Jonathan Clements's Blog, page 382

Newsletter No. 36

IS SAVING MONEY a bad thing? You might conclude that is indeed the case, based on all the criticism that’s recently been directed at the Financial Independence/Retire Early movement, otherwise known as FIRE. I take a look at the controversy in HumbleDollar’s latest newsletter.

The newsletter also includes brief descriptions—and links to—all the blogs that have appeared since the last newsletter. In addition, I’ve included details on how to get signed copies of my latest book, From Here to Financial Happiness. It’s the gift your entire family will be thrilled to receive this holiday season. They just don’t know it yet.

Follow Jonathan on Twitter  @ClementsMoney  and on Facebook . His most recent articles include Just Asking, Warning Shot and Ignore the Signs.

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Fanning the Flames

WHAT COULD POSSIBLY be wrong with saving like crazy, so you can retire early? That’s the notion behind the Financial Independence/Retire Early, or FIRE, movement. Yet lately, I’ve read a lot of carping about FIRE, both in articles and in the emails I receive.

Just last week, those complaints got yet another airing in The Wall Street Journal. Earlier, Suze Orman weighed in, arguing you need at least $5 million to retire early. “I hate it,” she said of the FIRE movement.

The complaints prompted a recent rejoinder from one of FIRE’s leading evangelists, Mr. Money Mustache. “The whole reason for doing any of this is to lead the happiest, most satisfying life you can possibly lead,” he argues.

Is all the controversy justified? Here are just five of the complaints I’ve heard about the Financial Independence/Retire Early movement:

Quitting the workforce in your 30s or 40s simply isn’t an option for the typical worker. Most of those who retire early had high incomes, allowing them to save great gobs of money during their truncated careers.
Many FIRE adherents are able to retire at a young age either because they avoided the cost of having children—or they hope that, by dropping out of the workforce before their kids reach college age, they’ll get heaps of college aid.
Just as quitting work may boost financial aid eligibility, it can increase the premium subsidies received under the Affordable Care Act. Some FIRE adherents even collect food stamps. That’s led critics to charge that these early retirees are gaming the system, effectively mooching off the rest of us.
The frugality required to retire early is excessive. While most Americans make the mistake of spending too much today while shortchanging tomorrow, FIRE devotees are criticized for being just as foolish—but in the opposite direction: They’re so focused on tomorrow that they constantly defer gratification.
Many of the FIRE movement’s vocal advocates either earn substantial incomes from blogging, writing books and other endeavors, or they have a spouse who still works fulltime. In other words, they really aren’t living off the savings they amassed during extraordinarily brief working careers.

There’s some sliver of truth to these complaints. Still, it feels like a cooked-up controversy. In a country where most people save too little and are pitifully ill-prepared for retirement, should we really be getting worked up over folks who are maybe saving a tad too diligently? Indeed, I’d argue we need more Americans who are willing to sacrifice today so they can have a better tomorrow.

Perhaps I’m sympathetic because I favored the FIRE lifestyle long before it was a thing. Through my initial decades in the workforce, I lived modestly and saved prodigious amounts, so today—in my 50s—I can spend my days as I wish. Maybe more important, the philosophy that underpins the FIRE movement meshes with four key themes I often harp on.

First, forget pursuing your passions in your 20s and 30s. Instead, you should spend those years pursuing dollars, so you can spend your 40s and 50s doing what you love. My contention: Pursing your passions in your 50s will bring greater happiness than endeavoring to do so in your 20s, when you probably don’t really know what you want and when the conventional work world will likely still seem novel and exciting.

Second, the key to financial success is no secret at all: You need great savings habits. By comparison, everything else—investing in stocks for the long haul, favoring low-cost index funds, managing taxes—pales in importance.

That said, one of the key notions that drives the FIRE movement is also propelling the shift from expensive active management to low-cost, tax-efficient indexing. In both cases, folks are focused on cutting out expenditures that bring little or no benefit.

Third, the material goods we hanker after—the bigger house, the faster car, the latest electronic gadget—deliver surprisingly little happiness. If we live more frugally, there’s every likelihood we’ll be just as happy and, I suspect, even happier. The fact is, the thrill from a $35,000 car quickly fades, but the sense of financial security from $35,000 in the bank never grows old.

Finally, there’s often scant relationship between the work we care about and the work that’ll generate the biggest paycheck. To be sure, some folks have jobs that pay them handsome sums while also bringing them great satisfaction. If you’re in that camp, consider yourself extremely lucky.

