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The Financial Stress a Simple Document Could Have Prevented

Lucretia Ryan  |  May 23, 2026

"I agree a good estate attorney who comes highly recommended is worth it. But I’d also recommend educating yourself especially around the tax implications. The first time I used an attorney recommended to me by my cpa the attorney didn’t set up a revocable living trust. I now have an excellent estate attorney who setup my estate and educated me and it is totally a different experience. My estate is so much better protected. The cost was totally worth it."
- Lucretia Ryan
Read more »

My Father: The Peace He Never Found

Andrew Clements  |  May 20, 2026

"Thank you for such an honest and thoughtful comment. I think many people quietly wrestle with the same fears you described, especially after decades where work, responsibility, and providing for family become such a large part of our identity. One thing writing this article taught me is that retirement itself is not the destination we sometimes imagine it to be. Financial security matters greatly, but purpose, connection, structure, and relationships matter just as much. The fact that you are already reflecting so deeply on these things tells me you are approaching retirement with a great deal of self-awareness. I suspect that awareness will ultimately serve you well. Thank you again for sharing your thoughts."
- Andrew Clements
Read more »

Percentage that “age in place”

Keith Pleas  |  May 24, 2026

Be the first to comment.
Read more »

Final Arrangements: A Learning Curve

DrLefty  |  Aug 18, 2024

"Thanks for this reminder. It’s not an easy thing to do but it must be done!"
- Nick Politakis
Read more »

Final Countdown

ArticleMichael Perry  |  Sep 15, 2021

AS I TYPE THIS, I’m less than a week from walking out the door of my workplace for the last time, bringing my second career to a close. I’m looking forward to the rest of my life. We’ve been anticipating this day and we’re more than ready. My wife is already retired. My work for a large corporation is fine, but I’m not passionate about it. While there are some positive aspects to where we currently live, the best part is the airport. We predicted some time ago that, if my job still had us here when we got to this point, we’d be calling it quits and taking our life’s possessions elsewhere. We’ve thought a lot about how we’ll support ourselves financially—what combination of pension benefit, retirement accounts, taxable accounts and Social Security benefits will carry us through the rest of our lives. Maybe that’s a topic for a future article. Short version: We’re comfortable with our situation and we have no hesitation about our decision to retire. We’ve also thought a lot about where and how to live, which is also a subject for another day. Short version again: We haven’t decided. We aren’t in as much of a hurry to move as we expected to be. One reason: We didn’t anticipate some of our close relatives would be living in Spain. There’s no telling how long they’ll be there, so—before we do anything else—we’ll spend some time with them. And who knows? In the next few years, we may make a surprise addition to our future hometown shortlist. A lot of folks find it bittersweet to leave behind fulltime work. I get it. Leaving my first career in the military was like that. But this time, I’m happy to say it’s all sweet.
Read more »

Should Retirees Get a Temporary Flat Tax Window on IRA and 401(k) Withdrawals?

Jeff Peck  |  May 18, 2026

"This seems like a great idea for those of us that find ourselves in a position in which our retirement income is higher than anticipated (poor planning?). Having better, cheaper access to that money could make those seniors lives easier. David Bach has a good idea but I do not think there is likely to be support where it matters, in Congress, as it is a tax cut."
- T Roberts
Read more »

Time to scrap IRAs, 401k, 403b and all the rest

R Quinn  |  May 21, 2026

"So I am contributing money I've already been taxed on...then being taxed on it again when I take it out? No tax-free treatment on contributions? I dunno...double taxation seems a bit unfair. Simple or not."
- Mike May
Read more »

Country Club Venture Capital 

Mark Crothers  |  May 17, 2026

"My girls were singers, not dancers. In high school, my older daughter got into the madrigal choir, which required a renaissance costume. I paid $1500 for a local seamstress to make it for her. This was back in 2004! I was quite relieved when her younger sister chose the jazz choir instead. That outfit only cost $200."
- DrLefty
Read more »

