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“Five years later, I still regret not buying those shoes,” said no one ever.

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Mr Market visits Art Basel

"Hi D.J., Your professor is so right. Art as an asset is notorious for being illiquid, especially on a rainy day. The interesting dynamic which makes owning art more tangible in terms of wealth, is that if a collection is positively valued (one which a bank or an auction house assigns to be worth millions), then people can take out loans with the collection as collateral. Even if an artwork is not liquid in itself, a collection of artworks can produce liquidity through leverage."
- Ricardo Diaque
Read more »

Independence Day

"I feel a similar disappointment in my state laws in that real property deeds in my state cannot provide for transfer at death where some US states do. A work around to avoid probate and still get step up in basis is transferring the property to a revocable living trust (RLT). I do not know if a RLT gambit is available in the UK for your stock but if I had stock from a demutualization that I wanted to be split among numerous heirs in the US I would consider a RLT to accomplish my intent as an alternative to the TOD. I wonder how difficult the probate is perceived in the UK."
- William Perry
Read more »

Luck, Stupidity, Automation and Inertia

"And I also was referred to listen to a radio show where Burton malkiel was the guest. I bought his book and learned index investing; how has that worked over the last 50 yrs. NO ONE BEATS IT!!!! no one"
- Kenneth Tobin
Read more »

Reminded of Jonathan’s Grace

"I’m reading “Money and Me” too but I’m trying to read just a few chapters at a sitting to savor the wisdom and voice of Jonathan. I guess I will have to step up my pace as my borrowing from my local library (where I requested the book and they ordered it for me) has the book due back soon. This is a must read for so many family of friends who I will recommend it for but few will take the time to pick it up to read it. Very worthwhile to put on your reading list (or ask your library to order it as I did)."
- Brian Frisch
Read more »

Automatic Income stream? How important to you?

"I would expect, to protect themselves at least, prudent plan sponsors would be very careful when selecting the annuity option to include in their plan and to communicate the full picture to plan participants. In addition, offering in the group market allows insurers to be more flexible than in the individual market."
- R Quinn
Read more »

The cost of foreign taxes on returns

"I appreciate the info on the cost of having foreign investments in non-taxable accounts. There may be a better place to mention my observation, but here goes: I've been thinking about reasons why I (or anyone) would have foreign investments in a non-taxable account. The main one is that I can rebalance without running into capital gain tax effects. If all my foreign investments were in taxable accounts, the selling of such that I've done for the last year or so would have been tax-costly. With Matt's analysis, I can see the cost of the "insurance" I have against these taxes when I hold foreign investments in a Roth (or IRA) acct."
- F William Matthewson
Read more »

Lessons Learned Along the Way

"Which, of course, is all very true today as it was during your journey. Where there is a will there is most often a way. Nobody can sit in one job and expect to get anywhere. They are lucky to keep up with inflation. Everyone still has opportunities, there is no rigged system keeping people down. Education is important, but it is not the most important factor. The most important determinant for any success is the person you see in the mirror each morning."
- R Quinn
Read more »

Why can’t more people plan for their retirement future?

"The only kale in our house goes into Portuguese kale soup where the taste is lost among the chorizo."
- R Quinn
Read more »

The Price of a Cool Pillow

"That's spooky — would you believe we're actually in the middle of packing up to do exactly that right now! We head to the coastal house this Wednesday and we're planning to stay through to the end of September."
- Mark Crothers
Read more »

Quiet Failure: The Stories We Tell about Money

"My approach to/attitude toward money is partly built from family origins and partly by faith convictions. My husband and I both grew up in very modest conditions—I’d say barely lower middle-class on both sides. I always had to work for what I wanted, and that gave me a strong work ethic that I have to this day. I have a strong need for security and have never wanted to take risks with our finances. I also wanted my kids to have enough and never feel like the “poorest kid in the neighborhood,” which is how I grew up. At the same time, because of our religious faith, we feel strongly about giving to charity and have always done that even in our young married years when finances were very tight."
- DrLefty
Read more »

When to Leave Your Portfolio Alone

"It does sometimes create tax liability - a cost to manage your risk. I try to be tax efficient with my rebalancing to the best of my ability. Yes, redirecting dividends is a good strategy as well to rebalance to your target band."
- Mark Gardner
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Luck, Stupidity, and Getting Ripped Off

