Customer Reviews

Retirement Bible

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Introduction. Aiming to be a one-stop source for all things retirement related, the Retirement Bible largely succeeds in accomplishing its goal. Presenting sound and authoritative advice in a well-organized package, the book is appropriate for anyone at any age who is interested in planning for that important yet often neglected milestone in life: retirement.

Traditional retirement plans. The book begins by covering the media-ignored pair consisting of Social Security and pension plans. Despite the chapter title of "Gambling on Social Security," the author takes an overall optimistic perspective on the matter, arguing that the system will still be around a century from now due to political forces. That being said, the recommendation is wisely made that the rising generation's "best strategy is to plan for less." On the subject of pensions, the author chastises the media for rarely mentioning the topic, even though almost half of private-sector workers still have them.

Finding expert advice. The book next presents--in rather excruciating detail--a full three chapters on locating and using financial experts of various kinds. While the information is essentially useful, I felt the subject could have been covered in a single, pithy chapter. However, the author presented a well-formulated case for taking advantage of the experts. For most services, the author's apparent bias is toward the CFP designation, and fee-only planners are recommended.

Common retirement vehicles. With a solid foundation to build upon, the retirement vehicles themselves are introduced, starting with 401(k)s. I particularly enjoyed the section titled "The Six Worst 401(k) Mistakes." It presented in no uncertain terms the landmines that can explode in one's face when dealing with this common retirement plan. Additionally, a great review was provided of the standards that a high quality 401(k) should meet.

When it came to IRAs, I felt the author assumed too much foreknowledge on the part of her readers. She talked a great deal about IRAs but never quite said what they are. Likewise, the explanation of IRA rollovers was given too early and was confusing. I also found the separate chapter solely devoted to inherited IRAs to be unnecessary, overly specialized, and ultimately fruitless.

Stocks and mutual funds. The Retirement Bible beautifully explains stock picking and its related jargon. It is mildly conservative and declares that market timing is a waste of time. In short, the advice is to "Buy and Hold and Hold and Hold." In one of the author's shining moments, she gives the best explanation I have ever read of how economic factors like interest rates and inflation affect the stock market. She further acknowledges that individual stock investing is not for everyone; nevertheless, thoughtful advice is provided on creating a balanced portfolio this way.

As one thus might guess, the author raves about mutual funds. In particular, she expounds upon the virtues of index funds many times throughout the book. Mutual funds and other investments with high expense ratios are her greatest enemy, it seems, and on their heels are unnecessary taxes.

Bonds. This area has always confused me, and the Retirement Bible was perfect on this point. It began at the ground level, stating that "a bond is an IOU." The book pointed out that guessing interest rate movements is essentially pointless and recommended laddering bonds. Rather than being content to leave bonds as the only fixed-income investment to choose from, the author also wisely discussed alternatives.

Withdrawal tactics. In a smart move, the author sets up realistic expectations for her readers in saying that many assumptions must be made in planning for cashing in one's retirement funds. Unfortunately, to mitigate the uncertainty of retirement planning she goes overboard in repeatedly extolling the virtues of Monte Carlo simulations at least three times throughout the book.

General comments. As alluded to above, the author's overall approach to investing is to be risk averse without being overly constrained. "Trying to outsmart the market is futile," she proclaims. While the subject is certainly debatable, I for one concur with her feelings. Likewise, I agree with the constant touting of index funds as the major core of a person's portfolio; I will follow this advice.

Despite the reality that the author does "take sides" in certain instances, one of the Retirement Bible's strongest points is its simple and unbiased approach. In fact, the constant barrage of "Advantages of..." and "Disadvantages of..." sections almost becomes a cliché as one nears the book's end.

As also mentioned earlier, the author sometimes assumes too much foreknowledge of her readers. In the chapter called "A Primer on Trusts," for example, the fundamental definition of the term trust is never provided. Additionally, some terminology is simply used in a confusing manner. The terms bond and fixed-income investment are frequently used as synonyms even after the author has just finished explaining how utilities, convertible securities, preferred stock, and REITs are types of fixed-income investments.

Another interesting quirk I noticed about the book is a slight but noticeable bias toward recommending certain companies over and over. Specifically, these were Vanguard, Fidelity, and T. Rowe Price. While the ostensible reason for this practice is that these institutions are low-cost leaders in their field, I still found myself getting the feeling at times that other companies out there had to be offering some useful services, as well.

Finally, the most major suggestion I would make to the author is to include a chapter that "ties things together," so to speak. At times, one feels as if stocks, funds, bonds, IRAs, 401(k)s, and the like are being discussed within a vacuum. I would have greatly enjoyed a chapter that brought the concepts together in a more meaningful manner than what is already provided.

Conclusion. Though not a perfect book, the Retirement Bible for the most part lives up to its name. It covers a wide range of subjects while presenting simple, easy-to-follow advice that likely fits well with the risk profile of the average investor. It is, therefore, a fitting bible for retirement planning.

LYNN O'SHAUGHNESSY is a terrific wirter who has written a book that combines remarkable readability with comprehensive coverage of financial aspects of retirement. As in her prior book THE UNOFFICIAL GUIDE TO INVESTING and her most recent book THE INVESTING BIBLE, she puts her journalist's skills to good use having thoroughly researched this subject and written for a spectrum of readers ranging from those first approaching the subject to those already quite sophisticated.

