Boglerdude, can I quote you on that??? I'm writing an op-ed to submit to the NY Times about this. I've had it. No more Ms. Nice Guy. I've got other places to send it if the NY Times refuses. I had come to that same realization. One of my statements in the op-ed piece is that the term "memory disorde...

Thanks for those insights, Seajay! I will say that the finances of placing a dementia patient in the UK are FAR nicer than what we've got here, which is a big fat goose egg from the government, and prices that will make your eyes bug out. I researched care facilities in my area, because I finally hi...

Thank you Seajay that's very kind!! My sister and I were wondering who will take care of us in our old age. The next generation just doesn't have that same sense of responsibility and dedication to family that was imbued into us when we were growing up. My point about the ladders wasn't about yield,...

I guess when you're retired, buying T bills yourself could be a form of useful entertainment! I'm too busy right now though. I had a long talk with my sister last night about another aunt in her 80s who (oddly enough) doesn't have dementia, but still needs a lot of help managing her finances & medic...

Sounds good Barrett! Letting the ladders run down is a good escape hatch. And...sounds like you have a fee-only advisor already - ask if they'd be willing to handle financial management & transactions? If so, your wife could always arrange for that if needed when the time comes. An aside - I've note...

Still think the ladders are too complicated, Barrett - what you said about your wife not being able to handle it without you kinda says it all. I can tell you that being a DPOA means you are managing TWO sets of finances and taxes, yours and the person you're caring for. I consider myself pretty inv...

There's nothing wrong with simplification, especially if it means your DPOA will have an easier time managing your finances after you're no longer able to do so. This is a different issue from the idea of maximizing interest though. Keep in mind that T bills will also require some managing, so you m...

FWIW...I've been struggling with a similar problem. I know intellectually that when the stock market tanks, long bonds will shoot up due to a "flight to safety". The problem is...I'm not sure that's happening anymore. That whole idea depended on the US being the sole world reserve currency, which is...

I Bonds are like the tiger you keep in a cage for those times when they give you an enormous payback - like the past couple of years. Because, it takes years to build up a good stash of them. Prior to that though, they were quite competitive with T Bills or even bank savings accounts. I don't know i...

No right answer to this one, but I keep the majority of my gold in the after-tax space, in physical form. Gold ETFs make me nervous for a whole lot of reasons. I own those in tax-advantaged accounts where physical gold isn't really an option. The idea was to make for convenient and tax-free rebalanc...

Thanks Barrett! That is a good rate to grab if you can!

Hope that rate will remain the same in November....my next buying opportunity is January 2024.

I'm too lazy to post pictures, but I took advantage of the rainy/stormy weather yesterday to stay home and cook my favorite beef stew. Adapted from Julia Child's Zinfandel of Beef recipe. 2 lbs stew meat (all I had or I would have gone with 4 lbs and doubled this recipe) Saved beef, pork, duck or ba...

If the US defaults on its Treasury debt, I think you can comfortably assume that the stock market will drop precipitously. Presumably, interest rates will also rise and more banks will fail. So that means that the following asset classes will all be devastated: stocks, bonds, and cash. That leaves g...

That is a perfectly valid use of your freeze-dried treasure trove Maddy! I've always cooked in large batches, then I freeze some to pull out later. It's very little extra work to make a large pot of something than 1 or 2 servings, like you get with meal kits. I also would find it annoying to have to...

Fidelity has two treasury money market funds. One is the "Treasury Only" (FDLXX) which invests only in T bills, and does not do repurchase agreements or other tomfoolery. The other is the Treasury money market that is eligible to be used as a brokerage core position (FZFXX). It's as you describe, no...

My back-of-the-napkin calculations say that a single run costs about $4.00 in electricity. Add $1.00 for mylar and O2 absorbers, and you're looking at about $5.00 a batch. This is a REALLY rough comparison, but Provident Pantry #10 cans of chicken (24 servings, they say; roughly 1 gallon?) are runn...

Wonder how much food you would have to freeze dry in order to make it work dropping a couple thousand on one of these machines vs. buying the freeze dried food directly? I imagine not freeze drying enough could indeed ruin a batch. I don't know about botulism in particular but there's no shortage of...

Fidelity's software is very glitchy, and their settlement time is unconscionable....I've seen things take a week or more to settle though I never figured out why. My rule with Fidelity is to keep things simple and avoid relying on fancy software features, because they are bound to fail. I ended up w...

Yes Maddy, tell us more! How is your freeze drying experiment coming along?

Interested to hear if you think it's worth it to reduce your freezer space needs. Have you considered fermenting vegetables? Those also can store indefinitely and don't require refrigeration if you do it right.

I buy I-Bonds every January. That way I don't have to obsess over stuff like this. If I'd chosen to hold off in order to get the fixed rate increase, I'd probably stick with that decision and buy in May. There's no reliable prediction for what fixed rates will do in November, for all we know it may ...

Well you could look up the info on the CDC website about symptomatic COVID infection in vaccinated people. But, that info has been out for a long time now, and it's in everyone's personal experience too. I'm sorry that your parents have cut you off over something like this. I guess all you can do is...

You might be able to get a directive to not feed you, then when you start starving/dehydrating, be put into hospice (morphine drip). Hideous. Maybe I should get that Wingsuit. Yes, advance directives are very important and you should get that done. Make it as specific as you can, because many of th...

You might be able to get a directive to not feed you, then when you start starving/dehydrating, be put into hospice (morphine drip). Hideous. Maybe I should get that Wingsuit. Yes, advance directives are very important and you should get that done. Make it as specific as you can, because many of th...

Sophie, I'd still love to hear your thoughts about the COVID vaccine in general if you feel inclined to share them with us. But if not, I understand why you might not care to respond. The political environment we live in does not allow for the safe and free expression of opinions. Certain topics ha...

One of the biggest problems with Alzheimer's is that the victims have no insight into their condition. They could be standing in an unheated house with no food in the fridge, poop all over the floor etc, and they will insist they're managing just fine and don't need any help. A trueism in neurology ...