Jonathan Clements's Blog, page 4

re RDQ’s “down arrows” —> My 1 cent :

I posted the following 1-2 days ago within the body of another topic.  Since it has so far garnered  7 down votes, you have
1) proven my point
2) I am making it a post of its own.
3) thanking David Lancaster for being the only one who actually bothered to leave a written comment, see below.
re RDQ’s “down arrows” —> My 1 cent :



Why is there “voting” on peoples comments ? If you have a comment, either positive or negative, post it. Otherwise, keep it to yourself if you don’t have the intestinal fortitude to post it publicly.

Is this Facebook or Instragram ? Are we posting to get “Likes” ?
It is childish and beneath the dignity of this blog site. Are we not adults here ? The ability to vote on comments should be removed.



 



 







David Lancaster
12 hours ago
 

Reply to  Mark Bergman


Despite your down votes, I agree 100%. This site seems to be headed in the wrong direction. This site is the closest I get to social media. I have always enjoyed the comments, and the fact that, whether I agree with them or not, they are directed at the topic, not an attack on the writer’s personality.
I keep away from social media because it has become the cesspool of the internet. I truly hope that this site does not become one that I feel I can no longer feel comfortable interacting with due to the tenor of the commenting, and increasing number of down votes for innocuous comments on certain writers’ posts that seem like they are negative just because of who they are.

The post re RDQ’s “down arrows” —> My 1 cent : appeared first on HumbleDollar.

No, I did not have a heart attack, but I surely got a lot of tests

When my cardiologist called, she used words I rarely hear. I asked her to hold on as I put my cell phone on speaker so my wife could hear. She repeated, "You were right!"

Many weeks before, after my Apple watch suggested I had Afib, I called my cardiologist, who happened to be on vacation. The doctor on call suggested that I go to a trauma-equipped ER hospital.

I arrived unannounced and explained the reason for my visit. Within 2 minutes, blood was taken, and I was hooked up to an EKG machine. After reading the EKG, they sent me to the waiting room. By the way, I was feeling just fine throughout. But they gave me lots of tests in the hospital, and my cardiologist gave me more a few weeks later. I passed them all, but the mystery remained. Why were my TROPONIN levels so high and not dissipating?

I suggested that I also had unexplained elevated CK levels, another muscle enzyme. She ordered additional blood tests to check both CK and Troponin levels. The blood lab determined that I also had something that caused a false positive for high troponin, caused by my mysterious high CK levels (I guess I'm just one of those people).

The reason for the background information is that I was instructed to include the lab report in the Medical ID and Health app on my phone. 

Her concern was the potential of being treated for a heart attack when, maybe, I just had indigestion.

Emergency personnel depend on the information we add to our phones. Keeping it up to date is a task we cannot ignore.

 

 

 

 

The post No, I did not have a heart attack, but I surely got a lot of tests appeared first on HumbleDollar.

Still a Wild Child: When Spending Habits Never Grow Up

My friend is an independent IT Systems Integrator. She essentially pitches for tenders from large corporations and government departments for help with new software integration. It's a very well-paid job, but there can be lulls between contracts. This requires a good deal of business savvy to manage not only the workload and tendering process, but also her intermittent financial situation and the need for constant training to stay relevant.

A woman who has her life together you would think. I know her very well, we first met during the global live aid concert being staged at Wembley in London in the mid 80's. She was a bit of a wild child and we have a lot of history together. But here's the thing, she's no different today when it comes to personal finance.

She can burn through cash faster than I can blink. We met up recently, and over a few drinks we started talking about my recent retirement and the hopes for her own retirement. We know each other's life struggles intimately, and she had no problems telling me the personal numbers. My shock was evident, she's not in a good place.

We spent a long evening brainstorming her choices and possible paths going forward towards retirement. The problems are compounded by her age in a young person's game and the gradual whittling away of her dependable business contacts due to their own retirements, her network is fading just like her retirement dreams.

I came away from our time together slightly downbeat. I would love to say we found a brilliant solution, but alas life is real and happy endings are sometimes only the work of fairytales. I don't know if there's any moral to this story other than the obvious around the importance of planning for your future self. In this case the horse has well and truly bolted.

