retirement REVIEW

55s over property retirement
2006 april from pension rate retirement state
essex property retirement
limited term retirement pension annuity uk
retirement home for sale uk
cyprus retirement village
australia retirement south village
in redhill retirement village
retirement village scotland
individual retirement plan
bus driver gift retirement
early incentive retirement
compare europe in pension retirement
poem retirement time
living retirement richmond village
55 occupational pension restricting retirement
advice planning retirement
retirement flat
poem quote retirement
dedicated retirement pension banking
commissioner decision overpayment pension retirement
churchill retirement home
armed force retirement pension rate
retirement gag gift
before death pension retirement
gift idea retirement party
after day early retirement
england in property retirement
military retirement speech
kent retirement property
home london retirement st.martins
retirement saga village
builder of retirement home
after age retirement working
government pension retirement
joke for retirement dinner
coutts bank limited term retirement pension
retirement pension abroad
age retirement womens
home park retirement static
kent property retirement
party retirement speech
early in retirement teaching
property retirement spain
age nhs retirement
apartment retirement
early office retirement valuation
heath property retirement stockton
community living retirement
sep retirement plan
aged early personal retirement
hickathrift home retirement
phased retirement pension
avon bristol flat in retirement sale
letter retirement
party retirement
more retirement pension
retirement pension
early retirement buyout
age retirement state
retirement investing
age minimum retirement
bede home retirement
retirement property
lgps ill health retirement
teacher early retirement
area bath property retirement sale
retirement parks uk
early retirement age
age legal retirement woman
retirement home in lancashire
hampshire property retirement
retirement home
french retirement village
retirement community
retirement uk
gift in retirement uk
retirement home in kent
humor retirement
retirement property uk
married couple retirement pension
ill health retirement law
retirement home in norfolk
gift retirement unique
speech quote retirement
bracknell home retirement

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 : Iras, 401(k)S Other Retirement Plans: Taking Your Money Out (IRA's, 401(k)S Other Retirement Plans: Taking Your Money Out)
Author : Twila Slesnick
Rating : 5 Stars out of 5.
Summary : Excellent even if you're not 59 1/2 years old

This is a great resource--clear, concise, easy to digest, well indexed, and written for the lay person. Knowing the rules for taking money out of your retirement accounts is important even if you're still putting money away--it allows you to make much better decisions about your investments.

Title : You're Fifty - Now What?
Author : Charles R. Schwab
Rating : 5 Stars out of 5.
Summary : The Best Book on Financial Planning for the Over 46 Age Set

My biggest complaint about most books on financial planning is that they try to cover everyone with one approach. Mr. Schwab's book is a pleasant exception to this rule. By at least focusing on those of around middle years (46 through 56), he can be more specific and make the information more relevant to each reader. Naturally, I would like to see future books be even more focused than this one, but Mr. Schwab has certainly moved in the right direction.

I found this book to be vastly superior to 52 Weeks to Financial Fitness by Marshall Loeb, which was also written for people in this age category.

Mr. Schwab's profits as author from this book are all being donated to the Charles Schwab Corporation Foundation to provide for the needs of seniors.

The book is divided into two parts: First, planning for the rest of your life; and second, getting organized to implement that plan.

The planning section is very well done because it covers materials at a level of perspective that goes from the needs of most beginners to handling the needs of all but the most sophisticated people. Fundamentals are covered in sidebars so as not to clutter-up the main text for those who do not need the information. The subjects covered include how much money you will need in total, determining the value of what you have available, estimating the gap between your needs and resources, understanding how to think about asset allocation in your investment funds, establishing the proper cash flow to match your needs, and readjusting your investment mix over time.

Each section is clearly written and provides formats to make it easier for you to assemble and think about your information. I was particularly pleased to see Mr. Schwab challenge some conventional wisdom about financial planning. Many people use a rule of thumb that you will need 70% of your preretirement income. In practice, many people find that they spend more than that because some costs go up more rapidly than inflation, like medical care, or they take on new interests. Mr. Schwab suggests 90%. I think even that may not be conservative enough. I think a better assumption is to have the percentage grow over time, slowly. Eventually, it will probably exceed 100%.

In addition, many people will tell you to plan on spending 6% of your assets each year after you have to start drawing on them. Mr. Schwab wisely suggests that 3-4% will be more appropriate for most people. I liked that advice very much.

