Jonathan Clements's Blog, page 42
May 6, 2025
Am I Really Married?
I’m in the process of completing my retirement paperwork. For context, I’m retiring on the same day from two systems—the University of California (where I work now) and CalPERS (which administers the pension fund for the university system I previously worked for). My husband, who worked for a state agency, retired from CalPERS in 2016 and has been drawing his pension as well as using his retiree health benefits for both of us. We elected pensions with full survivor continuance for all three.
So here’s what’s weird. I got a message from the UC retirement system saying that the marriage certificate I uploaded as support for him being my survivor won’t serve. We were married in a church in 1983 and have a certificate signed by the officiant that we’ve always used as official documentation. The analyst who messaged me says the certificate is “ceremonial” and doesn’t show that it was filed with a county clerk. I had three options to resolve this, including the easiest one, which was to upload a previous 1040 that showed we are married filing jointly with both of our signatures.
CalPERS has never said a word about the marriage certificate, not when we separately filed for our pensions, and not when he had to prove I was eligible for health coverage. I keep a scanned copy of the marriage certificate handy for when they ask for it every few years (to reconfirm the spousal coverage). CalPERS has been much easier to deal with in general than the UC counterpart, which leads me to think they’re more competent with more modern processes. It’s possible that this UC analyst was wrong or overthinking things.
The immediate problem is resolved by the 1040, but now I’m wondering if I should follow up with the county clerk where we got our marriage license, which happens to be a different county from where the ceremony was performed. It might make sense to have an “official”certificate in case this problem ever happens again. And it makes me wonder—did the “ceremonial” certificate ever get properly filed, and if not, are we really married? (I’m mostly kidding about the last question, but the whole thing made me wonder.) Weird.
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Ch-Ch-Changes?
Stocks vs. bonds vs. cash investments
U.S. stocks vs. foreign shares
Large-cap vs. small-cap stocks
Growth vs. value stocks
If you've tweaked your asset allocation, I'd love to know what changes you've made—and why.
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May 5, 2025
Backstage at Antiques Roadshow
Hundreds of people who had won free tickets in an online lottery lined up at the entrance to the Georgia Railroad Museum. Most carried small items in tote bags. One woman pulled a grandfather clock in a little wagon. Another wheeled a wooden chest with a sailing ship painted on its lid.
Once they showed their printed tickets to security, visitors were directed to the triage tent. There, nattily dressed experts in bow ties and pocket squares gave their items the once-over. If one was worthy of further evaluation, their admissions leaflet was stamped with one of 23 specialist areas, such as Chinese art, ceramics, dolls, sports memorabilia, games and toys.
At the specialist booths, guests would queue up again, some under the hot Georgia sun and others beneath the shade of a towering locomotive in the museum’s roundhouse. They might wait 10 or 20 minutes to be seen at a busy booth, such as furniture or paintings. Everyone seemed cheerful and relaxed, wondering if they had a prize.
The show’s experts evaluated some 1,300 objects in one day at the railroad museum. Of these, about 10% are selected for a filmed appraisal with well-known experts like Leigh Keno or Lark Mason. And of these 130 filmed scenes, approximately 30 will make it into the final broadcast.
No doubt we’ll see many wonderful and valuable objects when the Savannah show is broadcast in 2026. Yet the odds of making it into that broadcast are 30 out of 1,300, or roughly 2%. As I looked about the grounds, I saw people lugging cherished objects, like ladderback chairs or dolls from the 1970s. I didn’t see anything that seemed of great value.
Still, I didn’t meet any disappointed people at the taping. At the feedback booth, fans of the show shared that they were excited just to be there. They had the additional satisfaction of unraveling the mystery of a family heirloom.
Like the woman at our inn, who at breakfast the next day showed us what she’d had appraised. It was a green soapstone carving of two monkeys flanking a small flower vase. Bow-tie wearing expert Lark Mason told her it was a ceremonial object given to Chinese monks who had returned from overseas missionary trips.
That’s a fascinating story. As to its value, Mason said it was worth about $50. And that’s what the woman said she had paid for it about 40 years earlier.
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FAQs IRS added March 20, 2025 regarding Employee Retention Credit
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and a spike in unemployment federal tax law was modified and the Employee Retention Credit (ERC) was born. The ERC was a refundable tax credit for certain eligible businesses and tax-exempt organizations that had employees and were affected during the COVID-19 pandemic. The business, tax community and the Internal Revenue Service continue to deal with compliance aftermath of the ERC.