Deeply Rooted

ArticleMark Crothers  |  May 23, 2026

JUNE MARKS THREE years since my mum passed from complications of vascular dementia. It was a tough couple of years, watching her mind slowly fail and her world shrink a little more with each passing month. Anyone who has cared for a loved one in the late stages of dementia will know how difficult and disjointed even the simplest conversation becomes. The loops, the confusion, the frustration of trying to redirect someone you love from a thought they can no longer find their way out of. Mum had been comfortable, if lonely, in retirement. She was a widow for twenty-five years, and she often said with genuine surprise in her voice that she was better off financially than at any other point in her life. Not having to worry about money was a relief she never took for granted. But here's the thing: she never really thought about money either. She wasn't driven by possessions or status. She had what she needed, she was grateful, and she got on with living. Money was background noise to her, not the tune she danced to. What surprised me most came in her final year, when she was deeply confused and often entirely detached from reality. Among all the things her mind could have snagged on, the one conversation loop she returned to with unsettling clarity was money. She was convinced she had none. It made her anxious in a way that was painful to witness, a raw, childlike insecurity that seemed to rise from somewhere far deeper than conscious thought. I would reassure her, calmly and repeatedly, that her savings were healthy and there was absolutely nothing to worry about. I would joke about her bank balance making me jealous and she needed to go on a shopping spree. Sometimes it settled her. Often it didn't last more than a few minutes before the worry surfaced again. The memory care unit understandably discouraged residents from keeping personal cash, but I often broke that rule. Whenever I visited and could see that familiar agitation building, I'd press a few low value bills into her hand. Nothing significant, just the texture of something real. It worked in a way that words alone couldn't compete with. She'd look down at the money, close her fingers around it, and the tension would ease from her shoulders. She felt safe again, at least for a little while. Although, we often moved on to worrying about finding a purse to stash the bills in. For a woman who gave so little thought to money and nothing to status, I found it striking, strange even, that financial anxiety was what surfaced when the rational layers of her mind were stripped away. It made me think about what dementia actually reveals. It doesn't invent fears, it sometimes uncovers them. The fog clears away the learned, the sophisticated, the socially conditioned, and leaves something older and more fundamental underneath. At the time, I read up on this anxiety, there's some neuroscience behind it. Emotional memory, the kind wired to survival and feeling rather than fact, is stored differently in the brain and tends to be far more resilient. Dementia strips back the rational layers first. What it sometimes leaves behind is older, deeper, and harder to reach. In my mum's case, that something was the primal need to feel secure. She had grown up shaped by post-war austerity, widowhood, and years of careful budgeting on a single income. She would have been a young woman when rationing finally ended. In the world she grew up in, money wasn't abstract: it was coal for the fire and food on the table, shoes that lasted another winter without needing replacing. I think that connection between having and feeling safe wasn't a conclusion she'd reasoned her way to. It was lived, year after year, until it settled somewhere beneath thought entirely. Security and money had become inseparable, written into her long before she ever had reason to question it. I've thought about this a lot since we lost her. The concept of financial security isn't just something we think about, it seems to be something we feel, right down in the oldest parts of ourselves. It runs beneath logic, beneath personality, beneath even memory. My mum could and did forget my name on a bad day, but she could not shake the feeling that not having money meant not being safe. That instinct had been laid down so early and reinforced so consistently across a lifetime that dementia, for all its cruelty, couldn't fully reach it. To me, it says something profound about how deeply rooted our relationship with money really is. It seems to be wrapped around the core of our being. Losing my mum the way I did, piece by piece and conversation by conversation, was one of the hardest things I've been through. But in the heartbreak, she gave me this unexpected insight, pressed into my mind just as firmly as I had secretly pressed those bills into hers. Beneath everything we build and believe and become, there are feelings so fundamental they outlast nearly everything else. She reminded me that understanding our relationship with money isn't just a financial exercise, it's a deeply human one. Maybe it goes some way to explaining why we make choices that are sometimes irrational. And she did it, characteristically, without ever meaning to teach me a thing.
Mark Crothers is a retired small business owner from the UK with a keen interest in personal finance and simple living. Married to his high school sweetheart, with daughters and grandchildren, he knows the importance of building a secure financial future. With an aversion to social media, he prefers to spend his time on his main passions: reading, scratch cooking, racket sports, and hiking.
Read more »

Taste Bud Training

Mark Crothers  |  May 22, 2026

"We did a chauffeured foodie tour in the region and went to a Balsamico farm (?) which included lunch for just the two of us. In addition we went to a Lambrusco winery which is the grape they use to make Balsamico, as well as a Reggiano parmasean (I affectionately call it Reggie) facility. To see the wheels stacked floor to ceiling was amazing."
- David Lancaster
Read more »

A Time to Save

D.J.  |  May 21, 2026

"I hope your grandchildren listen to your wise recommendations, William. We can’t control all life throws at us, but we can do our best to save and stay invested in the market so compounding can perform its magic."
- D.J.
Read more »

The reality of Social Security and Medicare- My real life experience.

R Quinn  |  May 4, 2026

"This sounds like NY state. My father retired in 1990 but had his premiums reimbursed for years by NY state, as far as I know until he died in 2012. When he asked them they claimed it was his unused sick time and vacation time. For 22 years? he did the math and called them several times but they never agreed with his calculations and kept paying."
- Concerned
Read more »