But for many of us, there’s an inverse relationship: The more dollar income a job generates, the less psychic income we receive. That’s why saving early in adult life is such a smart strategy. By doing so, we can fairly quickly buy ourselves the freedom to spend our days doing what we’re passionate about and what we feel is important, even if that work pays us little or nothing.

Want to make sure you have that sort of financial freedom by the time you’re in your 40s or 50s? Saving like crazy in your 20s and 30s seems like a small price to pay—and it could be one of the wisest investments you’ll ever make.

Holiday Offer

WANT A COPY of From Here to Financial Happiness signed by yours truly? It could be a great holiday gift for a friend or family member—or for yourself. Just follow this simple four-step process:

Email Jonathan(at)JonathanClements.com specifying how many copies you want and what mailing address they should be sent to.
You’ll receive an invoice from PayPal asking for $20 per copy. That $20, which covers the book, shipping and handling, is 33% off the cover price.
Pay the invoice using a credit card, debit card or PayPal. You don’t need a PayPal account to purchase books. Your copies will be shipped once your invoice is paid.
If you want copies for Hanukkah, please pay your invoice by Nov. 15. If you want them for Christmas, please pay by Nov. 30.

Latest Blogs

“I can’t wait to have a closet filled with only the things I wear,” writes Lucinda Karter. “My hope: If I can see better the clothes that I have and like, maybe I’ll feel less deprived—and less tempted to spend.”
What caught readers’ attention last month? Check out the seven most popular blogs published by HumbleDollar in October.
“Be concerned when an IRS investigator walks in unannounced at your home or office,” warns Julian Block. “Odds are, that sort of surprise audit means the agency suspects you filed returns that are fraudulent.”
Jiab Wasserman front-loaded her sons’ inheritance—by funding Roth IRAs on their behalf: “We’re now free to spend our money without guilt that there’ll be nothing left for our kids.”
“Restaurants frequently remind me of the concept of diminishing returns,” writes Dennis Quillen. “The first sips of beer are the best. Additional sips are progressively less and less rewarding.”
Working for yourself is a costly proposition. But it comes with one huge financial benefit, says Ross Menke: You can contribute $55,000 to a solo 401(k) in 2018, or $61,000 if age 50 or older.
“Amid the gales of creative destruction, it’s hard to know which companies will thrive,” notes Dennis Friedman. “Among the 26,000 companies traded in the U.S. over the past nine decades, just 36 existed for the entire period.”
Want to get even more money into a Roth IRA? See if your employer’s 401(k) plan will accept after-tax contributions. Adam Grossman explains.
“When I was 13, I talked my way into a job at a local pet shop for $5 a week, plus a free tropical fish now and then,” recalls Richard Quinn. “I even tried raising tropical fish to sell, but they ate their own.”
For the past decade, Phil Dawson and his siblings have cared for their mother. What have they learned? Lesson No. 4: Many hands make for light work—and more disagreements.
“Watch out for things like private REITs and equity-indexed annuities,” warns Tony Isola. “Risk doesn’t disappear just because you can’t get a daily price quote.”
Getting married or moving in together? Maybe it’s time for the talk, says Kathleen Rehl—the one about how you’ll handle your new household’s finances.
“I’m not saying that Apple is over the hill,” opines Adam Grossman. “I’m just saying it’s important to avoid loving an investment so much that you lose objectivity.”
Where are stocks headed in the months ahead? If you ask a stupid question, you’ll get a stupid answer.

Follow Jonathan on Twitter  @ClementsMoney  and on Facebook . His most recent articles include Just Asking, Warning Shot and Ignore the Signs.

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Seven Deadly Sins

MANY FINANCIAL advisors are allowed to recommend investments that are great moneymakers for their own retirement—but not so good for those who buy them.

These salespeople are incentivized to push clients into investments that pay the highest commissions. It’s a system that jeopardizes the retirement of millions of Americans. Billions are spent annually on unnecessary fees. While the industry has many decent people, the sinners outnumber the saints. Here are just seven of their transgressions:

