My advice would be to use the money to change your IRA withdrawal from monthly to once, annually.

I always tell clients to set the dispersion for December 15. That way, you a) get the advantage of the market gains, year in and year out, b) extend the life and value of the IRA, and c) have two weeks to make sure it happened, since if it didn't, that's legally YOUR fault.

Anyway, I also applaud your advisor's recommendation to diversify. While investing hindsight is always 20/20, we all remember Enron, and the lesson about putting all the eggs in one basket.

#6 | Posted by Danforth at 2025-06-21 01:57 PM

Note that both of our IRA's are very diversified and our return has been well above the market averages. That stock account is just where my wife's Required Minimum Distributions were deposited and is only about a quarter of what her IRA is worth. Note that the annual RMD's are the only funds that she's ever taken from her IRA.

When I retired (my wife, who's older than me, had already retired about seven years earlier to take care of her mother), in addition to our Social Security checks, I had also earned three defined benefit pensions (something that today's young people will never know anything about). Now one of these pensions was from where I first worked after graduating from engineering school, and it wasn't worth all that much, it was only going to pay something less than $150/month, so I took it as a lump sum when I turned 65 and just put it in the bank. Another pension I had to start taking when I turned 65, again, most of that money was banked. The third and largest pension I was allowed to defer while the cash value continued to collect interest. I didn't start taking it until I retired, which was when I was 68. That's also when I started my Social Security. BTW, both of my mountly pensions are fully vested so my wife will get 100% survivors benefit (although her being older, that might not be as big an issue as it would be with most couples).

Anyway, what we worked out with our wealth manager was that between our two Social Security checks, my two monthly pensions, plus a monthly draw from my IRA, we've managed to not change our life style. We're basically living on the same 'take-home' that I was getting just before I retired. Now that was just over nine years ago and my wife's IRA is now worth at least half again as much as when they rolled over her 401k (she's 79 and has had to take out those RMD's ever since she was 73) and mine is almost 85% of what it was when I rolled over my 401k and I've been taking out well over what the annual RMD would have been each year. So all in all, I think we're doing okay.

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Wake me up when the deposits are late.

#1 | Posted by twinkhunter at 2025-06-21 02:30 PM

While my wife's SS deposits are still coming on the same day as they have for years, for the last few months, my SS deposit has been coming two or three days early. I've been retired for nearly 10 years, and the deposit was always made on the fourth Wednesday of the month, until these past few months. Since my deposit goes into my savings account at my credit union, while my wife's goes into the household checking account at our bank, it might be some change in how the credit union is processing the deposits. Anyway, it seems a bit odd.

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I hate to admit this, but a few years ago, before Trump was returned to office, at the end of the year my wife was forced to take a Required Minimum Distribution (RMD) from her IRA (I take a normal monthly draw from my IRA so I don't need to take an RMD at the end of the year). Anyway, this happens every year and sometimes she takes the money and spends it on something extra that she wanted but that year she didn't really need the extra cash so our wealth manager (they used to be called financial analysts, but wealth manager sounds more positive) suggested that she purchase some stocks instead. He made a recommendations at the time, Palantir Technologies. We agreed and he bought 97 shares. The following year, after Palantir had dropped, he took my wife's RMD and added more Palantir shares. The last purchase was in April 2023. This put our cost basis at around $16/share. By then we had 223 shares of Palantir.

As of the market's close yesterday, Palantir was trading at $137.30/share, a gain of just over $27,000, for an annualized return of over 85%.

That last time our wealth manager added to the shares of Palantir, he also bought some Home Depot, which has only given us an annualized return of just under 5%, not bad, but I sure wish he had used that money to buy more Palantir, but it had just dropped to about a third of what our initial shares had cost us and he wanted to diversify a bit. At the time, it seemed the right thing to do as he was sure that both Palantir and Home Depot were a good investment, and while he was correct, it could have been a lot better if he had only invested in Palantir.

Anyway, we're now thinking of having our wealth manager sell the Palantir and take the profits, but then we'd have to pay at least capital gains tax as this stock account is not tax-deferred as it's been funded from the RMD's from my wife's IRA.

