Retire Early--And Live the Life You Want Now: A 10-Step Plan For Reinventing Your Retirement [Hardcover]

John F. F. Wasik (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 14, 2000

For the millions of Americans who want to retire early, this revolutionary investment and lifestyle guide shows the way.

Retire Early turns the traditional plan of work hard now, retire later on its head. According to John Wasik, 21 million Americans-those with a household income of $100,000, or above-are in a position to retire early and start living their dreams sooner than they thought possible. In this invaluable guide, he provides solid financial advice on how to save, invest, and cut costs; how to target personal retirement goals; and, finally, how to realize them. He includes sections on how to raise children without going broke, how to insulate a long retirement with insurance and investment portfolio protection, and how to keep the money coming in by beating the market most of the time. Retire Early is a perfect bl of financial and lifestyle wisdom that redefines how we see retirement and helps us start living the lives we want today.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

What makes Retire Early such an outstanding guide to retirement is author John Wasik's holistic presentation and analysis of the issues and challenges in planning today for a secure, happy, and prosperous life after work. The whole concept of retirement planning is undergoing unprecedented change, because people are living much longer, healthier lives and retiring earlier, says Wasik, an award-winning consumer affairs and personal finance journalist. "Given the changes in the macroeconomy, work, longevity, families, gender roles, and the labor force, current assumptions and practices seem increasingly outmoded and inappropriate."

Bolstered by a vibrant stock market, Wasik estimates, as many as 20 million Americans will be in a financial position to leave the full-time work force in the next five years, and many will face the challenges of caring for parents and raising children, while at the same time creating new lives for themselves.

Wasik's book is not just a guide on spending, structuring income, and selecting the best investment strategies, however. It's also a well-written, user-friendly workbook with questionnaires and personal inventories designed to reveal how you spend, save, and feel about money, and then to focus your vision and sort out your feelings about the nature and tapestry of your planned retirement. In the author's words, "it's a book about creating a positive, prosperous and passionate vision for ourselves and making it come true by actively pursuing it." The book is replete with self-surveys to elicit, distill, and refine the values and passionate pursuits important to you, those that make for a full, rich, and satisfying life. Included as well are excellent sections listing additional references and resources, many available online. There's as much wisdom here about retirement planning as there is about life, and about restoring and maintaining a healthy balance, especially when charting a new course. --Scott Harrison

From Library Journal

Quality of life during retirement is the focus of these two short volumes. Freedman, a former adviser on aging to the federal government and founder of Civic Ventures, argues that seniors are an untapped social resource. In each chapter, he tells a story about the civic involvement of particular seniors and then moves on to explore how the program they work with benefits the community. Most of these stories are about government programs, but some focus on privately developed initiatives, like the free clinic for uninsured workers that retired physician Jack McConnell established near his Hilton Head, SC, retirement home. Throughout the volume, Freedman decries age-segregated communities, like Sun City, AZ, and calls on government programs to encourage healthy seniors to work with the less fortunate, particularly the young. In Retire Early, on the other hand, Wasik, an editor at Consumer's Digest, gives a short, clearly written synopsis on how to approach retirement in ten steps--everything from finance to lifestyle. His financial advice is sound and uncomplicated, and, like Freedman, he emphasizes how to sustain a vibrant life that balances personal freedom and attachment to society at large. Both titles have lists of resources. There are more detailed works available, like the Columbia Retirement Handbook (LJ 9/1/94), edited by Abraham Monk, or Kiplinger's Retire Worry Free (Random, 1998). But even the smallest public library should have a current retirement guide, and Wasik's is a good, inexpensive, sensible start. Freedman's volume is really a public policy study and is more suitable for libraries serving public administration, sociology, and gerontology users; an optional purchase for public libraries.
-Patrick J. Brunet, Western Wisconsin Technical Coll. Lib., La Crosse
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.; First Edition edition (January 14, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 080506348X
• ISBN-13: 978-0805063486
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,025,670 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I am curious about the world. That's why I'm compelled to ask questions about history, politics, the environment, economics and investing. Although I don't write in order to live, I put words down in order to understand life. My two most recent books are "The Cul-de-Sac Syndrome" and "The Audacity of Help." The former book explores the past, present and future of American housing from the colonial era to today. It was an outgrowth of research I was doing into environmental building, which I see as one antidote to climate change, resource depletion and affordable housing. It was also a tangential follow-up to my "Merchant of Power," which was the history of electrical generation as seen through the lens of the life of utilities magnate Samuel Insull. My "Audacity of Help" is an in-depth look at the economic crisis and how President Obama's economic plan will address some deep-seated economic and social problems. I don't write in a vacuum, however. I speak all over the country on the topics I write about, write blogs, a column for Bloomberg News and try to engage intelligent people on the best ways to understand, confront and heal many of the country's economic and social ills. If I do this right, you'll have some pretty decent questions to ask those in power after reading my books. Democracy is knowledge in action and I'm an ecodynamic player.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

