Can I Retire?: How Much Money You Need to Retire and How to Manage Your Retirement Savings, Explained in 100 Pages or Less [Paperback]

Mike Piper (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 13, 2013

Find all of the following, explained in plain-English with no technical jargon:

• How to calculate how much you'll need saved before you can retire
• How to use annuities to minimize the risk of outliving your money
• How to choose which accounts (Roth vs. traditional IRA vs. taxable) to withdraw from each year
• When it makes sense to use a Roth IRA conversion to save on taxes
• How to choose an appropriate asset allocation for your retirement portfolio
• How to minimize taxes by proper use of an asset location strategy
• How to reliably pick winning mutual funds

Product Details

• Paperback: 122 pages
• Publisher: Simple Subjects, LLC (May 13, 2013)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0981454259
• ISBN-13: 978-0981454252
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (40 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #15,645 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #17 in Books > Business & Investing > Personal Finance > Retirement Planning
  • #58 in Books > Business & Investing > Investing > Introduction
  • #82 in Books > Business & Investing > Accounting

More About the Author

Mike Piper is the author of 8 personal finance books and the popular blog Oblivious Investor (obliviousinvestor.com). He is a Missouri Licensed CPA. Mike's writing has been featured in many places, including Money Magazine, AARP Magazine, Forbes, CBS News, MarketWatch, and Morningstar.

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#59 in Kindle eBooks > Business & Investing

#84 in Books > Business & Investing

#59 in Kindle eBooks > Business & Investing

#84 in Books > Business & Investing

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

63 of 66 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Covers a great deal of ground in a short space. December 8, 2010

By Falstaff in New York

Format:Paperback

There are plenty of books telling you how to invest for retirement, not so many discussing the even more complex matter of funding your retirement. Two sources, both mentioned by Mike Piper, are the Bogleheads' Guide to Retirement and Jim Otar's nearly 600-page tract, which is designed for financial professionals and makes for nearly impenetrable reading. Now we have another guide by Mike Piper.

Anyone who follows ObliviousInvestor.com knows that Mike has a gift for conveying difficult concepts in concise, clear language, and by and large this little book is no exception. It explains clearly why 4% is probably the maximum safe withdrawal rate from a retirement portfolio (some would say 3% is the maximum, but that requires having a larger nest egg), why purchasing a fixed annuity is a wise option for people who have underfunded their retirement, why TIPs and short-term bonds are the best choices for retirees investing in bond funds, and much more.

There's a lot going on here in 100 pages, and the book really deserves several readings so you can apply the information in each chapter to your own situation. But I had a bit of trouble putting everything together at times: e.g., for the non-annuitized portion of your portfolio (which could be all of it), Mike recommends having two years of cash in what he calls a "spending bucket." But it wasn't clear to me if so much cash is needed for people have purchased an annuity or have other safe sources of funding. I wasn't clear either if what he calls the "sequence of returns" risk when one has 50/50% stock/bond portfolio would decline if one allocates more conservatively, and how that would affect a safe withdrawal rate.... In short, I think a couple of larger case studies pulling all the concepts in the book together would be very helpful.

This book is geared towards people who already have a decent retirement account rather than those who will struggle on nothing but social security, and it deals exclusively with the funding aspects of retirement, which is more than enough to cover without attempting to deal with other major retirement issues like insurance and estate planning. Even so, it is not as thorough as a larger book can afford to be, saying nothing for example about reverse mortgages. And it falls short in one key area related to funding, which is that Mike says very little about pensions and social security. These are major sources of funding for many if not most retirees and can have a substantial impact on withdrawal rate, asset allocation, spending buckets, and taxes. Mike briefly mentions social security at the end but then tells us only that it's "complicated," but it's probably no more complicated than any of the topics he did cover in greater depth. I wish at least the basics of social security had been addressed - perhaps in lieu of discussing index funds and ETFs, which are more germane to general investment advice and have been covered many times elsewhere, including Mike's previous books.

I also wish he had made a stronger case for the financial benefit of working longer, as every retirement calculator I have tried suggests that there's no better way to improve your chances of success than to work even a year or two beyond what you've planned. But even if this book doesn't answer all the questions raised, it goes far towards answering many of them, and should thus be a big help to anyone seriously planning for retirement. Read more ›

69 of 73 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Coffee table reading - retirement 101 March 6, 2011

By JYoder

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Okay, it's sort of like what my parents use to say about how much you pay for something, "A lot of times you get what you pay for" That's kind of the situation here. 100 pages isn't a whole lot of room for information, so you shouldn't think that your going to get a lot of details on implementation of your retirement plan.