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And now the question is, will Trump be flying the 51 star American flag, one of which can be seen across Lafayette Square, from the White House, hanging on the side of a government building

This is what Stephen Miller has been talking about, something called 'remigration', as a way of making America more white:

Also, the two new 100-foor tall flagpoles, which Trump is so proud of, one on the North Lawn of the White House and the other on the South Lawn, people are starting to wonder whether the Pentagon had any say in their placement. You see, when the president arrives and leaves the White House on Marine One helicopter, it traditionally lands on the South Lawn. It would seem that the Marine pilots will now need to be extra careful avoiding these two new 100-foot tall obstacles, particularly the one on the South Lawn (let's hope they've placed anti-collision lights on the tops of the flagpoles). Besides, it's not as if there were no flagpoles on or around the White house, there are several, just that none of them reached a height of 100-feet.

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I hope no one was surprised...

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Every single soldier in the US Army has to learn to march and does so for weeks in while in Basic Training and have a large company level parade when they graduate. They wear their best class A uniforms and spend weeks getting ready for the event.

#84 | Posted by Wildman62 at 2025-06-16 11:17 PM

Yes, and that's on a parade ground, generally no more than a football field in length. Try marching like that for over a mile, which was the span of Constitution Avenue that was designated as the viewing area where spectators were allowed to gather to watch the parade.

And before you ask, yes, I learned to march like what you're talking about. In fact, I was a member of an Army exhibition drill team, so we knew how to stay in step while performing specific moves, including various formations which sometimes involved spinning, tossing or exchanging riles while we were on the move.

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But then if you wanted to carry this to the extreme, one could be discriminated against for being left-handed or having red hair. I suspect that we'll see this in court if someone actually does try to single out individuals based solely on the fact that nowhere was it written down that you couldn't.

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I don't know if anyone noticed, but many of those soldiers were not actually walking in step, They were simply walking down the street. Given that they are trained to march when in formation, I'm wondering if this was some sort of insult directed towards Kansler und Fuhrer Trump.

#11 | Posted by Zed at 2025-06-15 11:25 AM

I know from personal experience that this is called 'route step', and it's how soldiers have been trained to march, while staying in formation, but who are expected to cover a relatively long distance. I know Trump was expecting something like what you'd see at a North Korean military parade, but American soldiers are NOT trained for that sort of exhibition style marching.

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So it's okay that car washes and lawncare services and mom & pop restaurants can go without employees but the big agribusinesses or the luxury hotels and resorts, they need to remain fully staffed. Wait until they start to raid nursing homes and daycare centers, or picking up the janitorial staffs at schools and hospitals, then the people will see who Trump and Stephen Miller really care about.

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So it's okay that car washes and lawncare services and mom & pop restaurants can go without employees but the big agribusinesses or the luxury hotels and resorts, they need to remain fully staffed. Wait until they start to raid nursing homes and daycare centers, or picking up the janitorial staffs at schools and hospitals, then the people will see who Trump and Stephen Miller really care about.

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This is what I think Trump's real long term goal is, to establish a subclass of low-paid workers, who will accept jobs without benefits and with poor working conditions, so that his corporate supporters, particularly in the agriculture and leisure industries, can increase their profits.

And Trump can then hold over their heads that if they complain about their wages or their working conditions, he'll simply revoke their 'legal status' and deport them.

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This is what I think Trump's real long term goal is, to establish a subclass of low-paid workers, who will accept jobs without benefits and with poor working conditions, so that his corporate supporters, particularly in the agriculture and leisure industries, can increase their profits.

And Trump can then hold over their heads that if they complain about their wages or their working conditions, he'll simply revoke their 'legal status' and deport them.

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Now it turns out that the major TV networks are NOT going to cover the parade on their normal broadcast channels. They may provide a video feed on their internet news outlets, but that's about it.

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Does anyone remember Kent State?