47 of 49 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Retire Early - and Live the Life You Want Now, June 17, 2000

By 

"timothybonnette" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Retire Early--And Live the Life You Want Now: A 10-Step Plan For Reinventing Your Retirement (Hardcover)

I have read several books on this subject and all seem to have some overt or hidden agenda to preach. John Wasik presents a very doable plan with common sense steps for achieving your goal. No hidden agenda here, just solid advice and very practical bits of usable information. The financial plan in Retire Early is the most realistic I have seen in any book. This is not a read once and discard book. I use it as a reference guide and refer to it often.

39 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Book Fails To Deliver Expected Quality, January 14, 2003

By 

George Fulmore (Concord, California USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Retire Early--And Live the Life You Want Now: A 10-Step Plan For Reinventing Your Retirement (Paperback)

Having read several recommendations for "Retire Early," by John Wasik, as a good book on retirement issues, I as anxious to read it. Maybe it's like being told a movie is good before seeing it, then being disappointed, because after having read "Retire Early," I can't see what all the fuss is about.

The book's preface gets things off to a good start, as there is hardly a mention of how to accumulate or magnify one's nest egg and all that financial stuff that can be found in so many other "retirement" books. Here we get goodies like, "There is clearly another path that is more satisfying than the one we know," and "...for most of us, it's hard to break the chains that make us wage slaves." This is promising stuff.

But after a first chapter, which is also promising, the good stuff ends abruptly.

Unfortunately, the bulk of "Retire Early" is a compilation of all the financial basics you can get from a million other sources. And like so many of the "new" retirement books emerging, covering all the bases of financial advice seems to be the name of the game. Thus, we get advice on determining your nondiscretionary expenses, buying a car, using only one credit card, paying cash for meals, and on and on. And how about this for great advice: "For most people, real wealth is accumulated only if they spend a lot less than what they make." Now, there's something you can take to the bank with you on your next trip.

This stuff goes on for about 150 pages: All kinds of financial dribble that, like many other books of this nature, surely includes something to offer to most. But the point here is that I was told this was a really good book on retirement. When do I get to that? Surely there is more to retirement than all this financial stuff!

Bingo: Like an entirely different book, that last 30 pages are a hodgepodge of advice and information from nearly every conceivable angle other than financial. The problem is that it is too little too late, and much of it seems more appropriate to a "drop out" persona than a retiree. Some of it borders on just plain weird, like the author's suggestion to write down a list of one's failures in life. With this he says, "throw it in a drawer or file and review it later." Boy, that would be a valuable way to start your retirement plans. And how about his comparison of his "New Prosperity" with "Traditional Retirement?" Two of the entries here are "Chance to pursue passions" vs. "Chance to play golf all the time," and "Part of a global community" vs. "Member of gated community." Where are we going with this? Are we about to define "alternative retirement?"

Then, to end the rambling, non-financial stuff, there's a chapter on happiness, where we find quotes from 14 books in just five pages, as if the author did a quick skim from books off his favorite bookshelf.

I'm sorry, folks, I think the book is a mess, and I hope that this onslaught of retirement primers that start off with financial basics and all their inconsistencies, then end with rambling advice on how to be happy and fulfilled, soon will run their course.

I'll stick with my two old favorites: "The Joy of Not Working," by Zelinski, and "breaking the watch," by Savishinsky. While there will probably never be the perfect "retirement" book, I think those two are at least valuable contributions to the quest. I don't think this Wasik book holds a candle to either.

23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Proof that retiring is attainable, June 9, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Retire Early--And Live the Life You Want Now: A 10-Step Plan For Reinventing Your Retirement (Hardcover)

If you're thinking about giving up the grind early, this quick read tells exactly how almost anyone can do it. Of course, you have to follow the plan. This book is very conversational, easy-to-read and enjoyable. I highly recommend it!