Category Archives: Personal Finance FAQ

Opportunities pop up for everybody all of the time. It’s the way that we progress. It’s whether or not you’re in the right frame of mind or in the right stage of your life or if you’re even looking for them [that determines] whether or not you see them.
–Ben Brown

If you’ve been watching the news lately, it’s been hard to miss the stories of the run up in the price of GameStop’s stock, driven primarily by a Reddit user group called WallStreetBets. Some of the users, particularly one who … Read the article

Two days ago, I received my Moderna COVID-19 first of two vaccine injections.

Fortunately, there were few side effects.

Only side effect so far is a sore arm, sort of like a tetanus shot. #COVID19 #vaccination https://t.co/o5VDTPFwN8

— Jason Hull, CFP® (@hull_j) January 21, 2021

In the documentation I received upon getting my injection, there was a sheet on the V-Safe After Vaccination Health Checker. Being the tech-oriented person I am, I duly registered on the site.

My experience with this tool has been awful – mostly in line with … Read the article

My wife and I have been very keenly interested in the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our lives. We’ve been following the science, because, after all, we’re much more inclined to believe what scientists such as Dr. Anthony Fauci have to say versus, say, politically motivated spokespeople.

After all, if Dr. Fauci is cited 221,323 times (as of my count on 1/19/2021), then people who are much better trained to understand science than I or a large number of politicians believe him, so should I.

Thus, as soon as … Read the article

Resilience is accepting your new reality, even if it’s less good than the one you had before. You can fight it, you can do nothing but scream about what you’ve lost, or you can accept that and try to put together something that’s good.
–Elizabeth Edwards

12 1/2 months ago, my wife and I retired. I semi-retired, as I was (and still am) on several boards, but, otherwise, our lives went from the 8-5 grind (and way beyond the 8-5 as a co-founder of a startup private equity group) to the … Read the article

People always live forever when there is an annuity to be paid them.
–Jane Austen

When I had clients who wanted to retire before they were eligible for Social Security, I would create models based on claiming Social Security at the appropriate time, giving them a secondary source of income beyond their investments.

In theory, Social Security should replace some amount of income that had been generated by investments, allowing retirees to accumulate less before retiring.

Even the fabled William Bengen 4% safe withdrawal rate study never mentions Social Security as … Read the article