Inflation and Innovation

ArticleAdam M. Grossman  |  May 23, 2026

ECONOMICS IS KNOWN as “the dismal science,” and perhaps for good reason. Oftentimes it can be abstract and overly academic. There are, however, certain economic concepts that can be helpful to individual investors. Below are two that I see as especially important. When it comes to the government’s ability to control—or least influence—the economy, there are two main levers. The first is fiscal policy, which refers to Congress’s (as well as state and local governments') ability to levy taxes and to spend money.  The most well known economist associated with fiscal policy was John Maynard Keynes. During economic downturns, Keynes argued, governments shouldn’t hesitate to spend more—and to run deficits, if need be—to help reduce unemployment and lift the economy back up. This is a generally accepted concept today, but in the 1930s, in the depths of the Great Depression, it was not obvious, and many believe that policymakers’ efforts to exercise fiscal discipline by balancing the budget during the Depression ended up prolonging the misery. It wasn’t until the mid-1930s, in fact, that President Roosevelt changed his view on this question. In their correspondence, Keynes convinced Roosevelt that loosening up on fiscal discipline, though counterintuitive, was the best way to bring the economy back to health. This approach has been used in every recession since. Most recently, during the pandemic, the government issued several rounds of stimulus payments to help bolster consumer finances. Monetary policy is the government’s second key lever. Unlike fiscal policy, monetary policy is the domain of the Federal Reserve. When you hear about the government “printing money,” it’s the Fed they’re referring to. Through a unique process, the Fed is able to create dollars out of thin air and then to use those dollars to help support the economy during downturns. During the pandemic, the Fed created trillions of new dollars through this mechanism. The Fed also lowered short-term interest rates, which it controls, in a further effort to nudge consumers to open their wallets. Both fiscal and monetary policy are powerful. But as we’ve seen in recent years, each can also carry side effects.  In the case of fiscal policy, spending too much for too long can drive the deficit to unsustainable levels. This has become a persistent problem. Though it’s now been several years since the pandemic, the federal government is still running deficits of about $2 trillion per year. In round numbers, taxes bring in about $5 trillion, but spending exceeds $7 trillion. Of particular concern is the fact that more than $1 trillion of that $7 trillion must now be allocated to interest payments on all the accumulated debt. To put that in perspective, we’re now spending more on interest than on defense. Is this situation sustainable? Here’s how I think about it: Imagine an individual with an annual income of $50,000 who spends $70,000 each year, including $10,000 in credit card payments. At some point, something will need to change, but neither political party seems interested in tackling it, for the obvious reason that any solution would require either raising taxes or cutting spending. Neither would be popular, so the deficits persist. The consequence of overdoing it with monetary policy is also serious: inflation. That’s what we saw very significantly in 2021 and 2022, and that’s where monetary and fiscal policy can become intertwined. For a brief period during the pandemic, a concept known as Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) gained popularity. The argument was that countries like the United States, with very large economies, were essentially immune to inflation risk and could print money almost without limit. It turned out, though, that MMT was a theory with no basis in reality, and that deficits do matter. Since ancient times, excessive use of monetary policy has always resulted in inflation, and that was exactly what we saw as a result of the Fed’s extraordinary monetary interventions in 2020. After inflation rose to nearly 10% in 2022, the Fed was forced to reverse course and raise interest rates. That had the desired effect of slowing inflation, but it then caused another problem: Since the government has to issue new bonds practically every day, higher rates have the effect of driving up the government’s borrowing costs, which then worsens the deficit. Higher interest rates also hurt consumers, especially those looking to buy homes. This, unfortunately, describes the situation we’re in today. In an effort to combat the pandemic, the government used both of the levers that it had, but now it’s effectively out of ammunition. Federal debt held by the public just recently climbed above 100% of gross domestic product for the first time since 1946. The Wall Street Journal referred to this as “a once-unthinkable threshold.” But before we declare the situation hopeless, it’s important to look at a separate concept in economics.  In 1942, Harvard economist Joseph Schumpeter released a book titled Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy. Among the concepts Schumpeter proposed was the notion of “creative destruction.” The idea—central to capitalist systems—was that entrepreneurs could always be counted on to move technology forward. At the same time, this meant that older technologies and companies would regularly find themselves pushed aside by new innovations. Importantly, though, Schumpeter argued that the net effect would be greatly positive. The evidence in favor of Schumpeter is all around us. Horse-and-buggy companies went out of business when the automobile was invented. Pony Express gave way to the telegram, then to the telephone. Typewriter manufacturers are mostly gone. And so on. And yet, despite all these changes, unemployment is under 5%, the economy is larger than it’s ever been, and income-per-capita is at an all-time high. What’s the relationship between Schumpeter’s theory and the earlier discussion about the government’s debt situation? You may recall that in the late-1990s, the federal government surprised observers when it began to run budget surpluses after years of deficits. How did things suddenly improve? Most attribute it to the productivity boom and stock market rally set in motion by the popularization of the internet. It's too early to know whether artificial intelligence will deliver the same economic benefits in the coming years as the web did 30 years ago. But as investors, this history is important to keep in mind. It’s a reminder that, in making financial decisions, we should be careful about reacting to economic forecasts. To be sure, the government’s financial health doesn’t look great, but as history has shown, this could change.   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 »

The Financial Stress a Simple Document Could Have Prevented

Lucretia Ryan  |  May 23, 2026

"I agree a good estate attorney who comes highly recommended is worth it. But I’d also recommend educating yourself especially around the tax implications. The first time I used an attorney recommended to me by my cpa the attorney didn’t set up a revocable living trust. I now have an excellent estate attorney who setup my estate and educated me and it is totally a different experience. My estate is so much better protected. The cost was totally worth it."
- Lucretia Ryan
Read more »