The advice on investing is much more conservative than you would expect from someone who heads an on-line brokerage house. But appropriately so. He suggests you stay in common stocks as long as possible, because you may well live much longer than you think. But he has all but 10% of your portfolio in either no-load index funds or conservative bond and cash positions. If you skip the idea of owning any individual stocks, the advice is quite appropriate for the average person. It also has you reducing your exposure to stocks over time, as the years appraoch when you will need the income. So even if stocks stop performing well (as some warn) in the next few years, you will be relatively safe.

Part II of the book gets you into deciding whether you need a financial advisor or not, and how to select and work with one. It also looks at the most important questions about insurance, estate planning (get thee to a lawyer), and how to handle your donations so they bring you the most satisfaction and least after-tax cost.

The book has several other nice qualities. It emphasizes the rest of your life as being the "second half" rather than the downhill slide or some other negative concept. In sports, we all know that the winners are usually those who play the second half the best. Also, at half-time, the coach often makes adjustments that lead to winning performance. It is a very nice metaphor for financial planning at this stage in life. "What do I want for the second half of my life?" is the key question posed in the beginning of the book for you to consider.

I also liked the optimism of the book. Rather than focusing on the fear that people have about outliving their money, the book emphasizes the potential for good things to happen. You may live longer, and think of all the good things that could follow. "Anything is possible" was my favorite line from the book, which followed examples of wonderful accomplishments by seniors of advanced years.

Unless you already have been through this exercise recently with a financial advisor, I suggest that you get the book and use the exercises.

Further, I suggest you take even more time to think through the possibilities that the post child-rearing and tuition years may offer you. It's almost like getting to start over again, but with much more in the way of resources and wisdom.

Look for and find the best choices!

Title : The Automatic Millionaire: A Powerful One-Step Plan to Live and Finish Rich
Author : David Bach
Rating : 3 Stars out of 5.
Summary : Very well written, but not for everyone.

Over the past few years, I've bought and read several books on the theme of how to get rich. I have observed that these kinds of books come in three flavours;

1. Get rich by scrimping and saving (eg, "The Money Diet")
2. Get rich by making bold investments (eg, "Rich Dad Poor Dad")
3. Concepts on how to get rich (eg, "Think and grow rich")

The automatic millionaire is very much of the first flavour (scrimping and saving). In fairness, the author does a good job of disguising the fact that his approach amounts to little more than scrimping and saving by making his particular process "automatic" (I won't spoil the book too much by explaining what that means).

At the start of the book, the author describes a meeting he once once had with a couple of retired automatic millionaires, whose names escape me. He describes in depth how happy this married couple were now that they had held down steady (apparently low paid) jobs all their lives and were now reaping the benifits of many decades of savings and conservative investments. We learn about how they have two homes (one that they live in and one that they rent out) and how the husband drives a second hand car. We also are reminded over and over about how joyful and full of romance and wide eyed wonder this ageing couple seem to be now that they're cashing on their healthy pension schemes.

Whilst, I do not question that the automatic millionaire process has clearly paid off for these people, I was struck with a distinct feeling of disappointment as I read their story. Personally speaking, I find it very difficult to get excited about the idea of saving for the rest of my working life in the hope that I can life off a pension some day and drive second hand cars, like our happy couple described in the book. For me, this couple were precise examples of how I absolutely do NOT want to end up- maybe my expectations were too high going into this book!

Anyway, for what it's worth I have one or two other issues with the book that are of a slightly more academic nature. Although I'm no economics professor, I have read credible predictions of an impending stock market crash in the future when a tidal wave of elderly retired workers try to cash in on their pension schemes. Here in the UK, the government is on the verge of forcing everyone into signing up for pensions schemes. You don't have to be a mathematical genius to realise that the figures don't add up- surely we can't ALL get 10% interest rates on our pensions, as the author insists we can. Can we? I also think that his approach is dependant on you and I being able to generate a steady income (i.e., hold down stable jobs) until we retire in our fifties and sixties. Again, without trying to lecture too much or sound too negative, I think we live in an age where life long job security is something that is no longer on the table. So, personally I would put the case that the automatic millionaire process may not be as stable and as surefire as the author would lead us to believe.

Anyway, on a more positive note, the book is very well written and the author does a great job of keeping the subject both interesting and educational. In particular some of the mathematic models he presents are extremely eye opening and well presented.

In conclusion I would say this is a good book is you're a conservative, non risk taking, worker ant. However, for a faster, more exciting and (admittedly!) more risky road to richness I would be tempted to look elsewhere.

Title : Rich Dad's Retire Young, Retire Rich: How to Get Rich Quickly and Stay Rich Forever! (Rich Dad)
Author : Robert T. Kiyosaki
Rating : 5 Stars out of 5.
Summary : Essential Look at How You Must Think and Act to Prosper!