Maybe there's a little hope yet. She has a low six-figure sum in retirement accounts and, luckily, owns her property in a high-value area of London outright. Downsizing is a possible framework to more than triple the available working capital. A few good years of income generation squirrelled into savings, and a possible route to an okay retirement becomes feasible.

I guess there's a peculiar shame in being financially sophisticated professionally while feeling out of control personally - like a split personality between the confident consultant and the woman who can't say no to beautiful art or expensive restaurants. It's not ignorance driving her spending; I'm not sure what is but hopefully she can overcome it.

I think that's the best she can hope for. It's just sad that her hedonistic consumption has robbed her of a great retirement. My only hope is the professional determination she applied to her career can now be turned inward towards changing a lifetime of engrained spending habits. I cross my fingers and wish for success. My friend, the wild child from Wembley, unfortunately needs to finally confront her past choices.

 

The post Still a Wild Child: When Spending Habits Never Grow Up appeared first on HumbleDollar.

My thoughts on technology- can’t get enough

I am fascinated by technology these days although I am certainly not a techy. Hey, I remember when a copy machine used a tank of foul smelling chemicals and one copy took forever and then was on damp grey paper. 

New technology at work was once an IBM word processing center using 12” disks. My first printer was dot matrix using a roll of perforated paper and now I’m writing this on the beach using an iPad linked to my iPhone for a world-wide connection. 

I recently gave a 3d printer to two grandsons ages 10 and 12. They had it operating in a few minutes. They trade software to make things they want. The 12 year old asked his mother to make donuts so he could have the hole. He printed a form to cut the donut and the hole. A plastic hose connection broke so he found the software on line and made a new one. 

My car is my new best friend. It talks to me. Hey, Mercedes take me to nearest Cracker Barrel. Connie likes conversation. “Hey Mercedes, how do you feel?” The response, “much better hearing your voice, thank you.”  My favorite so far was, “hey Mercedes, where did you come from.” Response, “Very creative and talented engineers.” And, it tells me it keeps learning to do more things. I asked it to open the sunroof, but was told she wasn’t allowed to do that because of safety laws in “your country.” It’s nice to know that if I didn’t live in the U.S. my car could open the windows. 

Of no particular value, the car will make the sound of just about any animal you ask.  A passenger was shocked when he heard an elephant next to him.

There is technology in all Mercedes now that detects potholes and shares the information on its network alerting drivers anywhere if a pothole is nearby. I have found sometimes the pothole is already filled. 

When it comes to money and investing, technology brings it all together and makes it work. We have come a long way from having our savings book stamped. Now we send money via Zelle and deposit check with our phone. There is one annoyance that bugs me. When I login to my bank with an iPad it insists on verifying it’s me by sending a verification to my phone. I appreciate the security effort, but what if my phone is not with me or in another room. Really annoying and inconvenient at times. 

AI is quite amazing even though it’s criticized. I use several versions to create drawings I use on my blog. “Pencil draw a group of people leaving a hospital,” I asked, and within 30 seconds there is was. 

These are all rather frivolous uses compared with robotic surgery and assembly lines, science and drones. 

I am waiting for one new breakthrough I have been talking about for years, but have been told it can’t be done which I don’t accept. I call if feeling transfer. The concept is simple. A doctor asks how you feel, where does it hurt, how strong is the pain? A connection with your brain similar to an EKG or EEG transfers what you are feeling so the doctor feels it too. It may seem far out now, but you can bet someone out there is working on the concept. It only electrical currents, right? 👀

The post My thoughts on technology- can’t get enough appeared first on HumbleDollar.

What If You Don’t Want to See the World?

From my readings on this site, I seem to be in the minority on a particularly popular and expensive retirement pastime: foreign travel.

Over the years, I've traveled a fair part of the world, from wide-ranging business travel throughout Europe and extensive global leisure travel on every continent other than, strangely enough, the Americas (except for the Caribbean). I still travel. For instance, I was in the Canary Islands just off the coast of North Africa for a 60th birthday celebration in February, and I'm meeting a friend from London in Spain for a week in late September. Suzie and I are currently organizing a trip for next August to see a total solar eclipse.

But my enthusiasm for foreign travel has waned these last few years. Part of it, I think, is a subtle shift from the thrill of novelty to a deeper appreciation for more settled pursuits. After years of navigating airports, packing suitcases, and adjusting to new time zones, the sheer hassle of foreign travel has started to feel less like an adventure and more like a task. With so many popular destinations becoming increasingly crowded, the quiet, more peaceful moments seem harder to find.

