Jonathan and me

Early in 2018 I stumbled on HumbleDollar. I noticed it was written by Jonathan Clements and then I realized it was THE Jonathan Clements, the Wall Street Journal guy, the main reason I had subscribed to the WSJ. HD said articles were welcome. I had written many articles for trade publications, I was even a regular columnist for one, but this was different. This was writing for a WSJ columnist. I set about writing my first article, with little hope of being accepted, but with relatively little editing by Johnathan, there it was. The article was titled Choosing Badly and appeared on April 24, 2018. It related my experience trying to educate employees about their 401k plan and my related frustration. My first article generated one “like” and zero comments-not very encouraging. I first met Jonathan in person on Cape Cod. He was staying in Orleans and I was in Chatham. He asked if I wanted to meet for breakfast. Now there was an offer not to be refused. Jonathan arrived on bicycle and I in my new car. He ordered a healthy breakfast of fruit. I had a bacon and egg sandwich. I always wondered if that contrast was a reflection of our approach to money matters and how we expressed them. The prudent planner and the “just do it” and wing it. Over the years I wrote a couple of hundred articles and now forum posts. At one time Johnathan told me I was part of making HD a success. But another time he threatened to bar me from HD because of my stance on a income replacement percentage in retirement. He felt I was giving bad advice and said he was receiving several complaints. In my defense I was never giving advice, just my views and why…and I haven’t changed my mind. Johnathan was always concerned about his readers. We almost parted ways again over my chapter in My Money Journey. I sent in a draft, Jonathan made numerous suggestions, I tried again and again I failed at which point I said I was giving up. I wasn’t grasping what he was looking for, but he encouraged me to press on and I finally got it. My goal every time I submitted an article was to see how few Johnathan edits I received. I got a little better over the years, and his edits always made sense. I once told Johnathan being able to write for HD was a big part of my enjoyable retirement and I meant it and it still is. I spent many working decades writing employee communications trying to educate people about retirement and their employee benefit programs and that's the one thing I missed in retirement. For the record though, my views that may have caused Jonathan to receive complaints have not changed. I am happy I stuck with that 100% income replacement target, I don’t use spreadsheets or budgets, I don’t track expenses, I never did a Roth conversion, I never paid credit card interest, I think IRMAA is fair, I saved for ten years to buy my dream car, I think a steady income stream is essential in retirement, I likely lost money and paid too much in taxes because of how I handle investments and I am definitely too concentrated in one stock. But at 83… eh. Oh yes, I still firmly believe that people who don’t put shopping carts back where they belong are inconsiderate and reprehensible.

The post appeared first on HumbleDollar.