Refinishing Our Wood Floors

After we bought our house, we replaced all the carpeting on the first and second floors with oak hardwood.  It's been over twenty years.  The oil based polyurethane has turned more orange and has been worn down in high traffic areas like the kitchen.   

It was a lot of effort on our part since we needed to move all the furnishings out of the rooms being refinished.  We managed to do the refinishing in sections, since there were "hard" dividers.  The kitchen was done first.   A year later, we did the dining room and living room.   We did the great room, master bedroom, and steps to the second floor six months later to complete the first floor.  For the kitchen, dining room and living room, we moved the furnishings ourselves to the great room.   For the great room and master bedroom, we hired a moving company to place the furnishings in the dining room, living room and master bathroom.

The refinishing makes us feel like we are in a new house.   In addition, we have purchased a new flat screen TV,  electronics console, and are getting a new couch.   We've move the current leather couch to the basement for use as a recreation area.

This continues our work in progress to make this house our forever home.

For more on New Beginnings, check back every Sunday for a new segment.

This is not financial nor renovation advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2026 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Bought a CD Because of Bank Name

It also had the highest interest rate.  I just bought a CD from IncredibleBank.   It was a 3 month CD paying paying 3.6%.  My other choice was Bank of America at 3.55%.  Both were brokered CDs offered through Schwab.  Both are FDIC insured.

What a name:  IncredibleBank.   LOL.

It was an easy decision.  Also, I know have not purchased a CD from that bank before and didn't need to check if I was exceeding the FDIC insurance limit.

Disclosure:  I was not compensated by IncredibleBank, Bank of America nor Schwab for this post.

For more on Reflections and Musings, check back every Saturday for a new segment.

This is not financial nor investment advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2026 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Understand One's Social Security Benefits

When to take Social Security benefits has become a major topic on the Internet as more people are become eligible.   The major is question is when to take it: Early before full retirement age (FRA); At FRA 66 and 10 months born 1959 or 67 born 1960 or later; or Delayed after FRA but no no later than 70.

This question is already a complex one with factors such as estimated life expectancy, health, other sources of retirement income, and current financial situation that affect.

However, there is one factor that is rarely discussed that may have even more impact, auxiliary benefits for minor dependents, which only a few people qualify for.  If one is taking Social Security payments, one's minor dependents under 18, or until 19 if they are in high school, can receive auxiliary benefits up to 50% of the PIA (primary insurance amount) limited by the maximum family benefit cap.  The auxiliary benefit amount can be significant.  For example, if the PIA is $3200, the auxiliary benefit can be has high as $1600.   In addition, the spouse can receive auxiliary benefits caring for a minor child under 16.

Most people are not aware of possible auxiliary benefits when retiring, but they are definitely as factor when one is considering what age to take start taking Social Security.

For more on Reaping the Rewards, check back every  Friday for a new segment.

This is not financial nor retirement advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2025 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Great Delta First Class Customer Service

Retiree comment:  "Fly first class or your heirs will."

I decided to take that above comment to heart for our last vacation, booking our inaugural first class flight.   We flew first class for the first time during our Christmas vacation. I did it on points since there was only a small upcharge from comfort class.  The flight and service was great.  Boarded and exited first.  We had ample room for seating and luggage.  We also had meal service instead of snack service.

I had one small complaint.   

We were served a hoagie sandwich meal.   There was a vegetarian choice and a non vegetarian choice.    My spouse chose the non vegetarian option which was fine.  I chose the vegetarian option, which had frozen filling but the bread was fine.  Even after waiting 15 minutes, the sandwich internals were still frozen.  I didn't complain the the fight attendant since it was only a 2 hour flight and there would be nothing they could do.

After we returned home, I decided to tell Delta customer service about the meal issue.  Delta customer service responded within 1 day.   They apologized and compensated us with 5000 points to our Delta Frequent Flyer account.  I appreciate the attention Delta gave to my feedback.

Disclosure:  I was not compensated by Delta for writing this post.

