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Q: I have inherited jewelry and collectibles from family members over the years. Are they covered under my homeowner’s policy?

The American healthcare system is, in a word, complicated. It also can be extremely expensive. And that’s before we even reach retirement age.

Age is just a number, the saying goes. But that’s not really true. Age is at least two numbers—your chronological age and your biological age. Chronological age is the one you count with birthday candles. Biological age is trickier to pin down. But think of it this way: We are all on a journey toward frail, worn-down, illness-prone bodies, but some of us are getting there more quickly than others. Our biological ages differ, sometimes by a lot.

The 2015 movie The Big Short chronicles the market and economic forces that led to the financial crisis in 2007. Based on a Michael Lewis book of the same name, the film’s all-star cast explains the crisis’s origins through the stories of a handful of analysts and investors who saw the meltdown coming, bet on it, and made a lot of money.

Your adult child plans to borrow $400,000 to buy a home. You want to help. You could provide that sum in the form of a gift, but that would trigger federal gift-tax complications. Besides, giving away that much might leave you a little uneasy—and take a bite out of your portfolio. Instead, consider providing the money as a loan—an intra-family loan.

The turn of the 20th century was a time of high optimism and enthusiasm for the future. This Age of Hope was fueled by technological innovations such as mass communication, mass mobility—with the advent of affordable personal automobiles—and the extension of education to nearly everyone.

The habits that we’ve formed over our lifetimes help define us. We have physical habits, mental habits, habits of character, personal hygiene habits, and productivity habits. We have good habits, and we have bad habits.

Today’s healthy retirees may live 25 years or more beyond their primary working years. That’s a lot of years. But more importantly, that’s a lot of days—more than 9,000 days to wake up, greet the dawn, and then . . . What?