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It would be great if we could all retire with a nice portfolio of savings and pension income, without having to worry about paying the bills most retired people pay.

Yet...many retirees are living out their retirement on the breadline without much hope for even going on holiday without being assisted by relatives or even handouts. Don't let yourself be one of them...it's never too late!

Title : The Automatic Millionaire: A Powerful One-Step Plan to Live and Finish Rich
Author : David Bach
Rating : 3 Stars out of 5.
Summary : Won't suit everyone but good for what it is...

The Automatic Millionaire outlines a method of becoming rich through a combination of scrimping and saving - despite its dynamic, exciting title, that really is all there is to it. The "automatic" part is no more than advising the reader to set up standing orders, direct debits or deductions from monthly wages, straight into a savings account (so you're not tempted to spend it). That's it.

The outlined strategy will work IF you start young enough. The examples given assume the aspiring millionaire is in their early 20s - plenty of time to make GBP1m through the power of compound interest - but too late for many people.

My main disappointment with the book is that the strategy outlined is for the long-run (40-50 years) so you'll be about 65 when you make that million. For anyone looking for a faster alternative, this isn't it. If you are (or know someone) who is 15-25 years old, I would recommend you get this book and follow its strategy (about savings in particular, not sure I agree with the pensions advice). Doing so will virtually guarantee financial security upon retirement. But if you want a strategy that delivers faster-returns, look elsewhere.

However, regardless of your age, the book outlines sensible (and widely-known) principles of personal money management so it's valuable for those who have no idea where to begin. But if you're already pretty savvy about "paying yourself first" and watching the pennies, you will get limited value from this book.

Title : How to Retire Rich
Author : James O'Shaughnessy
Rating : 2 Stars out of 5.
Summary : Reasonable runaways - Best way to lose big monies!

Mr. O'Shaughnessy outlines several of his investment strategies and in particular his "reasonable runaways". If you look at his numbers AND factor in costs of establishing a similar group of stocks (something he neglects to do)the SP 500 is the clear winner.

A VERY IMPORTANT piece of investing advice that Mr. O'Shaughnessy advises against is the use of stop-limit orders in his portfolios. By neglecting to use this very important investment tool, you open yourself up to huge losses in the very questionable turnaround stocks that have just been run up in price. Most of these WILL go down and many they will go down big and not recover. Take the advise of someone that has been watching (and burned very badly) by taking his advice and not using stop-limit prices, USE THEM IF YOU EMPLOY THIS VERY RISKY STRATEGIE!!!

If you look at ANY of his mutual funds, you will clearly see that the performance of all of his funds badly trails the SP 500. His expense ratios are also out of line to the high side, something that he warns against in this book.

The three pieces of advice that are of any value in the entire book are to establish a plan, stick to it, and, if 87% (or so) of mutual funds (including his) do not match the performance of the SP 500, why are you investing in anything other than the SP 500?

Good luck to all!!!

Title : The New Golden Door to Retirement Living in Costa Rica
Author : Christopher Howard
Rating : 1 Stars out of 5.
Summary : Great book--if you lack common sense

This book is great if are planning on traveling to Costa Rica as a tourist for a short amount of time; however, it really does not emcompass the complexity of moving or investing in a foreign country. Don't be fooled--this book lacks substinative information on starting a business in Costa Rica, other than the overarching message that "Not everything in the States will work in Costa Rica." Oh, really? My other favorite section was "How to Find a Nice Girl." After "interviewing hundreds of quality Costa Rican women" the author managed to whittle through the unrespectable, poor, uneducated women who were only after him for his money and find a nice girl. I guess the real shame is that he wasn't able to complete this process through a mail-order catalog.

Title : General Washington's Christmas Farewell: A Mount Vernon Homecoming, 1783
Author : Stanley Weintraub
Rating : 4 Stars out of 5.
Summary : Goin' South......

