Jack Hurst Stands Tall Even With ALS

[haha]

http://money.cnn.com/2005/02/25/magazine/magin_hurst_0503/index.htm

This is a story about a retired colonel and investor Jack Hurst, and his incredible wife Anna. Jack has had ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease) for 17 years. He communicates via facial muscle contractions.

I don't know whether Jack is more amazing, or his wife Anna.

Wow. This couple is a wonderful example of grit and courage.

Mikey

 

[Spanky]

Very inspiring story. Having a portfolio of a handful of selected blue-chip stocks ($3 mil) will suffice. Apparently, he has the stock picking skills that I do not have. I invest exclusively in index mutual funds. The return is very close to that of market average - not bad.

The article does not really talk about his wife that much other than her illness and the medical expenses are covered by his military pension, the amount of which is not disclosed. I would think it must have been generous since he was retired as a high-ranking officer. She deserves a lot of credit for taking care of him and emotion support through all those years. I hope that she can recover from cancer soon.

 

[unclemick]

Good story

With no medical insurance, I would be impoverished.

Dick Young's Intelligence Report and Moneypaper are the only two newsletters I've kept with over the years to pick my DRIP stocks.

His partial stock list illustrates the power of buying the blindingly obvious.

Health and time are two things you don't have as much control over as you may think.

KAYAK NOW!

 

[Mr._johngalt]

Just a quickie about unclemick's "going bare"
on the health insurance. I have a whole collection
of medical issues (nothing very disabling or terminal).
Even so, if I had skipped the medical insurance since 1998 when I retired fully, I would be way ahead, even
though I've had some expensive tests and seen expensive doctors over those 7 years. It's all hindsight though. I still don't have the guts to drop it although if
I was close to Medicare I might. OTOH, DW
is 5 years younger so even then she would need
coverage. If we were into playing the odds, a lot of my relatives
lived almost forever. Her side is not so lucky.

JG

 

[Spanky]

Good story

With no medical insurance, I would be impoverished.

I thought military retirement provides medical coverage.

 

[Hyperborea]

Having a portfolio of a handful of selected blue-chip stocks ($3 mil) will suffice.

Actually, he's only got about $300K. With the military pension covering everything as per the article that's not a bad financial situation to be in. He appears to have mixed the blue chips with "value" tech stocks.

The return is very close to that of market average - not bad.

His returns do appear to be close to market average. A nice balanced index portfolio would probably have given him similar or better returns but perhaps the portfolio is more of something he needs to do to feel useful? That is a tough situation to be in for sure.

It doesn't say how old he is but as a guess he's maybe 70 (retired as lt.col. at 45? since 1980 = 70). This really makes you think about how long and for what you plan your portfolio to survive. Most of us won't have a pension to ground the income nor will most US citizens have as much health care availability as he had. Planning on exhausting your portfolio by 80 (another thread on this board) would leave one in an even worse situation than Jack Hurst faces as you'd be doing it with little to no money.