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Monday, August 24, 2026Vol. II · No. 24 · Omaha, Nebraska
MoneyHole

Shoveling You Deeper Into Financial Wisdom

Omaha, Nebraska

MARKETS
HOPE-4.2%RENT+11.8%WAGEunch.VIBES+212.5%DOOM+3.7%ROCK+9.1%BEANS-0.03%EGGS+14.6%DEBT+6.9% · recordDGNTY-18.0%SLEEP-2.4%PTO-100.0% · expiredRSUHALTED · pending vestPLSMA+2.2% · twice weeklyPNTS+1,400 ptsLATTE$7.25HSTL+45.0%STRTRno bidTMSHRlimit downIRA-0.9%SSA255$255 · unch. since 1954BOOMR+52.0%GENZdelistedCOPE+18.4%LUCKunch.FICO-41 ptsEQTY+0.0% · theoreticalDDCTBL+$3,400TIPS+22.0% · prompted at kioskTIME-24 hrsMOMLNrestructuredBRNCH$61.00LOYAL-0.4%PENSNno longer quotedSILVR+1.1% · still not gold

The National FabricM · Revealed Preferences

M4M

Medicare Moguls

On a fixed income, in the sense that the dividend arrives on a schedule.

Reference marketFirst identified in Naples, Florida (ZIP areas 34102, 34103, 34104, 34105, 34112).

Also found inVero Beach, Florida; Hilton Head Island, South Carolina; Sanibel, Florida; Bonita Springs, Florida; Jupiter, Florida; Fort Myers Beach, Florida.

Thesis

The household presents as retired and fixed-income while filing in the top half of one per cent, because the only fixed thing on the return is the rate applied to the 91 per cent of it that never touched a payroll.

Means-tested for nothing. Qualifies for everything.

Portrait

In their own words

  • Age71
  • Income$96K described, $487K filed
  • Net worth$8.4M
  • Education62%
  • Home$1.9M
  • Ownership86%
  • HouseholdMarried, two houses, one domicile of record
  • VehicleTwo-year-old Lexus and a street-legal golf cart with a plate
  • DebtNone; the boat is owned by an LLC in Delaware
Vice
Describing a $487,000 AGI as fixed
Most likely to
Raise the $10.30 Part B increase at a $340 dinner
Signals
Charitable remainder trusts, pickleball, a cardiology practice with valet

Who they are

Describes himself as on a fixed income and files an adjusted gross income of $487,000, of which 91 per cent arrives as qualified dividends and long-term gains taxed below the rate applied to the wages of the woman who cleans the lanai. He is 71, enrolled in Medicare, and holding $8.4M he does not say out loud. Domicile was moved to Florida in 2016 for reasons given entirely as weather. Over dinner he will note that the Part B premium went up $10.30, at a table where the entrée is $68 and the reservation was placed in March. He has not worked since 2011 and has out-earned the median American household in every year since.

Our neighborhood

A coastal ZIP code with a median age of 68, 74 per cent of adults out of the labor force, and an uninsured rate of 2.1 per cent because everyone present qualified for something. Flood risk in the 94th percentile, priced in by the carrier and then priced out by the carrier, who left in 2023. Construction proceeds regardless — four feet up on stilts, presold before the slab cures.

Shopping

Buys nothing on impulse and everything on advice, including a $340 dinner ordered off the left-hand column and later described as reasonable. The golf cart is titled, plated, and the third registered vehicle in the household.

Spending

$214,000 a year against a $487,000 AGI, with the difference routed through a charitable remainder trust that pays him back for life. Homeowner's wind coverage is $0, because no carrier will write it and he has decided the risk is his.

Media

Two financial channels on mute in the kitchen and a wealth-management newsletter forwarded to four people with the word interesting. Local news is read for the insurance market and the county commission's position on the bridge.

Interests

Pickleball, at a club with a three-year waitlist he did not spend three years on. Estate planning is the actual hobby, reviewed quarterly with a firm that bills in six-minute increments.

Where they live

Darker is more of them.

M4 · MEDICARE MOGULS

ZIP CODES

—

How thick on the ground

$99K

Median household income

1.37× the national median

$718K

Typical home value

2.69× the national median

6.9×

Home value against income

1.84× the national median

50%

Bachelor's degree or higher

2.13× the national median

81%

Owner-occupied

Share of occupied units

$2,601

Median gross rent

Monthly, contract plus utilities

2.11

Average household size

Persons per occupied unit

59.6

Median age

Years

How they compare

Against the average American household.

  • Median household income

    1.37×

    $99K here$72K everywhere else

  • Typical home value

    2.69×

    $718K here$267K everywhere else

  • Bachelor's degree or higher

    2.13×

    49.5% here23.2% everywhere else

  • Home value against household income

    1.84×

    6.90× here3.75× everywhere else

Who lives next door

Household types that turn up on the same blocks.

The receipts

No.SignalAgainst the countryReading
  1. 01Income arriving as dividends, capital gains or partnership95th32.8%
  2. 02Average adjusted gross income93rd$216K
  3. 03Residents 65 and over93rd41.1%
  4. 04Median age92nd59.6 yrs
  5. 05Tax returns over $200,00091st18.3%
  6. 06Not in the labor force84th54.0%
  7. 07Held for seasonal or occasional use83rd20.1%
  8. 08Households with children16th14.8%
  9. 09Expected annual loss from natural hazards80th91.80
  10. 10Coastal flood risk71st64.59

SourcesFigures from the U.S. Census Bureau, the Internal Revenue Service and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Everything else is observation.