I would consider this coffee table reading for someone who has not even considered retirement; Retirement 101, This book will introduce you to the basic concepts and most of the things you need to consider. What you will not get is details. So if you are looking for a book to give you an introduction (ie the cliff notes) so you can have a general conversation with your spouse, or best friend, this may be good for you. If you are getting serous, and are a beginner, you should really consider the AARP retirement Survival Guide listed below.

I don't really want to beat up on the book to much, because it does give you a good 10,000 foot overview. Just remember, you are getting what you pay for here as far as the 100pages is concerned.

Here is a list of some of the books I have read in preparing for retirement, and a one-liner, and ranking for each. I will order them in the order I would read them:

1. The AARP Retirement Survival Guide: How to Make Smart Financial Decisions in Good Times and Bad (Julie Jason)
Rank: 5/5
Summary:Real good overview and introduction to the many considerations for retirement.

2. com/Buckets-Money-Retire-Comfort-Safety/dp/0471478660">Buckets of Money: How to Retire in Comfort and Safety (Raymond Lucia)
Rank: 4/5
Summary: Interesting concept on planning for retirement. Although I'm not sure I will use the plan Raymond lays out here, I think the general concept is a real good idea on how to think about tapping your assets as you plan for retirement.

3. Annuities For Dummies (Kerry Pechter)
Rank: 4.5/5
Summary: Great details on the highly complex subject of annuities, a critical tool for your retirement planning to alleviate longevity and market risk.

If you read the books above, I don't think there is a need for reading the books listed below since either they don't have the depth, or have already been covered in sufficient detail in the books above.

The Bogleheads' Guide to Retirement Planningg (Various Aurthors)
Rank: 3.5/5
Summary: I think this book tries to cover a little to much, and as a result has topics that I don't think are appropriate for the retirement planning. Since the book attempts to cover so many topics, it really doesn't give real good details on any one topic. I think of this book, more as an executive summary for the various topics it covers.

Can I Retire? How Much Money You Need to Retire and How to Manage Your Retirement Savings, Explained in 100 Pages or Less (Mike Piper)
Rank: 2.5/5
Summary: What do you expect for 100 pages? Although the author does seem to stay on-topic in this book, its just to broad to really give you any actionable information. Perhaps a decent book if you are just wading into the whole concept of retirement and don't want to put alot of thought into details(IE the big picture). This book does not answer the question it poses in the title.

Hope this helps
James Read more ›

29 of 29 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Want Retirement? Must Read! December 5, 2010

By Manisha Thakor

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

This is hands down the best overview of what it takes to truly retire that I've ever read. (And as a bona-fide personal finance junkie, CFA, and 15 year veteran of the financial services industry - I've read a lot of books on the subject). In less than 100 pages & in jargon free English, this gem of a book nails the key issues of: (1) How do you identify your "number" - that amount you must have saved to be able to safely nibble away on your nest egg in retirement with low odds of outliving your money AND (2) exactly how to draw down that nest egg - from asset allocation to what Michael smartly calls 'asset location' (what investments to put in which accounts & in what order to access funds from those accounts). If you are trying to get a handle on whether or not you can retire, this book is an absolute must read. Five stars!!

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Retirement planning condensed and made clear December 16, 2010

By J. Colbert

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Since early 2007 I have been doing a self-study on investing, financial markets, and retirement issues and have read most of the classic academic literature, from Benjamin Graham, Roger Gibson, and Charles Ellis, to Burton Malkiel, William Bernstein, and John Bogel. As the previous reviewers have noted, Mr. Piper writes both extremely clearly and very well. He boils down a subject to its pure essense, yet on nearly every page he adds notes of clarification just where a newcomer might tend to get lost [or even bring clarity to someone who has been doing a total immersion into finance books!]. In a couple places, as I finished a chapter and was thinking, "that was really good, but what about..?", and then I turned the page to find the answer. I never found anything, not a word, which I did not agree with him, and although it is of course impossible to cover everything completely in 100 pages, many folks [like all the ones who don't have the time to read the dozens and dozens of fine books on the topic] will find most the basics of what they need to get started for retirement in this book. For those who need more, the finer points are out there in specialized books, or on self help websites like the Bogleheads or Mr. Piper's own. This is NOT "retirement for dummies"! Mr. Piper knows his subject thoroughly and presents it well. The book will stand re-reading, even for non-novice readers.

I am ordering a few more copies to give out to family [including my wife] and friends who are near or starting retirement, and plan to read his other books also.

There are rumors that Mr. Piper is thinking about writing a similar 100 page book on Social Security, which I hope is true, since I am already 61.