to spend little or nothing on estate tax strategies. They accept that their estates might—and likely will—end up facing a larger tab at the end of the day. But, they argue, if their estate is large enough for the estate tax to apply, then by definition, their heirs will nonetheless still receive a significant sum. 3. Do you worry about the problem Munger’s friend highlighted? If you’re worried about impacting your children’s work ethic, then counterintuitively, it may make sense to start making gifts sooner rather than later. The key is to make modest gifts and to make them incrementally. When you start making gifts like this sooner, it can serve two purposes. As a parent, it gives you the opportunity to see how your children handle these smaller sums. Do they immediately head to Bora Bora, or do they save and invest the dollars they receive? Making gifts incrementally can also help the recipient. To the extent that the first—or the second—gift is spent frivolously, modest gifts provide children the opportunity to acclimate and hopefully to adjust. 4. To what degree would you like to control your children’s use of assets down the road? If you go the route of an irrevocable trust and plan to leave assets to your children as a bequest, you won’t have the opportunity to iterate in the way I described above. That said, you may still prefer to leave assets to your children in this way. The key challenge with trusts is how to structure the distribution provisions. Put too many restrictions in place, and you risk causing your children a lifetime of stress or, worse yet, resentment. But put too few restrictions in, and the trust assets could be spent unwisely and deplete too quickly. How can you thread the needle? There’s no single right approach, but here are four distribution strategies you might consider. Based on age or stage: You might stipulate, for example, that a child reach age 30 before receiving any funds. Or you might require that a child have finished college or be married before receiving funds. The benefit of this approach is that it doesn’t leave room for debate between your children and the trustee. The downside is that this sort of structure can be too rigid, because children’s needs don’t always align with specific ages or stages. The reality is that everyone takes different paths through life in ways that no formula can fully contemplate. I often reference the movie The Bachelor, which is a comedy but illustrates how an overly rigid structure can have unintended consequences. Annual percentage with no discretion: This structure also has the benefit of being straightforward, with no room for debate between beneficiaries and the trustee. In addition, a fixed percentage can help preserve a trust’s assets for many years. The downside is that children’s needs typically vary from year to year. They’ll want to buy homes and may have tuition expenses for their own children. For those reasons, a fixed percentage, while attractive in theory, runs the risk of being an obstacle to your children’s most important goals. Annual percentage with an override for specific needs: The benefit of this structure is that it provides flexibility if a child wants to buy a home or has other higher-than-normal expenses in a particular year. The downside is that it opens the door to debate between beneficiary and trustee. The trustee might deem a proposed home purchase too expensive, for example.  Trustee’s discretion: A final approach is to leave distributions entirely up to the trustee. That’s the most flexible but also the most potentially fraught. If a trustee and a beneficiary don’t get along, this setup would give the trustee wide latitude to make the beneficiary’s life miserable for decades. No distribution structure is perfect, but it’s for this reason that I tend to recommend against this approach, common as it is.   Adam M. Grossman is the founder of Mayport, a fixed-fee wealth management firm. Sign up for Adam's Daily Ideas email, follow him on X @AdamMGrossman and check out his earlier articles.  
Read more »

Buying a car in retirement

Julie C  |  Jul 11, 2026

"I once represented a guy who'd spent his long career in car sales. He told me that "in the old days" some dealers would bug the salesman's office. So when the salesman left to go "run this by my manager," they could listen in on any conversation in the office. It was obviously helpful if they heard the wife tell the hubby, "This is the car I want---buy it!""
- Andrew Forsythe
Read more »

Danger, Junk Mail

Sonja Haggert  |  Jul 16, 2026

"I hope you'll be as pleased with the shredder as I have been with mine: When I retired and thus no longer had free access to a shredder at work, one of the best purchases I made as soon as I moved to my CCRC was an Aurora compact micro-cut shredder. Convenient, small, easy to use, and no way could someone piece together the shreds. With simplicity and security being my priority in retirement, this is one less thing to worry about."
- 1PF
Read more »

The Paradox of Wealth

Mark Crothers  |  Jul 15, 2026

"Mark, with time being our most valuable resource, it's unfortunate that most people don't put as much effort into managing it as they do their financial portfolio."
- Mark Crothers
Read more »

Free Newsletter

Get Educated

Manifesto

Jul 19, 2026

NO. 30: INVESTING is best when it is simplest. If we own costly, complicated products, we’re filling Wall Street’s coffers—at our own expense. Don’t understand an investment? Don’t buy it.

