After I’d been writing this blog for a few months – sometime in early 2022 – I took a slight risk.

I’d been an avid reader and fan of Jonathan Clements’ well-read blog, the Humble Dollar  (https://humbledollar.com/), and I had known of Jonathan even before that, when I was a fan of his writing on personal finance in the Wall Street Journal where he published more than 1000 articles in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

The risk I took as a relative rookie writer, was to reach out to him and see if I might write for his esteemed blog.  I shared my enthusiasm for his site along with examples of the articles I’d written about a staged approach to retirement versus a full stop.  He responded the next morning saying yes…that he thought my content fit in well and explained what I should focus on for my first post.  And he was clear that I should note the writer’s guidelines he was attaching.  They were strict – or at least stricter than the loose guidelines I held for my own blog.  I find it hard to write without using exclamation marks. He does not.

After having written 7-8 articles for Humble Dollar over a year or so, I and the other writers received an email from Jonathan in late May, letting us know that he had just found out that (at age 61) he had multiple aggressive cancers and that the prognosis was not good.  He’s since written posts about his journey and he has been interviewed by the New York Times:  https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/13/your-money/jonathan-clements-cancer.html

His plans have obviously changed, but he is very open about what he’s thinking and he’s also clear that he doesn’t regret the planning and certain amount of frugality he’s been known for in his own finances.  While the diagnosis is a huge challenge, he’s accepted it with a characteristic conservatism.  He’s planning some travel now while he still can, but still can’t bring himself to pay for business class seats to Europe.  And he’s satisfied with the financial plans and exercise and fun he’s had to date.

I’m glad to have been able to write for him.  His editing of my articles was always spot on, even if I didn’t exactly like his changes at first.  And his sharing of his experience has me thinking even more about how we should look for opportunities to ratchet back on our work life and pursue the things we’ve always wanted to, before life throws us a curveball.