My Father: The Peace He Never Found

Andrew Clements  |  May 20, 2026

"Thank you for such an honest and thoughtful comment. I think many people quietly wrestle with the same fears you described, especially after decades where work, responsibility, and providing for family become such a large part of our identity. One thing writing this article taught me is that retirement itself is not the destination we sometimes imagine it to be. Financial security matters greatly, but purpose, connection, structure, and relationships matter just as much. The fact that you are already reflecting so deeply on these things tells me you are approaching retirement with a great deal of self-awareness. I suspect that awareness will ultimately serve you well. Thank you again for sharing your thoughts."
- Andrew Clements
Read more »

Percentage that “age in place”

Keith Pleas  |  May 24, 2026

Be the first to comment.
Read more »

Final Arrangements: A Learning Curve

DrLefty  |  Aug 18, 2024

"Thanks for this reminder. It’s not an easy thing to do but it must be done!"
- Nick Politakis
Read more »

Final Countdown

ArticleMichael Perry  |  Sep 15, 2021

AS I TYPE THIS, I’m less than a week from walking out the door of my workplace for the last time, bringing my second career to a close. I’m looking forward to the rest of my life. We’ve been anticipating this day and we’re more than ready. My wife is already retired. My work for a large corporation is fine, but I’m not passionate about it. While there are some positive aspects to where we currently live, the best part is the airport. We predicted some time ago that, if my job still had us here when we got to this point, we’d be calling it quits and taking our life’s possessions elsewhere. We’ve thought a lot about how we’ll support ourselves financially—what combination of pension benefit, retirement accounts, taxable accounts and Social Security benefits will carry us through the rest of our lives. Maybe that’s a topic for a future article. Short version: We’re comfortable with our situation and we have no hesitation about our decision to retire. We’ve also thought a lot about where and how to live, which is also a subject for another day. Short version again: We haven’t decided. We aren’t in as much of a hurry to move as we expected to be. One reason: We didn’t anticipate some of our close relatives would be living in Spain. There’s no telling how long they’ll be there, so—before we do anything else—we’ll spend some time with them. And who knows? In the next few years, we may make a surprise addition to our future hometown shortlist. A lot of folks find it bittersweet to leave behind fulltime work. I get it. Leaving my first career in the military was like that. But this time, I’m happy to say it’s all sweet.
Read more »

Should Retirees Get a Temporary Flat Tax Window on IRA and 401(k) Withdrawals?

Jeff Peck  |  May 18, 2026

"This seems like a great idea for those of us that find ourselves in a position in which our retirement income is higher than anticipated (poor planning?). Having better, cheaper access to that money could make those seniors lives easier. David Bach has a good idea but I do not think there is likely to be support where it matters, in Congress, as it is a tax cut."
- T Roberts
Read more »

Time to scrap IRAs, 401k, 403b and all the rest

R Quinn  |  May 21, 2026

"So I am contributing money I've already been taxed on...then being taxed on it again when I take it out? No tax-free treatment on contributions? I dunno...double taxation seems a bit unfair. Simple or not."
- Mike May
Read more »

Country Club Venture Capital 

Mark Crothers  |  May 17, 2026

"My girls were singers, not dancers. In high school, my older daughter got into the madrigal choir, which required a renaissance costume. I paid $1500 for a local seamstress to make it for her. This was back in 2004! I was quite relieved when her younger sister chose the jazz choir instead. That outfit only cost $200."
- DrLefty
Read more »

