
Title : Retire Sooner, Retire Richer
Author : Frank Netti
Rating : 5 Stars out of 5.
Summary : Essential Advice for an American Who Wants to Retire Early
If you make a mistake with your retirement planning, chances are you will have to live with that mistake for the remainder of your life . . . and wish you had been more careful. Retire Sooner, Retire Richer will help you avoid the bulk of the mistakes that trip up the majority of people. The book is written in a common sense way that can be understood by almost anyone.
A portion of the author's income from the book will go towards low-income workers and their families affected by September 11, 2001, and to charities serving the hungry and homeless, such as Greater New York Labor-Religion Coalition, Second Harvest (USA), Catholic Relief Services (outside the U.S.), and Habitat for Humanity International.
When I first learned about Retire Sooner, Retire Richer, I was skeptical that it could add anything to my knowledge of investments, tax law, estate planning and how to get practical advice. As a result of reading the book, I was pleasantly surprised to learn a great deal of valuable information that I did not know before. After having assessed that information, it made me realize that anyone who works for a company, wants to retire early and desires to leave an estate behind needs a great deal of help. I strongly encourage anyone who is within 10 years of retirement to read this book!
The book opens with one of the best explanations I have ever seen about why volatility in financial instruments means that you have to be very conservative in planning your retirement investments and even more conservative in withdrawing from your retirement savings. Otherwise, you don't save enough and a down market can cause you to wipe out your savings at a time when stock prices are low. This really hit home after seeing the stock market drop for three straight years until 2003. The suggested guidelines in both areas made a lot of sense to me.
Next, Mr. Netti described many ways that you can choose to reduce the current and future taxes to be paid on your income and savings. Most of these choices are only available to you well before you retire. So if you wait until the day before retirement, you will lose many valuable tax reductions. In addition, if you die before your planned retirement date, failure to use these choices will cost your heirs quite a lot!
From reading the text, I began to appreciate that the tax laws governing pension payouts and IRAs have gotten to be very complex. Only someone who follows these details on a daily basis and works with them all of the time can hope to appreciate and take advantage of all the nuances if you want to retire early. From this, I began to see (for the first time) why the advice from a well-schooled financial advisor can pay a vast multiple of the cost of such an advisor. Mr. Netti certainly seems to be such an advisor.
He goes on to give you a process to locate the right financial advisor for you. The process seems like a good one, although I have never personally looked for a financial advisor. Reading Retire Sooner, Retire Richer will also prepare you to get more benefit from working with an advisor.
If you are totally averse to ever working with a financial advisor, this book may change your mind. Reading the book struck me as being a lot like what you might discuss with a financial advisor. I was grateful for the chance to have this dry run on the experience.
Here's the outline of the book:
Part One: Understanding Your Retirement Investments
Chapter 1: The Numbers Game and Retirement Timing
Chapter 2: Factors to Consider When Transitioning to Retirement
Chapter 3: Why Some Retirement Plans Fail and Others Succeed
Chapter 4: How to Improve Your Money-Management Decisions
Part Two: Building the Wealth You Need
Chapter 5: Portfolio Lessons for a Lifetime
Chapter 6: Why You Need to Act Now to Live Happily in Retirement
Chapter 7: How to Make the Best Use of Your Retirement Distribution Options
Chapter 8: How You Can Provide Added Income for You and Your Heirs
Chapter 9: How to Use a Rollover IRA to Leave More to Your Heirs
Part Three: Managing Your Nest Egg
Chapter 10: The Advisor Advantage
Chapter 11: Creating a Financial Planning Review
Chapter 12: The Importance of a Personal Investment Policy
Chapter 13: How to Pay for Financial Management Advice
As I finished the book, I found myself thinking about where else in my life I might benefit from skilled advice . . . and have not been seeking it.

Title : How to Retire Rich
Author : James O'Shaughnessey
Rating : 2 Stars out of 5.
Summary : Started good, but then...
I don't know how to take this book. On the positive side, it offers seemingly reasonable investment strategies for inexperienced investors. At worst, the strategies are thought provoking. At best, they may be providing strategies that will make alot of people retire rich. On the negative side, I am skeptical of the author's intentions of writing this book. He sells mutual funds that implement the strategies (which is not necessarily a bad thing), but the funds have yearly fees of 1.5% each! That is very high for a passive fund. Why so high? All of a sudden, I want to stop reading. Finally, the book didn't teach me 250+ pages of info. It may be good for the new investor, but for one like me that has read a few books (but not done alot yet), it didn't offer alot of new insight. (I just can't get that 1.5% out of my head...)

Title : Retire Rich: The Baby Boomer's Guide to a Secure Future
Author : Bambi Holzer
Rating : 5 Stars out of 5.
Summary : insightful
My husband shared "Retire Rich" with me. Even though he has been in the financail services business for 20 years, I have to admit I never really understood all the concepts necessary to feel comfortable with what we have been able to save. "Retire Rich" led me through the maze of complex financial terms/concepts and explained them in words and examples that I quickly grasped. I found myself saying "I never knew that" or "I see" scores of times as I read through the book. I especially liked the style in which the book is written, it doesn't talk down or up to me. In a nutshell, "Retire Rich" answers questions that every spouse asks.

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.