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I know a full-service broker is expensive, but I have seen enough issues at tax time where they would have made a huge difference. For example, fairly intelligent client with a discount broker that had allowed him for years to put 100% of the max contribution into a Roth IRA and a 100% of the max contribution into a Traditional IRA (yes, double the allowed amount). His explanation when I finally heard about the excess contribution, "I didn't think you needed to know about Roth contributions because there's no tax benefit. What a mess to straighten out.

One of the major problems with doing it yourself is cognitive decline as you age and risk assessment (you are correct). I got into investments in the early 90's (got my Series 6 in 1991 while in college) and it was common to see people who had 100% of their portfolio in bonds and CDs. Now it is common to find seniors with 100% of their portfolio in equities and they've never owned a bond or CD. The son in law of a client has 100% of his portfolio in gold. My brother in law has a friend who's entire retirement portfolio is in guns. He has hundreds of guns in his home and he'll sell a few every month in retirement. He told my BIL that guns NEVER go down in value so I asked what if the house burns down.....

I've been using the same Dell 24" monitors (3 of them) for about 10 years. They work fine but I'm sure new ones would be clearer. I'll get new ones when I get a new computer this year.

My younger daughter and her husband today gave their toddler girl a baby brother. The handsome little bruiser clocked in at just a hair over NINE pounds. Mama and son are doing well.

Congrats! Grandkids are so fun! Just more to love. Ours range from 3-18, but we're really hoping our son and DIL have a baby in the next couple of years.

An old monitor that had been my secondary one bit the dust. I bought a new one (3440 x 1440) and am amazed as to how much crisper everything is. The previous main monitor that is now secondary is 1928x1080. If anyone else has aging eyes and an older monitor, it may be a good investment to take advantage of the newer technology.

What is astounding to me is how much he looks like his mama looked when she was born. Same rosebud mouth, same nose, same hair, same just-wanna-pinch-them cheeks. Mama had more eyebrows.

I, too, have never had a monitor that died. Therefore did not realize they made that much difference. However, two new laptops this year have already stretched my belt to the limit. Presently, am looking for a "deal" on paper. The cost of doing business has gotten out of hand.

quick FYI after a couple of days I'll delete the picture.

I agree, monitors last. But the day you instal newer one the dirrence in 10 years is amazing. I just kept gettingv newer glasses. I have a HP 24" from about 2004 or so. ( hand me down) excellent Screen. Also main monitor is 24" Dell. So so screen. Friend was "camping" in his trailer and plugged his 27"HP into my system. Both my monitors appeared to fade away. Before October there will be 2 new monitors on my desk. Kept hoping someone would take pity on "Old Man" and gift them to me. But, birthday came and gone, no monitors

I have never had a monitor die. My current monitor on my Win 10 system is about 9 years old and still works fine.I used it on my previous Windows system. I am semi retired and don't work full time any more so my monitor probably has the equivalent of 4 full time years of use.

Wow! I've been fortunate then as the one that died was from 2010 and the one that is now secondary is from 2016.

Thanks for the heads up. I was just considering a mobile monitor so that my laptop has a 2nd monitor when I'm not in the office. Might go your route when one of these dies. Tends to be about a 3 year cycle before they really degrade.

After some reflection, and yet another issue with a customer not remembering their password, I am removing the application level password capability from my software. Why? Because real security is controlling access itself. Lock up the computer. Hardware access control. Operating system access control. Access control keys, recovery keys stored off site under lock and key themselves. In my customer's cases, the complaint will inevitably be when the owner wants to have secure data on a computer they let their employees access. It will be interesting to see the customer feedback, and arguments against. The #1 will likely be "I cannot afford a separate computer", which is tough to sell to me, since a modest computer can be had for much less than a year of data breach insurance. Plus the number of customers who install a "second" copy on a different computer for "travel, home use, etc.". One good point was to add 2FA. But that comes at a cost (internet access at all times, and a cost per access), which is still fallible (email spoofing, stolen phone number, lost, stolen, or borrowed phones). --- When I added the application level password, we were in the days of Windows 3.1, and there was no real security in the hardware and OS, and most did not want to pay for the access control applications of the end of the last century. Now, it is tough to get a computer without hardware control and the OS having access control as well.