"Mark, I have two separate accounts. Here's my over-simplified response: My IRA proceeds, when withdrawn, are counted as regular income. My investment account proceeds, when withdrawn, will have gains computed between the original purchase price and the sold price. I don't really plan to withdraw from this account. My best-laid plans are for the kids to inherit this account and benefit from the basis step-up that would happen when I croak."
- Jeff Bond
Read more »

Investment Wisdom

THE INVESTMENT WORLD is full of storytellers. And while these folks might be entertaining, they generally aren’t very helpful. There’s one category of stories, however, that I do think is useful: They’re what I might call investment fables. They’re apocryphal stories that likely aren’t real. But they’re helpful nonetheless because each carries a useful lesson. Here are some of the more popular ones. Consumer choice. In 1999, Richard Mille and a partner launched a company to make wristwatches. By 2001, the company was ready to begin taking orders for its first model, the RM 001. They knew they wanted to target a high-end market, so they chose the Financial Times for their first advertisement. According to legend, however, a graphic designer at the newspaper made a mistake. Instead of including the watch’s intended price of $13,500, an extra zero was added, making the price $135,000. At first, the company was furious at the newspaper for the mistake. But then the phone started to ring. The sky-high price turned out to be attractive to a certain class of buyers, and the initial run of the 001 quickly sold out. Today, Richard Mille sells several models priced in the hundreds of thousands, and some limited editions carry price tags north of $1 million. For its part, the company denies this story, maintaining that $135,000 was always the price it intended. But whether this story is true or not, it illustrates a concept in personal finance known as the Veblen effect. This occurs when the traditional shape of a demand curve gets turned upside down. Instead of consumers buying less of something as its price rises, when it comes to Veblen goods, consumers want to buy more as the price increases. Hermes handbags and Ferrari sportscars are other examples. What should we make of the Veblen effect? To answer this question, it’s worth examining its origins. Thorstein Veblen was a sociologist and economist. Perhaps owing to his background as the sixth of 12 children growing up in modest, rural surroundings, Veblen became broadly critical of capitalism. In his 1899 book, The Theory of the Leisure Class, he coined the term “conspicuous consumption.” And while Veblen didn’t explicitly see himself as a socialist, he leaned in that direction. He would have been bitterly critical of something like a Richard Mille watch. In making spending decisions, though, I wouldn’t worry too much about value judgments like this. The reality is that each of us is different, and we each value different things. That’s why I prefer to stick to the numbers. The most important thing, in my view, is simply to have a framework for your household finances, to ensure that your overall spending level is in line with your long-term plan. Other people’s subjective judgments, in my opinion, shouldn’t factor in. Investment gains. When it comes to investing, what’s the best strategy? According to lore, Fidelity Investments once looked into this question by examining the performance of all of the accounts on its platform. What did they find? The accounts that had done the best were those that had been abandoned due to the death of the owner, with the result that the investments hadn’t changed for years. There’s no evidence that this story is true, but it’s repeated frequently because it aligns with real data. In studies going back more than 25 years, research has shown that frequent trading is generally associated with worse investment results. This is true for both individual and professional investors. To be sure, some active managers have delivered impressive results. In the past, this has included the likes of Warren Buffett and James Simons. More recently, a 24-year-old named Leopold Aschenbrenner has delivered returns of more than 1,000% in the two years since he founded a hedge fund to bet on AI stocks. But cases like this are the exceptions that prove the rule. For most investors, most of the time, the data tell us that it’s better to trade less rather than more. Market tops. On a related note, there’s a tale about Joseph Kennedy—President Kennedy’s father. He was an active investor in the 1920s, but he said he realized it was time to sell when the fellow giving him a shoeshine one day started offering stock tips. What’s interesting about this story is that Kennedy did actually sell his stocks and even took a short position early in 1929, earning him a fortune when the market dropped. The shoeshine aspect of this story likely isn’t true. But it’s a favorite because it carries a useful message. Veteran investor Jeremy Grantham has often talked about the market signals he pays attention to. In addition to P/E ratios and other quantitative measures, he’s noted that he looks for “signs of craziness”—things like the GameStop mania in 2021. When the stock market begins to look more like a casino—and when we see YouTube influencers making stock calls from their gaming chairs—Grantham gets nervous. Intuitively, this does make sense, but it may not be very useful. Consider how the market has performed in recent years. After Grantham urged caution in 2021, the market did drop in 2022. But then it rose in 2023, 2024, 2025 and in the first half of 2026. So an investor who sold in 2021 would have missed out on significant gains. The bottom line: Just as the number of world-class stock-pickers is limited, so too is the number of tactical traders who have profited in the way Joe Kennedy did by getting out at just the right moment. Market forecasts. What’s a better way to think about the stock market? According to another Wall Street tale, J.P. Morgan was once asked what he thought the market would do over the coming year. His reply: “It will fluctuate.” There’s no evidence that Morgan ever actually said this, but in this case too, the story is popular because it sounds right. And in my view, this is exactly the right way to think about the stock market. At the end of the day, the only thing we can know for sure about the stock market is that it will either go up, go down or stay about the same. If we can structure our portfolios so we won’t be too negatively affected whichever way it goes, that, in my opinion, is the road to success.   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 »

