Dear Old Guy welcomes letters on all subjects, including love, marriage, child rearing, even basic plumbing and medical advice. What he doesn’t know, he is happy to make up. After…
Columns
Industrial arts...Some thoughts in advance of the next big storm
It was very important, when our children were small, that they not be afraid should the lights suddenly go out. It was also important that they understand what was happening — that a power outage…
Financially Speaking
It’s not too soon to look at what you will owe for your 2014 taxes. Two basic questions: will any life changes—marriage, divorce, another child, a new job—affect your tax picture? And, if you got…
Dear Old Guy welcomes letters on all subjects, including love, marriage, child rearing, even basic plumbing and medical advice. What he doesn’t know, he is happy to make up. After…
Well, the election is over and some folks are happy while some are sad. Some are beside themselves convinced that the world, or at least the state, is coming to an end. Could be, but I suspect…
Financially Speaking
Charities need to apply to the IRS for tax-exempt status. A new, shorter and simpler form has been made available, designed for small groups with annual gross receipts of $50,000 and total assets…
Financially Speaking
When a couple divorces and it’s time to divide their assets, the funds stashed in a qualified retirement account are often a major part of their holdings. So it’s not unusual for part of that…
Trick or Treat
Dear Old Guy welcomes letters on all subjects, including…
Down to the sea
Having a bird’s eye view of Camden Harbor for 44 years, from my office window, I realized that it changed often and…
Dear Old Guy welcomes letters on all subjects, including love, marriage, child rearing, even basic plumbing and medical advice. What he doesn’t know, he is happy to make up. After all, he…
Ron Joseph
Over the past 100 years the status of Maine's bears has evolved from big pest to big game species. In the 1950s, when I was child in…
I’d like to think that laundry issues are a gender thing, but it might be just me. There are some guys in the laundry business who have been very successful, and I’m not sure if they are good…
Financially Speaking
Longevity annuities are a recent addition to the save-for-retirement package. They don’t start to pay out until the owner is 80 or 85—about the time the retiree may be wondering if he or she has…
Dear Old Guy welcomes letters on all subjects, including love, marriage, child rearing, even basic plumbing and medical advice. What he doesn’t know, he is happy to make up. After all, he…
sports orphan
Dear Old Guy welcomes letters on all subjects, including love, marriage, child rearing, even basic plumbing and medical advice. What he doesn’t know, he is happy to make up. After all, he…
Financially Speaking
Many young people just finishing high school or college have a limited history handling money. Some may have had part-time jobs; some may have had an allowance from parents. As they start their…
I’m very fortunate that the girls here at the Pilot let me write whatever I want. They don’t suggest anything or try to steer me toward certain subjects. They also are good with being called girls…
Financially Speaking
By the time open enrollment ended for the Affordable Care Act (sometimes known as Obamacare), more than 8 million people had signed up, more than original projections. Toward the end of the sign-…
Financially Speaking
There are really two questions involved here: when do you want to retire and when can you afford to retire?
Run the numbers before you decide. Though more than half of Americans claim Social…
There's so much banter and conversation over the installation of Facebook's new Messenger app:. "You can't message without it," "it's the most invasive app I've ever seen," "I want to message…
Tim Sample: Stories I Never Told You
I had my car stereo tuned to the oldies station the other morning as I headed over to the local java joint for a much-needed reboot of my mid-morning caffeine levels. To be honest I wasn’t even…
Industrial arts
MATINICUS — Summer is a busy time for most emergency medical service agencies in Maine. The influx of tourists increases the population, obviously, and there is the chance that vacationers…
Dear Old Guy welcomes letters on all subjects, including love, marriage, child rearing, even basic plumbing and medical advice. What he doesn’t know, he is happy to make up. After all, he…
Down to the sea
The lime industry was one that went for about 200 years, mostly in Thomaston and Rockland; but, there were some businesses in Camden. There were 10…
Financially Speaking
It's one thing to protect your identity to protect your assets and your credit. But these days, some thieves are stealing the identity of people with no credit history at all—youngsters!
