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

3 Things

1. Helping Clients Understand When They Have Enough Retirement Savings To “Coast FIRE” (Kitces)

2. The TIP ETF just hit a meaningless milestone (TIPS Watch)

3. Social Security Is Still Taxed Under the New 2025 Trump Tax Law (The Finance Buff)

My Videos & Articles

• ​Monarch Now Shows You Exactly What You Bought on Amazon, And Categorizes It For You​ (Article)
• ​How Bracket Filling Can Lower Your Tax Bill in Retirement​
• ​How Big Is the Widow’s Penalty—and Can You Reduce It? (FQF)

ICYMI

• ​What’s Better Than U.S. Bonds for Downside Protection?​ (w/ a link this time!)
• Does it always make sense to think of a 20% decline in your portfolio as a loss? (TKer)
• Don’t Fall For This Stock Scam (Herb Greenberg)
• Globally, 1 in 10 adults under 55 have left their childhood religion (Pew Research Center)
• Use an Independent Agent for Auto and Home Insurance (The Finance Buff)
• ​Details on The New Tax Bill (I asked Perplexity for unbiased reviews of the "One Big Beautiful Bill". The link are to the results)
• Productivity, AI and pushback (Seth Godin)
• The Hollow Men of Hims (Alex Kesin)
• How do scientists calculate the probability that an asteroid could hit Earth? (The Conversation)
• Collector Ken Griffin spends $18.1m on historic US documents signed by Abraham Lincoln (The Art Newspaper)
• The Best TV Shows of 2025 (So Far) (Variety)
• Nebraska Town Opens 45-Ton Time Capsule 50 Years After It Was Sealed (Today)
• The Titanic's Best Lifeboat (99% Invisible)​

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

• I've been reading Meditations for Mortals: Four Weeks to Embrace Your Limitations and Make Time for What Counts by Oliver Burkeman. He also wrote Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals. Both are excellent
• Today is the last day of the World Chess Open in Philly. I lost my first two games and was discouraged to say the least. Then I won my next five, so that's good. Two games today and then back home for the live show tomorrow.
• I'm working on a new subreddit on DIY retirement. I hope to open it up to everybody next Sunday. It will be a place where we can chat about all things retirement planning and investing.

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Resource

• Monarch Money 50% the First Year Discount Code: MONARCHVIP​
• 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.
• ProjectionLab 10% Discount Code RBERGER-10​
• NEW: You can view past issues of the newsletter here.

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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.