Mr Market visits Art Basel

"Hi D.J., Your professor is so right. Art as an asset is notorious for being illiquid, especially on a rainy day. The interesting dynamic which makes owning art more tangible in terms of wealth, is that if a collection is positively valued (one which a bank or an auction house assigns to be worth millions), then people can take out loans with the collection as collateral. Even if an artwork is not liquid in itself, a collection of artworks can produce liquidity through leverage."
- Ricardo Diaque
Read more »

Independence Day

"I feel a similar disappointment in my state laws in that real property deeds in my state cannot provide for transfer at death where some US states do. A work around to avoid probate and still get step up in basis is transferring the property to a revocable living trust (RLT). I do not know if a RLT gambit is available in the UK for your stock but if I had stock from a demutualization that I wanted to be split among numerous heirs in the US I would consider a RLT to accomplish my intent as an alternative to the TOD. I wonder how difficult the probate is perceived in the UK."
- William Perry
Read more »

Luck, Stupidity, Automation and Inertia

"And I also was referred to listen to a radio show where Burton malkiel was the guest. I bought his book and learned index investing; how has that worked over the last 50 yrs. NO ONE BEATS IT!!!! no one"
- Kenneth Tobin
Read more »

Reminded of Jonathan’s Grace

"I’m reading “Money and Me” too but I’m trying to read just a few chapters at a sitting to savor the wisdom and voice of Jonathan. I guess I will have to step up my pace as my borrowing from my local library (where I requested the book and they ordered it for me) has the book due back soon. This is a must read for so many family of friends who I will recommend it for but few will take the time to pick it up to read it. Very worthwhile to put on your reading list (or ask your library to order it as I did)."
- Brian Frisch
Read more »

Automatic Income stream? How important to you?

"I would expect, to protect themselves at least, prudent plan sponsors would be very careful when selecting the annuity option to include in their plan and to communicate the full picture to plan participants. In addition, offering in the group market allows insurers to be more flexible than in the individual market."
- R Quinn
Read more »

The cost of foreign taxes on returns

"I appreciate the info on the cost of having foreign investments in non-taxable accounts. There may be a better place to mention my observation, but here goes: I've been thinking about reasons why I (or anyone) would have foreign investments in a non-taxable account. The main one is that I can rebalance without running into capital gain tax effects. If all my foreign investments were in taxable accounts, the selling of such that I've done for the last year or so would have been tax-costly. With Matt's analysis, I can see the cost of the "insurance" I have against these taxes when I hold foreign investments in a Roth (or IRA) acct."
- F William Matthewson
Read more »

Lessons Learned Along the Way

"Which, of course, is all very true today as it was during your journey. Where there is a will there is most often a way. Nobody can sit in one job and expect to get anywhere. They are lucky to keep up with inflation. Everyone still has opportunities, there is no rigged system keeping people down. Education is important, but it is not the most important factor. The most important determinant for any success is the person you see in the mirror each morning."
- R Quinn
Read more »

Why can’t more people plan for their retirement future?