On March 20, 2025 the IRS updated their frequently asked questions about the employee retention credit in the section headed "Income tax and the ERC".
https://www.irs.gov/coronavirus/frequently-asked-questions-about-the-employee-retention-credit
The three added Q&A's on 3/20/2025 appears to be good for business, tax preparers and the government. Prior to the changes explained in the updated Q&A the ERC rules typically meant that employers who received a ERC benefit would have to amend prior year business income tax returns to disallow wages that were the basis of the ERC cash the business received, often in a subsequent tax year.
The updated ERC FAQs now have provisions where the business may include the prior year overstated wage expense (due to the wages being reduced by the ERC) amount as gross income on their income tax return for the tax year when they received the ERC. The FAQ detail and examples can be found at the above link.
I expect this small change in a IRS procedure will eliminate a large amount of mostly useless work for all parties. I welcome a step in the direction of tax simplicity.
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Sharing What We Read: Book Reviews for HD Readers
I'd like to pose a question to fellow HumbleDollar readers: What would you think about creating a dedicated space on the HD site where we can share book reports on titles relevant to the community—books on topics like investing, asset allocation, behavioral finance, risk management, financial history, and similar subjects?
Personally, after I read a book that I find valuable, I like to write a short report highlighting the ideas that stood out to me. It helps reinforce what I’ve learned, and allows me to refer back to these summaries later. I usually post them on my Facebook timeline, but I wonder if the HumbleDollar community might benefit from a shared venue for this kind of content.
Such a space could help others decide whether a particular book is worth their time—and might spark some thoughtful discussions along the way. Would you find this useful? Would you be interested in contributing?
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Financial Advisor – NEVER AGAIN
My wife and I each have our separate Fidelity accounts, since she like her independence, but I have managed her investments since our marriage 37 years ago. She agreed to let another person manage her account, just in case this 81 year old passes on prior to her.
Initially, there not many changes to the account and the results were marginally doing well. Then he suddenly he sold a fund that we had owned for a very long time, without my knowledge or consent. This particular fund, Fidelity Contrafund, had been out performing many other similar funds and had a five year annual return of 20%. Sadly, this one sale resulted in a long term capitol gain of $56,801. I was shocked and dismayed to say the least. When I contacted the advisor, his response was "You hired us to manage your account, that's what we do."
Of course it was to late to cancel the transaction, so I was left with a unacceptably large tax bill. I immediately canceled his "free service".
My advise - if possible manage your own stocks and mutual funds, no one cares about your bottom line more than you do.
Respectfully,
Robert Fay, Nevada
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Follow up on Dividend Investing
The Wall Street Journal today ran this timely article for investors who wish to further explore this strategy.
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May 4, 2025
Treasuries risk free, Bloomberg says NO!
https://www.advisorperspectives.com/articles/2025/04/23/us-bonds-never-risk-free-never-will
The above article, I believe provides interesting food for thought. It speaks to our latent recency bias, that people often make decisions based on how current things will get projected into the future.
I wonder if things get labeled "risk-free" as a selling point, so that we'll pay more, own more, beyond it's real value.
Well it's got me thinking.
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Have you planned survivor income for your spouse or someone dependent on you? RDQ
I remember the “good old days” when the husband’s earnings were his money, his pension was his pension. I remember when workers hid their overtime pay from the wife and when they elected a single life annuity pension because only they earned it, when they didn’t want any information about pay and benefits mailed to the home, including W-2s.
I recall when a disgruntled retiree came to our building looking for me claiming he had a gun because I allowed a domestic relations order to give 50% of his pension to his ex-wife. Of course, it was his lawyer that gave away what was rightly the wife’s and to which the retiree agreed-perhaps without reading what he signed.
Hopefully those days are long gone. Times have changed, more women are working with their own assets. Laws were enacted to protect spouses when it came to retirement and benefit plans, the need for which is a sad testimony to the past. Still, single and widowed women struggle the most in retirement.
Our finances are set with the goal should Connie survive me, her lifestyle need not change, including periodic visits to Talbots.
She will receive 50% on a portion of my pension and 75% of another (non-qualified). Life insurance will cover at least three years of living expenses. It is combine group coverage and paid up life.
She receives my FRA Social Security benefit plus interest and dividend income in an equal amount. Then, of course, the accumulated value of our investments to draw upon.
I often read on HD about delaying SS to increase survivor benefits, but I don’t recall other strategies for survivor income. I do remember some people dismissing the need for life insurance.
If delaying SS benefits is a significant part of meeting survivor income needs, perhaps more needs to be done.
What type of financial assets and vehicles do you have in place to provide for a surviving spouse or other dependent? Have you calculated their likely needs as you may have for your own retirement?
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