It strikes me that most would think this is a most inconvenient time to be losing interest in travel. After all, I'm only 58 and just recently retired. This is supposed to be the time! Get to it! Travel through the go-go years, the world's your oyster! But my travel now seems to have evolved alongside myself, tied to more purposeful and personal reasons. I have no real enthusiasm for destination travel. It has to have a meaningful reason now. Another example to illustrate my point, I'm thinking of visiting my cousin in Australia who recently lost her husband.

I think it's okay to spurn the popular myth around retirement and the expectation to see far-flung places. If that's not your thing, then so be it. It doesn't mean you're doing retirement wrong. Retirement affords you more time to explore your interests. It can be a time of self-discovery. I've often thought about revisiting past childhood passions. I had a very intense interest in astronomy as a youth, and I'm undertaking a foundation course in Astronomy and Planetary Science this September.

Thinking honestly about what really interests or intrigues you and spending your new found time exploring these possibilities is a good starting point. Maybe you have a passion for history or the great outdoors, exploring more of my own country is high on my retirement list. Basing some of your retirement around your interests is just as valid. Do retirement your way and don't feel pressured into following convention.

I've traveled widely, and that certainly colours my perspective. I'm definitely not advocating not to travel. It does expand your horizons and can really make you appreciate your own country and lifestyle. If traveling is your retirement thing, go for it. The world offers many wonderful experiences and beautiful destinations, but maybe just make sure it's your choice and not societal expectations you're following, just your own real travel retirement dreams. Whether it's destination travel or my type of personal intentional travel for a reason, do your retirement your way.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The post What If You Don’t Want to See the World? appeared first on HumbleDollar.

AI vs. Urgent Care: Guess Who Got It Right?

The other day, I believe I was bitten on the arm by an insect, which left a fairly large red blotch with a couple of small puncture marks. I assumed it happened while working in our yard. I bought some over-the-counter hydrocortisone to apply to it. After a week, though, it started to look more like a rash.

I decided to visit a walk-in clinic. The physician assistant examined it and advised me to mix hydrocortisone cream with Benadryl cream and cover the area with plastic wrap twice a day. I was also given a prescription for antibiotics to take if the redness didn’t improve within a day.

My wife had doubts about that treatment plan. She immediately went to her laptop and typed the situation into ChatGPT. The AI advised against mixing the two creams and warned that wrapping the area with plastic could trap moisture and worsen the irritation. Instead, it recommended continuing with hydrocortisone cream and mentioned stronger topical corticosteroids like triamcinolone acetonide 0.1% and clobetasol propionate as possible prescription options.

The next morning, I called my dermatologist, not expecting to get in before our trip next week. But as luck would have it, there was a cancellation that morning.

Dr. Olson examined the area and prescribed triamcinolone acetonide—one of the medications ChatGPT had suggested. He also told me I didn’t need the antibiotics the walk-in clinic had prescribed. After about a week of using the new medication, the red blotch cleared up.

ChatGPT can be helpful for information, but it shouldn’t replace medical advice. That said, I do believe AI can help make doctors better, leading to improved care for their patients.

We’ve already seen how the internet has made healthcare more accessible and connected. Patients can quickly research symptoms, access test results, and communicate with doctors through telemedicine and online portals.

I remember visiting my primary care physician in the 1970s for stomach pains. He asked if I was taking any medication. I told him I was—something for a foot ailment. He pulled out a thick reference book, looked up the medication, and concluded it was causing my pain. I was thankful that drug was listed in his book, because back then there was no internet to offer quick access to that kind of information.

Can AI further the advancement of medical care? I believe it can—and already is. It can read scans with remarkable accuracy, assist in analyzing tissue samples, and flag abnormalities faster than traditional methods. It can even help reduce billing errors and prevent fraud.

AI isn’t a replacement for doctors, but it can help them make faster, better decisions. My recent experience showed that when used wisely, AI can be a valuable part of modern healthcare—and a helpful second opinion.

The post AI vs. Urgent Care: Guess Who Got It Right? appeared first on HumbleDollar.

Dealing with a reduction in Social Security benefits. Is there a backup plan?

A recent post on the Forum raised the issue of dealing with a cut in Social Security benefits - hopefully an unlikely or very temporary event. However, something still worth planning for. 