"The only kale in our house goes into Portuguese kale soup where the taste is lost among the chorizo."
- R Quinn
Read more »

The Price of a Cool Pillow

"That's spooky — would you believe we're actually in the middle of packing up to do exactly that right now! We head to the coastal house this Wednesday and we're planning to stay through to the end of September."
- Mark Crothers
Read more »

Investment Wisdom

THE INVESTMENT WORLD is full of storytellers. And while these folks might be entertaining, they generally aren’t very helpful. There’s one category of stories, however, that I do think is useful: They’re what I might call investment fables. They’re apocryphal stories that likely aren’t real. But they’re helpful nonetheless because each carries a useful lesson. Here are some of the more popular ones. Consumer choice. In 1999, Richard Mille and a partner launched a company to make wristwatches. By 2001, the company was ready to begin taking orders for its first model, the RM 001. They knew they wanted to target a high-end market, so they chose the Financial Times for their first advertisement. According to legend, however, a graphic designer at the newspaper made a mistake. Instead of including the watch’s intended price of $13,500, an extra zero was added, making the price $135,000. At first, the company was furious at the newspaper for the mistake. But then the phone started to ring. The sky-high price turned out to be attractive to a certain class of buyers, and the initial run of the 001 quickly sold out. Today, Richard Mille sells several models priced in the hundreds of thousands, and some limited editions carry price tags north of $1 million. For its part, the company denies this story, maintaining that $135,000 was always the price it intended. But whether this story is true or not, it illustrates a concept in personal finance known as the Veblen effect. This occurs when the traditional shape of a demand curve gets turned upside down. Instead of consumers buying less of something as its price rises, when it comes to Veblen goods, consumers want to buy more as the price increases. Hermes handbags and Ferrari sportscars are other examples. What should we make of the Veblen effect? To answer this question, it’s worth examining its origins. Thorstein Veblen was a sociologist and economist. Perhaps owing to his background as the sixth of 12 children growing up in modest, rural surroundings, Veblen became broadly critical of capitalism. In his 1899 book, The Theory of the Leisure Class, he coined the term “conspicuous consumption.” And while Veblen didn’t explicitly see himself as a socialist, he leaned in that direction. He would have been bitterly critical of something like a Richard Mille watch. In making spending decisions, though, I wouldn’t worry too much about value judgments like this. The reality is that each of us is different, and we each value different things. That’s why I prefer to stick to the numbers. The most important thing, in my view, is simply to have a framework for your household finances, to ensure that your overall spending level is in line with your long-term plan. Other people’s subjective judgments, in my opinion, shouldn’t factor in. Investment gains. When it comes to investing, what’s the best strategy? According to lore, Fidelity Investments once looked into this question by examining the performance of all of the accounts on its platform. What did they find? The accounts that had done the best were those that had been abandoned due to the death of the owner, with the result that the investments hadn’t changed for years. There’s no evidence that this story is true, but it’s repeated frequently because it aligns with real data. In studies going back more than 25 years, research has shown that frequent trading is generally associated with worse investment results. This is true for both individual and professional investors. To be sure, some active managers have delivered impressive results. In the past, this has included the likes of Warren Buffett and James Simons. More recently, a 24-year-old named Leopold Aschenbrenner has delivered returns of more than 1,000% in the two years since he founded a hedge fund to bet on AI stocks. But cases like this are the exceptions that prove the rule. For most investors, most of the time, the data tell us that it’s better to trade less rather than more. Market tops. On a related note, there’s a tale about Joseph Kennedy—President Kennedy’s father. He was an active investor in the 1920s, but he said he realized it was time to sell when the fellow giving him a shoeshine one day started offering stock tips. What’s interesting about this story is that Kennedy did actually sell his stocks and even took a short position early in 1929, earning him a fortune when the market dropped. The shoeshine aspect of this story likely isn’t true. But it’s a favorite because it carries a useful message. Veteran investor Jeremy Grantham has often talked about the market signals he pays attention to. In addition to P/E ratios and other quantitative measures, he’s noted that he looks for “signs of craziness”—things like the GameStop mania in 2021. When the stock market begins to look more like a casino—and when we see YouTube influencers making stock calls from their gaming chairs—Grantham gets nervous. Intuitively, this does make sense, but it may not be very useful. Consider how the market has performed in recent years. After Grantham urged caution in 2021, the market did drop in 2022. But then it rose in 2023, 2024, 2025 and in the first half of 2026. So an investor who sold in 2021 would have missed out on significant gains. The bottom line: Just as the number of world-class stock-pickers is limited, so too is the number of tactical traders who have profited in the way Joe Kennedy did by getting out at just the right moment. Market forecasts. What’s a better way to think about the stock market? According to another Wall Street tale, J.P. Morgan was once asked what he thought the market would do over the coming year. His reply: “It will fluctuate.” There’s no evidence that Morgan ever actually said this, but in this case too, the story is popular because it sounds right. And in my view, this is exactly the right way to think about the stock market. At the end of the day, the only thing we can know for sure about the stock market is that it will either go up, go down or stay about the same. If we can structure our portfolios so we won’t be too negatively affected whichever way it goes, that, in my opinion, is the road to success.   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.
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Get Educated

