No. IX — MEASURED
Commercial context
The author sells education, coaching, fund-selection material, and community access around the strategy. That is context, not a verdict on the strategy.
View current public offers, referral terms, and prices
14-part FIRE educational series23
Advertised as a $4,180 value.
$625 introductory rate
Coaching and portfolio services24
Q&A, portfolio review, and one-time income coaching listed separately.
$260-$480
CEF selection universes25
Lists organized around income-fund categories.
$125 each / $300 bundle
RMS income community26
Paid community access listed on Skool.
$35 per month
Also disclosed
The services page advertises 30% recurring community referral commissions and a 25% course referral commission.24 Prices and terms were accessed August 12, 2026 and can change.
What follows
A commercial interest does not make the strategy wrong. It raises the standard of proof: audited composites, full fees, representative failures, and benchmark-relative total returns should carry more weight than testimonials or distribution rates.
The SEC adviser record reports 16 years of registered experience through May 2023 and no disclosures. It does not independently verify the longer experience, assets, client outcomes, or strategy performance claimed in promotional materials.22
Model method and limitations
Expected path. Both strategies receive the selected gross asset assumption. Benchmark return is reduced by its stated proxy fee. CEF NAV return equals asset return plus leverage times the asset/financing spread, less the modeled management-fee input applied to managed assets. The default is not a total operating-expense ratio and omits other fund expenses. Market value also reflects the selected change in discount.
Cash accounting. Desired spending is identical. Distribution cash is tracked separately and never added to total return. Surplus is reinvested; a shortfall is met by selling shares. Returned capital is a source label, not an automatic verdict on tax efficiency or investment quality.
Risk paths. The seeded simulation draws annual normal returns from the selected mean and volatility, with common draws for both strategies. It omits fat tails, serial correlation, taxes, spreads, manager dispersion, and forced deleveraging. It is a sensitivity tool, not a backtest, recommendation, or forecast.
No independently audited IFRI composite or reproducible public holdings history was found. The model therefore tests the economic claims around the wrapper; it does not claim to simulate Selengut's actual portfolio.
AI assistance and verification requirements
AI tools may assist in drafting prose, generating code, and organizing research notes for this review. A human must verify every citation, quotation, number, equation, and characterization before it is treated as accurate. AI output is not legal, academic, investment-professional, or regulatory review.
The book itself (Retirement Money Secrets) was not available for page-level review during the evidence set through August 13, 2026. Claims attributed to the book in this review are based on public-page descriptions and publisher-supplied metadata. Those claims should not be treated as confirmed book content.
If you find an error in a citation, quotation, or factual claim, contact the site through the public contact page.
Sources and complete references
Sources
Legacy reference list
- 1.Apple Books. Retirement Money Secrets: book metadata and publication date ↗
- 2.The Income Coach. Book page and public description of the thesis ↗
- 3.The Income Coach. IFRI strategy and author materials ↗
- 4.SEC Investor.gov. Investor Bulletin: Publicly Traded Closed-End Funds ↗
- 5.FINRA. Opening Up About Closed-End Funds ↗
- 6.Investment Company Institute. Frequently Asked Questions About Closed-End Funds, 2026 ↗
- 7.U.S. Code. 26 USC 852: taxation of regulated investment companies ↗
- 8.U.S. Code. 26 USC 4982: excise tax on undistributed income ↗
- 9.SEC. Return-of-capital and managed-distribution notice ↗
- 10.IRS. Publication 550: Investment Income and Expenses, 2026 update ↗
- 11.Closed-End Fund Association. Premium/discount reports, July 2026 ↗
- 12.Lee, Shleifer & Thaler. Investor Sentiment and the Closed-End Fund Puzzle, NBER ↗
- 13.CEF Advisors. CEF Fee Review 2025 to 2026 ↗
- 14.J.P. Morgan Asset Management. 2026 Long-Term Capital Market Assumptions ↗
- 15.Vanguard. VTI fact sheet, June 30, 2026 ↗
- 16.Vanguard. BND fact sheet, June 30, 2026 ↗
- 17.Vanguard. Target Retirement 2035 fact sheet, June 30, 2026 ↗
- 18.SEC Investor.gov. Target Date Funds Investor Bulletin ↗
- 19.S&P Dow Jones Indices. SPIVA U.S. Scorecard ↗
- 20.S&P Dow Jones Indices. U.S. Persistence Scorecard, year-end 2024 ↗
- 21.Clare et al.. Sequence risk and retirement outcomes, 2020 ↗
- 22.SEC IAPD. Steven Robert Selengut, individual summary ↗
- 23.The Income Coach. Start the FIRE course page ↗
- 24.The Income Coach. Services, pricing, and referral terms ↗
- 25.The Income Coach. Selection Universes ↗
- 26.Skool. RMS Income Investing Community ↗