Truths

Jul 19, 2026

NO. 141: PERSONAL risk tolerance is indeed personal—which means we should be leery of general asset allocation guidance and ignore folks who say our stock-bond mix is somehow wrong. We should never take more risk than is prudent, given our financial situation. But we might choose to take less if that’s necessary to sleep well at night.

act

Jul 18, 2026

FIRE YOUR BROKER. Is your advisor a true fiduciary, or is he or she held to the suitability standard part or all of the time? If it’s the latter, what you have is a broker—someone with an incentive to sell products that charge high commissions. Do yourself a favor: Hire an advisor who’s a full-time fiduciary and hence always required to act in your best interest.

Truths

Jul 17, 2026

NO. 88: LIVING standards rise with per-capita economic growth—typically 1½ percentage points a year faster than inflation. This is why retirees often feel pinched, even if their income climbs with inflation. It also helps explain why family fortunes disappear. The investment returns generated can’t keep up with taxes and the family’s spending desires.

Money Guide

Start Here
Planner
Portfolio
Retire
Invest
Savings Initiative

Manifesto

Jul 19, 2026

NO. 30: INVESTING is best when it is simplest. If we own costly, complicated products, we’re filling Wall Street’s coffers—at our own expense. Don’t understand an investment? Don’t buy it.

Spotlight: Insurance

The Cloth Seller Who Invented Social Security

Mark Crothers   |  Aug 10, 2025

I’ve always had a deep fascination with maths, and recently, thanks to my retirement and the freedom of time it’s given me, I’ve been conducting a bit of “self-educating” on the topic of actuarial science. During this process, I discovered a little-known but fascinating historical character named John Graunt.
He was a 17th-century cloth seller from London who had a very strange hobby. Before starting his workday, he liked to study the Bills of Mortality, which were weekly records compiled by parish clerks,

Read more »

Fatten That Policy

James McGlynn   |  Sep 15, 2020

I WORKED IN THE investment department of three different insurance companies. But I never had any interest in buying a whole-life insurance policy. I knew term insurance was the best way to get the maximum death benefit for my premium dollars.
Instead, as a mutual fund manager, I was always more interested in investing in the stock market. (That said, I didn’t invest in the first mutual fund I managed. Why not? I didn’t want to pay the 7% “load”—the upfront sales commission.)
But my attitude toward whole-life insurance changed six years ago.

Read more »

Grab an Umbrella

Adam M. Grossman   |  May 2, 2021

ON FEB. 27, 1992, Stella Liebeck ordered a cup of coffee from a McDonald’s drive-through. Moments later, as she attempted to open the lid, the cup spilled, causing a burn that sent her to the hospital. Her injury was serious but self-inflicted and not life-threatening. Nonetheless, she sued McDonald’s, and a jury awarded her almost $3 million. That award was reduced upon appeal, but this case is often cited as an example of an out-of-control legal system exploited by personal injury lawyers.

Read more »

Vet These Policies

Sonja Haggert   |  Mar 9, 2023

YOU LOVE THEM LIKE family. You want them to have the best care possible. You have insurance for yourself, your family, your home, your car and your upcoming vacation. Why not for your pet?
One of our friends recently opted for pet insurance—after multiple trips to the vet, with more than 20 medications prescribed. Intrigued by the idea of pet insurance? Here are eight choices and what they offer:

Pets Best covers everything, including medications,

Read more »

The Approaching Hurricane

Greg Spears   |  Oct 9, 2024

WHEN I WAS A NEWSPAPER reporter in Florida in the early 1980s, we were preoccupied with the chance that a hurricane would spin out of the Gulf of Mexico and slam into Florida’s West coast. It would be the biggest story of our lives if a big one struck the low-lying coastal city of St. Petersburg. It never came our way, fortunately for everyone.
The most serious storm I covered back then was called the “no-name storm” because it didn’t muster hurricane-strength winds.

