Book Description
Only a few years ago, the question on many Americans' minds wasn't 'how will I retire' but 'when.' Now, with 401(k)s and IRAs at a fraction of their previous value and health-care costs soaring, it's time for a definitive guide book that walks you through the fundamentals of retirement. With his biweekly 'Seniority' column in The New York Times, Fred Brock has earned a reputation for providing frank and pragmatic advice on the changing landscape of retirement. In chapters written exclusively and originally for this book, he offers updated thinking on all the essentials for a smart and secure retirement, including how to - determine new personal finance and investing goals - find untapped asset streams, such as reverse mortgages - deal with the tangle of taxes on pensions, family gifts, and other income - work during retirement - choose a community and housing - maximize your health insurance - assess long-term assisted-living arrangements He offers indispensable tools for analyzing your true costs of retirement, independent of the mutual-fund industry hype and Social Security scares. And a substantial list of national, regional, and online resources as well as worksheets allow you to customize and realize your retirement plan.
Customer Reviews:
Reality Check for 80% of Boomers .......2007-07-15
Before reading this book, my prediction of retirement for the Baby Boomers was based upon a few simple facts:
A. 20% of the Baby Boomers have 80% of the wealth. The 20% that have the wealth don't need to worry about retirement planning. As a side-line note, these 20% also have no need to sell their assets and therefore they will not crash the stock market.
B. The 80% of Baby Boomers that only have 20% of that generation's wealth will not have enough money to retire when and where they want to.
C. The financial planning rule-of-thumb that one needs 70-80% of pre-retirement income for income during retirement is not a bad rule-of-thumb.
Since 80% of the Baby Boomers will not accumulate enough money to retire when they want to (applying the 70-80% rule-of-thumb)......the only choices left to them are:
1. Work longer.
2. Reduce living expenses which can include selling your house and moving into a smaller house, move to a lower cost part of the U.S., or reduce your living standards.
3. Move to a lower cost country
4. Use a reverse mortgage for living expenses
5. Rely on family or charity
When I started to read this book, Brock immediately starts bashing the 70-80% rule-of-thumb as inaccurate and a Wall Street/Mutual Fund Industry conspiracy to get you to over-save for retirement. If you plan to stay in the same house when you retire (which 95% of current retirees choose to do), and you don't want to work until you die, and you don't want to dramatically reduce your living standards, then you will probably need 70-80% of pre-retirement income. If you can't meet the 70-80% rule-of-thumb.....the only choices left are one of the 5 options noted above.
Brock's book mostly focuses on Options #1, #2, and #4 above. Not many of us want to move to a foreign country in retirement. Relying on family or charity is not a popular option either.
If you already live in a smaller house in a lower cost part of the country and you did not save enough to meet the 70-80% rule-of-thumb, the only options open to you are to work longer, reduce your living standards, move to a lower cost country, use a reverse mortgage, or rely on friends or charity.
Brock puts way too little faith in the stock and bond markets compared to a government run Social Security program. One thing the government does do right is the TSA retirement plan for federal workers. Federal workers can choose among low cost index funds for their retirement portfolio. I'm not usually an advocate of government run programs, but in this case I think expanding the TSA program to cover the private sector is an outstanding idea. The low cost index fund approach keeps the high cost Wall Street and mutual fund industry wolves away from the private sector worker sheep.
I also disagree with Brock on how to fix the medical insurance plan in the U.S. My vote is to privatize it completely....including no tax breaks for companies who provide coverage to their workers. In my viewpoint, the auto insurance industry works relatively well in the U.S. (except for poor enforcement of uninsured motorist). Why can't the medical insurance industry work as well as the auto insurance industry? Until the individual deals directly with the insurer (versus multiple layers between the payer and the payee).....there is no real cost competition. The pre-existing condition situation needs to be resolved as well.
After reading hundreds of book, I'm concluding that "fear" does sell books. Painting the conventional rule-of-thumb of 70-80% of pre-retirement income as a big, dark conspiracy between Wall Street and the mutual fund industry is a good fear approach to selling books. In my opinion, there is no such conspiracy.
I guess this book has its place.......as a wake-up call.....or reality check..... to the 80% of Baby Boomers that have not saved enough to retire when and where they want to. The 80% of the Baby Boomers who only have 20% of the wealth are going to need more information about the 5 options I outlined above. Brock's book does contain some useful information on some of these options.