Manifesto

NO. 15: WE SHOULD retire our debts before we retire from our job. Paying off debt cuts our living expenses, plus that debt is likely costing us more than we’re earning on our bonds.

Truths

NO. 101: THE TIME horizon for your portfolio may extend beyond your lifetime. Suppose you’re age 75. If you have more than enough set aside for your own retirement and plan to bequeath assets to your children or grandchildren, you might be dealing with a time horizon of a half-century or more. That’s plenty of time to make good money in stocks.

think

OVERCONFIDENCE. Most of us believe we’re above-average drivers, smarter than most and better looking. This overconfidence is often a good thing—it can boost happiness and help our careers—but it’s terrible for investment results. As they try to beat the market, the overconfident trade too much, take unnecessary risk and buy costly investments.

humans

NO. 34: WE overestimate our investment results. Got folks boasting about their portfolio’s performance? They may be ignoring the losers they’ve sold, bragging based on a few winners and failing to compare to an appropriate index. They may also suffer from the endowment effect, believing their winners have performed better than they really have.

Help others

Manifesto

NO. 15: WE SHOULD retire our debts before we retire from our job. Paying off debt cuts our living expenses, plus that debt is likely costing us more than we’re earning on our bonds.

Spotlight: Health

I have a challenge for you. It’s one of the most significant financial and controversial issues facing the U.S.

Before I say what it is, let’s consider all the things Americans don’t like about health care – cost, availability, insurance companies, third-party involvement, high deductibles, premiums, etc.
🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄 
NOW, the challenge.
Tell us why you will or will not support a form of Medicare for All replacing all the payment systems currently in place, public, employer and private plans to be funded by a combination of employer and individual taxes, income based premiums and cost sharing at the point of service. 

Read more »

My Ozempic Nightmare

EARLIER THIS YEAR, I came up with what I thought was a brilliant idea. I’d signed up for the August 2025 Ironman Ottawa to celebrate my 70th birthday and thought, “Why not jump on the Ozempic bandwagon for six months to drop some significant excess weight before the heavy training starts?”
I’ve struggled with my weight for years. My doctor calls me an emotional eater. I thought, if I dropped the weight and committed to keeping it off,

Read more »

Can’t Figure Out This Darned Insomnia

I woke up this morning at 4, wide awake and couldn’t sleep. I laid there reading google news on my phone. Finally I got out of bed and made it out into the living room. It was pitch black outside, yet my path through the house was well illuminated by little, mostly blue lights. About 30 of them. Smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, routers, scanners, label maker, alarm clocks, microwave, coffee maker, toaster oven, range, bathroom nightlights,

Read more »

Keep Moving

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.

Read more »

Don’t Go Breaking My Heart

Love and heartbreak are human experiences.  Heartbreak is not restricted to the end of a relationship. It can be unrequited love, the death of a loved one, divorce, unmet expectations we have of another. Or other severe emotional conditions.
Harvard Medical School recently published an article about a phenomenon known as Broken Heart Syndrome. It is a real condition known as Stress Cardiomyopathy or Takotsubo syndrome, and can be deadly. But most people recover quickly without any long lasting effects.

Read more »

HSA Tips

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.

