Ms Bryant is a prominent financial journalist. Here is her guide to retirement. This new book couldn't come at a better time. Planning for retirement is time-consuming and serious business.
She starts the book with questions about the interesting phase of life we call "retirement." After decades of working, we are free, but free to do what? Are we to reinvent ourselves? Is it time again to ask, "Who am I?" P. xi
Almost everybody trims whether they admit it or not. P. xv
The biggest thing is the significance our sense of self as we approach retirement, and the money to find our new significance of our sense of self. P. xv
Now that you can do whatever you want, what do you want to do? Retirement is a challenge. An action plan is needed. P. 1
Whatever your situation, happiness lies in letting go of the past. No one but you can invent your new life. P. 13
Rightsizing your retirement means first of all managing your spending. P. 15
The key is to match your spending with your income. P. 16
Social Security is America's finest retirement plan. P. 34
Like most financial advisers, this author says to wait as longer as possible to start drawing you social security. P. 35
The author quotes an authority from Baylor University who advises that where the husband is slightly older than the wife, he should wait until the wife reaches full retirement age of 66 before drawing his benefits. P. 55
If the husband reaches full-time retirement age and is still working he should start drawing benefits right away. P. 56
Yet the author thinks it's always good to wait if you can. A contradiction? P. 56
Spousal file and suspend. P. 59
On backdating retirement benefits. P. 65
Can you do better by taking SS early and investing the money rather than waiting? Most certainly not. P. 65
How to do a do-over. P. 66
You can get wrong answers from SS personnel! P. 70
The tax implications of SS left me slightly uncertain. P. 73
Will SS go bankrupt? NO! P. 73
Peace of mind is know that you can afford to see a doctor when you are sick. P. 74
The author has a good section on the ins and outs of the ACA. P. 85
Potential problems with Medicare Advantage. P. 107
Don't skimp on health insurance. Be bold about asking about costs. P. 112
It seems that the author is going to defend lifetime annuities. P. 124
The author has page after page on annuities. I skim over this part of the book because I have no intention of purchasing any kind of annuity. P. 159
The virtues of treasury bonds. P. 207
The 4% test on bonds can be met with treasuries, a small set of corporates, and a high quality bond mutual fund. P. 208
The case for continual rebalancing. P. 209
A two-year safety net of short-term bonds? P. 210
Getting by on no withdrawals in the early years would be good. P. 212
The author certainly recommends a high stock allocation than 100 minus your age. P. 213
Advice on which specific assets to draw from. P. 216
Maintain the stock allocation that you start with throughout your life. P. 218
The strategy for gradually increasing your stock allocation as you get older. P. 219
Bucket saving and investing. P. 228
Explaining index funds. P. 236
Types of index funds. P. 237
The author's index recommendations. P. 239
The author gets into the weeds on funds. P. 240
Everything in your portfolio has a purpose. For stocks, it's growth. For bonds, it's ballast. P. 246
Her bond primer. P. 247
The risk of junk bonds. P. 253
She seems to like target-date funds. P. 258
Keep it simple and use low-cost index mutual funds. P. 270
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