I would suggest companion books to supplement this book including:
The Richest Man in Babylon
Bogle on Mutual Funds: New Perspectives for the Intelligent Investor
The Millionaire Next Door
The Four Pillars of Investing: Lessons for Building a Winning Portfolio
A Random Walk Down Wall Street: The Time-Tested Strategy for Successful Investing, Ninth Edition
Index Mutual Funds: How to Simplify Your Financial Life and Beat the Pro's
The Coffeehouse Investor: How to Build Wealth, Ignore Wall Street, and Get On With Your Life
The Bogleheads' Guide to Investing
Wealth: Grow It, Protect It, Spend It, and Share It
Are You Using the Right Rules to Plan Your Retirement?
Terrible book.......2007-05-04
The only advise I can give you if you follow the author's absurd advise is to make sure you keep a tin can handy so you can panhandle for you meals when you hit your seventies. What he basically does in give stories of people living on $1200 per month and are happy. I have lived on 18K a year and it sucked. Thanks but I will still be placing a chunk of money every two weeks in my 401K.
not helpful.......2007-01-08
I find such retirement advice not very helpful for people whose expenses probably will NOT decrease when they retire. The assumption ALWAYS is that people's expenses will be less after they retire, but I don't see how that will be true for me or many of the people I know.
Many people who live in urban areas do not own homes or cars, for example. And they may not be interested in moving to some small town in the south when they retire.
They will still be paying rent when they retire, and their rent will probably increase each year, and suppose they have to BUY a car after they retire, if they become less able to use public transportation?
So their expenses after retirement will probably go UP instead of down.
I'm not sure where to look for advice for city dwelling renters who don't own houses and cars, and who would rather die than move to the boondocks in their so-called "golden years" - but this book, like so many others, isn't it.
I guess someone needs to write a book called "It Will Take A Lot More Money Than You Have To Retire Without Moving to the Boondocks!"
Retirement 101.......2006-07-27
This is a great beginners book for people looking to begin there plans for retirement. It is very basic advice with the biggest angle it uses is if you own a large house in a metropolitin area then sell that house and by a small one in a place with a lower cost of living. A retiree could sell their large house in the state of New York and move to Okalahoma City and live like a king off the equity that was in it. The main point of this book is that you do not need 70% of your current income in retirement to be comfortable. You should be able to dramatically reduce your expenses when you no longer work, like eating out,clothing and gas. You should also have all your debt paid off like your cars, and even your house by retirement time. To learn about this in great detail buy this book, if this sounds like common sense move on.I think any book by Dave Ramsey is all that is ever needed on personal finance, he covers everything. From budgeting to retirement.
Not worth buying.......2006-03-31
There is a little useful information in this book, but the main advice is to sell your home in an area where property values are very high and relocate to a less expensive area. This is repeated throughout the sections of the book. If you already live in one of the less-expensive areas and do not have a large house to sell,this advice is little help to you. The author advises things like buying a used car and driving it for many years; haven't most people figured this out on their own? There is a lot of filler in the form of stories about people who illustrate the author's view, many of whom are "indulging their passion for bicycling" in retirement.
Book Description
A smart, down-to-earth primer on financial survival-and prosperity-in today's uncertain economy, from the author of the bestselling Retire on Less Than You ThinkWith Retire on Less Than You Think, New York Times business columnist and editor Fred Brock challenged the conventional wisdom on the real costs of retirement. Now he turns his attention to the hype that is driving money decisions during the working years-credit card debt, health care costs, stagnant wages-and shows how it is possible for all of us to build a secure and prosperous household on less than we think. Brock offers his distinctive brand of savvy, real-world advice, including how to- assess the real money value of your job based on commuting costs, benefits, and job market opportunities- get the most out of location, from tax savings and living costs- minimize your housing costs while maximizing your assets- manage major expenses, like college tuition and cars- cut expensive habits and pay attention to the "little" things to boost your savings- get to the bottom line on insurance- play the credit card game to your advantage Brock shows readers how to analyze their true costs of living so that they can live debt- and worry-free while enjoying themselves and securing their future. A substantial list of national, regional, and online resources as well as work sheets once again give readers the tools to customize and realize their financial plans.
