Several years ago I listened to Requiem: The Story of One Sky by Dimash Qudaibergen, an internationally acclaimed singer from Kazakhstan whose music often explores themes of peace, compassion, and our shared humanity. The song is a plea for peace in a world too often divided by conflict. (I encourage you to listen to it on YouTube.) At the conclusion of the song appeared a quote from Pope Francis:
“Dialogue, understanding and the widespread promotion of a culture of tolerance,

Here’s something that will either comfort or disturb you: the mathematical technique underpinning your retirement strategy was invented by an unwell mathematician playing solitaire in his sick bed.
In 1946, Stanislaw Ulam found himself laid up recovering from encephalitis with nothing to do but shuffle cards. Being the sort of guy who couldn’t boil an egg without pondering the thermodynamics involved, he started wondering about the mathematical probability of winning at solitaire.
He tried working it out properly with equations and formulae,

Trusts are said to be a tool for its grantor to control from the grave. The first things I look at every morning when I open HD are Jonathan’s quips above the “Latest Posts”, and the most recent thoughts in the “Get Educated” section. 
I sort of think of “Get Educated” as the legacy that Jonathan has granted to us; his way of continuing to guide and educate. 
One of today’s topics is Monte Carlo analysis,

I just read an article that questioned the value of retirees downsizing, perhaps in the process relocating even to a new neighborhood. It got me thinking about our decision. What may be correct for you depends on your primary goal. That can be tricky and over time it may change. 
Our primary goal was convenience- it’s a good thing it wasn’t saving money. 
It has been almost eight years since we sold our house of nearly 45 years and moved 7/10 of a mile to a 55+ condo community of eight buildings with 12 units each on 16 acres.  

Here’s something I’m debating and hoping the collective brain trust of the HD community can push me in the right direction.
As a retired Fed, I have access to the Thrift Saving Plan G Fund.  For those not familiar, it’s basically a high yield savings account on steroids.  It pays rates comparable to medium/long-term Treasuries but has no default risk, duration risk, or interest rate risk.  It only pays interest and can never fall in value. 

I watched a YouTube that said there are 3 ways to tackle the LTC problem.
1. Long term care insurance, (which is more costly as we aged),
2. Whole life w a LTC rider, (maybe much more costly comparing option 1), or
3. Self funding from investment.
Your thoughts. Thanks in advance.

I DON’T HAVE MANY regrets in life. But there is one conversation with my mother that I wish I had never had. It was about moving her into an assisted living facility. She was in her 90s, and I thought it would be best for both of us.
My mother would receive better care, and I could take much-needed breaks. She could even keep her house and spend time there when I was with her.
It seemed like a middle-of-the-road approach to providing care.

THE WAY INVESTORS think about the stock market may be entirely wrong.
Intuition tells us, and academic research confirms, that a company’s stock price should respond to important news and information. When a company announces a new product, for example, its stock should go up. And when results fall short of expectations, it should decline. 
But a new paper titled “The Inefficient Pricing of News” calls this idea into question. The authors found that investors respond much more slowly and inconsistently to market news than previously thought.

A article in the NYTs says “Many people are not aware IRAs exist.”  Can that be true? I bet it is.
One survey reports the median worker has only $955 saved for retirement. Another says 1 in 5 Americans over 50 has no retirement savings.Some people push for a national IRA with auto enrollment because people don’t have access at work. 
I find that curious because as you know there are individual IRAs, ROTH IRAs, SEP IRAs (Simplified Employee Pension),

Possibly a misuse of the term, in its strict financial sense. Anyhow…
For decades I’ve heard about the value or use of leverage. It’s most easily recognized in our homes, often bought with a small down payment and a big loan, so that even minor increases in home value in early years create impression of a big return on our actual expenditure.
Yet last year, when I took on several major home “repairs” (a loose term for work that included demolishing and rebuilding a decrepit garage),

The door bell rang unexpectedly three times in three days. The first on Wednesday, was a couple high school kids trying to drum up some window washing jobs. They seemed like good kids, and after telling them I already had cleaners, I felt sort of bad sending them away empty handed. I hope they get some jobs in the neighborhood.
The second ring, on Thursday, was from a guy selling exterminator services. Pretty quickly he launched into his spiel,

Most investors understand risk-adjusted return. I’m guessing few apply it to the way they earn the money in the first place. That gap, between what you made and what it actually cost to make it, is where some of the most important financial decisions of a life get made without anyone really noticing.
Take my friend as an example. He’s lived a remarkably colourful life. He served in the UK equivalent of Force Recon: small teams,

A $300 a week drug habit.
Over a year, it’s more than $15,000.
Over a decade, it’s well into six figures.
Over a lifetime, the total can be staggering.
After my sister died from a fentanyl overdose last year, I found out the cost of her addiction.
Then I realized I was measuring the wrong loss.
Some struggles arrive suddenly. Others quietly settle into a family and remain there for decades.
My sister struggled with addiction from her teenage years onward.

When I took at look at the data I was a bit surprised. We hear a lot about the US being the richest country in the world, but the data was a shock.
Using a global measure, it’s not hard to be wealthy.
These figures come from global income distribution analyses and calculators using World Bank and UN data.
Net worth
Based on the latest global income and wealth distribution data, the approximate cutoffs for the 50th,

If submissions could be anonymous, it would be very interesting to learn about the demographics of the HD readership.   For example ;
current age,
female or male,
primary occupation (either present or past),
age at retirement (if retired),
net worth (excluding cars and primary residence- other real estate holdings can be included,
etc…..
Editor(s) – is there a way to do this ?