For more on Reaping the Rewards, check back every  Friday for a new segment.

This is not financial nor travel advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2026 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Time Compression with Age

When I was a child, the days and years felt long.  I had all the time in the world to do what I needed to do. Even in college and early working years, I felt I had time to get everything done I wanted to get done.

Then I had children, and time seemed to pass faster.  It just seems like yesterday they were in diapers, toddlers and in preschool.  I had all the time in the world for them to grow up.   Now they are in college and junior high school.    I sometimes wonder where all the time went.

We were also extremely stretched for time getting them to activities up through high school.  We seemed busy all the time with the kids schedules.  Barely enough time to do our important items.

Nowadays, time seems to fly by each day before I get half or less of my to do list done for the day. Things that use to take me a couple hours to do when I was younger now take me a day.  As my FIL once told me, I'm not getting slower, time is getting faster.

IMHO, the peak time to maximize time for doing things in 40s to early 50s.   After that is a significant decline.  Of course, YMMV.

For more on Crossing Generations, check back every Thursday for a new segment.

This is not financial  nor time management advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2026 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Lifestyle Expectation Expansion

It's truly amazing how much lifestyle expectations have changed.

I had low lifestyle expectations where moving out from my parent's house after graduation with a degree in engineer and starting my first job with a Fortune 25 company.   I did not expect to have a lifestyle equal to my parents until my 30s.

My first car after graduating from college was a 1967 Buick Skylark that was a 13 year hand me down.  Basic transportation, automatic transmission, radio and no A/C.  I drove it for 2 years before buying a new car.  Even then, the new car was minimal with manual transmission, radio and with A/C.

My first apartment was a 1 bedroom with A/C.   The kitchen was basis with a stove, oven, refrigeration, and Formica counter top.    No microwave, dishwasher  nor garbage disposal.  Communal washer and dryer..  My parents gave me a 20 year old furniture, my bed and a 10 year old TV.   My dining table was a card table.  The only amenity was an outdoor pool that I never used.

My main entertainment was playing on a local club rugby team.

Fast forward 45 years.  College graduates have much higher lifestyle expectations.  They live in student housing that had more features and amenities than my first apartment.   They have much nicer cars that my first car.    After graduations, they choose apartments with full kitchens that have stone countertops, fully loaded new cars, and houses with more amenities than their parents' current house.

Entertainment is endless ranging from social media and gaming to  local activities and major vacations. 

What's next?

We now envision having self driving cars for transportation and robots to do our household labor. Truly amazing. Some even forecast the elimination of employment for pay, which I believe is highly unlikely.  

For more on Crossing Generations, check back every Thursday for a new segment.

This is not financial advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2026 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Social Security is not ENOUGH for Retirement

Depending only on Social Security in retirement is a big mistake, IMHO.  On average, social security replaces about 40% of pre-retirement earnings.   The balance needs to be made up from savings or withdrawals from retirement accounts.

However, the other issue is that expenses don't go down much in retirement and in some cases even go up.   House mortgage and expenses, real estate taxes, utilities, maintenance, and car payments remain the same.   Health insurance goes up, significantly if one still had dependent children, since it may have been subsidized by the employer.  Medical costs may also be higher over time. Finally, travel and vacations tend to result in higher spending.

In our case, health insurance and real estate taxes alone use up 83% of my Social Security benefit.  Fortunately, we don't have a mortgage nor a car payment.  If we did, those payments would cause us to exceed my Social Security benefit.

Of course everyone's situation is different and YMMV.  Our retirement expenses are higher due to having dependent children in our household, which is not the case for many retirees.  However, for planning purposes, it may be prudent to have about 60% of retirement spending come from a different source than Social Security.

For more on The Practice of Personal Finance, check back every Wednesday for a new segment.