Customer Reviews:
Great Practical Guide of Basics of Living Within Your Means .......2007-07-08
Since I'm a middle Baby Boomer, it was interesting to see the perspective of a few Generation X couples interviewed by the author.
These Generation X couples expected the Baby Boomers to break the Social Security system, so there won't be an Social Security left for them......and therefore they should be more self-reliant than the Boomers. The X'ers also thought retirement should be replaced with having a flexible set of work skills that allow you to work until you are dead. The X's will have a hard time building any significant net worth considering the average college loans are now $20,000 and the X'ers sampled had between $3,000 and $8,000 in credit card debt.
As a Baby Boomer, I am glad to see Generation X people plan to be more self reliant for their financial future.......my generation needs people to buy our stocks when we sell them for retirement living expenses!
I really enjoyed financial planner Deena Katz's recommendation to focus on low cost index funds....since I am a huge fan of Index Funds. Her recommendation for three index funds with 50% invested in the S&P 500, 25% in the Russell 2000, and 25% in foreign stocks is a very reasonable recommendation.
I also enjoyed the portion of the book about salaries and expenses as a function of geography. Choosing where you work or retire to can have a dramatic impact on your living expenses.
The author's opinion is that between this book and his first book, Retire on Less Than You Think....you can easily figure out how to live within your means today.... and you can also learn to live on less than the 70-80% of pre-retirement income that is assumed by Wall Street and the mutual fund industry.
Over-all a great practical guide on how to live within your means through smart planning about college selections, autos, and credit cards.
I would suggest companion books to supplement this book including:
The Richest Man in Babylon
Bogle on Mutual Funds: New Perspectives for the Intelligent Investor
The Millionaire Next Door
The Four Pillars of Investing: Lessons for Building a Winning Portfolio
A Random Walk Down Wall Street: The Time-Tested Strategy for Successful Investing, Ninth Edition
Index Mutual Funds: How to Simplify Your Financial Life and Beat the Pro's
The Coffeehouse Investor: How to Build Wealth, Ignore Wall Street, and Get On With Your Life
The Bogleheads' Guide to Investing
Wealth: Grow It, Protect It, Spend It, and Share It
All About Asset Allocation.
I Have More Money.......2007-01-27
Of course, the best reading skill is the use of discernment. Keep the info that resonates/is useful and toss the rest. I was on the right track, but as a baby boomer, did not get on the track soon enough. I read this book one week ago and used some of the advice. I have already seen significant results in cold, hard cash. That says it all.
I am also going to share the reviews with my smoking cessation classes. They are all going to have significant extra money soon.
Thanks, Fred!
Too many interviews.......2006-08-10
I feel like Fred didn't do a lot of research to write this book. He cites interviews with 'experts' but those interviewed sound too much like the author's own voice. Sort of like the phony 'man on the street' interviews you see in Cosmo magazine.
Who is this book for? If it is for the young, then why a chapter on retirement and funding your children's education? If it is for those ready to retire, then the reader probably already knows all this information, and tons more.
Self help books such as this one are only helpful if the author has done due diligence, and really dug deep to find facts.
Buy if you need the basics in personal finance.......2006-07-27
This book would be a great gift for a graduating senior from high school or college, but is of little use to some one who has been managing their personal finances for years. He discusses debt,insurance,education,car payments,credit cards, and retirement.If you understand that you should avoid credit card debt, stay away from car payments, not buy gimmick insurance, and max out your 401K contribution you do not need this book. I suggest "Financial Peace" or "Total Money Makeover" both from Dave Ramesay to really it more in depth and to get your money's worth.
Does not offer any advice you have not heard before.......2006-06-21
As a younger person (in her late twenties) who is interested in securing her financial future and looking to increase her financial knowledge, I found this book to be lacking in several ways. While many financial books offer similar advice, they often offer new perspectives, Fred Brock seems to just repeat and mirror concepts from other books as well as his previous book. If you have read more than one other volume on financial advice, then you will find yourself a little bored. Much of his advice is common sense and not mindblowingly original. He stresses similar money-saving concepts as the "latte factor" and extends it to apply to soda, lunch, clothes, etc. He stresses the obvious - if you don't consume as much, you save more.
