Good morning:
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​Reminder: The next live show will be Monday, January 26th at 7 pm ET. You can subscribe to the YouTube channel where the show is broadcast here.

3 Things

1. A Simple Annual Financial Review Template (The Finance Buff)

2. Why You Can’t Time the Market (Even When You Know the Future) (Of Dollars And Data)

3. Stop Chickening Out (The Purpose Code)

My Videos & Articles

• ​How Do You Protect Your Portfolio as You Near Retirement? (FQF)

ICYMI

• Warren Buffett Answers Five Big Questions In New CNBC Interviews (Kingswell)
• How to Improve Your Decisions, Immediately (And Why *Almost* Nothing Matters) (Lucky Maverick)
• An Antidote to "Personal Stagflation" (The Root Of All)
• The Big Splash (Seth Godin)
• The Shape of Time (Aeon)
• We Need a Renaissance of Rhetoric (Kyle Harrison)
• Warren Buffett Was Never Just a Value Investor. Here’s the Real Secret to His Investing Success (Larry Swedroe)
• The Bookie at the Center of the Ohtani Betting Scandal Is Ready to Talk (Rolling Stone)
• The power of the (literally) written word (The Leap)
• Where Does Indiana Rank Among All-Time Champions? (Neal's Substack)
• The Best Retirement Strategies for Leaving Money Behind (Amy Arnott)
• 8 Tips to Stop Worrying About Running Out of Money in Retirement (Morningstar)
• The Unpredicted vs the Over-Expected (KK)
• Schrödinger’s cat just got bigger (Nature)
• Could Required Minimum Distributions Cause You to Overspend? (Christine Benz)

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

• ​Die with Zero by Bill Perkins. It's not an exaggeration to say it's one of the worst personal finance books I've ever read. The idea--quit work as soon as you can and enjoy life by spending all the money you have before you die--is appealing to some. But the book fails--really, doesn't even attempt--to explain exactly how one can do this (you can't), and the style and stories are bland.
• ​Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. An easier read than I expected, and it's packed with wisdom I needed to hear.
• ​Getting Things Done by David Allen. I read this excellent book years ago. After finishing Die with Zero, I decided to revisit GTD to remind myself what a really good "How to" book reads. Atomic Habits is another excellent example.

Tools I'm Using From Partners

• Monarch Money: Get 50% off the First Year 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.
• 1Password: An excellent password manager currently offering 25% off on annual plans.

Resources From Partners

• Quicken Simplifi: Get Simplifi 50% off the first year ($2.99 a month)
• 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.