Customer Reviews

Retire Sooner, Retire Richer : How to Build and Manage Wealth to Last a Lifetime

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Netti's book is insightful and a must have for those concerned about having enough resources to retire - which should include everyone. It is never too soon to plan for retirement. Gone are the days of "irrational exhuberance". Netti shows us that only with careful planning and the right steps can we face retirement with confidence. Better yet - it is not just advice but the tools to get there!

If you make a mistake with your retirement planning, chances are you will have to live with that mistake for the remainder of your life . . . and wish you had been more careful. Retire Sooner, Retire Richer will help you avoid the bulk of the mistakes that trip up the majority of people. The book is written in a common sense way that can be understood by almost anyone.

A portion of the author's income from the book will go towards low-income workers and their families affected by September 11, 2001, and to charities serving the hungry and homeless, such as Greater New York Labor-Religion Coalition, Second Harvest (USA), Catholic Relief Services (outside the U.S.), and Habitat for Humanity International.

When I first learned about Retire Sooner, Retire Richer, I was skeptical that it could add anything to my knowledge of investments, tax law, estate planning and how to get practical advice. As a result of reading the book, I was pleasantly surprised to learn a great deal of valuable information that I did not know before. After having assessed that information, it made me realize that anyone who works for a company, wants to retire early and desires to leave an estate behind needs a great deal of help. I strongly encourage anyone who is within 10 years of retirement to read this book!

The book opens with one of the best explanations I have ever seen about why volatility in financial instruments means that you have to be very conservative in planning your retirement investments and even more conservative in withdrawing from your retirement savings. Otherwise, you don't save enough and a down market can cause you to wipe out your savings at a time when stock prices are low. This really hit home after seeing the stock market drop for three straight years until 2003. The suggested guidelines in both areas made a lot of sense to me.

Next, Mr. Netti described many ways that you can choose to reduce the current and future taxes to be paid on your income and savings. Most of these choices are only available to you well before you retire. So if you wait until the day before retirement, you will lose many valuable tax reductions. In addition, if you die before your planned retirement date, failure to use these choices will cost your heirs quite a lot!

From reading the text, I began to appreciate that the tax laws governing pension payouts and IRAs have gotten to be very complex. Only someone who follows these details on a daily basis and works with them all of the time can hope to appreciate and take advantage of all the nuances if you want to retire early. From this, I began to see (for the first time) why the advice from a well-schooled financial advisor can pay a vast multiple of the cost of such an advisor. Mr. Netti certainly seems to be such an advisor.

He goes on to give you a process to locate the right financial advisor for you. The process seems like a good one, although I have never personally looked for a financial advisor. Reading Retire Sooner, Retire Richer will also prepare you to get more benefit from working with an advisor.

If you are totally averse to ever working with a financial advisor, this book may change your mind. Reading the book struck me as being a lot like what you might discuss with a financial advisor. I was grateful for the chance to have this dry run on the experience.

Here's the outline of the book:

Part One: Understanding Your Retirement Investments

Chapter 1: The Numbers Game and Retirement Timing
Chapter 2: Factors to Consider When Transitioning to Retirement
Chapter 3: Why Some Retirement Plans Fail and Others Succeed
Chapter 4: How to Improve Your Money-Management Decisions

Part Two: Building the Wealth You Need

Chapter 5: Portfolio Lessons for a Lifetime
Chapter 6: Why You Need to Act Now to Live Happily in Retirement
Chapter 7: How to Make the Best Use of Your Retirement Distribution Options
Chapter 8: How You Can Provide Added Income for You and Your Heirs
Chapter 9: How to Use a Rollover IRA to Leave More to Your Heirs

Part Three: Managing Your Nest Egg

Chapter 10: The Advisor Advantage
Chapter 11: Creating a Financial Planning Review
Chapter 12: The Importance of a Personal Investment Policy
Chapter 13: How to Pay for Financial Management Advice

As I finished the book, I found myself thinking about where else in my life I might benefit from skilled advice . . . and have not been seeking it.

More than a retirement book, but an estate planning book as well. It can be read before and after you retire; the wealth of information can not go out of date. The process is important to know and can help you or your financial planner, buy the book for him or her as well.

Being a student of the market and saving like a mad man for the past 14 years, I thought I was on top of my game in planning for retirement. Boy, after reading "Retire Sooner, Retire Richer: How to Build and Manage Wealth to Last a Lifetime", I quickly discovered that it is much more involved in planning for a successful retirement than I had ever imagined. The first thing that came to light in reading this book is how to go about determining "how much is enough?" Once I jumped this hurdle, it hit me like a ton of bricks that I was taking on far too much risk with my current investment portfolio, especially with less than five years until my target age for retirement. After reading about the importance of establishing a personal Investment Policy Statement, I created one, and it's now a part of my estate plan. The book even outlines how to go about tapping various sources of retirement funds and explains the importance of using tax intelligent payout strategies. The worksheets and other helpful planning tips became my personal "to do list" before preparing my formal retirement plan. I even ordered some of the suggested supplemental reading materials. I encourage anyone over 50 to read this book. You'll be glad you did!

While I found this book useful, I thought the title was kind of misleading. There is really nothing specifically addressing retiring young. In fact, the book will more likely scare you into working to 65+. Also, I sometimes felt like I was reading propoganda material for the financial analyst/management industry. What I walked away with was - work as long as you can stand it then hire as many people as you can afford to help you manage your retirement pot. Granted, not bad advice.

Lastly, just FYI, the book is geared solely to traditional families. Unmarried partners wanting specific advice should look elsewhere. I found this to be kind of surprising for a book published in 2003.

I have worked in the investment business for over 7 years and I have been involved in retirement planning. Too many people have found that investing for retirement has become complex. Mr Netti's book helped me to understand (in easy to understand language) how my plans can be affected by many variables, ie., investment returns, withdrawal rates, longevity, etc. Also, it is important to me to find the right advisors to help me choose and monitor those investments. There are many advisors out there and this book enabled me to determine what type of advisor I need, where to look, how to hire and pay for advice. It will save much time and money as I plan to retire. Since there are no competency or ethical standards regulated under the banking, insurance or securites laws, a book like "Retire Sooner, Retire Richer" helped me to find the right person for me.

"Frank Netti has taken into consideration the many aspects of retirement. In plain English, he has conscisely and forthrightly written a book that makes a must read for current as well as future retirees."
David Elias, principal of Elias Asset Management

"Frank Netti's book is a wake-up call. To his credit he doesn't downplay the compexities of planning and living a decent retirement in contemporay America. Instead he makes complexity eminently readable. This wise, honest, and instuctive book makes a loud case for finding and partnering with a professional advisor."
Barbara Levin, Director, Fourm for Investor Advice

"In his book, Retire Sooner, Retire Richer, Frank Netti offers 23 investment proverbs to guide the reader in planning a secure retirement. These are the 23 best tips to enjoying your retirement years, and his book offers countless more insights to sound money management. Read this book and take heed, without careful planning, there's trouble ahead."
Christopher L. Davis, Executive Director, Money Management Institute