Good morning:
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​Reminder: The next live show will be Monday, August 3rd at 7 pm ET. You can subscribe to the YouTube channel where the show is broadcast here.

​Your Book Recommendations​

3 Things

1. 2026 2027 Federal Income Tax Calculator for Retirees (The Finance Buff)
2. Vanguard's Security Audit – What I Learned When I Took It (The Retirement Manifesto)
3. Ask the Analyst: Are CD Ladders a Good Retirement Strategy? (Morningstar)

ICYMI

• Forecasting Social Security's 2027 COLA: My guess is 3.6% (Tipswatch)
• Is a Total Bond Fund Still an Acceptable Core Bond Holding? (Oblivious Investor)
• Personalizing Lifespan Assumptions For More Accurate Social Security And Retirement Withdrawal Recommendations (Kitces)
• Find Your Fascination (A Wealth of Common Sense)
• On Quality: What It Is and Why Products Get Worse (Worse on Purpose)
• Read This Before You Buy That TV Streaming Stick (Krebs on Security)
• Social Security (HumbleDollar)
• Did OpenAI's New Model "Go Rogue"? (Cal Newport)
• New airliner sets record flying 24 hrs nonstop from Australia to France (Ars Technica)
• Should you wash your prewashed lettuce? An infectious disease expert explains how to eat your greens safely during the cyclospora outbreak (The Conversation)
• The 25 Best Documentaries of All Time, Ranked (The Hollywood Reporter)
• Why I Object to 'Hitting a Number' for Retirement (Morningstar)
• Death and How to Be More Alive: Carl Jung on Immortality and the Rebirth of Middle Age (The Marginalian)
• Study uncovers lost 'golden age' of languages (Yale News)

My Videos & Articles

• The Once-a-Year Retirement Checkup (In Under 1 Hour) (YouTube)
• He Retired With $1 Million in 2000. By 2008, Half of It Was Gone. (FQF) (YouTube)

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What I'm Reading, Listening To, Watching, and Thinking About

• I'm almost finished reading Risk & Reward by Ben Carlson. It's an easy read and a good reminder to broaden our view of the market beyond current events.
• I continue reading Master of the Senate. The first 50 pages are an excellent history of the Senate.

Tools I'm Using From Partners

• Monarch Money: Get 50% off the First Year of Monarch Money Core Plan--Discount Code: ROB50​
• ​Boldin: I use this tool for our retirement planning. ProjectionLab is also a great financial planning tool and is offering a 10% Discount Code RBERGER-10.
• ​Kubera: My choice to track investments and net worth. They offer a 14-day free trial. An excellent free alternative is Empower.

Resources From Partners

• Get free Medicare guidance from Chapter (410) 220-5494
• For a limited time, try the AI-powered budgeting app Origin for just $1 the first year.
• You can see a list of all of my Youtube videos here.
• You can see a list of the budgeting, investing and retirement planning tools I use here.
• You can view past issues of the newsletter here.
• ​DIYRetirement Subreddit​

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Best,
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Rob Berger
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P.S. Feel free to hit reply and send me a message. I read every email.