It's July 4th, the day America celebrates the adoption of the Declaration of Independence

and the official birthday of our nation.

Nothing more American than financial independence.

After all, retirement is the money-related goal shared by just about

everyone. So we thought it fitting that in this installment of our 2026 Financial Planning Challenge,

airing on America's Independence Day, that we focus on retirement. How do you know if your retirement

plan is on track? And how will you know that you're financially ready to bid a due to the working

world? Here to discuss how to find the answers to those questions is my foolish colleague,

certified financial planner, Stephanie.

Welcome back to the show, Stephanie.

Thanks for having me.

I'm excited about this one.

So we're going to go through various ways of assessing your retirement progress,

from very general guidelines to more customized assessments.

So let's first start up with the general stuff and talk about common retirement planning

rules of thumb. And there are a bunch out there. And I would say most have at least some basis

in good financial planning principles. Stephanie, what's a rule of thumb that you'd like to

highlight? My favorite is always the 50, 30, 20 rule. So for those who

don't know, 50% of income would be allocated for needs, 30% for want, and 20% for savings.

And I like this one because for 80% to be going toward needs and wants feels like a really

manageable percentage for most people.

And also, it's a set it and forget it type of thing. If you can get within these guidelines,

...