The Wall Street Journal Complete Retirement Guidebook was published in 2007. It is a good overview of the issues that a soon to be retiree needs to consider. The book is split into two sections. The first one is about planning out what you want your retirement to look like. The second is about the money.
Strengths
The book has a very broad set of information. It goes into not just money issues but also the psychological and social aspects of retiring. The stories of successful and unsuccessful retirees are also valuable.
Weaknesses
This book suffers a bit from being overly broad in its subject matter. It does not delve deeply into any one subject. It has industry standard advice about a lot of different subjects. This will be remedial info for most people that have read the F.I.R.E. blogs and are interested in the subject. If you are new to thinking about retirement this might be a good introduction. Just remember that this is standard financial industry stuff. Some of it is alarmist and you might get the idea that you will never be able to retire. Just take it all with a grain of salt. For instance the oft repeated alarmism about health care costs comes up repeatedly. Gee whilikers! health care is going to be expensive! There is no mention of the fact that food and housing are also expensive, and you should be able to budget for each of them in a similar way.
To Buy or not to Buy
I would give this book a 50/50 recommendation. It’s not a total waste of time. There are some good insights, and the personal stories of various retirees can be interesting. On the other hand, most of the book is pretty simple stuff that you could get anywhere.
