The Retirement Catch-Up Guide: 54 Real-Life Lessons to Boost Your Retirement Resources Now! [Hardcover]

Ellen Hoffman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 2000

Easy-to-read, easy-to-follow successful strategies that baby boomers and seniors have taken to get their retirement saving and planning up to speed, so that you too can catch-up before it's too late-from the author of Bankroll Your Future. 76% of "pre-retirees" do not feel "very confident" about having enough money for retirement, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute. 46% of Americans-including those aged 51 to 61-have saved less than $10,000 for retirement, according to a Public Agenda Study, which also says that a worker who earns $35,000 a year for 35 years will be able to replace only 65% of his income with pension and Social Security benefits. For the millions of Americans who have put off planning and saving for retirement, financial writer Ellen Hoffman relates 54 real-life success stories so that readers can get some ideas about what they can do to catch up right now, without a calculator, no matter what their financial resources. Designed in a very readable, very accessible format, without resorting to abstract charts and financial formulas, The Retirement Catch-Up Guide reveals how finding a "lost" pension, creating a retirement vision, setting up a reverse mortgage or a small business, and dozens of other strategies can help late starters build their retirement assets.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Baby boomers and seniors can glean useful tips and strategies for lost time in this readable guide to financial security. -- Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Cecil Johnson, 11 September 2000

Compact, yet comprehensive enough to cover all the basics in retirement planning or retirement rescuing. -- Contra-Costa Times, Mary Moorhead, 29 July 2000

Easy reading...Most of the advice is top-rate, solid, and original... -- USA Today, Kerry Hannon, 28 August 2000

Hoffman offers tested strategies for beginning to make up the gap [preparing for retirement]. -- BookPage, August 2000

If you haven't started saving yet for retirement, this book will help you find the incentive to do so. -- Ric Edelman, Edelman Financial Center

One of the most realistic finance writers around. -- Dallas Morning News, Mike Maza, 22 August 2000

This book offers great advice for baby boomers and anyone else concerned with retirement planning. -- Senator Chuck Grassley, Chairman, Senate Special Committee on Aging

[F]illed with common-sense advice, countless resources, and personal anecdotes that make the task of planning for retirement much less daunting. -- Don Blandin, President, American Savings Education Council

About the Author

Ellen Hoffman is a contributor to Business Week, Reader's Digest's New Choices for Better Living After Fifty, Modern Maturity, and other national magazines. She has appeared on CNBC, Fox, and other network and radio shows and is a popular seminar and workshop presenter. Hoffman has served on the staff of the US Senate, where one of her specialties was issues affecting the elderly. The author of Bankroll Your Future: How to Get the Most from the Government for Your Retirement Years, Hoffman lives in the Washington DC area.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Newmarket Press; 1 edition (August 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1557044112
• ISBN-13: 978-1557044112
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,060,696 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Nothing New Here -- Disappointing, July 31, 2000

By 

Charlotte - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Retirement Catch-Up Guide: 54 Real-Life Lessons to Boost Your Retirement Resources Now! (Hardcover)

I bought this book hoping to get some new advice on how to make up for lost time. Instead this book just recycles old money advice that I've read many, many, many places before. The author even steals from her older books. If you want more up to date retirement saving advice that will help you catch up, check out one of the web sites run by financial services companies or ABCNEWS.COM or CNBC.COM.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Life Saver for the Baby Boomers, September 20, 2000

By 

MARTHA PRIDDY PATTERSON (CHEVY CHASE, MD USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Retirement Catch-Up Guide: 54 Real-Life Lessons to Boost Your Retirement Resources Now! (Hardcover)

Ellen Hoffman again has provided a realistic and useful book on retirement planning for someone of any age. As a person who works every day on retirement plan issues for plan sponsors and as the author of The New Working Woman's Guide to Retirement Planning, I read a great deal on this issue from both technical and lay sources. Ms. Hoffman is among the best in providing clear, understandable guidance using very typical situations common to individuals at every life stage. She offers practical ways to catch up on retirement saving. She is a deft writer who makes the issues both interesting and informative.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "User friendly", comprehensive, realiable guide., January 4, 2001

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Retirement Catch-Up Guide: 54 Real-Life Lessons to Boost Your Retirement Resources Now! (Hardcover)

The Retirement Catch-Up Guide offers fifty-four lessons drawn from real-life experiences and conditions to boost the development of future financial resources for retirement. Especially appropriate for those who are coming late to planning for the retirement, Ellen Hoffman offers an invaluable, practical, and workable compendium of sound advice on all aspects and every stage of financial planning for retirement. Beginning with a thorough examination of all retirement resources, she then covers making a plan, readjusting the plan (including such happenstances as delaying retirement, starting a new career or business, etc.); downsizing present lifestyles to increase savings; making the most of home equity; learning to be a successful saver and investor; and monitoring retirement resources. The Retirement Catch-Up Guide is very highly recommended, "user friendly", comprehensive, reliable, and invaluable reading for anyone wanting a financial secure and adequate standard-of-living retirement.