Deeply Rooted

ArticleMark Crothers  |  May 23, 2026

JUNE MARKS THREE years since my mum passed from complications of vascular dementia. It was a tough couple of years, watching her mind slowly fail and her world shrink a little more with each passing month. Anyone who has cared for a loved one in the late stages of dementia will know how difficult and disjointed even the simplest conversation becomes. The loops, the confusion, the frustration of trying to redirect someone you love from a thought they can no longer find their way out of. Mum had been comfortable, if lonely, in retirement. She was a widow for twenty-five years, and she often said with genuine surprise in her voice that she was better off financially than at any other point in her life. Not having to worry about money was a relief she never took for granted. But here's the thing: she never really thought about money either. She wasn't driven by possessions or status. She had what she needed, she was grateful, and she got on with living. Money was background noise to her, not the tune she danced to. What surprised me most came in her final year, when she was deeply confused and often entirely detached from reality. Among all the things her mind could have snagged on, the one conversation loop she returned to with unsettling clarity was money. She was convinced she had none. It made her anxious in a way that was painful to witness, a raw, childlike insecurity that seemed to rise from somewhere far deeper than conscious thought. I would reassure her, calmly and repeatedly, that her savings were healthy and there was absolutely nothing to worry about. I would joke about her bank balance making me jealous and she needed to go on a shopping spree. Sometimes it settled her. Often it didn't last more than a few minutes before the worry surfaced again. The memory care unit understandably discouraged residents from keeping personal cash, but I often broke that rule. Whenever I visited and could see that familiar agitation building, I'd press a few low value bills into her hand. Nothing significant, just the texture of something real. It worked in a way that words alone couldn't compete with. She'd look down at the money, close her fingers around it, and the tension would ease from her shoulders. She felt safe again, at least for a little while. Although, we often moved on to worrying about finding a purse to stash the bills in. For a woman who gave so little thought to money and nothing to status, I found it striking, strange even, that financial anxiety was what surfaced when the rational layers of her mind were stripped away. It made me think about what dementia actually reveals. It doesn't invent fears, it sometimes uncovers them. The fog clears away the learned, the sophisticated, the socially conditioned, and leaves something older and more fundamental underneath. At the time, I read up on this anxiety, there's some neuroscience behind it. Emotional memory, the kind wired to survival and feeling rather than fact, is stored differently in the brain and tends to be far more resilient. Dementia strips back the rational layers first. What it sometimes leaves behind is older, deeper, and harder to reach. In my mum's case, that something was the primal need to feel secure. She had grown up shaped by post-war austerity, widowhood, and years of careful budgeting on a single income. She would have been a young woman when rationing finally ended. In the world she grew up in, money wasn't abstract: it was coal for the fire and food on the table, shoes that lasted another winter without needing replacing. I think that connection between having and feeling safe wasn't a conclusion she'd reasoned her way to. It was lived, year after year, until it settled somewhere beneath thought entirely. Security and money had become inseparable, written into her long before she ever had reason to question it. I've thought about this a lot since we lost her. The concept of financial security isn't just something we think about, it seems to be something we feel, right down in the oldest parts of ourselves. It runs beneath logic, beneath personality, beneath even memory. My mum could and did forget my name on a bad day, but she could not shake the feeling that not having money meant not being safe. That instinct had been laid down so early and reinforced so consistently across a lifetime that dementia, for all its cruelty, couldn't fully reach it. To me, it says something profound about how deeply rooted our relationship with money really is. It seems to be wrapped around the core of our being. Losing my mum the way I did, piece by piece and conversation by conversation, was one of the hardest things I've been through. But in the heartbreak, she gave me this unexpected insight, pressed into my mind just as firmly as I had secretly pressed those bills into hers. Beneath everything we build and believe and become, there are feelings so fundamental they outlast nearly everything else. She reminded me that understanding our relationship with money isn't just a financial exercise, it's a deeply human one. Maybe it goes some way to explaining why we make choices that are sometimes irrational. And she did it, characteristically, without ever meaning to teach me a thing.
Mark Crothers is a retired small business owner from the UK with a keen interest in personal finance and simple living. Married to his high school sweetheart, with daughters and grandchildren, he knows the importance of building a secure financial future. With an aversion to social media, he prefers to spend his time on his main passions: reading, scratch cooking, racket sports, and hiking.
Read more »

Inflation and Innovation

ArticleAdam M. Grossman  |  May 23, 2026

ECONOMICS IS KNOWN as “the dismal science,” and perhaps for good reason. Oftentimes it can be abstract and overly academic. There are, however, certain economic concepts that can be helpful to individual investors. Below are two that I see as especially important. When it comes to the government’s ability to control—or least influence—the economy, there are two main levers. The first is fiscal policy, which refers to Congress’s (as well as state and local governments') ability to levy taxes and to spend money.  The most well known economist associated with fiscal policy was John Maynard Keynes. During economic downturns, Keynes argued, governments shouldn’t hesitate to spend more—and to run deficits, if need be—to help reduce unemployment and lift the economy back up. This is a generally accepted concept today, but in the 1930s, in the depths of the Great Depression, it was not obvious, and many believe that policymakers’ efforts to exercise fiscal discipline by balancing the budget during the Depression ended up prolonging the misery. It wasn’t until the mid-1930s, in fact, that President Roosevelt changed his view on this question. In their correspondence, Keynes convinced Roosevelt that loosening up on fiscal discipline, though counterintuitive, was the best way to bring the economy back to health. This approach has been used in every recession since. Most recently, during the pandemic, the government issued several rounds of stimulus payments to help bolster consumer finances. Monetary policy is the government’s second key lever. Unlike fiscal policy, monetary policy is the domain of the Federal Reserve. When you hear about the government “printing money,” it’s the Fed they’re referring to. Through a unique process, the Fed is able to create dollars out of thin air and then to use those dollars to help support the economy during downturns. During the pandemic, the Fed created trillions of new dollars through this mechanism. The Fed also lowered short-term interest rates, which it controls, in a further effort to nudge consumers to open their wallets. Both fiscal and monetary policy are powerful. But as we’ve seen in recent years, each can also carry side effects.  In the case of fiscal policy, spending too much for too long can drive the deficit to unsustainable levels. This has become a persistent problem. Though it’s now been several years since the pandemic, the federal government is still running deficits of about $2 trillion per year. In round numbers, taxes bring in about $5 trillion, but spending exceeds $7 trillion. Of particular concern is the fact that more than $1 trillion of that $7 trillion must now be allocated to interest payments on all the accumulated debt. To put that in perspective, we’re now spending more on interest than on defense. Is this situation sustainable? Here’s how I think about it: Imagine an individual with an annual income of $50,000 who spends $70,000 each year, including $10,000 in credit card payments. At some point, something will need to change, but neither political party seems interested in tackling it, for the obvious reason that any solution would require either raising taxes or cutting spending. Neither would be popular, so the deficits persist. The consequence of overdoing it with monetary policy is also serious: inflation. That’s what we saw very significantly in 2021 and 2022, and that’s where monetary and fiscal policy can become intertwined. For a brief period during the pandemic, a concept known as Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) gained popularity. The argument was that countries like the United States, with very large economies, were essentially immune to inflation risk and could print money almost without limit. It turned out, though, that MMT was a theory with no basis in reality, and that deficits do matter. Since ancient times, excessive use of monetary policy has always resulted in inflation, and that was exactly what we saw as a result of the Fed’s extraordinary monetary interventions in 2020. After inflation rose to nearly 10% in 2022, the Fed was forced to reverse course and raise interest rates. That had the desired effect of slowing inflation, but it then caused another problem: Since the government has to issue new bonds practically every day, higher rates have the effect of driving up the government’s borrowing costs, which then worsens the deficit. Higher interest rates also hurt consumers, especially those looking to buy homes. This, unfortunately, describes the situation we’re in today. In an effort to combat the pandemic, the government used both of the levers that it had, but now it’s effectively out of ammunition. Federal debt held by the public just recently climbed above 100% of gross domestic product for the first time since 1946. The Wall Street Journal referred to this as “a once-unthinkable threshold.” But before we declare the situation hopeless, it’s important to look at a separate concept in economics.  In 1942, Harvard economist Joseph Schumpeter released a book titled Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy. Among the concepts Schumpeter proposed was the notion of “creative destruction.” The idea—central to capitalist systems—was that entrepreneurs could always be counted on to move technology forward. At the same time, this meant that older technologies and companies would regularly find themselves pushed aside by new innovations. Importantly, though, Schumpeter argued that the net effect would be greatly positive. The evidence in favor of Schumpeter is all around us. Horse-and-buggy companies went out of business when the automobile was invented. Pony Express gave way to the telegram, then to the telephone. Typewriter manufacturers are mostly gone. And so on. And yet, despite all these changes, unemployment is under 5%, the economy is larger than it’s ever been, and income-per-capita is at an all-time high. What’s the relationship between Schumpeter’s theory and the earlier discussion about the government’s debt situation? You may recall that in the late-1990s, the federal government surprised observers when it began to run budget surpluses after years of deficits. How did things suddenly improve? Most attribute it to the productivity boom and stock market rally set in motion by the popularization of the internet. It's too early to know whether artificial intelligence will deliver the same economic benefits in the coming years as the web did 30 years ago. But as investors, this history is important to keep in mind. It’s a reminder that, in making financial decisions, we should be careful about reacting to economic forecasts. To be sure, the government’s financial health doesn’t look great, but as history has shown, this could change.   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 »