This is not financial nor retirement advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2026 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Making Monthly Investment Contributions

In 2025, I was waiting for the market drop/correction before investing funds.  Then in came around April 8, 2025.   While I did buy a little, I decided to wait and wait AND wait, since I thought a further extended drop was inevitable.   Unfortunately, the market didn't drop further and I missed out on the market gains if I had made newly invested funds in April.

For 2026, I've decided not to wait for the "inevitable" correction.  Each month, I plan to invest a set amount into the S&P index mutual fund or ETF.   If the market should correct, I will more to the set amount of funds.  If the market keeps going up, I will keep investing the set amount.

For my child's account, I will invest a minimum of $159 each month, since that regular contribution is expected to become $1 million dollars after 40 years if dividends are reinvested.

For more on The Practice of Personal Finance, check back every  Wednesday  for a new segment.

This is not financial nor investment advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2026 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Don't Forget to Follow Paid Tax Advice

If one pays someone to do your taxes, ask them about how tax liability can be reduced.  When I was a tax professional, I would give advice on how to legally reduced one's tax liability.

When the taxpayer came in the following year, I asked if he had followed the advice.  The answer was inevitably, "No."  He could have saved thousands of dollars, if he had followed my advice.   It was then that I realized that people would rather stick a pin in their eye than think about taxes before tax returns are due.

In another case not related to my tax work, I knew someone who complained about being charged a penalty for underpayment of taxes. I knew he used a accountant for tax preparation.  I said, "Yes, you need to pay estimated taxes along with your gains.  You accountant should have told you."  He responded, "He said he told me."     Oh well.

For more on Ideas You Can Use, check back every Tuesday  for a new segment.

This is not financial nor tax advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2025 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Market Volatility Not As Worrisome Anymore - For Now

Stock market volatility.  Bring it on.  I'm counting on regular retirement income to sustain us.

I didn't originally plan to do this.  My original plan was to live off gains from stock investment by taking profits on stock market gains and using the gains to cover our living expenses.  That resulted in some high anxiety years for me during the Great Recession and its recovery.  Our retirement accounts and invested taxable accounts were cut in half.   Ugh.  

Volatility was not our friend back then.  Luckily, the market recovered. I was fortunate that we did not need to withdraw retirement funds during this time.

However, I started to learn the value of having some regular retirement income.  

I became an accidental real estate investor through inheritance after the Great Recession.   It was commercial rental property that had no mortgage and a long time tenant for 80% of the property.  The rental income was consistent and dependable, even during the COVID lockdowns and distributions were paid quarterly.  This helped mitigate some of the stock market volatility during the 10s.

During most of the 10s, interest rates were very low (0.20%) and savings accounts and CDs did not offer much income. In late 2021, I started investing in CDs since interest rates were rising above 1% to create more regular income.   I definitely invested too early, buying several CDs for 5 years that yielded only 1%.  Fortunately, I was able to get CDs in 22 and 23 that yielded 3,4 and even 5% for up to 5 years and some Treasury and Agency bonds that yielded 3.75 to 5.25% for 10-20 years.

Then, I started Social Security benefits early in 2022, before my full retirement age (FRA).  For that last three years, that has give us regular monthly income, that we can count on.   This was very helpful during the bear market of 2022.

In 2022, I started using a feature of our brokerage accounts to automatically distribute interest and dividend payments from our taxable accounts to our checking accounts on a monthly basis.   Around the 1st of each month,  we get a distribution to our checking account.   The amount varies since I haven't organized interest and dividend payments to be equivalent by month.

For the last year, I have been actively adjusting our taxable investments to create a sustainable retirement "paycheck."  Through dividend paying stocks, bonds, money markets and CDs,  I have developed a regular paycheck for the next five years.

However, there are still major risks that I can't control.  This strategy has not been tested though a significant market downturn nor a recession.  Interest rates may go to zero again.   Social Security payments may be reduced.  Also, then there are lurking financial and political crises.

We share see if this strategy is viable longer term.

For more on Strategy and Plans, check back every Monday for a new segment.

This is not financial, retirement, nor investment advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2026 Achievement Catalyst, LLC