Read more »

Spotlight: Rohleder

Paying Myself

WHEN I RETIRED 10 years ago, I need to replace my biweekly paycheck. Because I was retiring early, and there would be no pension or Social Security for many years, my goal was to use savings to create a synthetic paycheck. During my final few years of work, I prepared by channeling most of my paycheck into both taxable and tax-deferred accounts. My pay was much higher than what I needed for living expenses. As I’d religiously tracked my spending in Quicken, I could run reports of my historical outlays. I added what would become my single largest expense in the first decade of retirement—purchasing health insurance. I also reduced my budget for those costs I figured would go away in retirement, such as dry cleaning. I built an Excel spreadsheet showing my total expected annual expenses. Next, I divided the annual total by 26 to see my biweekly spending needs. I wanted to track how closely my actual expenses matched my estimate. Though interest rates are nowhere near as high as when I began investing in the late 1970s, I tried to earn as much interest as possible on my savings until I spent the money. Our taxable investment account was a money market fund at Fidelity Investments. I also opened a high-yield savings account with Synchrony, the online bank. Between the two, I kept enough cash for two years of expenses, plus an emergency fund. [xyz-ihs snippet="Mobile-Subscribe"] Over the next 10 years, I moved money between Fidelity and Synchrony to catch the higher rate. For instance, during the pandemic, Fidelity’s money market rates dropped to 0.01%, while Synchrony’s high-yield savings rates stood at 0.5%. Neither was very satisfying, but I moved cash to Synchrony to earn the higher rate. I’d also purchased certificates of deposit at each company,…
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The Mary Jean List

MY FATHER-IN-LAW Carson was a stereotypical engineer—organized and precise. All four of his children know the motto “measure twice, cut once.” Carson applied these traits to his finances, which he managed on behalf of himself and Mary Jean, his wife. Mary Jean depended on this. As they aged, Carson maintained his mental acuity, but he was the first of the two to deteriorate physically. Mary Jean was strong physically but slowly surrendered to Alzheimer’s. Before her diagnosis, Carson made a concerted effort to teach Mary Jean how to manage their finances in case, someday, she might have to do it on her own. They had an investment manager, so the actual investing was taken care of. Carson wanted her to be able to navigate the banking, bill paying and check book. With an engineer’s precision, he created a list instructions laying out who to contact and how to handle the monthly financial chores. It became apparent that this wasn’t going to work. Possibly due to the early effects of as-yet undiagnosed Alzheimer’s, Mary Jean couldn’t grasp what needed to be done. That was when he turned to us. I wrote a HumbleDollar article based on what we learned from this experience. Carson’s list, which my wife and I referred to as the “Mary Jean list,” guided us when he passed away. It was such a good idea that we adopted it ourselves. Enshrined in a manila folder in the front of our file cabinet is a three-page list of steps and instructions for my wife to follow, should I die first. Just over a page is devoted to 15 steps. Each step refers to an individual contact: attorney, accountant, investment company, bank, insurance agent, pension, Social Security, health insurance… the list goes on. There’s a name, a phone number, questions…
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Mission Accomplished

I JUST GOT A RAISE from Uncle Sam—and relief from one of early retirement’s biggest unknowns. In December, when I turned age 65, I swapped my bronze-level Affordable Care Act policy for Medicare plus a Medigap policy. My wife was already on Medicare. Compared to 2020, when neither of us had Medicare coverage, our monthly cost today for health insurance is $684 lower. My calculated risk has paid off. As a young adult, I set my sights on early retirement. In 2012, at age 54, I pulled the trigger. The question I struggled with: Would there be enough for our remaining retirement years once I hit age 65? The biggest risk to our early retirement was getting and maintaining health insurance. Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, we had coverage. But an unexpected medical diagnosis could have drained our finances and compromised our lifestyle. While I was still working, I plugged $30,000 a year into my early retirement budget as a worst-case estimate for health care costs. The reality wasn’t quite that bad. With health insurance premiums and out-of-pocket costs, including the dentist and optometrist, our average cash outlay over 10 years was just under $20,000 a year. Now, 10 years later, I have reached “normal” retirement age. We aren’t bankrupt nor has our future standard of living been compromised. In fact, due to 10 years of a mostly surging stock market, we’re well ahead of where I expected us to be. What did we do right? The quick answer is save, save, save. Thanks to extra-principal payments, we made our last mortgage payment in 2000, when our oldest graduated from high school. We finished paying for private college for our two children in 2007, the year our youngest graduated from college. From then until 2012, we accelerated our regular…
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Free Lunch?

