Product Description

Your one-stop guide for all you need to know about the ins and outs of planning a successful retirement -- it's never too early to start. Indside the Retirement Bible you'll find:

• How to play the retirement savings game -- putting together and sticking to a retirement check list
• Tips on cutting through the clutter of financial advisors -- your best sources for finding them, the questions to ask them, matching their services with your needs
• The inside scoop on private money managers -- should you hire your own?
• 401K contribution strategies -- getting the 401K you deserve, escaping a potential 401K nightmare, and alternatives for your 401K when you leave a job
• Stock picking 101 -- how stocks measure up, value versus growth, mutual funds, and new alternatives
• Establishing trusts -- ten steps in creating a great trust
• and much, much more!

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #547143 in Books
• Published on: 2001-01-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 566 pages

From the Back Cover
Retire when you want and how you want. Whether you are 25 or 55, Retirement Bible can help you plan for a prosperous retirement. From 401(k)s and IRAs to stocks and bonds, you'll learn tricks to pinpoint high-performing investments, shelter your cash from Uncle Sam, and manage your nest egg so that it will see you through one, two, or even three decades of retirement. No matter where you stand on the retirement timeline, this book spells out the rules, explains your rights, and shows you how to build a future that's financially secure — starting today! Your Complete Guide for a Secure Financial Future

• Calculate how much money you'll need in order to retire
• Take advantage of online retirement tools and advice
• Work with a financial planner
• Manage your 401(k) like a pro
• Understand 403(b)s, 457s, and small business retirement plans
• Learn the essentials about IRAs, estate planning, and trusts
• Select the right stocks, bonds, mutual funds, index funds, and exchange-traded funds
• Develop tax-saving strategies for all your investments

"I am truly astounded by the volume of great information…. I will use suggestions from this book when I update my estate plan and to help structure the most tax-efficient form of distribution from my retirement account." —Ted Benna, President, 401(k) Association, and creator of the first 401(k) "Retirement Bible is the first book in the nation to contain all the new Individual Retirement Account Rules. Just this crucial information alone could be worth a fortune to you and your loved ones.

About the Author
Lynn O’Shaughnessy, the author of The Unofficial Guide to Investing, has been writing about personal finance for nearly a decade. The former Los Angeles Times reporter has contributed countless articles to Mutual Funds Magazine, Bloomberg Personal Finance Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes Magazine’s Web site, and a variety of other magazines and online ventures. She is also a popular guest on Sage Online, a highly successful financial Internet site that has partnered with America Online for many years. Lynn, who graduated with honors from the University of Missouri’s School of Journalism, worked as a reporter for the Los Angeles Times for nearly seven years. She is currently finishing up her third book, The Investing Bible. She lives with her husband and two children in San Diego.

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Customer Reviews

Lives Up to the High Standards of Its Namesake
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.

This book's a winner!
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.

A Great Reference
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!