Spend 'Til the End: The Revolutionary Guide to Raising Your Living Standard--Today and When You Retire
by Laurence J. Kotlikoff, Scott Burns
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Book Summary Information
Author: Laurence J. Kotlikoff, Scott BurnsEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2008-06-10
ISBN: 1416548904
Number of pages: 336
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
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Book Reviews of Spend 'Til the End: The Revolutionary Guide to Raising Your Living Standard--Today and When You Retire
Book Review: Engaging and Comprehensible on one of the World's Driest Subjects: Retirement Planning
Summary: 5 Stars
Financial advice books in the past have left me with a vague notion that I need to save one million dollars before I retire, and by then I guess I'll know how to manage it. "Spend 'til The End" is much more in-depth and comprehensible. The initial chapters were so engaging that by the time the authors got to the nitty gritty, I was hooked, and willing to spend some time with them, going over retirement planning point by point.
Several concepts stand out and have given me a base for further research.
1.) I assumed Medicare premiums to be nominal payments drastically reduced to fit into old folks' budgets. This is a grossly false assumption on my part. Actually, Medicare premiums are rising so much faster than inflation that they are going to represent a hefty chunk of change when my own retirement rolls around.
2.)Social Security benefits vary according to the age when you begin taking it. Previously, I had only a hazy idea that I needed to seriously consider at what age I might retire. Now I realize that age of retirement could have a direct correlation to my standard of living.
3.) I must seriously ask myself, "Am I really going to spend less in retirement?" Conventional advice says that you have only to replace 60-80% of your current income. The thing is, with all of that free time, am I really going to spend less money? Or am I going to want to participate in activities that must be funded, like socializing at nice restaurants with my old geezer friends, or traveling with my aged husband to all of the places we couldn't afford in youth?
4.) Past generations only thought they would be retired a few years before death. Greater numbers of people are living to ages 90 or above, meaning you have to plan to live 30 or more years into retirement. Living longer creates a need for better planning and more precise estimates of monthly income and taxes. My complacent notion that I will figure it all out when it rolls around could literally be the death of me if my lack of planning leaves me unable to pay for food or medications!
Additionally, the authors add their voices to the growing number of financial advisors who are building the case for the use of no load/low cost index funds as the primary vehicles of retirement investment. Commonly held assumptions about mutual fund accounts are questioned along with the popular dictum to strategize your asset allocation by your age.
On the debit side, in order to check some of their calculations you would need a copy of the esplanner, which they developed, and constantly refer to in the book, but which you have to purchase for around $150.00 online. Also, calculations are written in an unwieldy paragraph form. Calculations would be more quickly grasped if they were line-itemed in a workbook format. However, even though I have to take their calculations at face value, I must give the book high ranking due to the authors ability to make engaging,thought-provoking and comprehensible, one of the driest subjects in the world. Now I am giving serious thought to issues I previously dismissed, which I imagine is the whole point of the book.
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