On the Fidelity account page that displays my holdings online, I noticed banners saying I could make extra money by lending my securities. I ignored this on the premise of “too good to be true.”  Then I got an email from Fidelity advertising their Fully Paid Lending Program and read what they had to say. By following a link, I was able to get an assessment of each of my accounts telling me which holdings might be eligible and how much they might yield. The account assessments said I did have eligible securities, all of which were ETFs, and that I could earn interest by loaning them to others, apparently short sellers. The interest estimates ranged from 1% to 10% based on the loan market for each security. This interest rate is security specific and varies from time to time based on the market for each security. Interest accumulates during the month and is paid out after month end. Still skeptical, I did an online search independent of Fidelity and found that other brokerages have substantially identical programs, including Vanguard, Schwab and Interactive Brokers. The primary caution I picked up from my online search was that tax favored qualified dividends paid on a security while it is on loan will be passed on to you, but it will be in the form of ordinary income not as a qualified dividend. Of course, this only matters in taxable accounts. The security does not have SIPC insurance coverage while it is on loan. The program description explains that when a security is loaned out, Fidelity deposits an equivalent dollar amount into a bank account as collateral in the event the borrower fails to return the security. The collateral is adjusted periodically to account for changes in the market value of the loaned…
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Giving Thanks

AS WE CELEBRATE Thanksgiving, I’m reflecting on what I’ve learned over the past year or so from HumbleDollar—both as a reader and as one of the site’s writers. An article I wrote about claiming Social Security bounced back and forth a few times between me and HumbleDollar’s editor, Jonathan Clements. The breakthrough came when Jonathan referred me to a free online calculator built by financial blogger Mike Piper. I’d been trying to do my own calculation in Excel. Working through the calculator greatly reduced my anxiety about picking the right date to pull the Social Security trigger. I realized that a wide range of dates were pretty much equally good. Meanwhile, an article by Charley Ellis helped me rethink my asset allocation. The key insight: Predictable income such as a pension and Social Security can be considered part of your bond allocation. This gave me the comfort to increase my allocation to stocks. Luckily, this past year has been an good time to add to my stock holdings, thanks to the market decline. Other pieces on the site prompted me to rethink how I invest my cash. John Lim’s article was the first place I read about the handsome yield available from Series I savings bonds. His article led me to open a TreasuryDirect account, so I could purchase I bonds. That account came in handy when a reader, in response to one of my articles, suggested I consider Treasury bills as an attractive alternative for my cash investments. Not every insight is life-changing. Finding ways to tweak my personal finances can be just as satisfying. Jonathan had an article on check washing that opened my eyes. I’ve had my own frustrations with the post office, but I didn’t fully appreciate the risk of sending checks through the mail. Based on…
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Share This Message

In my years working in Hospital Administration, I routinely had staff telling me about patients or families caught in a medical crisis caused by a fall or major surgery or simple aging.  They were “surprised” to find that when they were told they could no longer live safely in their home, that Medicare was not going to pay for their needed long term care living arrangements. I’m assuming that this information will not be a surprise to Humble Dollar readers.  But I found this post on Linked In from a Senior Care Educator and Advocate named Katie Monahan Brooks, CDP, DCS.  I don’t know her and I don’t know the Humble Dollar policy about reposting what she posted on Linked In. But she has expressed this more clearly and bluntly than I could have.  And, it is apparent from her writing that she wants this message broadcast far and wide.  My hope is that Humble Dollar readers can be part of this education process.  Here is what Ms. Brooks wrote, unedited by me: “I’m done pretending this confusion is acceptable. If I have to explain one more time that Medicare does NOT pay for senior living, I might actually lose what’s left of my sanity. Let’s be painfully clear: Medicare pays for your medical care. It does NOT pay for your housing, daily care, or supervision. Assisted Living, Memory Care, and Independent Living are NOT medical benefits. They are housing with support. And yet—every. single. week.—I sit across from families who are shocked. Angry. Betrayed. “Why doesn’t Medicare pay for this?” “Isn’t this healthcare?” “No one ever told us this.” And that’s exactly the problem. This isn’t just a misunderstanding. This is a massive, nationwide education failure that leaves families blindsided in the middle of a crisis—when emotions, guilt, fear,…
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