…
What has happened since Jim’s death is deplorable
I never got as passionate as many did about Hope Elephants, good or bad. It seemed interesting as I followed the establishment of the facility and quite frankly my thoughts were, “I don’t see it…
Dear Old Guy welcomes letters on all subjects, including love, marriage, child rearing, even basic plumbing…
Financially Speaking
College tuition and board are astronomical these days—and rising. But living and medical expenses for retirees are high, too. What’s a family to do? What do you save for?
The hard-and-fast…
Dear Old Guy welcomes letters on all subjects, including love, marriage, child rearing, even basic plumbing and medical advice. What he doesn’t know, he is happy to make up. After all, he…
Fish Soup
“Giant, toxic goldfish in the Muck ....” As a fisherman, that line at Penobscot Bay Pilot caught my attention. Wow, now we're talking.
…
Miracles happen all around us, but we often fail to recognize them
It’s 1:30 a.m. on Labor Day and I’m asleep in the car in Phippsburg. The whole family is here waiting on the birth of a new grandson and all the comfortable places in the house are taken. The…
Financially Speaking
When rich Northerners move to Florida or Arizona, they’re not just looking for better weather; they’re seeking lower taxes.
The federal government has eased off on estate taxes, exempting…
Dear Old Guy welcomes letters on all subjects, including love, marriage, child rearing, even basic plumbing and medical advice. What he doesn’t know, he is happy to make up. After all, he…
On a warm July morning, 600 bison impede my progress on a road in Yellowstone National Park. With sun-up, the herd is descending from high elevation meadows,…
Dear Old Guy welcomes letters on all subjects, including love, marriage, child rearing, even basic plumbing and medical advice. What he doesn’t know, he is happy to make up. After all, he…
Focus on the maximum rather than the minimum
The minimum wage debate keeps coming up and recently has had some big headlines. This article is not about the merits of raising the minimum wage. Instead it’s about doing more than the minimum.…
Financially Speaking
It’s basically up to the individual to protect his or her own identity: shred documents and avoid giving personal information unless you are sure who you’re dealing with. Avoid using your Social…
Dear Old Guy welcomes letters on all subjects, including love, marriage, child rearing, even basic plumbing and medical advice. What he doesn’t know, he is happy to make up. After all, he…
Financially Speaking
When you need a chunk of money suddenly—in case of illness, perhaps, or a similar calamity—there are some advantages to borrowing from a 401(K) account. The money is there, the rates are usually…
Tim Sample: Stories I Never Told You
A couple my wife and I have become friendly with in recent years, I’ll just call them “Jock and Athena” (not their real …
Financially Speaking
Portability is an attractive new feature added to recent estate-tax law. It permits any estate and gift tax exemption that was not used when the first spouse died to pass to the…
Dear Old Guy welcomes letters on all subjects, including love, marriage, child rearing, even basic plumbing and medical advice. What he doesn’t know, he is happy to make up. After all, he…
Tim Sample: Stories I Never Told You
It’s fair to say that I was somewhat grumpier than usual the other night, but not without good cause in the form of a last …
Financially Speaking
How do you move money from one I.R.A. to another? Best way is to make a direct transfer—letting the trustee move the money directly to another trustee. There are no limits to how many times and…
Financially Speaking
Last year, the IRS gave business owners a bonus depreciation for business vehicles. That’s gone, and limits are sharply lower.
For passenger cars placed in service this year, the first-year…
Down to the sea
It was advertised as "all the lobsters you can eat for a dollar." But that was in the good old days and not at the Rockland Lobster Festival of today. There was also a parade, a ballgame, door…
For almost five months of the year I am tethered to my Samsonite roller bag, a modest collection of three-ounce unguents and gels, and a cell phone that is pre-programmed to tell me the current…
Industrial arts
Logistics. When I see that word now, I usually hear in my head that UPS advertisement they were running a few years ago, the one about how that company loves "logistics" and sung to the tune of…
What would you do if in their shoes?
Not long ago and just the other day, there were suspicious packages found in the Midcoast. A lunch bag by a trash receptacle in Rockland and a paper tube in a mailbox in Warren. Fortunately,…
