Look what I learned this week…For the last few years, I’ve been leaning further and further into the “human” side of things. The more AI takes over, the more valuable the human side of thing of things will become.I found the map that does a great job of reinforcing that.It’s called the “AI Proof Quadrant” (credit to Perry Marshall via his monthly print newsletter). I sketched it out in my notebook last weekend. It validated everything we’ve been talking about here at Redefining Retirement.If you’re still clinging to the old rules of the workplace – efficiency, speed, predictable results -…

In 2006, Tom was your first friend. MySpace was bigger than Google. Bands were getting famous. People were quitting their jobs to be “MySpace Celebrities.”By 2011? Tom was gone. The site was a ghost town. And everyone who built their business on Tom’s platform lost everything overnight.They built their house on “Rented Land.”History is repeating itself.Facebook reach is dead unless you pay.Instagram changes the rules every Tuesday.TikTok was almost banned in half the world.And YouTube? One strike, one shadow-ban, or one bad algorithm update, and your paycheck hits zero.If your entire business lives on YouTube, you don’t have a business.…

Everyone is screaming about AI right now. Depending on who you ask, it’s either going to save the world or end it.I don’t care about the hype. I just want to know if I’m going to be able to make money to support myself and my family in five years.If you are like me, you aren’t trying to become a prompt wizard or a coder. You just want to secure your income and your retirement.We are Gen X. We grew up analog. We figured out the internet. We survived the dot-com bubble and the Great Recession. We can handle this…

It usually hits you on a Tuesday.You are sandwiching a Zoom call between checking on your mom’s medical appointments and worrying about your kid’s tuition. You look at the grocery bill, then at your 401(k), and you realize the math has changed.The “Traditional Retirement” deal we were sold—work 40 years, save 10%, get a gold watch, golf all day—is broken.For the Sandwich Generation (that’s us, squeezed between aging parents and launching kids), the old path doesn’t offer enough margin. We don’t just need “savings” that we can’t touch until we’re 65; we need cash flow now.But here is the trap.…

Welcome back to another monthly update from Root of Good! We’ve been at home for about a month since wrapping up our Panama Canal cruise in November. We intentionally blocked off Thanksgiving and Christmas from our travel calendar so we could be at home during the holidays.  We will be at home for roughly two full months, with no more travel planned until the end of January when we depart on our next cruise adventure. Over the last month, I’ve been catching up on a lot of year-end tasks, checking things off my to-do list, and enjoying time just being…

Raise your hand if you ever felt like you’ve missed yet another gold rush…Or the dot-com boom.Or social media before it got loud.Or being able to rock a pair of Guirbaud jeans in the halls of your high school in 1989 because your dad wasn’t Daddy Warbucks…Then something kicks in once you’ve been around long enough.You didn’t miss it, you’re just early again.There’s always another one.After about 30 years of watching the “next big thing” come and go, you start to see a pattern. Opportunity doesn’t show up once. It shows up in waves.People don’t usually miss opportunities because they’re…

You don’t need another vision board. And you definitely don’t need another article telling you to “find your why.”You’re 50 (or close to it). You know your “why.” It’s called paying the mortgage and not dying of boredom in a cubicle.You need a wrench. You need the tools to actually build something.I didn’t choose this tool because I love software. I chose it because I’m 53 and I’m tired of working harder than I have to.I realized that if I built my audience on social media, I was building a house on rented land. If the algorithm changed, my business…

Brought to you by the fine folks at The WorXshop — Where Gen Xers save a crap ton of time staying relevant with AI, marketing, and business strategy from people their own age. No hype. No rabbit holes. No eye-rolling tech bro talk. Join free during early accessI don’t know what’s in the air, but every Gen Xer I know is making things again.Newsletters. Courses. YouTube channels. Side hustles.It’s like someone hit “restore factory settings” on the part of our brain we accidentally muted for 20 years.Some of us are founders who forgot what it felt like to build anything…

There’s a problem with most “Side Hustles”If you’re like me (Gen X, 50+), you’ve searched for “how to make money online” and immediately regretted it.The results are usually a nightmare:Drive for Uber? (Great, trade your car’s transmission for pennies).Start a TikTok Channel? (Which requires constant energy and “performance”).Dropshipping? (I don’t have time to answer customer service emails about lost packages).We don’t want a second job. We’re tired. We want an asset.I spent 17 years as a mechanical draftsman. I think in terms of leverage and structure.We need something that uses our brain and years of experience, not our backs. We…

Let me take you back for a second…Here was my morning routine:Shuffle into work like a zombie who forgot its purpose.Around 10 a.m., the daydreams kicked in. Being anywhere but there. Doing anything but that job.Then I’d feel guilty for wanting more and force myself not to open a browser tab and work on my exit plan (I believe the kids call this quiet quitting these days).Rinse and repeat for months.When people talk about feeling “stuck,” I get it. I lived it.Most of the Gen Xers who reach out to me over the past 13 years until now? They’re in…