Get Control of Your Money Now! by Blaine Harris & Charles Coonradt The Point The point of the book is to teach basic personal finance principles through a story about a guy in debt that is taken under the wing of an older lady who is very wealthy. She teaches him four principles of prosperity. The book is well written and the narrative style makes the material more enjoyable to read. The Four Laws 1. Track your spending, 2. Set targets or financial goals, 3. Trim your spending to achieve the goals, 4. Train your brain by learning about finance. I figure I’m pretty far along the path to financial…
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Book Review: Safety-First Retirement Planning
An Integrated Approach for a Worry-Free Retirement, by Wade Pfau Philosophy This is another Wade Pfau book that I enjoyed for its in depth coverage of annuities and cash value life insurance products. If you have read any of Wade’s other books on retirement you will be familiar with the background material he presents in his books. Much of it is a repeat of what he presents in his other books. So you can skip to the chapters that interest you. If you are unfamiliar with terms like “Sequence of returns risk” or “longevity risk” then you’ll want to start at the beginning. Main Points The main point of the…
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Book Review: Reverse Mortgages
How to Use Reverse Mortgages to Secure Your Retirement, by Wade Pfau This is an interesting book. It goes against much of the conventional wisdom I absorbed growing up. I read it because I was impressed by Wade Pfau’s other book on withdrawls in retirement. He does and in depth and academic review of the subject. Wade’s style might be a bit dry for some but I find that the genre of financial writing can be a bit hyperbolic, so I don’t mind an objective and academic style. Use early, use often The primary conclusions of the book are that many retirees could benefit from a reverse mortgage, and that…
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Book Review: How Much Can I Spend in Retirement?
by Wade Pfau This book is very narrow in scope but highly detailed. It is an in depth look into withdrawal rates for retirees who have chosen to invest most of their wealth in the stock market. This is an exceptional resource for the standard F.I.R.E. investor with a large nest egg in index funds. If you want to go deeper into the origin, and rationale of the venerable 4% rule then this is the book for you. Insights I found the discussion early in the book about different types of risk to be quite useful. How do you best balance your investment and withdrawal strategy to hedge against not…
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Book Review: WSJ Complete Retirement Guidebook
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…