100–400m
A champion sprinter built for range
All-America recognition in the 200 meters, 400 meters and relays at Oklahoma, followed by national and world-level championship success.
The long view
Speed made the lesson visible.
The race lasts seconds. The preparation does not. Tod Long carried that distinction from elite track into entrepreneurship and the work of retirement income design.
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A biography told through transitions—not titles.
Oklahoma roots
Before the financial work, there was range.
Born in Oklahoma City, Tod developed into the rare sprinter who could compete across the full spectrum—from the explosive 100 meters through the 200 and 400, as well as both sprint relays. At the University of Oklahoma, he earned All-America honors in the 200, 400 and relays and won the 1993 outdoor conference championship at 400 meters.
The 200 meters may show that versatility best. In 1995, Tod won the U.S. indoor championship in the event and represented the United States in the 200 at the World Indoor Championships. At those same championships, he was part of the gold-medal U.S. 4 × 400-meter relay squad.
The lesson was never confined to one lap or one kind of speed. Different races demanded different distributions of force, timing and restraint. The throughline was the ability to adapt without losing the standard.
The throughline
Prepare the structure. Then trust the work.
20+ years
Working where accumulation becomes income
Decades spent helping people confront the distribution phase of retirement—the point when a growing balance must become a durable monthly system.
Today
The Income Standard
A focused platform for retirement-income education: a book, podcast, planning tools and a review built around one question—does the income architecture hold?
The standard
The goal is not certainty about every future market, tax rule or lifespan. It is clarity about which parts of the plan are exposed to them.Tod Long
What came next
A platform built around a missing conversation.
Most retirement planning language is inherited from accumulation: growth rate, asset allocation, target balance. Those measures matter, but they do not describe the monthly experience of living without a paycheck.
Tod founded The Income Standard to make the income phase the main subject rather than the last chapter. Its work centers on guaranteed income floors, sequence-of-returns risk, longevity, required distributions, taxes and the division of labor between an income layer and a growth portfolio.