Variable annuities in retirement accounts. This is the investment equivalent of wearing both a belt and suspenders. Retirement savers end up paying high fund fees for tax deferral that their retirement accounts are already giving them for free.
Loaded mutual funds. With so many low or even zero commission options available, why pay a dime to enter or leave an investment? Upfront class A sales charges are brutal for small investors in retirement accounts. Until certain breakpoints are reached, the little guy often ends up losing 5% from each contribution, plus paying ongoing fund fees that are frequently above 1%. We have seen this time and time again in 403(b) plans. Advisor-sold 529 college savings plans are another fertile ground for this unethical practice.
Free lunch and dinner seminars. This age-old trick is a lure to sell unnecessary, high-fee products. Attendees feel they owe their hosts something. Go to one of these seminars and you could end up consuming the planet’s most expensive chicken marsala.
Hidden fees. Unlike most other industries, investors seldom receive a bill from their advisors. Fees are silently subtracted and often difficult to detect, creating ample opportunity to overcharge and deceive clients—unless those clients are willing to read a 500-page prospectus. Some scoundrels even use this deception to claim investments are “free.”
Pushing yield. Many conservative investors demand investment income. Unsavory advisors satisfy this desire by finding them risky bonds, master limited partnerships and stocks with high dividend payments. Often, clients end up buying individual low-quality bonds at high markups that put their money at great risk. Losing 40% of principal, while earning 10% income, isn’t a sustainable strategy.
Questionable certifications. There are more than 160 different investment advisor designations. Aside from a few, like the Certified Financial Planner and Chartered Financial Analyst designations, most aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on. This doesn’t stop the unscrupulous from marketing them as if they’re impressive credentials.
Selling illusions. Watch out for things like private REITs and equity-indexed annuities. “It’s like a CD, but you earn the returns of the stock market” is often the catchphrase. Without FDIC insurance, this couldn’t be further from the truth. Risk doesn’t disappear just because you can’t get a daily price quote.

Tony Isola’s previous blog for HumbleDollar was 403 Beware. Tony works at Ritholtz Wealth Management, specializing in helping educators reach their financial goals using a fiduciary model. To learn more, visit his blog,  A Teachable Moment, or follow him on Twitter   @ATeachMoment.

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Two’s a Crowd

IRS AUDITS are usually uneventful. Auditors ask taxpayers to produce receipts, canceled checks and similar documentation to verify deductions and other facts and figures. When taxpayers come up with the required substantiation, examiners move on to other audits. In fact, the feds frequently close cases without exacting extra taxes—and sometimes they even authorize refunds.

But things aren’t always so friendly.

Be concerned when an IRS investigator walks in unannounced at your home or office and asks to see your records. Odds are, that sort of surprise audit means the agency suspects you filed returns that are fraudulent.

If you’re targeted for what looks like an out-of-the-ordinary audit, be sure to find out the official designation of the person with whom you’re suddenly chatting. Is the Sherlock a revenue agent with the Examination Division or a special agent with the Criminal Investigation Division?

The difference isn’t academic. Revenue agents conduct routine examinations of dependency exemptions, business expenses and similar items. Ordinarily, special agents are assigned exclusively to investigate suspected criminal violations of the tax laws.

Also, be on guard when you receive advance notice of an audit, but it turns out two examiners show up to scrutinize returns. Both may be revenue agents—one a veteran and the other a rookie who’s along merely to get some on-the-job experience—which is less worrisome.

The appearance of two examiners, however, often means that a special agent and a revenue agent are teamed together on a “joint investigation”—the bureaucratic euphemism for what goes on when the agency accumulates evidence for a criminal prosecution.

The penalties for tax evasion are severe: a stay at Club Fed of as much as five years and/or fines of as much as $100,000 for each fraudulent return. Those fines are on top of the hefty civil penalties for fraud. You’ll also be dinged for the back taxes and interest that the IRS routinely exacts from cheaters who are spared criminal prosecution.

The IRS sets strict guidelines for its special agents on what they can and should do when they drop in—with or without notice. They’re supposed to identify themselves as special agents and to advise individuals of their constitutional rights. The ones that most concern you are “the right to remain silent and to be advised by an attorney.”

What should you do if you become aware that you’ve been singled out for a criminal investigation? Your options immediately dwindle to one: Get the advice of an attorney knowledgeable about criminal investigations before you hand over any records or make any statements to special agents. Such disclosures can come back to haunt you when they’re pieced together and repeated on the witness stand by government sleuths.

J ulian Block writes and practices law in Larchmont, New York, and was formerly with the IRS as a special agent (criminal investigator). His previous blogs include Stepping Up, Give and Receive, and Hitting Home. Information about his books is available at JulianBlockTaxExpert.com. Follow  Julian on Twitter @BlockJulian.

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Hard Earned

LOOKING BACK on my 75 years or, at least, those after age 10, I realize I have always managed to make money. I never received an allowance or lavish gifts as a child, but it never mattered. I always earned what I needed.

