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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 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 : Wall Street on a Shoestring: Financial Success for Just Five Dollars a Day
Author : Clare La Plante
Rating : 4 Stars out of 5.
Summary : FINALLY, a book for now-small, future-big investors!

Clare's crystal-clear writing style helps the novice investor make sense of it all. A way to START NOW, with pocket change. Great book!

Title : The Complete Guide to a Creative Retirement
Author : Robert Kelley
Rating : 5 Stars out of 5.
Summary : Valuable Resource for Your Golden Years

Many friends and family members have told me that they were unprepared for retirement when it came. They struggled mightily with problems that they later found that almost everyone has. So although they had the financial wherewithal to retire, they didn't really know how to spend their time and focus their energies. As a result, they enjoyed the early years of their retirements much less than they had hoped and could have. That's a same because the first few months and years of retirement are likely to be the time when most people will have the most health and financial resources to explore whatever it is that they would like to do.

Mr. Kelley's The Complete Guide to a Creative Retirement is a resource that addresses the issues very well that retired people have told me about. I heartily recommend it to everyone who would like to retire in the next ten years . . . and to those who are recently retired.

The book is organized into two sections. In section one, you are given ideas for thinking about retirement in new and more productive ways. Section two is a resource guide to help those with different orientations (organizers, creative people, socializers, intellectuals, volunteers and caregivers, nature lovers, athletes, and those who would like to keep working past the normal retirement age).

In chapter one, Mr. Kelley compares the frustrations of many retirements that were not planned (such as after being "downsized") with those who had planned creatively for retirement, and found their golden years to be an improvement in their lives.

In chapter two, you will learn the 12 strategies for retirement.

1. Maintain as much of your daily routine as you can.
2. Leave the house at least once a day.
3. Make a daily list of things to do.
4. Plan ahead.
5. Plan your social life.
6. Eat less.
7. Exercise daily.
8. Simplify your life.
9. Pursue your favorite activities.
10. Get better at what you want to do while retired.
11. Join a support group.
12. Lose yourself mentally and emotionally in your activities.

The first section goes on to help you see choices that you may not have considered, explains how to adjust in retirement in your relationships with your spouse and friends, and gives you a planning guide that you can fill out to begin your thinking.

The second section isn't as exhaustive as it might have been, but there are enough ideas to get you started. I'm sure it will stimulate you to come up with even better choices that fit your circumstances best. Don't be afraid to think of yourself as having more than one dimension (you may be an athlete and a socializer).

I also encourage you to share this book with your spouse, family members and friends. They may be able to help you develop better choices after having considered the book.

After you are done, I suggest that you think about how you could help others have a better retirement as well.

Title : The Three Boxes of Life: How to Get Out of Them
Author : Richard Nelson Bolles
Rating : 5 Stars out of 5.
Summary : Still a mind-opener after all these years

I first read this book when it had been out only a few years, and it turned my head around. I had been brought up, like most children of the 'fifties, to think of life as a series of rigidly defined serial roles: first you were a student, then you were a worker, and finally you retired and got to do all the fun things you'd been putting off for the past 40-odd years. Having worked my way through graduate school, and done a bit of traveling in the process, I of course knew how artificial these distinctions were -- but I still tended to feel vaguely guilty about my "immature" lifestyle and rebuke myself for not "settling down" like a Real Grownup was "supposed to." Bolles set me straight -- in fact I was doing a pretty good job of balancing growth, work, and leisure in my life, and had nothing to be ashamed of. My subsequent work history has borne out the wisdom of his advice: I've been happiest and most productive when my life achieves that same balance; the most miserable time of my life was the nine-year period when I succumbed to the siren song of Silicon Valley and became a money-obsessed workaholic. This is a terrific book, and one that bears rereading every few years, especially when you feel your life slipping out of balance.

Title : Rich Dad's Prophecy
Author : Sharon L. Lechter
Rating : 4 Stars out of 5.
Summary : Beware 2016! -- Good Financial Education for New Investors

Before commenting on the book's message and argument, let me discuss its communications style. There is a great on-going debate about whether the details that Mr. Kiyosaki presents about himself and his "Rich" and his "Poor" (and biological) Dad are literally true. I don't know, and I don't intend to try to find out. For my purposes, I treat the communications style of this book as a fable to help teach a lesson. I do evaluate the accuracy of the lesson itself in these comments.

If you've read some of the Rich Dad, Poor Dad books before, the main new information in this book is an explanation of why stock market investing with pension money is a dangerous way to grow your "wealth." In addition to being at risk from con men, thieves, incompetents, brokerage houses and market volatility, you face the ticking time bomb of a growing number of U. S. investors being legally required to liquidate their holdings beginning at age 70 1/2. As the Baby Boom generation turns 70 1/2 beginning in 2016, the selling moves from being a trickle into being a torrent that overwhelms new funds into the market at some point . . . followed by an inevitable collapse in stock values. If you want a more detailed, confirming discussion of this issue, the book, What If Boomers Can't Retire?, is a good choice. Harry S. Dent, Jr.'s demographic books also look at this issue.

If you already believe in the messages of the earlier books, you could skip this one . . . especially if you have already decided to avoid or minimize stock-market investments.

