Whether you are just starting to think about retirement, or you are in retirement already, you have only two jobs:
The first is to make sure you don’t lose what you have. Chances are, if you’re in your 50s or 60s, you now have the most money you’ve ever had in your life. So, you don’t want to lose it and go backwards, or even worse, have to start over.
The second job you have is to make sure your savings last for the rest of your life. When you are working, you get a paycheck. When you stop working, your savings becomes your paycheck. It’s both a blessing and a problem that people are living much longer today. We watch what we eat, exercise more, and with the help of modern medicine, we can live well into our 90s.
My parents lived to age 97 and 95. That’s the blessing. The problem is that now our savings have to last just as long as we do! So, if you retire at age 65, there’s a better than average chance that your savings will need to last 25 years or longer. Think back 25 years ago – would the amount of money you had then last for the rest of your life? Most likely not.
To help you to prepare and become educated for retirement, I suggest you take a look at the following five books. They’ll help you better understand what challenges may lie ahead, and what you can do to add some peace of mind to your retirement decisions.
1. Stress-Free Retirement
Patrick Kelly
A comprehensive guide to retirement by award-winning author, Patrick Kelly. This book will show you strategies to protect your life’s savings against loss, how to create an income stream you can never outlive, ways to receive unlimited upside gain potential with zero risk of loss and many more helpful strategies for retirees or those about to retire. This is a must read.
2. The New Rules of Retirement Savings
Martin Ruby
Too many savers are operating under an old set of rules – rules that were created and tested decades ago for conditions that no longer exist today. In this book, Martin Ruby, an actuary and mathematics specialist, has given us a guidebook to the risks that face the savers of today, and the new rules you can use to overcome them.
3. The Power of Zero
David McKnight
The Power of Zero is a valuable roadmap for tax-free retirement planning. In this groundbreaking book, David McKnight provides you with a step by step guide on how to get to the 0% tax bracket, effectively eliminating the tax rate risk from your retirement picture. Find out why the 0% tax rate is so effective and powerful when a majority of your retirement is in tax-deferred vehicles like 401(k)s and IRAs.
4. Just Don’t Lose the Money
Richard Rubino & Sam Liang
This book puts managing your finances in retirement within your grasp. Sometimes the many options for what to do with your money can seem overwhelming and the details of putting a retirement plan in place can be overwhelming. This book takes nothing for granted and explains how all the various financial vehicles work and will help you make confident choices and good decisions about your retirement plan.
5. Seven Secrets to a Happy Retirement
Patrick Kelly
In this short but insightful book, Patrick Kelly breaks down other aspects of life that affect us when we retire, such as fitness, sharing lasting memories and gratitude for what we have.
READY FOR RETIREMENT?
While there is no “best way” to plan for retirement, these books will help you as you head to a chapter of life that you’ve never been in before. The mistakes you can avoid now can make all the difference between the retirement you deserve, and the one you have to settle for.
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