Let me count the ways: raking leaves, shoveling snow, lemonade stands and—my favorite—rummaging through the trash cans in a local park for soda bottles. We got 2¢ for regular size and, if lucky, 5¢ for large bottles. This was the 1950s version of recycling. I’m betting such activity would be frowned upon today by both parents and kids.

As children, we made money putting on plays and running our own carnivals with the neighborhood gang. Think The Little Rascals. We’d even allow our parents to throw a wet sponge at us for a nickel. Shining shoes with my sister was another venture. Since we lived in an apartment building, I also helped collect the garbage via a dumbwaiter each evening, shoveled coal into the furnace and carried out the ashes. Man, were those cans heavy.

When I was 13, I talked my way into a job at a local pet shop for $5 a week, plus a free tropical fish now and then. I even tried raising tropical fish to sell, but they ate their own. When I was 15, I got an afterschool job at the local library running a mimeograph machine and shelving books for 75¢ an hour. At the time, the minimum wage was $1, but I didn’t complain. I just looked for more hours to work. In between, there was selling greeting cards door to door. I still have the .22 rifle I bought with money earned from that venture.

Earning our own money seemed the right thing to do and it was mostly fun. And while I didn’t realize it at the time, there was a bit of satisfaction in what we did.

How are things different today? In 2017, children age 4 to 14 received an average $454 in allowance over the course of the year, in addition to cash gifts for birthdays and holidays. That works out to an average $8.74 a week, with 14-year-olds at an average $12.26. Meanwhile, a 2016 MarketWatch article notes that, “roughly seven in 10 parents give their children an allowance… and roughly one in four kids gets $100 or more per month.”

While some parents dole out cash for chores like taking care of a pet, doing dishes or making a bed, I see these things as a family obligation. They aren’t true work. They don’t instill a sense of entrepreneurship, independence and responsibility. There’s no success or failure involved and no dealing with a boss. You are getting paid for things you should be doing.

I have lived in my current house for 43 years. Never has a child knocked on the door and asked to rake my lawn. Only once was I asked about shoveling snow and that was more than 30 years ago.

I’m not lobbying for a return to the days of the Industrial Revolution and child labor. But I do think learning to handle money starts with learning what it takes to earn it. And when you spend the money you’ve earned, you should have to keep working to replace what you spent.

Richard Quinn blogs at QuinnsCommentary.com. Before retiring in 2010, Dick was a compensation and benefits executive. His previous blogs include Time to Choose, Reality Check, Under Construction and Mini-Golf, Anyone. Follow Dick on Twitter @QuinnsComments.

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Flying Solo

THE RANKS of self-employed Americans are expected to rise to 42 million by 2020. It’s easy to understand why folks flock to self-employment. These workers report higher job satisfaction and overall happiness. The downside: They need to craft a benefits package that mirrors what they lost by leaving traditional fulltime positions.

Other than health insurance, the cornerstone of any employee benefits package is the employer-sponsored retirement plan. Most often, this is a 401(k), 403(b) or similar plan. Self-employed individuals, however, will want to use a retirement account designed just for them: the solo 401(k) plan.

As a self-employed business owner, I’ve opened and funded a solo 401(k). Having been stuck with both a high-fee 401(k) plan and a low-contribution SIMPLE IRA at former employers, I was eager to open a solo 401(k), because these plans offer a slew of attractive benefits:

High contribution limits. A solo 401(k) allows self-employed individuals to maximize retirement contributions as both an employee and employer. In 2018, total annual contributions are typically capped at $55,000. This consists of either an $18,500 employee elective contribution or 100% of net business income, whichever is less. The employer contribution can be up to $36,500 or 25% of net business income, whichever is less. If you’re age 50 or older at year-end, you can make a catch-up contribution of $6,000, for a total of $61,000.

Low cost. Each financial institution that offers a solo 401(k) plan has a slightly different fee structure, but most are extremely low cost. Vanguard’s offering charges $20 annually per fund held in the plan. This fee is waived if you have total assets of more than $50,000 held at Vanguard.

Easy administration. Overall, a solo 401(k) plan is almost as easy to administer as an IRA or Roth IRA. There are no annual filing requirements for plans with less than $250,000 in assets. Once that asset level is reached, the business owner is required to file a Form 5500-EZ on an annual basis. The information required to complete the form is provided by the financial institution that oversees your plan.