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Manifesto

May 24, 2026

NO. 49: WE SHOULD ensure our family will be okay financially, even if we aren’t around. That means making sure there’s enough money—and making sure our affairs are well organized.

Truths

May 24, 2026

NO. 60: SHORT-TERM results matter to long-term investors. Even if you’re investing for the long haul and have a strong stomach for short-term price swings, this volatility can have a huge impact on your long-run returns. Want to retire rich? Pray for lousy markets as you regularly save money during your working years—and buoyant markets as you approach retirement.

humans

May 23, 2026

NO. 33: WE'RE SWAYED by anecdotes, not statistics. The numbers tell us we’re more likely to be killed in a car accident than a plane crash, and yet we’re far more nervous about flying than driving. Plane disasters garner big headlines, and such stories stick in our mind. Ditto for investment narratives, like the hyped-up stock story or the scary market prediction.

act

May 23, 2026

CHECK WHO YOU have named as beneficiaries. Your retirement accounts, life insurance and any trusts will typically pass to the beneficiaries specified on those assets and not to the people named in your will. If your family situation has changed, or you simply don’t remember who you have listed, take a few minutes to review your beneficiary designations.

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Manifesto

May 24, 2026

NO. 49: WE SHOULD ensure our family will be okay financially, even if we aren’t around. That means making sure there’s enough money—and making sure our affairs are well organized.

Spotlight: Careers

Missing you….Or not?

Mark Crothers   |  Jun 19, 2025

It’s a question many of us ponder as we transition into retirement: Beyond the financial aspects, what truly sticks with us from our working lives, and what do we find ourselves missing?
For me, like many others, it’s the daily banter and camaraderie with customers and colleagues. There’s a unique energy in those professional interactions—the quick jokes, shared challenges, and the general buzz of a workplace. It’s a specific kind of social connection that’s surprisingly hard to replicate.

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Count Me Out

Dana Ferris   |  May 10, 2024

MY ALL-TIME FAVORITE movie is the Coen brothers’ 2000 classic, O Brother, Where Art Thou? At one point, Holly Hunter’s character, Penelope, declares, “I’ve said my piece and I’ve counted to three.” Her estranged husband, played by George Clooney, understood from long experience that once she had “counted to three,” her mind couldn’t be changed.
Last summer, I wrote an article that explored the decisions my husband and I are working through about our retirement date and location.