If the status of SS is not fixed, around 2033 benefits could be reduced by 23-24%. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget projects a 24% cut by late 2032 for retirees, equating to an $18,100 annual reduction for a typical dual-earning couple retiring in 2033. That’s significant money.

Have you calculated the possible impact on your overall retirement income? Do you have a backup plan to deal with such a possibility- even if it lasted a few months?

The post Dealing with a reduction in Social Security benefits. Is there a backup plan? appeared first on HumbleDollar.

A Summer of Shared Memories

I noticed a bit of a trend over the summer at my holiday home. Suzie and I were a part of it, as our 10 year old grandson stayed with us for a large portion of the school holiday period. It was wonderful to see so many grandparents helping out in this way.

Our holiday community is gated and has a large play park with extensive grassy areas and a few soccer nets for the kids. The job of supervising was made easy with a friendly and informal rota, which kept anyone from being tied down. It was brilliant seeing the kids play together all summer, literally from morning until late in the evening. They only came in for food.

They spent many full days at the harbour, paddleboarding and jumping into the sea, and had fun picnics on the beach with evening BBQs around driftwood fires. Cycling adventures on the easy, plentiful paths were also a heavy feature. In short, it was as close to an ideal summer childhood as you could wish for.

Not only was this brilliant for the ragtag band of grandchildren, but it was also a boon for their parents. Knowing that summer childcare had been taken care of must surely lower stress levels and relieve the pressure of juggling kids and working life over the summer season. It was a win for everyone and a great example of the benefits grandparents can bring to the table.

From my own perspective, it also made me feel younger inside. So much messing around with the youngsters definitely tweaked my mindset, and I seem to have captured a glimmer of my childhood again. It was a win-win situation, the kids got a summer of fun and I got a tiny bit of reflected childhood back.

I'm a bit melancholy now. They have all returned to school, and I miss that little gang of kids. Their giggling when crab fishing will stay with me forever. It was a fun summer. I'm so glad I retired this past April and could experience this opportunity. I guess my slightly sad mood makes me think about this one fact: it's a sad reflection on our consumer-driven society that the majority of parents have to work so hard to provide a secure lifestyle for their family, causing them to miss out on so many special, shared memories. Maybe I'm being foolish and slightly naive, but wouldn't it be lovely if this wasn't the case and a better work-life balance was the norm?

The post A Summer of Shared Memories appeared first on HumbleDollar.

The Wages of Success

I worked and earned income from 1963 to 2022. I always saved a portion of my earnings. Some was “parked” in real estate, some in the stock market, some in bonds and some in a traditional savings account.

Every dollar I saved represented many hours of true labor. Some was as a business owner, some as an engineer, some was “sweat equity” in my homes and RVs, and some labor was expended by maintaining a commercial property.

I didn’t spend all of my income from “work”. I "parked" a portion of the proceeds from that work via investments so I could draw upon them in retirement. I concluded this would be "shadow working" while I was retired. Today, every dollar I pull from my retirement accounts represents wages for my past effort and work success. During my actual working life at least 10% of my hours were “banked” for the future. In essence the echoes of my many years of labor are reverberating today, in the present. My savings are working for me today, but every dollar represents a small amount of physical or mental labor I expended in the past.

This perspective influenced how I invested. Each investment was as if I were asking myself “What company is worthy of my efforts”? Which companies would be better stewards and are aligned with my values? This was a personal approach to investing and I’m sure I left “profits” on the table; there were many companies I deemed to be unworthy, or which had unsavory businesses or business practices.

As a business owner I made a decision each year about how much “profit” to leave in the company. I could invest it in my firm, or share with others via dividends, bonuses or profit sharing. I decided how much to invest in my business. Or, I could have bought a bigger boat, etc. There were a few lean years when I left the earnings in the company and my administrative assistant made more than I did. That too was an investment. An investment in the people and in the business.

Taken to an extreme, this could be unhealthy. When the Dot-Com bust occurred I thought for a brief time of the hours I has spent working to accumulate the savings for those “investments”. However, it reinforced a need for better scrutiny and methods on my part.

