If You Have Cash, Should You Buy Stocks Now?

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Over the last 15 years I’ve met several new retirees who are waking up to the poor condition of their portfolios. They saved and invested for years, often choosing mutual funds or annuities offered by employers, then changing jobs, picking new funds, and so on. At retirement they own a collection of high-cost accounts and an unplanned, hard to discern asset allocation. To fix things—plan an asset allocation and convert to low-cost investments—they have to sell old assets and buy new ones. They ask whether it’s better to do it all at once or string it out over weeks, months, or years? Continue reading →

Yosemite in Spring

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Half Dome, on a cloudy day in late April 2018

Not too far south of Lake Tahoe in the Sierra Nevada Mountains lies Yosemite National Park.

Yosemite is one of our oldest and most spectacular parks, established in 1890 after a lobbying campaign led in part by John Muir. The magnificent granite formations have inspired millions through the years, and they’ve been immortalized in the photography of Ansel Adams. It’s a huge park—almost the size of Rhode Island. For younger people, the Park offers many backcountry experiences, including climbing El Capitan and Half Dome. Continue reading →

Goldfield, Nevada: A Town with a Big Past and Small Present

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Goldfield joins the modern era.

Although the International Car Forest (last post) may be a highlight of Goldfield, NV, the town also boasts about it’s history. “From 1906 to 1910, Goldfield was the largest city in Nevada,” says the Goldfield Historical Society, claiming a population of over 20,000. Wyatt and Virgil Earp moved to Goldfield in 1904, and Virgil became a deputy sheriff for Esmeralda County in 1905. Virgil died of pneumonia later in 1905, and Wyatt moved on. Continue reading →

Cool and Hot: The International Car Forest of the Last Church

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Only in Nevada can a rough and ready small-town eccentric (Michael (Mark) Rippie), team up with a known artist, stick a bunch of old cars in the ground, paint them, and thereby create a work of art. Then they give it a flamboyant name. Then they split up. Finally, Michael gets convicted of federal weapons violations and goes to jail. Continue reading →

Three Mothers on Mother’s Day

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My mother, Loretta Flick

Just read a column in the Wall Street Journal by a fellow who told of the first time he brought home a centerfold of a partially nude young woman. This happened in the early 1980s, when his hormones were in their teens. His mother was clever, he said, in that she asked him if it was right to steal. He replied, “No.” Continue reading →

For the Love of Deserts

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In the Painted Desert of Arizona, April 2018

From east to west, our country presents a beautiful array of landforms and ecosystems. After crossing the Mississippi River, travelers head gradually uphill until the Continental Divide. Through the High Plains the world gets dryer, and soon travelers are rolling across vast expanses of desert. Along I40-west the country turns dry in the Texas Panhandle, then dryer still through New Mexico and Arizona. On a first crossing, the biggest impression may be poverty, especially if poverty means lacking. There is little of everything except dirt, brush, rocks, and views of landforms. After a few crossings, however, the deserts offer an enchantment that grows with each visit. Continue reading →

Road Trips Defy Aging

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Our van at Lake Tahoe

My wife, Barbara, and I are living about half a mile from Lake Tahoe in Nevada. We rented a condo for two months this spring to be nearer our son (San Francisco) and to visit three couples (old friends) who live nearby. We worked hard to get ready: repaired the house, tried to clean up the garage, disposed of my motorcycle, tended the lawn after winter, consolidated and rescheduled medical appointments, planned prescription refills, studied the spring weather at Lake Tahoe, and planned a route. Finally we selected clothing, packed our electronics and clothes, loaded the van, locked the house, climbed into the front seats and turned the key. Click, click, click, click—a dead battery, on Sunday. Continue reading →

Curtain Call on My Motorcycling

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Big Red’s place in the garage is now empty

Yesterday my Honda Gold Wing, dubbed Big Red, left for greener pastures. We gave it to a cousin, Winston, who wanted to fix it up and ride it. I had let it set in the garage for over two years, gradually deciding to give up riding. Now I have only the license plate and the space in the garage. Continue reading →

Zen and the Art of Long Marriages

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Last weekend we attended a dinner to celebrate the 50th wedding anniversary of friends. Two other long-term couples we knew also attended, and there were family and other friends as well. We four couples connected through our wives, all of whom were classmates and friends in nursing school many years ago. Our first toast was to long marriages, especially to that of our hosts. What makes them work, we asked? Continue reading →