While I tend to agree with you, there are financial advisors with fiduciary obligations, which legally require them to keep your best interests in mind. I still advocate learning for yourself and taking care of finances on your own, but there are a lot of times where other people take better care of you than you can…

I might have agreed with you, but Oscar Pistorius was acquitted, because the judge couldn't see through a door. While I realize that this was in another country, it does serve to remind us how willfully blind people are willing to be.

That's pretty much what I meant, but I didn't know for sure. My concern is whether I'd notice that it was saturated.

Does the charcoal ever get used up?

I doubt that most thieves have access to tow trucks and liquid nitrogen. Escalation doesn't really work that way.

Alternately, it could give you incentive to go on with a book that you were planning on quitting, if you find the Popular Highlights come later in the book.

You can withdraw all of your principal from Roth IRA early without penalty to bridge the time. Also, you can convert existing IRAs to Roth to start a Roth conversion ladder. Check out www.madfientist.com, if you haven't. It's great for some ways to help into early retirement.

I know that this usually applies to fee-only advisors, but I'm not sure about planners.

I suspect that you have a good financial planner.

That's exactly what you should do. This is a good article for people who aren't as clear on what/how they should ask these things and what the responses mean.

I think that people often do a bad job of calculating time value. They look at their base wage/salary, but don't factor in taxes, travel time/car use cost, and other factors that bring their effective wage down. If you make $25/hour and save $25 with an hour of planning, you're ROI is greater than working for an…

You don't actually sound like you're disagreeing. It sounds like timgray's child has moved out, which is making the house bigger than he and his wife need. You and your wife are doing well with 900 sf. You even think that you could manage with a child.

Solid points. I have acted on point 2 and got a low cost index fund and a slightly cheaper target date fund added. Suddenly, I wasn't losing nearly 2% (or even nearly 1%) on my investment.

This is solid advice, but it's hard at first. Like you noted, they're wearing themselves down and you at the same time. Giving in seems like the easy solution. Of course (as you're saying), not giving in is the long term solution, for the kid and the parent (or caretaker).

I agree to the extent that self directed accounts have disappointingly low limits, but 401k and 403b limits are robust enough that if you've maxed them out, finding additional places to save is a lower concern (although a valid one).

I follow this point and agree that there is a middle ground. It was the Time Enough at Last reference that made it seem like you were advocating against planning (although the character in the episode didn't plan his situation). I concede that you were clear in your statement about enjoying financial benefits in…

If the saving is into tax advantaged accounts, you don't increase your tax burden in proportion to the raise. It adds another way to keep the money in your pocket.

your premise is true, but you ignore the "retire sooner" portion of the argument. You don't have to be concerned about saving too much, if you save enough and then retire.

I love my index funds, but let's go with "reduced risk through diversification" instead of "relatively no risk". Too many people are fickle investors who can lose a lot by failing to hold through downturns or trying to time the market.

You are playing a different game, but you seem to understand the odds.