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Long Remembered: A Fine Recollection

Ken Cutler   |  Jun 29, 2024

Note: This is the second Forum piece from my ‘shelved articles’ archive. It was written months ago but never submitted to Jonathan.
These days, people often debate the value of a college education, but what about the value of a good high school education? I was fortunate to attend high school in Moorestown, New Jersey, a community that has always valued having an excellent school system.
With the perspective shaped by over 40 years of life post-graduation,

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Asking the Editor

Adam M. Grossman   |  Mar 8, 2025

NINE MONTHS AGO, Jonathan Clements shared with readers that he’d been diagnosed with an incurable form of cancer. It was devastating news, especially for longtime readers, many of whom regard Jonathan not only as a journalist but also a friend. I count myself among them, so I was grateful that Jonathan agreed to sit for an interview to share more about his background, his early years and his current thinking. 
You’ve joked that,

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Selling our business – the journey so far

greg_j_tomamichel   |  Jun 16, 2025

I’m sure that there are several on Humble Dollar who have navigated this path – selling a family business and moving on to whatever is next. We are part way along that journey, and it feels like a good time begin sharing our story.
For some background, we own and operate an automotive workshop in a small country town called Heyfield in Victoria, Australia. My Dad is now a 60 year veteran of the automotive industry,

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What’s Your Talent?

David Gartland   |  Aug 13, 2024

IN THE BIBLE, YOU’LL find the parable of the talents. Talents were a form of money. The story goes that, before a master left on a trip, he entrusted money to three servants. Two of the three doubled his money, and are praised for the intelligent way they handled the master’s money. The third worker simply buried the money, so it wouldn’t lose value. The master criticizes the third worker for being lazy, and takes the money away from him.

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Spotlight: Gartland

The Greater Good

David Gartland   |  Aug 27, 2024

ANY BABY BOOMER WHO grew up around New York City is probably familiar with the name Robert Moses. He was the city planner who wielded enormous power over the development of New York from the 1920s to the 1960s. Having grown up on Long Island, I saw his work firsthand in two main highways, the Long Island Expressway and the Northern State Parkway. They were designed to appear park-like, with arched bridges, wide grass run-offs and trees alongside the entire route. Then there’s Jones Beach State Park, another Moses project. Alongside wide expanses of sandy beach, there are swimming pools, a two-mile-long boardwalk, refreshment stands and enormous parking lots. I’m among the estimated six million people who visit the park each year. My wedding reception was held at a Jones Beach restaurant. Moses couldn’t stop the Brooklyn Dodgers from moving to Los Angeles, or the New York Giants going to San Francisco. He did, however, build Shea Stadium on the World’s Fair grounds in Flushing, Queens, to house the New York Mets, a recent expansion team. Moses’s contributions to the New York region are sweeping—and controversial. He bulldozed neighborhoods to make way for great highways and towering bridges. Few had the power to stand up to his far-reaching plans. I remember the expression used to justify his decisions: “the greater good.” When you cross the George Washington Bridge into New York City, most of the traffic flows onto the Cross Bronx Expressway. You’ve probably been stuck on the Cross Bronx because its width is no match for the volume of traffic it now gets. As the name implies, the expressway cuts right through the Bronx. In building the road, Moses leveled many old neighborhoods, sending the South Bronx into steep decline. Before, neighbors talked and played along the avenues. After,…
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Aiming High

David Gartland   |  Mar 7, 2024

MY WIFE NEEDED KNEE replacement surgery a few years ago. Her health plan, which was provided through the school district where she worked, was a preferred provider organization with a large network of doctors. After some research, my wife decided she wanted her operation done at New York City’s Hospital for Special Surgery. I love hearing about people's lives. I’ve long read biographies to learn how others gained their fame or fortune, hoping for pointers that would help me with my own life. I also pepper people with questions about their background. When we met my wife’s surgeon, I knew he’d graduated from Princeton University, which is near where we live. But I wanted to know more. I asked him what his major was. When I found out, I was surprised. “Art history? That’s a big leap to orthopedic surgery.” “My father knew that I’d have to work hard in medical school, so he wanted me to enjoy my undergraduate years.” “Did you know where you were going to med school?” I asked. The surgeon’s response: His father had graduated from Columbia University’s medical school, and he’d make sure his son got in. Early in my career, a manager once told me that “rank has privileges.” The rich have always enjoyed benefits that elude others. Clearly, my wife’s surgeon was part of the 1%, getting the benefit of an Ivy League education, plus guaranteed entrance to medical school. It must be nice. Knowing what the 1% have can either inspire us or defeat us. In his book The Magic of Thinking Big, David J. Schwartz makes the argument that the higher you aim, the higher your final landing spot will be. I’ve always wanted to be rich. Did I get it all? No. But my lofty goal meant I probably…
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Losing the Keys

