Financial success is graded on a curve—but the yardstick shouldn’t be what others have, but rather what we need.
NO. 66: WE SHOULD build a low-cost, globally diversified stock and bond portfolio, so we’re highly likely to achieve our goals—no matter which parts of the financial markets shine.
NO. 73: WE FOCUS too much on money. Most of us can rattle off our salary, bank balance and what we paid for our latest purchase. It’s much harder to put a dollar value on friendship, or feeling physically good, or the pleasure from volunteering—and yet such things will likely give a bigger boost to our happiness than earning thousands more.
RETHINK CASH investments. What’s the best place to stash money you’ll spend in the next year or you may need for surprise expenses? There’s a host of options, including Treasury bills, money market mutual funds, short-term certificates of deposit and online savings accounts. Check yields regularly on these various options—and be prepared to move your money.
NO. 4: LOW FIXED living costs are the key to a high savings rate. By keeping our mortgage or rent, car payments, utilities, insurance premiums and other fixed costs to 50% or less of our pretax income, we not only increase the sums available for discretionary “fun” spending like vacations, concerts and eating out, but also we make it far easier to save.
NO. 66: WE SHOULD build a low-cost, globally diversified stock and bond portfolio, so we’re highly likely to achieve our goals—no matter which parts of the financial markets shine.
ROUGHLY A QUARTER of my investment portfolio sits in three Roth retirement accounts. Ever since I first funded a Roth a dozen years ago, I’ve thought of this as money I’d avoid spending for as long as possible, so I milk maximum gain from the tax-free growth. But lately, it’s dawned on me that it’s highly unlikely I’ll ever dip into these accounts—and that realization has triggered a slew of investment decisions.
My three Roth accounts are all at Vanguard Group.
“A YEAR TO LIVE.” That’s the name of a class I’ve been teaching on and off for the past 20 years. My hope: Participants will gain more understanding, acceptance and peace about one of life’s few guarantees—death. This year’s class members have a little over five months left to live.
Every group is a little different. Some people resist the practicalities of preparing for death: putting things in writing, making medical and funeral arrangements,
HIGHLY INTELLIGENT people sometimes don’t know much about investing. Still, they can have a misplaced confidence in their own abilities and feel certain they require no help. In the end, it’s often their adult children who sort things out—which, in this particular case, meant me.
Five years ago, my 84-year-old mother and 85-year-old stepfather moved from the mountains of Colorado to Georgia to live closer to my wife and me. For more than 20 years,
ONE OUT OF SIX of our nation’s children lives in a blended family, with 40% of today’s marriages defined as blended, meaning that one or both spouses had been previously married. I live in one of those blended households.
Three decades ago, the data on children from “broken families” weren’t encouraging. I can happily debunk that early data, which didn’t give our family much hope. My two exceptional stepchildren, and our biological daughter, are all productive and contributing adults.
WHEN I WAS BORN IN Iowa in 1973, my parents were renters—and they didn’t become homeowners until eight years later. Looking back, I can see that it would have been hard for them to buy a house. When my dad started at the factory where he worked for more than 30 years, it didn’t pay the best.
But as Bandag, the retread company he worked for, began to prosper under its founder Roy James Carver,
KEY PROVISIONS IN 2017’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) will expire in 2026 unless Congress steps in. That means folks have a two-year window to prepare.
What’s at stake? Income-tax rates will increase for many taxpayers. This creates an incentive to boost income over the next few years by, say, undertaking Roth conversions to shrink traditional retirement accounts and thereby lowering future required minimum distributions.
The sunsetting of key TCJA provisions would also cut the threshold for federal estate taxes in half,
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