Farewell Friends
Posted3 months agoActive3 months ago
humbledollar.comOtherstoryHigh profile
calmmixed
Debate
20/100
MortalityPersonal FinanceBlogging
Key topics
Mortality
Personal Finance
Blogging
The author of HumbleDollar, a personal finance blog, has passed away at 62, leaving behind a farewell note that sparked a thoughtful discussion on mortality, life priorities, and the impact of his writing.
Snapshot generated from the HN discussion
Discussion Activity
Very active discussionFirst comment
49m
Peak period
49
0-12h
Avg / period
17
Comment distribution68 data points
Loading chart...
Based on 68 loaded comments
Key moments
- 01Story posted
Sep 28, 2025 at 5:31 PM EDT
3 months ago
Step 01 - 02First comment
Sep 28, 2025 at 6:19 PM EDT
49m after posting
Step 02 - 03Peak activity
49 comments in 0-12h
Hottest window of the conversation
Step 03 - 04Latest activity
Oct 4, 2025 at 1:30 PM EDT
3 months ago
Step 04
Generating AI Summary...
Analyzing up to 500 comments to identify key contributors and discussion patterns
ID: 45408229Type: storyLast synced: 11/20/2025, 6:45:47 PM
Want the full context?
Jump to the original sources
Read the primary article or dive into the live Hacker News thread when you're ready.
What struck me most about this one is that it spoke much more about the professional life then about the personal one. I would imagine that if I were to ever write one (which I won’t, cause I’ll live forever) it will be more on the side of outside work experiences.
Life is a beautiful gift, and it’s worth remembering that every day. Do what you love, do a lot of it, be kind to others, hug your cherished people, laugh, enjoy, smile…breathe.
I love you all, and hope you’re enjoying every moment of this incredible journey through the Universe on this floating space rock.
A lot of my legacy will be completely unheralded, and that's as it should be.
I do appreciate (but can't really say I "like") these posts.
Much better than the old "GBCW" (GoodBye Cruel World) posts that people used to post, when they rage-quit forums.
I believe that it happened when I found out that I'm "on the spectrum," fairly late in life (in my forties).
Before that, my work was "scratching an itch," but after, it was "doing what I love."
(In fact, something similar was a common headstone epitaph that a relative of mine who died over 100 years ago has on his own headstone.)
I wrote a bit about it here: https://engineersneedart.com/blog/camera/camera.html
And for millions of years, there are similar men. The 19th century provides me with some portraits from archives. The 18th and 17th century has just names.
I will blow away too in time, and my grandchildren can watch the lego engineering youtube videos I uploaded to Youtube when I was 9, and wonder what it would be like to meet me, too.
Sobering.
And you can't of course. But the takeaway is to tell yourself that instead. Memento Vivere.
(someday I'll build my own SystemSix).
Thank you... this is what it's all about - it's really as simple as that.
If I were writing about my life, there'd be roughly a single line saying "I worked in tech, which gave me the disposable income and free time to ..." and then a description of all the things I've done which are actually interesting, unique or worth sharing for the sake of advice. If I waste my final days talking about my jobs, that's a clear sign that my mind is already gone.
There are probably some HN users who are working as research scientists on clean energy or vaccines, or at Doctors without Borders or similar, who have interesting things to say about their career. For 99% of us though, we sat at a computer and did meaningless drudgery in exchange for a paycheck.
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/927691-what-is-success-to-l...
I was thinking the same thing when reading the man’s reflection focused so much on his personal accolades and so little on what David Brooks calls “eulogy values.” But to each their own.
My personal and family life is great, but it's also ordinary. That makes it no less meaningful to me but I would struggle to tell you anything profound about it that you don't already know. For a lot of people who are journalists, writers, spent time in the military or abroad I think that's just what stands out to them.
Am I nuts or are they appearing more often recently on the front page of HN?
Not sure what to make of that. Are the increasingly common thing to do for the terminally ill? Are people more attracted up voting them?
Are there any services you would recommend?
I would probably just ensure at least one or two trusted people have the access to post it on your behalf and know it is very important to you that it gets done.
Or worse; I dunno get hit by a bus and be in the hospital, or perhaps arrested? Friends and family don’t know what happened to you and then your death announcement blares.
I think only people expecting their death to be likely in the next year should want to employ this however, and that probably changes things.
I like the curl on will option (or for a lawyer maybe email with link)
My parents died just as I was entering adulthood many years ago. They were both kind/accidental iconoclasts with lives that were unusual to the tune of 1 in a billion, or really, discretely unique, like all people perhaps. They bridged eras, continents, cultural inertias, familial blendings.
I lost so much... everything really, when they died. I have so many questions I forgot to ask, so many things I forgot to write down.
People are important. Even people who go unnoticed can have weird and niche insights.
I think of ImageNet. People are far more important and their lives and insights far less uniform. We miss much by letting all these people go without hearing them, without trying to understand them.
There’s really not enough data in your notes to clone your entire personality, so it only halfway sounded like him. But it was an interesting experiment.
Here's a conversation outline from StoryCorps https://storycorps.org/participate/tips-for-a-great-conversa...
Is it a reference to something?
I'm so tired and angry. I miss the calm of the evening. I don't miss my friends. I never fell in love and I don't regret it. Life is worth losing.
For me it was liberating to realize that my life isn't that special and it's not a huge tragedy to lose it. I'll do what I can while I am here. Not even gods can ask me for more. And death doesn't take away all the things I did in the meantime.
I hope you find peace soon.
Not having it most certainly results in suffering and consequently different memories. Money won't buy happiness but it sure eases a lot of the petty sadness.
I got a sense of Jonathan while reading his farewell note. And the note challenges me to do and be better. RIP Jonathan.
Its sad and scary to see just how fast he died from cancer. Also bewildering he stopped smoking at 27.
All in all, RIP.
I (Jon) lived in Twikkers too, a few years later than this Jon was born there.
Rest in peace mate.
> Jonathan Clements founded HumbleDollar at year-end 2016. Earlier in his career, he spent almost 20 years at The Wall Street Journal, where he was the newspaper's personal finance columnist, and six years at Citigroup, where he was director of financial education for the bank's U.S. wealth management arm. He was also the author of a fistful of personal finance books, including My Money Journey and How to Think About Money.
* https://humbledollar.com/about/jonathan-clements/
* A Money Guru Bet Big on a Very Long Life. Then He Got Cancer. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/13/your-money/jonathan-cleme...
* https://www.reddit.com/r/financialindependence/comments/1npe...
* Tributes to Jonathan Clements https://humbledollar.com/2025/09/tributes-to-jonathan-clemen...
* Best of Jonathan’s HumbleDollar Posts https://humbledollar.com/2025/09/best-of-jonathans-humbledol...
* Choosing Happiness https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32804468 (3 years ago, 101 comments)
1 more comments available on Hacker News