While lots of others have written about calculating how much you need to have (or to save) for retiremeent and about stocks, bonds, and mutual funds, she covers these beautifully but also covers oft neglected topics: finding the right financial experts, investing and spending strategies during retirement, a nice introduction to estate planning and trusts, managing the family dynamics of inheritance, and the role of charitable giving in retirement income and estate planning. She has also included a thorough and well researched "resource guide" listing by topics the best of names, addresses, phone numbers, and website addresses for further help and study.

Just how good is this book? Good enough that we've given it as a present to good friends who also hope to one day retire comfortably.

This book truly is one of the most comprehensive books on retirement I have ever read. The book is written in an easy-to-read format and helps make complicated areas more palpable to absorb. Areas of great information include, managing your cash flow in retirement (The "Trinity Study", very interesting,) strategies for 401(k) and IRA Rollovers and the implications of certain actions. If you are saving for retirement, nearing retirement, or in retirement, I would keep this book around as a reference. The book does need to be updated for the changes to the Required Min. Dist Rules. Other than that, a great book!

Finally a book for me! While the Retirement Bible is written for all ages, I appreciate the speciic advice for retirees like myself. I particularly liked the chapter that's devoted to investing strategies for those already in retirement. Usually the books I've seen at the store assume that you've got 25 or 30 years to save. I wish! The book has also motivated me to revise my estate plans. The chapter on inherited IRAs made me worry that I may inadvertantly shortchange my kids if I don't get my act together.

I bought this book after hearing Lynn O'Shaughnessy speak up in the Bay Area and I'm very glad I did. I've been able to find the answers to all sorts of questions I had about retirement, including what I should do with my 401(k) when I leave my company shortly. I was pleasantly surprised to find chapters in the back of the book on estate planning, trusts and philanthropic giving. I've been putting off finding a lawyer to draw up an estate plan, but thanks to the book I now know how to locate a truly qualified attorney in my area. I predict this book will become a classic.

Lynn O'Shaughnessy makes retirement a far less scary place to go. A superb reporter and now author of financial planning books, O'Shaughnessy's care in demystifying current tax rules, estate planning, trusts, gift anuities, and all the other information so crucial to your future when you say adios to the working world makes this a must-have guide. O'Shaughnessy writes readable stuff -- and her research is impeccable. You won't mind getting older quite so much with O'Shaughnessy at your financial elbow. This is a great book!

I was impressed with this book and give it an A. O'Shaughnessy's investment advice is excellent and the writing style is very easy to read.

This is one of the most comprehensive books on retirement planning and investing I have seen. My hat is off to O'Shaughnessy for putting together such a comprehensive book.

As an experienced investor, I was familiar with most of the material in this book. I did learn that 1974 was the year Congress changed the 403B laws allowing teachers the right to invest in mutual funds. Until that point, teachers were stuck investing in annuities which are high cost and full of penalty fees.

She also does a good job of over-viewing the many types of trusts. She explains the different types of trusts in "English" the regular person can understand, versus legalese.

I was disappointed in the lack of material on asset allocation. There is some simple charts on risks associated with portfolios made up of various mixtures of stocks and bonds. There is very little material covering the various types of asset classes, their correlation with each other, how these correlations change over time, and how to decrease risk using combinations of asset classes. This book was written in 2000, and at that time asset allocation was not yet a popular subject with investors.

Also since the book was written in 2000, before the 3 year stock market crash after the Tech Bubble, she paints stock market investing with a relatively rosy picture.

She does a very good job of sprinkling "buyer beware" alarms throughout the book. Some of these include high cost annuities, sales people pushing annuities to teachers in 403B's versus mutual funds, commissioned brokers who sell products that benefit them and not you, risks of early retirement buyouts, and insurance salesman with magic solutions for single versus dual life retirement pension payouts.

All-in-all, a great book for investors on how to plan for retirement. Some of her "buyer beware" alarms could easy pay for the cost of this book many times over.

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

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 just love this book. Other books on retirement just seem so shallow. This one is truly comprehensive, and it is written in a way that I understand! The part that sold me was in the acknowledgements, when the author jokes that this book is big enough to be a lethal weapon. The Retirement Bible is the perfect resource for anybody who dreams about retiring someday, which should cover just about everybody. And Lynn O'Shaughnessy certainly has a way with words.

Lynn O'Shaughnessy has written two books, 'The Investing Bible' and 'The Retirement Bible,' that complement each other and provide the reader with all of the vital information necessary for making sound financial decisions. The books are written with such clarity and consistency that I have discarded five others on similar subjects because they could not compare with these. I've given copies of both books to my daughter who has joined a surgery practice and needs to become more financially astute. I hope the author will update these two superb texts periodically.

Like a lot of people, I hate spending time managing my money. Lately it's been too painful even to think about. But I'm glad a fellow teacher at my grade school told me about the Retirement Bible. It's the first book I've seen that actually explains how to make the best choices in a 403(b)plan - the retirement plan for teachers and non-profit employees. I learned that my investment choices were mediocre and that I was paying way too much money for them. I'm in the process of switching my money to Vanguard, one of the ideas from the book. I'm also lending the book to my parents because it has a lot in it about investing strategies even during retirement.