The Ultimate Retirement Guide for 50+: Winning Strategies to Make Your Money Last a Lifetime by Suze Orman is a great book full of timely information. I borrowed it from my online library app and finished it in two days!
Having turned 50 last Christmas, I have to admit my thoughts have turned to retirement a time or two. Not that I have any intention of retiring soon, but the topic is on my radar now more than it was before. I don’t feel that I have done a super job at preparing for it up to now, so I was afraid that this book would just make me feel inadequate and hopeless. But Orman approaches the subject without being heavy-handed or berating anyone for choices they have made so far.
The book is well-organized, moving through chapters about family and working years on to ones covering your transition into retirement and beyond. In most chapters, she gives some information and then lists out her recommended action points in bullets before going into detail on each one. At the end of that discussion, she provides a recap of the main points from the chapter. I found it very easy to read and follow what she was saying.
Some of the highlights for me were:
- How to help your kids and parents without sabotaging your retirement
- Changes to make while you’re still working that will give you a boost
- Discussion about housing options and costs
- A thorough explanation of how Social Security, Medicare, and pensions work
- Managing your money for the long-haul
Other chapters focused on investing, including a good discussion about bonds, finding a financial advisor, and getting your documents in order, of which I have only completed a will.
Overall, I enjoyed her writing style and appreciated her personal stories illustrating the points she was making. I would highly recommend this book to anyone wanting to focus on the area of retirement planning.
In So Many Words 