If you have read none of the Rich Dad, Poor Dad series, I suggest that you start with Rich Dad, Poor Dad before tackling this one. You'll understand this book better if you do.

The other problem with traditional defined contribution pension investing (usually by 401-k plans), of course, is that a pension fund contribution takes lots of cash out of your pocket (unless the employer matching is very generous -- way more than 2:1) to put some money into the retirement account. So you face the possibility of being much poorer in cash flow while you save for retirement investing and poorer when you cash out of the investment after you pay the taxes on what you take back in what could be smaller values. Imagine if you had had to start withdrawing from your pension fund in 1929. That's one nice illustration that I enjoyed in the book. Possibly, the same could occur after 2016. Who knows?

The second half of the book advises you on how to build a financial ark against hard times by relying on building cash-generating businesses and investments (such as rental properties) after you achieve your financial education (which you didn't learn in school, even if you got a business degree from most schools). You are encouraged to start small and develop various kinds of control over your emotions, advisors and actions. It's all sound advice. My only complaint is that people who are going to start making real estate investments and building cash-generating businesses need a lot more information than is here. I graded the book down one star, accordingly.

The first half of the book could have been shortened up quite a bit, but for those who are unaware of the demographic time bomb's potential effect on their investments, it may help to get the story in small doses.

The surprise for a lot of people in this book is going to be that what they hear every day from best-selling "authorities" about the "right rules" of retirement investing could easily turn out to be wrong for them.

After you absorb and begin to apply these lessons, I suggest that you think about where in your life the conventional wisdom led you down the wrong path. Where else could that be happening to you now?

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 : How to Retire Rich
Author : James O'Shaughnessey
Rating : 5 Stars out of 5.
Summary : A Nobel Prize for O'Shaughnessy!

The main message of _How to Retire Rich_ is that if you want to retire rich, or retire at all for that matter (ever!), you must invest in the stock market. You just don't have a choice in the matter. Sit down and let James O'Shaughnessy take you through the math---you'll quickly see that that is just the financial reality. The good news, however, is that investing in the stock market, when done properly, is not what you think it is. It's not about outsmarting all the other investors out there. It's not about trying to get a 'ten-bagger' so you can buy a cool car and brag at parties. It's not even about shrewd business savvy and scanning financial reports. It's about picking an effective strategy and sticking with it year in, year out until the day you retire, never pulling your money out of the market.

But if that sounds hard, don't worry. One of HTRR's strongest points is the wealth of wisdom it provides on the mental aspects of investing over the long term. What do you do if your portfolio tanks? What do you do if it soars? This is a problem? You'd be surprised! O'Shaughnessy is probably the only author with a completely rounded, mature outlook on the emotional aspects of investing. Reading HTRR will give you the confidence you need to invest and stay in the market through good times and bad.

So how do you invest? O'Shaughnessy breaks it all down for you, telling you exactly what to do. We're not talking the usual vague, feelgood accepted wisdom here such as 'buy market leaders' or 'buy on weakness, sell on strength'. Throw all those books in the trash! HTRR will tell you how to quickly find the precise stocks you should buy. You'll finish the book at 2 o'clock and have a list of the stocks to buy in your hand at 2:30. Yes, it's just that easy. You'll also know exactly when to buy them (now) and when to sell them (a year from now), and what do after that (repeat the process until you retire). What could be simpler?

O'Shaughnessy should be nominated for a Nobel Prize. He is a modern-day Charles Darwin with a theory that has all the hallmarks of a revolution in scientific thought. The theory is simple, but deceptively so. Many readers come away thinking they have understood it, only to later demonstrate that they clearly haven't. Even Motley Fool was apparently unable to grasp Reasonable Runaways (one of the strategies in HTRR). They tried to test it with a universe of stocks picked from Value Line (!). When it wasn't performing well after six months (!), they wondered how they could tweak it (!) to "make it dance" (their words). You'll understand just how ridiculous all of this is when you read HTRR.

Perhaps the reason for this widespread misunderstanding is that while the theory itself is simple, its ramifications are not---and without understanding its ramifications, it is impossible to truly understand the theory. Like Darwin, O'Shaughnessy has taken 'God'---the human element---completely out of the picture. That's what readers find so hard to grasp. O'Shaughnessy has shown that not only is human intervention in portfolio management not necessary, it's downright harmful. Given enough time, any human intervention will only lower a portfolio's returns from the optimum returns that could be obtained using a simple model.

I hesitate to include the returns I have earned over the past four years using the Reasonable Runaways strategy in this review, because I don't think they're typical. I have earned 93.15% (CARR of 17.88%) versus 1.17% (CARR of 0.29%) for the SP during the same period (July 15, 2001 to July 15, 2005). And this is during a time period that includes 9/11. But as you'll discover from reading HTRR, four years is a meaninglessly short amount of time over which to gauge performance. Also, giving out exciting returns numbers shifts the discussion away from the real message of the book---get in the stock market and stay there (investing properly of course). It's the only way you'll ever be able to retire, rich or otherwise.

For UK readers, Ifd also like to point out that if you invest in the US stock market and live outside the UK (as I do), itfs tax-free. How can you go wrong?

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