When I was growing up, my Dad was a real estate builder and developer in Dallas, an entrepreneur with boundless drive. I admired his tenacity and savored the fruits of his successes over the years. However, when the banking and real estate industries suffered a major setback in mid-1980s Texas, I too felt the sting. I was in the midst of my college career, my junior year at Southern Methodist University, when I received a letter from him that changed my life forever. It notified me that I would be financially independent from that day forward.

Anne and I just finished watching Live to 100, Secrets of the Blue Zones on Netflix. If you’re like I was, you’re wondering, what’s a Blue Zone?

A Blue Zone is Dan Buettner’s name for areas of the world with abnormally high populations of centenarians, people over 100 years old. He’s been studying this phenomenon for over 20 years.

The series takes a deep dive into Okinawa, Japan; Sardinia, Italy; Loma Linda, California; Nicoya, Costa Rica; Ikaria, Greece. All have significantly more centenarians than the rest of the world.

In my last article I detailed how it helps to understand your preference between commitment and optionality.

Instead of a one size fits all approach, we should understand the range of preferences that exists among those planning to retire. How comfortable are they with commitment? How confident are they that the market can provide their income in retirement?

This time, we’ll look at confidence in the markets vs. those with a safety-first mindset.

There are some people that are comfortable with the idea that historically, markets have grown at a certain rate, they will continue to do so, and investors can take out a certain amount each year.

The family and I recently went on a 10-day trip that included New York City, a beach, and four days on a cruise ship. Attempting to pack for three different locations, activities, and weather was a challenge. It took a great deal of planning and forward-thinking to make this work.

We needed to plan for mild to hot days and cool nights in the city, clothes appropriate for walking several miles a day, and warm weather clothes and beachwear. Of course, if you’ve ever traveled with a nine and six-year-old, you know what it takes to get them ready to go. With the wardrobe, activities, books, and devices loaded with movies for the flight. (The six-year-old is really into “Is it Cake?”).

You’ve probably participated in the jellybean guessing game. To win a prize, you’re asked to guess the number of jelly beans in the jar. Pretty much every time, very few even get close.

We usually have a laugh and move on. But Jack Treynor, a financial analyst, wasn’t satisfied with accepting this at face value. He took it a step further. It’s obvious most people are lousy guessers. But what would happen if we averaged the guesses? He asked 56 people to guess the number of jellybeans in a jar. There were 850. The average of the guesses was 871. That’s only a 2.5% variation. Only one person of the 56 was inside that number. The rest varied wildly. This is known as the Wisdom of the Crowds. One single person lacks precision and knowledge. But everyone together gets pretty close to the right answer.

As you may be aware, July 1 is Bobby Bonilla Day. This is the day Bobby Bonilla receives a $1.19 million payment from the New York Mets. This is his 12th of 25 payments from a deal in which he was owed a $5.9 million lump sum. It turns out that Bonilla isn’t the only savvy former major leaguer. There are 13 retired players that currently receive compensation from their former teams. The former slugger turned strikeout artist Chris Davis, tops the list. He’ll receive $56 million from now until 2037. He’s the highest-paid player on the Orioles, and he hasn’t played a game since 2021.

Happy Bobby Bonilla Day!

Every July 1st until 2035, former MLB star Bobby Bonilla receives an annual payment of $1.19 million dollars from the New York Mets. He hasn’t played a game since 2001.

He was owed a $5.9 million buyout in 1999. He and his agent offered a deal. The Mets could defer payments until 2011 with 8% interest, then make 25 annual payments through 2035. In total Bonilla will receive nearly $30 million.