By Josh Katzowitz, WCI Content Director

Personal retirement income planning is challenging precisely because there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Many retirees quickly discover this after receiving confident but conflicting advice from different sources, each presenting a different “best” answer. Two retirees with identical balances, the same age, and similar goals may still need very different plans. That reality makes retirement planning deeply personal, but it also makes it harder to tell when a recommendation truly fits you versus when it simply […]

Published February 2019 | Last Updated January 2026 [BLUF: The Quick Answer] In 2019, I told you that 25x your expenses was the magic number. I was wrong. Between sticky 3% inflation, a shifting Federal Reserve, and the reality of a 40-year retirement, 25x is now your minimum safety net, not your finish line. In 2026, the data (and my own bank account) says you should be aiming for 28x to 30x if you want […]

Hey Everyone! Are you enjoying 2026 so far? Life in the US is getting crazy, but I am doing okay. I hope you are safe as well. This year, I’m blogging less frequently, and it is nice. The pressure to write a new blog post every week is gone. I am enjoying the weekends more, and I’m taking another step toward full retirement. 2025 was a rocky year for the RB40 household. Mrs. RB40 retired from her career and refocused on helping her dad. He is transitioning from living alone at home to an assisted living facility. It’s a difficult move. She spent a lot of time in California to facilitate the process. It was tough for me to be a single parent while she was away, but we survived. The house got pretty messy, though. I’m not very good at cleaning. RB40Jr started high school, and he enjoyed it immensely. He took advanced classes to get ahead and participated in several extracurricular activities. He is doing great in high school. We are very glad he is adjusting well. On the personal finance side, we had a good year. The stock market performed very well and propelled our net worth to a new high. Our cash flow looked okay as well. We withdrew from savings to plug some holes, but that’s what retirement is about. Alright, I’ll share my 2025 Report Card. Then, I’ll go over our net worth and cash flow. Let’s go! 2025 Goals Report Card Here is my 2025 goal spreadsheet. It’s helpful. Try it out if you can’t keep up with your New Year’s goals. The key is to review the spreadsheet monthly to track your progress. That way, you can see which goals need extra attention and work on them. Oh man, if I brought home this report card when I was in high school, I’d be grounded for 6 months! Fortunately, I’m retired, and I’m a lot easier on myself. Overall, I did pretty well. There were some failures, but I made the best of them. That’s failing forward, or something like that. Financial Goals Sell Rental Condo- Fail This was my main goal for 2025. The previous tenant moved out of our rental condo in January. I fixed it up and listed it for sale. Unfortunately, the condo market was terrible in Portland. We only had one viewing in 4 months! I think buyers were afraid. That’s why I decided to rent it out for a while. The next tenant broke the lease and moved out at the end of 2025. That’s fine with me because I’m really ready to sell. I painted the interior and it’s ready to go. The unit will go on the market in a week or so. The condo market is still slow, but I’m more optimistic. The interest rate is a bit lower this year. If it doesn’t sell by spring, I’ll lower the price a bit. So the grade for this goal in

Don’t miss an episode of our podcast, Personal Finance for Long-Term Investors. Tune in on: Apple Podcasts Spotify YouTube Now, here’s today’s article: Honest Abe Lincoln had a riddle he would tell. He would ask an audience, “How many legs does a dog have if you count its tail as a leg?” That’s a strange question, you might think. But, not wanting to make a fool of yourself in front of the President, you might stutter out, “Well…four plus one would give you five legs. Is it five legs, Abe?”  And Abe would scream at you, “Idiot! I fooled you! Don’t you know anything about dogs!?!?” And Abe would calmly say, “The fact that you call it a leg doesn’t make it a leg. The answer is four.”  You got ’em, Abe. He was pointing out the tension (sometimes accidental, sometimes purposeful) between labels, perceptions, etc., vs. the true underlying reality. Comedian George Carlin was famous for his linguistic bits. Specifically, he spoke and joked about words “that hide truth, that conceal reality, euphemistic language.”  Warning – just a few curse words… [embed]https://youtube.com/watch?v=o25I2fzFGoY&feature=oembed[/embed] And Charlie Munger, one of my personal favorites, believed that all humans are prone to this behavior. For example, he once said, “the nature of human psychology is such that you’ll torture reality so that it fits your models.“ When we’re faced with a harsh truth that alters our fundamental beliefs, an innate instinct wants to deny that truth or shoehorn it into our preconceived reality. Lying with Numbers In one financial example, Munger was a vocal and sharp critic of “creative accounting.” Too many people lie too often using numbers.  Munger would point at a derivatives trade between two large Wall Street firms. Each firm’s accountants then track that trade in their internal accounting books, and each firm’s accountants…show a profit?! How can both profit? This type of behavior is surprisingly common, even though, as Munger would say, “it violates the most elemental principles of common sense.”  Why, though? Why is this happening?  Because, in this case, employees at each of those firms have incentives to have their trades appear profitable. Show me the incentives, I’ll show you the outcomes.   Can this problem be fixed? Specifically about public accounting, Munger says, “Oh. You’re talking about a problem so deeply rooted in human nature, you won’t live long enough to see it. If it gets 20% fixed in your remaining lifetime, you’ll be a fortunate man.”  Torturing Retirement Numbers Why am I bringing this up? Who cares about “torturing numbers?” Because I think it’s important we avoid this pitfall in our personal financial planning, our portfolio decisions, our retirement planning, etc. It can be all too easy to torture these numbers. Sometimes accidentally. Sometimes to avoid painful realizations. Usually, though, because we simply don’t know any better. Here are some big examples: Using “Average Returns” as the Only Model Unfortunately, your “average returns” in retirement aren’t nearly as

Look, if you’re reading this in early January 2026, you’re either celebrating or you’re feeling a massive pit in your stomach. As of January 14, 2026, silver is screaming. Spot price is oscillating between $85 and $90 per ounce—up a staggering 210% from this time last year. Gold is comfortably over $4,500, but silver is the one stealing the headlines. Between the industrial “Green Revolution” and the global flight to hard assets, the “poor man’s […]

Welcome back to another monthly update from Root of Good! Happy belated New Years to all of you! We had a great 2025 and we’re looking forward to another great year in 2026. During December, we stayed at home the whole month to spend time with family over the holidays.  After a family-filled Thanksgiving at our house in November, we enjoyed having someone else in the family host our family gathering for Christmas. And we […]

Happy New Year, and welcome to the 2025 Fates On Fire Book Awards! With a record 249 entries, the competition was fierce, and the 7th annual award ceremony is going to be riveting. So grab your date, make your way down the red carpet, and take your seats – it’s showtime! WHAT THE HELL ARE THESE AWARDS AND WHY SHOULD I CARE? If you happen to read a lot, then you know that the Booker […]