Read more »

Is term life insurance always better than cash value?

Jonathan Clements   |  Apr 4, 2021

Read more »

Spotlight: Marsh

Keep Moving

Edmund Marsh   |  Jan 20, 2025

Physical strength is essential to making our way in this world. While we may not have to rally our muscles to subdue wild beasts or unruly neighbors, we do need them to accomplish our daily objectives. At a minimum, we have to muster the energy to get from bed to bathroom to breakfast table. Even if we make money with our minds, rather than our bodies, chances are we’ll need the stamina to sit up and manipulate a keyboard. Some of us start out with more strength than others, and some keep it longer. Take my 78-year-old neighbor, Jerry. Several weeks ago, we teamed up to turn oak logs into firewood. As we labored together, I pondered the effects of aging on strength and mobility. Jerry showed little sign of the decreasing vigor most folks feel as they age. Despite chronic illness that affects some of his organs, he kept pace without complaint. I suspect favorable genetics play their part, but Jerry has also had a hand in helping himself stay strong. Long a part-time farmer, he shifted to full-time after retiring from his job as an air traffic controller. I doubt Jerry has exercised on purpose since leaving the Navy as a young man. But farm life keeps him fit. Because he’s never slowed down, Jerry hasn’t faced the challenge of starting back up. Lack of use leads to muscle atrophy, which describes the condition of muscles that are smaller and weaker. Some muscle loss with aging is normal, but avoiding physical activity accelerates the problem. Yet even if we find our muscles are missing, all is not lost. Life-long exercise might carry a bigger payoff. But even if we get a late start, there’s a ton of evidence supporting the positive effects of exercise on preserving strength, along…
Read more »

Reverse Hospitality

Edmund Marsh   |  Oct 12, 2022

IN THE SOUTH, it’s common for a restaurant server or store clerk to refer to me as “sweetie” or “honey.” I’ll often respond by asking, “How did you know my name is Sweetie?” This will usually bring a smile to the face of even a harried worker. Our friendly banter is the worker practicing some of the charm and hospitality that the South is famous for, and me returning the courtesy with “reverse hospitality.” A commercial transaction doesn’t involve just money. Two people are face to face, one looking to serve and the other to be served. There are exceptions, sometimes notable, but most of the time the servers are polite and friendly. They do their best to provide what I want to buy and give me a smile while doing it. I think I have a responsibility to return the favor. Telephone transactions are a little more challenging, but I still try to make it personal with a friendly comment or question like “how’s the weather where you are?” or “do I hear chickens in the backyard?” Am I always patient and diplomatic? No. Sometimes, I’m preoccupied with my own thoughts and needs. I view the person in front of me or on the phone as an obstacle between me and what I want, and I can be brusque. My wife can attest to that. I know, however, that I should give the other person the same courtesy and respect that I want to receive. What does reverse hospitality get me? I can’t say for certain that it puts more money in my pocket. But I also can’t claim that I’m being purely altruistic. If I do plan to ask for a better deal or special service, I’d rather ask it of a new friend. Maybe I can charm…
Read more »

Stellar Results

Edmund Marsh   |  Nov 5, 2022

THE NATIONAL Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has good reason to boast. Its programs serve as a catalyst to generate billions of dollars of economic activity that’s spread across all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Also, the transfer of NASA spinoff technologies and products to private businesses improves the lives of each of us in myriad ways. Along the way, it’s even put men on the moon—and plans to do so again, along with the first woman. A couple of years ago, NASA released a comprehensive analysis of the economic impact the space agency has had. It estimated that NASA’s 2019 budget of $21.5 billion spawned $64 billion of economic activity, and supported more than 312,000 good-paying jobs nationwide. In addition, the work of NASA engineers touches all of us. Whether it's an omega-3 fatty acid in baby formula or the memory foam that helps our aging bodies sleep well at night, there’s a good chance that NASA knowledge benefits us every day of our lives. In 2019 alone, the work of the agency’s personnel generated 85 new patent applications, and 122 new patents were approved. Many of these innovations eventually find their way into private businesses and American homes. NASA makes a strong argument for the economic benefits that accrue to Americans through its efforts. But as great as they are, I think there’s another economic star to celebrate in our lives—one that’s arguably delivered even greater financial benefits: the index fund. Its results have been an epic success since its introduction in 1976. The total amount invested in passively managed index funds eclipsed that in active funds for the first time this year, and for good reason: They outperform them. A recent report found that 95% of actively managed large-cap stock funds lagged their benchmark index over 20 years.…
Read more »