Don't be put-off by the cheesy title of this book. Yes...it's obviously a marketing ploy meant to tie in to the holiday season. In any case, Mr. Weintraub has crafted an interesting book. We follow Washington from West Point to Mount Vernon, as he tries to get home for Christmas. Most notably, he stops in New York City, Philadelphia, and Annapolis. In NYC he says farewell to his officers. He also puzzles his subordinates by going to visit a bookseller who is a known Tory sympathizer. (Unknown to Washington's underlings, the man was part of the commander-in-chief's network of spies who kept the general informed of the goings-on during the 1776-1783 British occupation of Manhattan.) In Philadelphia, amongst other things, Washington orders some new spectacles from the noted scientist David Rittenhouse. In Annapolis, Washington returns his commission to Congress, thus making formal his resignation from public service and return to private life. The book is only about 175 pages and can easily be read in a day or two. However, Mr. Weintraub manges to provide a lot of information. Some of it is interesting on a "serious" level - for example, we see Washington at the start of the journey insisting that his departure from public life will be permanent. He made several speeches on the way home, and he constantly stressed that Congress needed strong legislative powers so that it could hold the bickering colonies together. By the time he reached Annapolis, Washington had come to the conclusion that it was going to be an extremely difficult process to turn a loose confederation, which no longer had the "glue" of battling a common enemy, into a true nation. Washington was not being an egomaniac, just realistic, when he came to understand that he was the only person who could be a unifying force. Therefore, when he gave the speech in Annapolis in which he resigned his commission as commander-in-chief he changed the language so as to leave the door open for a later return to public service, if such a thing proved to be necessary...which it did. Washington was remarkably unambitious for someone who was held in such awe. He was, indeed, the man who could have been king. (In his own day, everyone wanted to touch him, as though he were holy. Many years later, people had relics - as though he were a saint. Lincoln had a splinter of Washington's coffin contained in a gold ring he wore. President McKinley had several strands of the great helmsman's hair.) Americans owe Washington an eternal debt that he turned his back on dictatorship. On the lighter side of this book, we see Washington the man - sans wig, so to speak. We see him losing his temper, his pride in his dancing ability, his love of fine wine, etc. We also get to hear about his expense account, where it seems as though he put down every possible item, down to the last pound, shilling, and pence. (He even included tips he had given out to people who had waited on him.) I especially enjoyed the little personal touches that Mr. Weintraub saw fit to include - such as letting us know that the 6'4" Washington slept in a 6'6" bed. The author also tells us about the time that Washington fired a Mount Vernon gardener for getting drunk. Then, when the man expressed remorse and wanted his job back, Washington agreed...but he made the man sign a contract specifying that he could only be in his cups at certain times of the year. For example, he was allowed 4 days of drunkenness at Christmas! The book, on rare occasions, becomes tedious when Mr. Weintraub gives us excerpts from speeches delivered by sundry parties during the various "farewell" dinners. But, for the great majority of the time, this book will hold your interest with its nice balance between the public and the private Washington.

Title : General Washington's Christmas Farewell: A Mount Vernon Homecoming, 1783
Author : Stanley Weintraub
Rating : 5 Stars out of 5.
Summary : It takes chaos to invent a new order

Let's start on a personal note: I was in Cuba in January 1959, when the brutal dictator Fulgencio Batista fled in the middle of the night and Fidel Castro began making his way across the country to Havana.

The Cuban celebrations of the collapse of tyranny and terror were much like the events described in this book, a continuing rum-fueled celebration that lasted days and days in a nation at last free after years of terror. Castro made a triumphal procession across the country as a godlike liberator, just as Washington was hailed as the greatest man of his times. It is nice to celebrate the end of a war -- think of George Bush strutting across the flight deck of an aircraft carrier, wearing a borrowed flight suit with the banner 'Mission Accomplished' in the background. But, freedom is much more; it generates an ecstasy that stirs every emotion the heart, not merely the limited glory of victory, but also an unbounded hope for a better and brighter future without fear, fright or futility.

Washington, with a knowledge and wisdom rare among revolutionary leaders, went back to his farm. The ultimate tribute came from King George III, who personally knew something about the temptations and dangers of power, when he said that if Washington actually did return to his farm "he will be the greatest man in the world."

Think of Cuba today had Castro retired to a little rancho and learned how to cut cane instead of crushing gusanos. In Haiti, Jean Bertrand Aristide should have gone back to the priesthood after he tossed out the Duvalier regime. The list of "liberators" who seize power and try to impose their own rules is almost universal; Washington patterned his retirement after the Roman hero Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus "who, victorious, left the tented field, covered with honor, and withdrew from public life, to enjoy civium cum dignitate."

Unlike Cincinnatus, who was twice recalled from his farm to become dictator, Washington was recalled from his farm only to establish an enduring legacy of democracy. It is a rare quality. Weintraub describes those perilous times with painful detail.

Painful? It was a time of chaos in America, much to the satisfaction of the English who thought the independent colonies would collapse of internal confusion. Congress was even flakier then than now. A third of Americans were loyalists who had supported King George; Washington understood the power of reconciliation rather than the retribution of describing anyone who had not supported him as an enemy.

In 1783, Washington kept urging greater power for the central government. He could have become dictator and imposed his own regal solution; instead, he stepped back and let the people and Congress, however slow in their many imperfections, gradually work out the system that now exists. Everyone was slow to listen, waiting until 1787 to even begin writing a new Constitution. But, after trying all other solutions, they finally listened to Washington. The old boy may have had wooden (or ivory) teeth, but there was no wood between his ears.

Weintraub has written a masterful book outlining the chaos, confusion and cupidity of the time; explaining how from the primordial soup of American independence a resolute democracy emerged. This book helps explain the resolute independence of the American spirit, nicely summed up by a departing British officer, "These Americans are a curious, original people; they know how to govern themselves, but nobody else can govern them."

It was a wonderful tribute to an exceptional people, and this book nicely explains the mood of the times.

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