Book Review: You’re Retired, Now What?
May 20, 2008 – 6:25 am
One of the books I’m currently reading is “You’re Retired, Now What?” by Ronald Yolles. The book is well written and covers what you would expect in a retirement planning book. The author has broken the book up into four main sections, and the first of which includes cost of living, cash flow, and non-portfolio sources of income.
The author advocates taking taking out a large mortgage when interest rates are low, and although I understand the math behind this I’m not a fan of a debt-based retirement strategy.
The second section of the book covers the investment strategy for retirement. What I enjoyed most in this section of the book was the discussion of specific and market risk, and a review of how you need to be prepared if you experience several bear market years. The discussion of risk profiles, standard deviations of different investments, and a review of past recessions was quite valuable in my opinion. All too often investors focus on average returns when searching for investments and forget that most investments have yearly returns that fluctuate quite a bit from year to year (i.e. high standard deviation).
The book includes numerous case studies that relate to different situations, and the risks associated with each scenario.
The third section of the book covers withdrawal strategies, pensions, IRA’s, and Social Security. The information is clearly discussed and the case studies help the discussion feel more personalized. The author reviews recommended withdrawal rates, tax and social security implications. This section also includes an overview of insurance (life, Medicare/Medicaid, etc).
The final section of the book covers estate planning and watch-outs for scams and fraud. My opinion on this section was that, although this book is a good primer, I don’t think most readers will learn enough to actually start formulating their estate plan.
Summary: I would recommend this book for someone interesting in a learning more about retirement planning. The authors experiece as a CFA (and an attourney) come through clearly and serves the reader well. Overall Grade: B+
| 2.5 |
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