The Bogleheads’ Guide to Retirement Planning
The Bogleheads are back-with retirement planning advice for those who need it! Whatever your current financial situation, you must continue to strive for a viable retirement plan by finding the most effective ways to save, the best accounts to save in, and the right amount to save, as well as understanding how to insure against setbacks and handle the uncertainties of a shaky economy. Fortunately, the Bogleheads-a group of like-minded individual investors who follow the general investment and business beliefs of John C. Bogle, founder and former CEO of the Vanguard Group-are here to help. Filled with valuable advice on a wide range of retirement planning issues-including some pearls of wisdom from Bogle himself-The Bogleheads’ Guide to Retirement PlanningExplains the different types of savings accounts and retirement plans Offers insights on managing and funding your retirement accounts Details efficient withdrawal strategies that could help you…
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It seems one of the first requirements to post a review here would be to read the book first.
I just finished reading the entire book and I can honestly say, it is a wealth of information in a concise and easy to read format.
IMHO, Every one involved should take a huge bow for the effort. For someone who will be considering planning for retirement, this is a straightforward and practical method to use in your planning. Each author lays it out in plain language, with explanations and links to pursue more detailed information.
As an early retiree, I particularly found the chapters on Social Security, Early Retirement and especially, Estate Planning and Taxes to be most useful for my situation. Perhaps many of these chapters will contain references to areas of retirement planning that have been visited from time to time in other periodicals and books. The real value of “The Bogleheads” Guide to Retirement Planning” to me is the fact that almost every area of planning is here in one remarkable book.
As we say in the Navy…Well Done!
The strongest features of this book are its truly exceptional breadth and completeness of coverage, and its level-headed neutrality. This book will protect you from blind spots, from overlooking things, and from the salesperson who wants you to focus on _which_ confrabulated glommis to buy, and not on _whether_ you need a confrabulated glommis at all. Buy this one book and you’ve got a solid basic reference for _everything_.
I wish I’d had this book a few years ago when I was planning for retirement. I browsed the bookstores and the library. I found dozens of books with “retirement” in the title, but all of them seemed to be focussed on accumulation for retirement, and on mutual fund investing. A subject like “social security” might get a one-page once over. Long-term care insurance might not be mentioned at all, or would say little more than “It exists; consider it.”
You can see the breadth of coverage yourself from the table of contents (use “Click To Look Inside”). What other book on retirement discusses “Divorce and Oher Financial Disasters?” An exceptional chapter on “Seeking Help from Professionals” explains differences between all the various people who call themselves “financial advisors,” and the importance of knowing whether the relationship is or is not a fiduciary relationship.
What’s not as obvious at a quick glance is how neutral and balanced the book is. Much of it is written by people who learned about products by buying them rather than by selling them. The whole balance and tone is totally different from the typical money magazine article. For example, the chapter on life insurance is the most informative and even-handed discussion of term versus whole life I’ve ever seen.
The strength of this book is in pointing out options, explaining differences, and avoiding a Swiss cheese approach to retirement planning. Its biggest weakness is in helping you actually make your decisions. It is relatively light on things like worksheets, on step-by-step how-tos, on specific do-this guidance. And it feels to me more like a reference than an easy read. Probably the best use of this book is open at one side, with the product literature for some product you’re considering at the other side… or as background reading to do before meeting with that insurance agent.
Disclosure: I’m not a listed author of the book, but I wrote one of the chapters. Amazon should make the appropriate judgement call based on their review policies.
How do you judge financial advice? Do you trust professionals or rely on the word of mouth? Do you want DIY or plan to engage an adviser? As always, it all depends.
The beauty of this book is that it combines all of the above. Some of the authors are professional advisers, whereas others are highly educated and knowledgeable amateurs. The book can serve as a guide for your own planning, or it can be used to understand the service your adviser provides to you.
And, please, do not underestimate amateurs! I use this word to mean “A person who engages in an art, science, study, or athletic activity as a pastime rather than as a profession.” While some authors do not do finance professionally, they are executives, medical doctors (MD), scientists, mathematicians, engineers, and other professionals who are passionate about personal finance. They applied their extensive skills to provide a comprehensive and coordinated analysis of some of the most complex issues in personal finance and brought it to you in this book.
You have heard that the Wall Street hires “rocket scientists” to do finance. In practice, it means that physicists, mathematicians, electrical engineers, computer scientists, and others bring their analytical skills to the financial industry and use their talents to create financial products. While I don’t advocate many of those products, my point is that the authors of this book are your personal rocket scientists!
I would also like to comment on the DYI part. There is frequently a conflict between simple things that you can do yourself and that are good for you, and complex things serving a similar function that others are selling to you. You can have a free glass of water or you can pay for a designer drink. You can go for a walk or you can sign up for an expensive gym. You can have a support circle of family and friends, or you can pay somebody to entertain you or to listen to you. You can take cholesterol lowering medications, or you can control your cholesterol with diet and exercise (as many doctors recommend, depending on one’s medical condition). While there are never clear “rights” and “wrongs”, no strict “blacks” and “whites,” in many cases free options are superior to expensive ones. The adage that there is no free lunch was invented by those who had something to sell.
This book teaches you how to get superior financial life at the lowest cost.
It is your task to sift through the marketing hype and hundreds of books on Amazon.com and in brick-and-mortar bookstores. If you are reading thus far, you have already done most of the hard work of finding what I consider one of the greatest resources on personal finance. Please do a couple more things. Read these reviews philosophically, consider which ones are the closest to your own philosophy of personal finance and other important personal decisions. And then check out the Bogleheads Forum (it’s easy to find by Googling).
My advice:
Buy this book if you don’t have it. Give this book to your friends and family if you want them to put their financial life in order.