Welcome back to another monthly update from Root of Good! We’ve been at home in Raleigh for a bit over a week after a busy few weeks exploring the Mediterranean Sea aboard the Sun Princess cruise ship. We set sail from Barcelona and visited a dozen ports of call spread across half a dozen different countries. We’ll have another week at home before we hop back on a jet to Europe for our next cruise […]

A social media post on X from the press office of Gavin Newsom added fuel to the debate over California’s high gas prices, declaring, “While America suffers, Chevron profits.” The statement quickly drew scrutiny after receiving a community note citing California’s own energy data. According to the note, “The State of California collects more in taxes per gallon of gasoline than refineries such as Chevron, Shell or Valero collect in profit per gallon,” undercutting the […]

Today we’re going to continue sharing thoughts from the book How to Retire by Christine Benz. It’s a great book and I highly recommend it. And as with the last article, I’ll be giving away a copy of the book at the end of this post. We’ve already covered this book once in the post titled How to Retire. You may want to check that out if you missed it since this post builds on […]

Listen to the pod Join us this week with Ken & Mary Okofoafor from The Humble Penny to discuss their new book The Wealth Habit. It’s how putting in the right habits and investing your money helps you become the rich version of yourself.  Ken & Mary have been teaching personal finance for many years and have two Sunday Times Bestsellers teaching you how to get rich.  Get the book https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-wealth-habit/ken-okoroafor/mary-okoroafor/9781529449204 ———A huge thanks to […]

I’ve spent the last nine years obsessed with a single number. I tracked every penny, ran every “Rule of 55” calculation a thousand times, and watched my net worth climb from a $25k debt hole to over $2 million. But now that I’m standing on the doorstep of full retirement in January 2028, I’ve realized something terrifying. Building the engine was the easy part. Learning how to drive the damn car is where the real […]

Picture this: You’re in your mid-40s and you’ve just quit your stressful corporate job. You’ve set aside enough money to fund your future retirement and now can work a more enjoyable (but lower paying) job to cover your living expenses until then.  This is the definition of Coast FIRE. You don’t have enough assets to never work again, but you have enough to never save again. You can “coast” until you get to retirement. Sounds pretty nice, right? This is why I love Coast FIRE. Out of all the variations of the FIRE movement, it’s by far the most appealing. You get most of the flexibility of financial independence with fewer of the costs. Under Coast FIRE, you don’t need to acquire as many resources as you do with traditional FIRE, and you don’t need to be as frugal either. Coast FIRE captures most of the benefits of FIRE without its extreme sacrifices. But has this changed in the age of AI? With the recent discussion around AI bots replacing white collar workers in the near future, is retiring early still the right move? Let’s dig in. How AI Could Impact Coast FIRE If you’ve recently hit Coast FIRE or are thinking about it in the next few years, below are some potential issues to consider: Could AI Automate Your New Career? The premise of Coast FIRE is that you leave behind your traditional 9-5 job in favor of a new career or side hustle. That new career/side hustle might pay less than your prior job, but it pays enough to cover your living expenses until you reach retirement. So what happens if that new career/side hustle gets automated by AI? For example, imagine someone who quits their job to work as a graphic designer because they reached Coast FIRE. How do they keep their clients when AI can replicate some of their work for much cheaper? This isn’t a rhetorical question either. This has already started happening. There’s a reason why Fiverr (the online gig work platform) had its stock cut in half over the last year.  Before you take the leap to pursue Coast FIRE, consider how future technological changes could impact your ability to coast. I’m not asking you to predict the future, but you should think deeply about how you’ll earn money in a world where LLMs are even more powerful than they are today. How Will AI Impact Your Investments? Another area where AI could impact Coast FIRE is on the investment side. After all, those pursuing Coast FIRE must rely on the growth in markets to meet their future retirement needs. So how will AI impact future equity returns? I don’t know (no one does). Nevertheless, some of the benefits of AI will accrue to public equity holders of AI and AI-adjacent businesses. While many AI companies are currently privately held, you’ll still get plenty of exposure to AI in a broad U.S. index fund (via the Magnificent 7 and

The post Social Security Retirement: Things to Know So You Can Maximize Your Benefits appeared first on Dividend Power. Planning for retirement means understanding how your Social Security retirement benefit works and when to claim it. Many retirees overlook important details such as the minimum Social Security retirement benefit amount and how the Social Security benefit tax may affect their income. Knowing these factors in advance can help you maximize your retirement income and avoid costly […]

Hi readers, it’s been a while since we’ve done a reader case, so here goes! This one is a doozy, and I knew it as soon as I saw the headline in my inbox “FIRE with 7 kids”. If you have a big family, is it going to be impossible to get to FI? Let’s find out by MATHING THAT SHIT UP! (also, stay tuned for an awesome announcement at the end of this post) […]