This book deserves more than five stars for its exceptional clarity, authenticity, relevance and eloquence.

Those who love the Rich Dad, Poor Dad books will adore this one. I found it to be the best book in the series since Rich Dad, Poor Dad.

Mr. Robert T. Kiyosaki speaks with the authority of experience. He did retire young at 47 while his wife was 37. At that time, his expected annual income was between $80,000 and $125,000. Many people yearn for early retirement with wealth, mostly because they hate their work. Mr. Kiyosaki was soon back at work, establishing new businesses. Most of his wealth was created after he retired. "I keep working because there are so things that need to be done." So, he has clearly moved from earnings a living, to living a mission of self-expression. That's very wonderful, and I hope you will accomplish the same result!

Although the subtitle says this is "how to" book, it's really more of a "what to think" book. The fundamental concept is to leverage your mind, your plans, your actions, and your priorities to get wealth faster and more easily.

As usual, Rich Dad provides some wonderful quotes. Here are a few of my favorites.

"David could beat Goliath because David knew how to use the power of leverage."

"Cash flow is the most important word in the world of money. The second most important word is leverage."

"Leverage is the reason some people become rich and others do not become rich."

"Because leverage is power, some people use it, some abuse it, and others fear it."

"Getting rich begins with words and words are free."

" . . . do more and more with less and less."

The first books in the Rich Dad, Poor Dad series have been about cash flow. This one shifts over to leverage. Section 1 is about leveraging your mind, section 2 looks at leverage from a plan to retire, section 3 addresses leverage from actions. The book goes on to give you a final exam on your attitudes and a challenging thought to chew on to help get you focused properly: making lots of money with no money to start with.

Now, any book about leverage would normally have lots of pages on how debt leverage works. In fact, that is only a small part of what this book talks about. You will find that discussion in part of chapter 16, which looks at all of the forms of leverage in real estate.

One of the strengths of the book is a fine discussion of how to think about risk and reward. It's not how often you fail, but how big the costs of your failures are compared to the rewards of your successes . . . and your determination to keep trying until you succeed. For instance, 9 out of 10 new businesses fail. But the value of the 1 in 10 that succeed should vastly outweigh the costs of the 9 failures.

The book is excellent in warning you against the risks that you are unconsciously taking. Most people have 100% of their financial futures tied up in government pension and Medicare payments and the stock market. Mr. Kiyosaki correctly points out that this assumption is probably faulty, because there are far more Baby Boomers depending on these two resources than there are resources. One part of the leverage concept is to have more streams of cash flow. He also has excellent ideas on how to reduce risk in your current and potential sources of cash flow.

You are also given a list of good habits to pursue. And top tips from the prior books are repeated in a convenient section near the end of the book.

If you follow the advice in this book, it will be worth more to you and your family than all the other investment and retirement books that you read combined. But you have to take action! Thinking about taking action won't get you there.

I would describe this book as being a lot like Tony Robbins's book, Personal Power, except it is focused effectively on the emotional and mental disciples needed for financial security and investing.

By the way, I have known many people who have retired young with the assistance of being rich. They all embody the principles captured in this book. By contrast, at age 65 only 5 percent of all Americans will be able to afford to live a wealthy life style. Most will be looking for more income. Act now . . . to have a choice of future life style.

Think and live the thoughts that will make you as rich as you want to be! The solutions are there if you look for them.

Title : Iras, 401(k)S Other Retirement Plans: Taking Your Money Out (IRA's, 401(k)S Other Retirement Plans: Taking Your Money Out)
Author : Twila Slesnick
Rating : 5 Stars out of 5.
Summary : Thorough coverage for the tax professional. Easy to use.

I do taxes. I have been a "tax professional," working for a reputable CPA firm, for eighteen years.

I imagine that most people think that we always read the most obscure laws, regulations and treatises on tax subjects before we make our decisions and recommendations. The fact is that most professionals are delighted to find publications which make good information easy to find. This book does that.

"How to Take Your Money Out" gives thorough coverage to a very complicated subject. Equally important is that it is almost enjoyable to read and that finding what you are looking for is easy. It is well organized and well indexed. When I looked for answers, I found them, on the first shot.

There are plenty of people, both professionals and taxpayers, who are wondering what to do about IRA and other retirement plan distributions. Having this book on the shelf will give you confidence that you'll know where to look when you need the answers.

bracknell home retirement online resources.
Site map