My biggest criticism of the book would be that Brock is too narrow with his advice. That is to say, his thesis that certain areas of the country offer more bang for your buck and will give you a more improved lifestyle for the money, all seem to be to be an attempt to justify his own move from an urban area to a rural one. He devotes many charts to displaying how families in San Francisco or New York are worse off than those in less urban areas. While I agree with this in theory, he doesn't take into account the cultural benefits from living in such areas. As someone who has always lived in an urban city, I know of course that my income would stretch farther elsewhere, but for me that does not outweigh an urban lifestyle.
Much of Brock's arguments can be condensed into a smaller volume, most probably an essay. He stretches many of his arguements so that they bleed into each chapter, albeit perhaps to pound in the point to the reader. All that being said, although not completely unhelpful, there are many other books on the market that would be of more help to most Americans than this one. I found this volume to be sadly disappointing and not as helpful as expected from the team of Brock and the NYTimes.
Book Description
From bestselling author Fred Brock, the first ever hands-on guide to managing your family’s health care costs—and maximizing your coverage
With Retire on Less Than You Think and Live Well on Less Than You Think, Fred Brock gained a following with his focus on increasing wealth by decreasing expenses rather than by chasing investment fads. He now applies his uniquely pragmatic and achievable money-protection strategies to the most alarming financial issue today: the health care crisis in America.
Health costs are soaring, strangling job decisions, bankrupting families, and unsettling retirement plans. Workers with insurance at their jobs face constant cuts in coverage for an ever-steeper price tag, while forty-six million Americans lack insurance and have to fend for themselves. Medicare and prescription drug coverage are under strain. And with so much money at stake, it’s no surprise that the financial industry is rooting for the new Health Savings Accounts: a boon for their profits, but a mixed bag for families.
Brock investigates the best options available, offering the first one-stop guide to maximizing health coverage while minimizing expense—with potential savings of hundreds or thousands of dollars each year. Worksheets and a handy resource list give readers the tools to customize their plan to their ages and needs.
Once again, Brock provides unrivaled, objective, and essential financial reporting and advice to safeguard the wallets of American families.
In Health Care on Less Than You Think:
Drawing on the experiences of regular Americans and his pragmatic, dollars-driven analysis, Fred Brock shows readers how to
• assess employer-based health plans and choose
among the plans available to each family
• shop for the best coverage at the least cost if a
job does not provide insurance
• compares insurance costs, eligibility, and benefits
in different states
• decipher the new Health Savings Accounts—and
understand their benefits and costs
• choose supplemental dental and eye-care coverage
• track down the biggest savings on prescription
drug costs
• master the insurer’s fine print and win battles
over payments to get the most out of a plan
• manage the Medicare system and long-term care
insurance to protect retirement savings
Customer Reviews:
Lots of health tips.......2007-09-03
the author offers several tips on health care for people who dont have it and a background of why we need to upgrade our current ystem. Invaluable are thecontacts for caling for cheaper prescription drugs.
A road map for gaming the system.......2007-05-31
This is the best book out there on health care for the general interest reader. I wish every presidential candidate and every member of Congress would read it.
More scare-mongering than helpful.......2007-05-09
I picked up this book enthusiastically hoping to learn how to save money on health care. However, I was resoundingly disappointed in this book. The tips that were summarized at the end were about 5 pages, whereas the other 200+ pages were scaring you into how bad the health insurance industry is and how people are getting burned. These 5 pages included fairly obvious tips such as "know what is included in your policy" so I don't really count that as helpful.
We know the situation is bad; that is why folks buy the book. This is not so much of a guide to solutions as a current events dissertation on other folks' problems. I was really disappointed.
An absolute "must-have" especially for anyone anticipating retirement.......2007-01-06
Written by New York Times contributor Fred Brock, Health Care on Less Than You Think: The New York Times Guide to Getting Affordable Coverage is a one-stop guide to reducing health-care costs while remaining as covered as possible. Chapters cover basic steps anyone can take to improve their health and therefore protect their budget, how to decipher the fine print of one's insurance policy, the increasing modern trend of shifting risk and health insurance payments from the corporation to the individual (without a corresponding increase in individual real wages!), guidelines for effectively weighing the pros and cons of all the different available options, and much more. An absolute "must-have" especially for anyone anticipating retirement, and a valuable money-saving resource for everyone else.
