
Title : You'RE Fifty--Now What?: Investing for the Second Half of Your Life
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 : How to Have a Great Retirement on a Limited Budget
Author : Diane Warner
Rating : 4 Stars out of 5.
Summary : lots of good info but some of it is a little bizarre
menus in food chapter would have you drinking six different kinds of fruit juice in a week. I open one or two containers at a time. The man who saves money on taxes by flying to Oregon and driving home a new car every couple of years is breaking the law. I think hiring a teenager to climb up and prune trees might leave you open to a lawsuit if he fell out of the tree onto the pruning shears.

Title : The Baby Boomer Financial Wake-up Call: It's Not Too Late to Financially Secure!
Author : Kay R. Shirley
Rating : 1 Stars out of 5.
Summary : This book does not cover enough real-life scenarios.
This book if fine if you have had the time and opportunity to put money aside for retirement.
It does not even touch upon those of us who are married for the second time, are basically just starting out all over again with nothing in the bank and no retirement packages at work and who are paying astronomical amounts in child support and will be until we are a hair away from retirement. How are we supposed to amass any money when the "ex" gets it all?
WE are the people who need the help. WE are the people who will be living on a very "fixed" income while the ex-wife will be living in security using the child support money for her retirement.
I'm totally disgusted.

Title : One World, Ready or Not
Author : Wil Greider
Rating : 1 Stars out of 5.
Summary : An almost complete misunderstanding of economics
Paul Krugman of MIT - one of that rare breed, a serious economist who can write - has famously called this "an astonishingly silly book". I have to disagree: the book is much, much worse than that.
Greider's thesis boils down to the "global excess supply" nostrum - and it's based not only on a fundamental misunderstanding of economics but also on straightforward innumeracy and an inability to think critically. As Keynes tells us, wages reflect the marginal product of labour. Any increased production in the Third World must *go somewhere*, in the form of increased income either to labour (wages) or capital (profits). That increased income must be either spent or saved - so if there really were inadequate aggregate demand (or equivalently excess capacity) then we would expect savings to exceed profitable investment opportunities. Do they? Well, Greider provides no evidence - which is unsurprising....
Greider's economic analysis is thus wrong - indeed, absurd and intellectual disreputable. His policy recommendations derived from his wrong-headed arguments are downright destructive, however. They amount to a recipe for a misallocation of scarce resources to unproductive uses and a hike in inflation. There could be few more damaging courses for the developing world, or surer ways to cut real wages and depress living standards. But then the identity of interest between the far Left (Chomsky, Nader etc.) and the far Right (Pat Buchanan) has never had logic or reason on its side.

Title : The New Golden Door to Retirement and Living in Costa Rica: A Guide to Inexpensive Living, Making Money and Finding Love in a Peaceful Tropical Paradise
Author : Christopher Howard
Rating : 4 Stars out of 5.
Summary : The content was great; I dropped a star for the editing.
I breezed through the book in an afternoon/evening and found it to be extremely informative and accurate based on my limited ten day stay in Costa Rica. The author presents both sides for those considering relocating to CR. It is a wonderful place to visit which motivated me to inquire what it might be like to live there.

Title : The Bond Book
Author : Annette Thau
Rating : 5 Stars out of 5.
Summary : I read this book cover to cover--AND IT ROCKS!
As an individual investor, I hadn't had a significant amount of experience with the bond market. Thau's book was a pleasure to read, and I believe it touches on every topic one needs to understand to become an educated bond investor. In short, it rocked me like a hurricane. I highly recommend it.