You're fifty-- now what? Investing for the second half of your life

Review by Booklist Review

The first of the year is always a popular time for books about financial planning, physical fitness, and diet because of the many persons who have resolved to improve their lives or make a fresh start in the upcoming year. Here are three new guides by veteran financial advisors to help those who have set such goals. Chatzky regularly appears on NBC's Today show, writes a column for Money magazine, and is the author of The Rich and Famous Money Book: Investment Strategies of Leading Celebrities (1997). Her book targets those who want to take control of their finances but do not know how or where to begin. The key, says Chatzky, is to be able to talk about one's financial situation, and she helps get the conversation rolling. She "talks" about setting goals, handling or avoiding debt, saving, investing safely, investing for retirement and for education, insurance, estate planning, real estate, and spending. She also encourages discussions with financial planners and counselors and with one's family and friends. Chatzky poses sets of questions throughout to help stimulate the dialogue. Pollan and Levine have collaborated on 15 books, most notably Die Broke: A Radical, 4-Part Financial Plan for When the Conventional Wisdom No Longer Works (1998), where they advised readers to pay cash, to live well, not to retire, and to die broke. Their unconventional, underlying assertion was that one's job is not about the work but about the money. Pollan is a New York City financial consultant who identifies his clients as well-off baby boomers "who live in apartment buildings with doormen" and "take vacations to Europe or St. Bart's." It is this group the pair now aims for with this encyclopedic collection of legal, financial, career, business, and consumer tips. After reiterating their basic philosophy, they spell out their recommendations on an assortment of about 250 topics that include adoption, automobile leases, business cards, Keogh plans, margin loans, travel insurance, yard sales, and zero-coupon bonds. Schwab's brokerage firm played a major role in revolutionizing personal investing; his most recent book is the eponymous Guide to Financial Independence: Simple Solutions for Busy People (1998). His focus now is on the rapidly growing segment of the population that is 50 and older. Schwab's basic premise is that one's investment strategy and goals should change as one gets older but also that traditional advice given to those approaching retirement no longer applies. This, he suggests, is because "boomers" are living longer and spending more time in retirement. Schwab explains how to apply his basic six-part investment strategy and recommends ways to put one's "house in order" with insurance, estate planning, and charitable giving. A comprehensive appendix includes checklists, worksheets, tables, guides to Medicare and health insurance, and a helpful glossary. --David Rouse

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.

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Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Founder and chairman of a famous international brokerage, Schwab offers sound advice on basic personal finance topics faced by boomers and retirees, including estate planning, retirement cash flow and pension plans. The investing sections target inexperienced investors, with definitions of stocks and zero coupons, and worksheets for retirement budgets and portfolio benchmarks. A useful appendix includes advice on reading mutual fund prospectuses and selecting insurance. Schwab's breezy, non-threatening style and advertising backed by his company should ensure high visibility and bestseller list appearances. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

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Review by Library Journal Review

Finances, investments, and estate planning for aging baby boomers. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

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I have a question for you, and it's simply this: How much is enough? It's a tough question, and it's essentially the topic of just about every retirement book, article, or seminar. Everyone's trying to figure out how much they'll need, and all the experts are trying to tell you how to do it. So how much will you need? How much does it take? Will you have enough? How much is enough? Chances are it's more than you think, thanks in part to some good news. We're living longer, for one thing. Today's 50-year-olds are a lot younger than the 50-year-olds of two generations ago. A lot of us will live to be 100. As a result, what we used to call retirement can last 30 or even 40 years. Not only that: we're healthier and therefore more active, so what we used to call our retirement years are a little more costly. And we have less help from the government -- Social Security isn't what it used to be. So while a lot of people think that if they have $300,000 or $400,000 set aside for retirement, they're set for life, they're probably wrong. True, that's a lot of money; chances are that it's a lot more than your parents had. But in reality, it may not be enough. So how much will it take to sustain the lifestyle you're picturing? There are some dangerous estimates out there. One number that's tossed around is 70%, meaning that in retirement you'll need 70% of your current income to live comfortably. That argument seems logical enough: a lot of costs will, after all, go down. If you're not working, you won't commute, you won't have to buy work clothes, and all those other work-related expenses will diminish. But do the costs go down enough to justify a 30% reduction in income? I don't think so. A recent national news story mentioned a 58-year old computer programmer who, when he retired, had heard that 70% estimate, but just had a feeling that it wasn't reliable. Instead he decided that he would need 100% of his pre-retirement income. Yes, he realized, there were costs that would go down -- 401(k) contributions, Medicare and Social Security taxes, commuting and other work-related expenses, for example -- but he suspected that those savings would be more than offset by a whole laundry list of other expenses: medical care, travel and entertainment, eating out. Many people have the same concerns. There are plenty of medical expenses for even healthy retirees, things that aren't covered by Medicare: prescription drugs, dental care, hearing aids, eye care. The house and car will still need maintenance, and it's common for retirees to find they can't or don't want to do as much of the work themselves, which means the added cost of hiring someone else to do work you used to do yourself. And a lot of retiring baby boomers are finding themselves part of the "sandwich generation." Retirement isn't their only financial concern; aging parents and the kids' college tuition? -- hings that used to be almost mutually exclusive -- are concerns as well. To say that things have changed is putting it mildly, and retirement is at the top of that list. When all is said and done, a lot of people are finding that once they've looked carefully at the costs of retirement, the expenses are significant enough to warrant revising their master plan. They're thinking about working longer, or investing a little more each month. In short, if retirement has changed, then planning for retirement has to change as well. It's time to revise our assumptions and our plans. It's time for something new. Excerpted from You're Fifty--Now What?: Investing for the Second Half of Your Life by Charles R. Schwab All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.

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