#90 | Posted by TenMile at 2025-06-09 07:58 PM

I was a junior in college. In addition to going to classes, I worked as a freelance photographer and I covered what was a totally peaceful, yet serious protest on our campus (I sold several photos to the college and local newspapers as well as photos which appeared in that year's yearbook). Up until that point, there had been virtually no anti-war protests on our campus as we were a rather conservative engineering school, well off the beaten path (look on a map and find Houghton in Michigan's Upper Peninsula). But Kent State was a bridge too far. Classes, for the most part, were cancelled. People gathered in groups to express their horror over what happened. Speeches were given, signs were posted, but in the end the school's administrators understood that it was to their advantage to allow the students, and many of the faculty, to publicly express themselves, as long as it stayed peaceful, which it did. The one thing which resulted from this, was that by the end of the week it was decided that we needed a 'Peace Park' on campus, and over the next month or so (school let out in mid-June) many people worked on it, which some monetary assistance from the school (they also provide the site where it was built) and from several churches.

Trump has called for Newsome's arrest.

#16 | Posted by Corky at 2025-06-09 06:13 PM

And when asked what crime could Newsom be charged with, Trump response was that "Newsom's primary crime was running for governor..."

What do people in other parts of the world think when they hear stuff like that coming from the mouth of the President of the United States?

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How is this not a violation of the Posse Comitatus Act?

The Posse Comitatus Act (PCA), enacted in 1878, generally prohibits the use of the U.S. military for domestic law enforcement purposes. It aims to prevent the military from being used to enforce laws unless explicitly authorized by Congress or the Constitution. The Act primarily applies to the Army and Air Force, with other military branches governed by separate legislation.

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Before Trump was elected, the Pentagon and the Army had NO plans for any sort of 'military parade' anywhere in the country as part of their celebration of the 250th Anniversary of the establishment of the US Army. That's not the sort of thing that you expect to see in America.

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The writing was on the wall...

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This coming Saturday, June 14th, almost simultaneous with Trump's Army/Birthday parade in Washington DC, the Diocese of Chicago is going to be holding a celebration recognizing the election of Pope Leo the 14th. Now the Pope won't be there in person, but he'll speak over a live TV feed from Rome to the crowds at Rate Field, where his favorite team, the White Sox play. The event will be broadcast locally and on the internet. Tickets to attend the event live are being sold for $5 each (10,000 tickets were sold within 15 minutes of them going on sale).

It will be interesting to compare the number of empty seats a Rate Field in Chicago versus what I have to assume will be bleachers set-up along the parade route for the Washington DC event.

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What are the Cantonese words for "How far does honorable Xi wish me to bend over, and does he wish it during a 'presser'?" I don't know why he would.

#5 | Posted by RightisTrite at 2025-06-08 04:57 PM

I suspect that Xi doesn't speak Cantonese, or at least he won't admit that he does, since the official language of China is Mandarin. Cantonese is still spoken in the Southern parts of China, but the Communist Party has been trying to discourage its use as much as possible without causing a cultural war with those parts of China where it's still spoken by the average person.

Several years ago, before I retired, I gave a presentation at an engineering conference in Zhuhai, China which is in the Guangdong Province, which was once called Canton. Now I've been all over the world and have often had to work with a translator when giving a presentation. However, this was the first time that I had TWO translators, one who translated what I was saying into Mandarin and one into Cantonese. Obviously, this wasn't a simultaneous translation. I had to break my presentation into 15-30 second segments and then wait for the Mandarin translation and then the Cantonese translation before I could continue. That was one of the hardest presentations that I've ever given. In other places like Russia, Ukraine, Japan or Mexico, we could get by with a simultaneous translation, which while I still had to speak slowly, at least I didn't have to stop and start all the time. Now when I was presenting in places like Germany, India, Singapore, Netherlands or any of the Scandinavian countries, English was just fine. Even in places like Brazil and Indonesia, I had no real problems with English, just that I had to be more careful about using idioms and slang.

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Can you imagine the outrage if Joe Biden or Barack Obama had 'sold' a private tour of the White House to someone with links to the Chinese Communist Party.

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Because those are 'woke' lives and 'green' money. He can't have that, as it's more important to pour taxpayer's money into subsidizing oil, gas and coal production. He's intent on getting rid of all subsides for solar and wind (if he could, he would ban solar and wind energy production outright), yet the irony is that during all of the recent Democratic administrations, not once did any of them seriously try to get rid of oil and gas subsidies, which have remained on the books for decades, costing the taxpayers billions each year.

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It's good to have fiends in high places...

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