David Gartland   |  Dec 21, 2023

MY MOTHER AND MY future mother-in-law met at a funeral 37 years ago. They started discussing their respective families. It was during that conversation that they realized they each had an unmarried child, and they decided it would be nice if their two children got together. Thus, on that fatal day, my life was changed forever. One of the stories I heard early on about my mother-in-law was how she lost a house to foreclosure. My father-in-law diligently handed over his paycheck to my mother-in-law every payday. My mother-in-law was the one responsible for paying the bills. One day, when my future wife was six years old, she walked home from school to find a “for sale” sign on the front lawn. The doors were locked and no one was home. My wife freaked. She thought her mother, father, older brother and younger sister had left, and forgotten to take her. She started crying and began walking to her uncle’s house down the street. At about this time, her father was driving up the block and stopped to find out why she was crying. When he got to their house and saw the sign, it was his turn to freak out. My in-laws were both born on 116th Street in Manhattan, just south of Harlem, to immigrant parents. My father-in-law was Italian. My mother-in-law was Chilean. They lived in separate apartment buildings. As my mother-in-law described it, “In the neighborhood, everyone was poor, but we were all equally poor, so we didn’t consider ourselves poor. We were just like everyone else." After serving in World War II, my father-in-law—like many GIs—wanted a better life. He got a job working in the aircraft industry building airplanes. He met a girl from the neighborhood and got married. They started a family and…
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Why We Spend

David Gartland   |  Feb 29, 2024

PAUL NEWMAN WAS BEST known as an actor, but he was also passionate about auto racing. He took his hobby seriously, improved his driving skills and won many races, including on his “home track” at Lime Rock, Connecticut. His wife, actress Joanne Woodward, supported her husband’s auto racing career, but also worried about him. She bought him a Rolex watch to wear when he raced. To personalize the gift, she had an inscription added to the back. It read: “Drive Carefully, Me.” Photographs show that Newman did indeed wear the watch when racing. In 2017, the watch—which Newman had given to his daughter's onetime boyfriend—was auctioned off for charity, and sold for $17.8 million. It’s a watch. It will not be used by the buyer to tell time, which is the purpose of a watch. It will likely sit on a shelf. The buyer will probably show it off to his friends, bragging that he paid almost $18 million. The more money folks have, the more they can spend. But $17.8 million for a watch? How much money would you need socked away to spend $17.8 million on a watch without flinching? I imagine you’d need at least $100 million, and probably much more. Imagine telling your wife, “Honey, I'm going out to buy a watch today.” “That’s nice, dear,” she says. “How much are you going to spend?” “$18 million,” you reply nonchalantly. She smiles, “Have fun.” What each of us buys depends upon our needs, values and ego. For the very rich, I think their ego probably drives the vast majority of their purchases. When you're sitting around the country club having your cigar and scotch, you need something to talk about. Why not tell them how much money you were able to spend at a charity auction?…
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My Unemployed Life

David Gartland   |  Oct 19, 2023

I HAVE BEEN FIRED, downsized, restructured and laid off 10 times in my life. The first time was at age 16, when I worked for a McDonald's-like hamburger joint, and the last time was shortly before I turned 70, when I was working for an insurance company as the manager of regulatory compliance.   I can't blame this on discrimination. I’m a white Christian male, five feet 10 inches tall, college educated, and of sound mind and body, so there are no obvious reasons for my lack of consistent employment. Instead, it seems my employers simply didn’t like or need me. My goal in life has been to be rich. I will hold off providing reasons for choosing this goal, but needless to say it was my goal. It’s this goal that has provided me with the fuel to keep going after every interruption in my employed life. I never let my frustrations after each termination prevent me from picking myself up, dusting myself off and moving on to the next job. This process wasn’t always easy, but it’s what I did to keep going. I’m telling my tale less to benefit HumbleDollar’s readers directly, many of whom are retired, but rather in case their children or grandchildren encounter similar misfortunes in their life. If you have family members who lose their job, you might suggest my strategy for not getting too discouraged. One of the best pieces of advice that I got in my life came from a guy I worked with, Steve Devito. Upon hearing me complain one day about some negative situation at work, Steve said to me, “Dave, all you can do is keep on keeping on.” That sage advice hasn’t just stayed with me throughout my career. It’s also influenced my approach to life in…
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Three’s Company

David Gartland   |  Dec 24, 2024

I SPENT MANY HOURS reading articles and books about retirement before I actually retired. I knew I’d retire eventually because of how often I found myself out of work. Studying retirement became one more thing I needed to do so I could be successful. Under the category of retirement, grandparenting was a frequent subject. This is understandable since many retirees are or soon become grandparents. My situation is different. My special-needs son will not get married or have kids. My son is not financially self-sufficient, and so is unlikely to be able to support a wife and children. I see my future as three’s company. My son will continue to live with my wife and me until we die or we need to move into an assisted living facility. We’re blessed to have a child who is self-sufficient, for the most part, with personal maintenance. He can take a shower by himself. He can make his own breakfast, lunch and dinner, too, so long as it involves opening a package, and then either eating the meal directly or first heating it in the microwave. Anything more and he needs to wait for his mother, since his father is no more skilled at cooking than he is. He’s self-sufficient as long as someone will do his laundry and any cooking. And that someone would be either his mother or me. I play tag-team with my wife. During the months that she was called upon to take care of her dying parents, I stayed with my son while she went to South Carolina and Long Island, New York. When I wanted to go on a solo road trip, she stayed with our son. While our day-to-day activities resemble a house with three roommates, we don’t feel comfortable leaving my son alone in…
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