Consolidating accounts. Former employer 401(k), 403(b), SEP, IRA and other retirement accounts can be rolled over into a solo 401(k). Besides simplifying your finances, this can be a huge plus if you’ve ever made—or plan to make—nondeductible contributions to an IRA.

By rolling over all IRA money, except your nondeductible contributions, into your solo 401(k), you’ll then be able to convert these nondeductible contributions to a Roth IRA and pay little or nothing in taxes. This strategy is known as the “backdoor Roth.” You can read more in HumbleDollar’s money guide.

Investment options. Gone are the days when an employer plan might be limited to high-fee actively managed funds. A solo 401(k) plan lets you manage your investments as you wish, similar to the investment choices you have with your IRA and Roth IRA.

An added bonus: Spouses who are employed by the business may also participate in the solo 401(k). This potentially increases a household’s annual contribution limit to $110,000, or $122,000 if both are age 50 or older.

Ross Menke is a certified financial planner and the founder of Lyndale Financial, a fee-only financial planning firm in Nashville, Tennessee. His previous blog was Slow Going. Ross strives to provide clear and concise advice, so his clients can achieve their life goals. Follow him on Twitter @RossVMenke.

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Merging Money

I TIED THE KNOT again—at age 71. Four years into widowhood, I met Charlie online. Also widowed, he and I began dating cautiously, each respectful of our late spouses and those marriages, as well as our adult children and grandchildren.

We also focused on financial and legal issues. We knew from experience, and from research we had read, that financial disagreements can derail love. In an international survey of  widows and money, women shared advice about re-partnering: Talking about money matters was essential before remarriage, so as not to be blindsided later.

Here are 10 vital questions that Charlie and I used to delve into financial issues before our marriage last August. If you’re contemplating a new relationship, possibly including remarriage, these money talks may also benefit you:

How will we make decisions about money, such as spending, saving, handling debt and budgeting?
Who pays for what? Will we use, say, a joint credit card or checking account for shared expenses?
Will we live together fulltime or keep separate homes?
If we live together fulltime, whose place will we choose? Or should we move into a new home?
What are our plans for retirement? If already retired, what retirement lifestyle does each of us desire?
Will we merge our investments or hold them separately?
How will we handle it if one of us earns substantially less than the other or has fewer financial assets?
What about health issues and potential costs down the road? How will we navigate those?
What financial responsibilities are we willing to take on for our children or aging parents?
How do each of us feel about a prenuptial agreement?

Communicating honestly about money with your partner can deepen your relationship as a couple. I know it worked for Charlie and me.

Observe how your partner deals with money before you broach the subject. Where to begin? Perhaps start with, “I’ve been thinking about my financial future lately. I’d like both of us to talk about that, as we look toward our future together.”

Rather than jumping into all 10 questions right away, find a time when you’re both relaxed and undistracted. Maybe it’s after dinner on Sunday night, enjoying your favorite beverage in a quiet spot. Try to express yourself clearly and calmly, keeping your first money talk brief, preferably no more than 30 minutes. Then try another talk the following week.

You’ll learn what’s negotiable and what isn’t for both you and your partner. In certain situations, is there room for collaboration? How about an alternative approach that feels comfortable for both of you? Remember, there’s no one-size-fits-all perfect way for a couple to handle their finances.

Kathleen M. Rehl retired from financial planning in 2013 and now focuses on speaking, writing and doing research that empowers widows. She authored the award-winning book, Moving Forward on Your Own: A Financial Guidebook for Widows . Kathleen walks an hour most days, practices gentle yoga and enjoys writing poetry. You can learn more at www.KathleenRehl.com.

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Hole Story

IS APPLE the greatest company ever? On the surface, it certainly appears that way. The company sells more than 450,000 iPhones every day. Customers love them: According to surveys, iPhone customer satisfaction stands at 98%. Last year, Apple’s revenues topped $250 billion, and in its most recent quarter the company saw profits jump 41% from a year earlier. Not surprisingly, the company’s share price reflects this success. Having gained 33% over the past year, the company recently reached $1 trillion in market value—the first company ever to achieve that milestone.

What’s not to like?

I have nothing against Apple. The iPhone is a great product. I have a lot of respect for the way CEO Tim Cook runs the company. As an investor, though, I’m not sure these numbers tell the whole story.

Yes, Apple’s profits grew by 41% over the past year. But can we accept that figure at face value? It’s worth looking under the covers. Let’s begin with a quick tour through Apple’s fourth quarter profit and loss statement. There are a few things to learn.