My retirement has absolutely nothing to do with my success as an investor. It has everything to do with my decisions as a worker, what I did with the fruits of my labor and my cautious, minimalistic approach to possessions; I could have spent a lot more than I did. Better cars, bigger boat, more toys, etc. So today, as I sit on the deck at the pond alongside two of my RVs, I’m not here because of any success in the stock market. Same is true for when we are in our home in Arizona. This is all literally a consequence of years of conscious, thoughtful decisions I and my spouse made for decades (me for 59 working years) and our many choices and years of “living small” while enjoying life and banking a portion of our labors.

So, today, the stock market and my bank are working for me. I can see my shadow in every dividend or gain that I receive. Some may disagree with my perspective, but overall, I think I have had an empowering way to approach life, work, saving and spending. Sufficiently empowering to get me where I am, today.

The post The Wages of Success appeared first on HumbleDollar.

The Seeming Irrationality of Unneeded Risk

I might be hitting my head against a brick wall, but it's a rather poor show that "RDQ" gets all the down arrow glory and doesn't share. Maybe I need a few arrows with this doozy of a post.

Let me roll out my pre-retirement risk credentials. I quit a corporate job when I reached the level of director, with lots of stock purchase opportunities, a high salary, and a solid pension package. I left all that to start my own business—a very risky move, but one that was well within my risk envelope.

Before I retired, my portfolio was heavily invested in developed world funds and specialist China and Southeast Asian "special situations" funds. My wife Suzie's advisor nearly lost his eyebrows when he first laid eyes on my portfolio's risk level. I simply shrugged my shoulders; I was totally comfortable with my exposure.

In short, I'm no stranger to financial risk and have a very high tolerance and ability to take it. But here's the thing: I'm now retired and have dialed down my risk level because I simply don't need to stretch for significant growth to support my lifestyle.

A fixed-term annuity is now one of the main planks of my retirement. I still have a very high capacity for risk, but I've deliberately chosen a retirement income and cash flow strategy that gives me what I need at the lowest possible risk, outside of social security. I truly wonder why such a small portion of retirees opt for this choice.

In my mind, once your income goal can be easily met, or once the required growth to support your desired lifestyle is minimal, taking on additional risk becomes unneeded and, therefore, irrational. To reiterate, I still have the financial capacity to absorb losses but no longer need to take those risks to achieve my lifestyle goals. If you're in that position, why would you still take the risk?

I guess it will be a combination of the normal behavioural biases: FOMO People see a rising stock market and worry they are leaving money on the table by locking in a lower, fixed return and Loss Aversion: The idea of giving up control of a lump sum of money in exchange for an income stream can feel like a "loss" to many, even if it's financially sound risk mitigation tool.

When you couple this with a general negative perception of annuities due to complex products, high fees, and stories of unsuitable sales along with the fact many people don't understand the different types (like a fixed-term vs. variable) it is understandable why the entire category might be dismissed out of hand. It must be said I'm not Captain Kirk's sidekick Spock, full of logic and no emotion, when the market goes on an upwards rip, I feel the FOMO just like anyone else!

It's not just behavioral biases at play; even established theory seems to be misunderstood. Modern portfolio theory (MPT) actually supports the use of fixed income products and bond ladders within a retirement portfolio but this seems to be overlooked in favour of other elements of MPT. Here's what I find particularly puzzling: the investment community often portrays annuity purchases as unsophisticated, as if only financial novices would "give up" market upside. This seems backwards to me.

The sophisticated approach is optimizing for your actual situation, not maximizing for theoretical returns you don't need. Once you've won the game and have a strong plan for inflation management, why keep playing with money you don't need to risk? It seems to me to be the opposite of a smart strategy.

Of course, I recognize there are valid reasons some retirees might choose higher risk - perhaps they want to maximize bequests to family or charity, or they're concerned about long-term inflation exceeding what fixed income can handle. These are rational choices for their specific situations.

If you're retired and can meet your lifestyle goals with lower-risk strategies, taking additional risk isn't bold—it's somewhat counterintuitive. The goal isn't to die with the most money possible; it's to live comfortably without worrying about sequence-of-returns risk or market volatility derailing your plans.

Yep, I'll suffer those down arrows gladly because sometimes I think it's refreshing to challenge conventional wisdom just to keep our views flexible and not get stuck in a rut. Occasionally, the most contrarian position is possibly the most sensible one.

The post The Seeming Irrationality of Unneeded Risk appeared first on HumbleDollar.