Peace Premium

Edmund Marsh   |  Sep 29, 2023

TWO YEARS AGO, at age 59½, I thought I was on the verge of taking a major step toward retirement. At the time, my usual zest for my work as a physical therapist was waning. Though I don’t think the quality of my patient care suffered, I found it took more effort to maintain the energy needed to complete a day at the clinic, and concentrating on work became tougher. In addition to the tension building on the inside, I was also feeling external pressures. One concern was the care my wife and I were providing to our families. Over the past decade, we’ve become intricately involved in the lives of several family members who need our help because of age or illness. We love them dearly, and don’t consciously begrudge the time we give them. Still, anything that stretches time thin can fray nerves and shorten tempers. Further stress came from the pandemic. We were all affected by COVID-19 in some way, from the annoyance of the toilet paper shortage to the heart-rending loss of a loved one. The social narrative about the disease took on a surrealistic life of its own. I finally stopped discussing it with nearly all except my wife, and I won’t comment on it here. I can’t deny, however, that the pandemic profoundly affected how I felt about my job. My experience is hardly an anomaly. Howard, a coworker, notes that the pandemic magnified the stress inherent in a health care career. His opinion is supported by a study led by researchers from Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women’s Hospital. It discovered some 50% of workers from all areas of health care reported an increase in stress during the pandemic. The highest levels of job-related stress, which can cause an occupational phenomenon termed burnout, were reported…
Read more »

Why Wait?

Edmund Marsh   |  Jul 4, 2024

Several months ago, I wrote of my wife's and my decision to simplify our financial lives by reducing our investments to the bare minimum. Our thinking is in the same vein as our editor's, and a number of others in the HumbleDollar community, judging from my recollection of reader comments. Now, I know that many others have a different opinion of where to place their money, and that's okay. I'm not implying they're wrong. Indeed, I freely admit that I don't know the future, and time may show that their decision is justified. But, given the uncertainties of life, of our health and mental capacity as we age, is the chance of a little more gain worth the risk of greater loss from the gradual erosion of our ability to nimbly manage a complex portfolio? And what of the present? An interest in investing is, perhaps, the thickest common thread that brings us together here. It's an intensely interesting hobby for many of us. But with time ticking progressively faster, is it a habit that keeps us from other pursuits that may bring more happiness? We each have our own answer to that question, but aside from taxes and similar good reasons for keeping the complexities in place, why wait to embrace simplicity?    
Read more »

How Nosey Are You?

Edmund Marsh   |  Jun 30, 2024

Last week, my family hosted my wife's niece and family from California. The parents in this family are both in their 40s. Prior to their visit, we resolved to ask them what plans they had made for their retirement. On their first evening with us, we were encouraged to learn they each had a pension, and were also saving additional money for retirement through their employer-sponsored plans. That was as far as the financial conversation got, except that they commented they "needed to think more about retirement." I didn't have a chance to follow-up on the comment, but my wife found out the young couple knew they needed to learn more about personal finance and take action to put some plans in place. They just hadn't yet pulled the trigger. Yesterday, I sent them an email complimenting them on making a start and offered a few suggestions on moving forward. I added a few HumbleDollar links, including the Two-Minute Checkup. I told them my wife and I are nosey about the finances of the people we care about, but to honest, I'm pretty curious about nearly everyone's plans for retirement, and ready to offer suggestions if they are as lost as I was a few decades ago. I look for opportunities to bring up the topic. What about you? Do you poke your nose into other people's money life?
Read more »
FREE NEWSLETTER
How To
Follow Us