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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 100 Best Investments for Your Retirement
Author : J.W Dicks
Rating : 2 Stars out of 5.
Summary : Good book, but out of date for picking mutual funds

This must have been a very helpful book when it was first published in 1996. It provides a good discussion of the financial issues one faces at retirement...income, risks, investment diversity. It also reviews good mutual fund bets for one retiring. Unfortunately the usefulness of the 1996 fund recommendations has diminished significantly. It's time for an update!

Title : How to Retire Rich: Time-Tested Strategies to Beat the Market and Retire in Style
Author : James P. O'Shaughnessy
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?

Title : One World, Ready or Not
Author : Wil Greider
Rating : 3 Stars out of 5.
Summary : Take two aspirins, don't call me in the morning


A man goes to his dermatologist to have an ugly mole removed from his neck. He returns one week later to have his stitch removed.

"The good news is, you won't have any scar," the doctor says. "The bad news is, you'll be dead in six months."

Though many people criticize Mr. Greider's conclusions, few -- even eminent scholars -- can say why. They admit most of his facts are correct (damning with faint praise) without saying which facts are wrong. They provide simplistic parables about the economics of hot dogs and buns without benefit either of logic or evidence. In short, most of Mr Greider's "critics" seem more culpable than Greider of the crimes against intellectual integrity of which they accuse him.

Let's simply stipulate that Mr. Greider is like Ralph Nader, a Cassandra. Let's stipulate further that he is histrionic even paranoic. Let's simply rest with "the facts".

What we have left is the picture of a global economy in ICU, surrounded (a) by technicians who are not monitoring high performance, but failing vital signs; (b) by FedEx boxes for shipping body parts.

Had the world not already experienced an economic death but 70 years ago, we might dismiss Greider's prognosis.

So, his facts are worrisome; but, not as troubling as his prescriptions. He doesn't think it inevitable that the patient has to die because the "government" can somehow "keep it going" with a different IV solution, tracts to bolster the spirits of the patient's next of kin, and specific instructions to other governmental and cultural caretakers.

He doesn't satisfy me that he understands that we are not simply in another industrial revolution, but a post-industrial evolution. Yes, the whole world is changing, as it has several time before in the last 100,000 years -- but what comes from that process will be far better -- and simpler -- than what is now becoming ruins.

So, Mr. Greider gets full credit for research, and no credit for insight. Therefore, a 5.

--John Grassi

Title : The New Golden Door to Retirement Living in Costa Rica
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 : 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?

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