The starting point on a profit and loss statement is revenue. By that measure, Apple grew at a healthy 20% rate. Pre-tax profits grew a little more slowly, at 18%. But here’s where things get interesting. Somehow, Apple was able to convert that gain of 18% in pre-tax profits into an increase of 41% in after-tax earnings per share, which is the key driver of stock prices.

How did it manage that? First, Apple benefitted from the recently enacted corporate tax cut. As a result, even though profits increased by 18%, its tax bill decreased by 28%. Also as part of the new tax rules, the company was able to repatriate hundreds of billions of dollars that essentially had been stranded overseas. From this cash hoard, Apple was able to buy back more than $70 billion of its own shares. This had the effect of substantially reducing Apple’s share count, thereby increasing the profits allocated to each remaining share. Taken together, the result was a 41% increase in earnings on a per-share basis.

So what’s not to like? Apple management is doing everything they can to delight customers and shareholders alike.

The problem, in my view, can be found in a supplementary disclosure document provided by Apple. If you look at the most recent one, you’ll see that iPhone sales seem to have plateaued. While iPhone revenue grew by 29%, the number of phones sold increased only fractionally—0.5%, to be exact. In other words, virtually all of that 29% revenue increase came from higher prices. Over the past year, the average price of an iPhone has increased from about $620 to nearly $800, with several topping $1,000.

Why am I harping on this? Aren’t these price increases just more proof of Apple’s dominance, its customers’ loyalty and the immortal magic of Steve Jobs?

In some ways, yes. But I’m focusing on it because I see three cautionary lessons for individual investors:

1. Always look at the numbers behind the numbers. Whenever you’re looking at economic or financial data, don’t settle for simple summaries. Keep your hand on your wallet until you know what’s really going on.

2. Be wary of short-term data. This year, Apple benefitted from a set of unusual circumstances: a 29% price increase, a huge corporate tax cut and a onetime “amnesty” on cash repatriation that enabled gargantuan buybacks. These events are unlikely to repeat. As any high school student can tell you, you can’t draw a trend line through a single data point. Always look at long-term data before making a decision.

3. Remember that trees don’t grow to the sky. In defending the slowdown in iPhone unit sales, Tim Cook stated, “I don’t buy the view that the market is saturated.” I’m sure he’s sincere in making that statement. But I’m also sure that the CEOs of General Motors or Sears or IBM—or BlackBerry—would have said the same thing when their companies were on top of the world, just as Apple is today.

To be clear, I’m not saying that Apple is over the hill. I’m just saying it’s important to avoid loving an investment so much that you lose objectivity.

Adam M. Grossman’s previous blogs include Seeking Zero, Garbage In and All Too Human . Adam is the founder of  Mayport Wealth Management , a fixed-fee financial planning firm in Boston. He’s an advocate of evidence-based investing and is on a mission to lower the cost of investment advice for consumers. Follow Adam on Twitter  @AdamMGrossman .

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Signed and Sealed

WANT A COPY of From Here to Financial Happiness signed by yours truly? It might make for an enriching holiday gift for a friend or family member—or perhaps for yourself.

Just follow this simple four-step process:

Shoot an email to Jonathan(at)JonathanClements.com specifying how many copies you want and what mailing address they should be sent to.
You’ll receive an invoice from PayPal asking for $20 per copy. That $20, which covers the book, shipping and handling, is 33% off the cover price.
Pay the invoice using a credit card, debit card or PayPal. You don’t need a PayPal account to purchase books. Your copies will be shipped once your invoice is paid.
If you want copies for Hanukkah, please pay your invoice by Nov. 15. If you want them for Christmas, please pay by Nov. 30.

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October’s Hits

BUSINESS HEADLINES last month were dominated by the stock market’s daily drama. But HumbleDollar’s readers also had other things on their mind. While two of October’s best-read blogs were devoted to the stock market, five weren’t:

Jack of Hearts
Bearing Gifts
Won in Translation
When to Roth
Ignore the Signs?
403 Beware
The Other Half

Last month also saw big traffic for October’s three newsletters, A Good Life, Thinking About Money and Warning Shot, as well as for a blog from late September, Budget Busting. Overall, it was the busiest month in HumbleDollar’s brief 22-month history, with the number of page views up 141% from the same month in 2017.

Follow Jonathan on Twitter  @ClementsMoney  and on Facebook . His new book, From Here to Financial Happiness , can now be ordered from  Amazon  and Barnes & Noble .

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