Book Description
An indispensible resource for today's independent investorsMore Americans than ever are directing their own investments, and thousands of "experts" promise information on the best stocks and bonds to buy. To be successful in the markets, investors need to dig out of the information overload and the unintelligible lingo. Using examples to help simplify complex financial issues and written in lively, understandable language, Gretchen Morgenson and Campbell R. Harvey explain and cross-reference more than 3,500 investing terms, from the rules surrounding abandonment options to when you should expect to pay interest on zero-coupon bonds. They define the risks and rewards that accompany various investments and help you find meaningful information on a company's or fund's financial statements. Among the terms they decode: the markets, the indexes, and how they work, including the NYSE, Nasdaq, Dow Jones Industrial Average, Russell 2000, Samp;P 500, and Wilshire 5000 discounted investment opportunities, such as employee stock purchase plans and DRIPs tools for estimating company earnings, P/E ratios, quarterly EPS and GPS momentum, and analyst target pricesThis is the essential A-to-Z reference for understanding the jargon, the nonsense, and the language of investing.
Customer Reviews:
Very good.......2005-01-19
Campbell Harvey's dictionary is an invaluable resource, but use the on-line version for free!
Customer Reviews:
blinds, not cutains or drapes.......2005-03-08
This is a nice book, if you are interested in blinds. It does not have much information on curtains and other window treatments.
Intricate, picturesque and from a highly reliable source.......2000-06-21
The Hunter Douglas Guide to Window Decorating would be a good reference guide if it were written by an unknown. The fact that the largest manufacturer of Window Blinds and coverings, Hunter Douglas, has embarked on an impressive and easily comprehensible How-To is remarkable. There are no bells and whistles, just honest and easy to understand examples in both written word and pictures. The case studies are relevant and feasible: a concern many other books simply do not acknowledge. In my opinion, being a designer myself, it is a refreshing reference to have in any design conscious household or office.
Average customer rating:
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New York Times Complete Guide
Gary L. Klott
Manufacturer: Crown
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
 Public Finance
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ASIN: 0812912357
Release Date: 1987-05-12 |
Average customer rating:
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New York Times Financial Guide
Gary L. Klott
Manufacturer: Crown
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Public Finance
| Economics
| Business & Investing
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General
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
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ASIN: 0812918142
Release Date: 1990-10-03 |
Average customer rating:
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The New York Times Guide to Business Law and Legal Environment (New York Times Guides)
Marianne Jennings , and
Jamie Murphy
Manufacturer: South-Western College/West
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General
| Business & Investing
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| Administrative Law
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Business & Investing
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ASIN: 0324041608 |
Book Description
The New York Times Guides are designed for students, professors and business professionals -- anyone interested in staying current in business today. A collection of the best business articles related to each discipline from The New York Times, these guides do more than inform; they also provide context for the effects of change on all aspects of business. Also included are articles from CyberTimes, the online-only technology section of The New York Times on the Web. Each article was selected for its relevance to today's business world. In adopting any of the New York Times Guides, students are not only purchasing the contents between the covers, but also unlimited access, via password, to related New York Times articles. Current articles will be linked from the South-Western College Publishing/New York Times Web site (http://nytimes.swcollege.com) on an ongoing basis as news breaks.
Books:
- Saving for Retirement without Living Like a Pauper or Winning the Lottery
- Smart and Simple Financial Strategies for Busy People
- StrengthsFinder 2.0: A New and Upgraded Edition of the Online Test from Gallup's Now, Discover Your Strengths
- Study Guide to accompany Cost Management: Strategies for Business Decisions, Third Edition
- Super Stocks: The Book That's Changing the Way Investors Think
- Survey of Accounting: Making Sense of Business
- Technical Analysis of the Financial Markets: A Comprehensive Guide to Trading Methods and Applications (New York Institute of Finance)
- The Book Thief (Book Sense Book of the Year Children's Literature (Awards))
- The Compensation Handbook
- The Essays of Warren Buffett : Lessons for Corporate America
Books Index
Books Home
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- Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance
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- The New Regional Economies: The U.S. Common Market and the Global Economy
- Upon A Dark Night
Live Well on Less Than You Think: The New York Times Guide to Achieving Your Financial Freedom
How to Retire Early and Live Well With Less Than a Million Dollars
Health Care on Less Than You Think: The New York Times Guide to Getting Affordable Coverage (tt)
The Complete Idiot's Guide to Retiring Early
How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free: Retirement Wisdom That You Won't Get from Your Financial Advisor
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