As you think about retirement, you’ve got facts to face, planning to do, decisions to make and numbers to crunch. With the experts at The Wall Street Journal to guide you, you’ll learn how to tailor a financial plan for the lifestyle you want. • Answers your biggest question—How big does my nest egg need to be?—by linking it to your particular hopes for how you want to spend your days in retirement • Shows how to translate your dreams and interests into daily activities, whether traveling, opening a business, volunteering or going back to school • Provides a timeline for decisions to make and steps to take ten years, five years and one year before you retire • Offers tips on investing wisely and working with the right financial adviser • Tells you how to maximize your benefits from Social Security and Medicare • Guides you through the intricacies of 401(k)s, IRAs, annuities and other financial tools and resources Today, the average person can expect to spend two decades in retirement—why leave it to chance? For all of its changes and challenges, a well-planned retirement could very well be the best part of your life.

Follow the advice in The Smartest Retirement Book You'll Ever Read and you will: Find simple strategies to maximize your retirement nest egg Steer clear of scams that rob you of your hard-earned savings Ensure that your money lasts longer than you do Avoid the common mistakes that can leave your spouse impoverished Discover financial lifelines no matter how desperate the economy "If you want a handy guide that provides information in small chunks, Solin's book is it." -Newark Star-Ledger

A first of its kind, Mapping Your Retirement is a step-by step, hands-on guide and workbook based on your values, interests, and resources. Representing the research and knowledge of 15 contributors with extensive backgrounds in their fields of expertise, Mapping Your Retirement focuses on three key components: maintaining your health, managing your money, and living life fully. One of 77 million baby boomers reaches 50 every 7 seconds. Studies show that most people do not plan sufficiently for retirement. Those who do often reduce the plan to numbers: How much should I save? Will it be enough? But finances are only one part of the equation. Having purpose in life, doing what matters, nurturing rewarding relationships, maintaining your health, and contributing to something larger than the self are just as essential.

Clients nearing retirement have some significant challenges to face. And so do their advisers. They can expect to live far longer after they retire. And the problems they expect their advisers to solve are far more complex. The traditional sources of retirement income may be shriveling, but boomers don't intend to downsize their plans. Instead, they're redefining what it means to be retired—as well as what they require of financial advisers. Planners who aren't prepared will be left behind. Those who are will step up to some lucrative and challenging work. To help get the work done, Harold Evensky and Deena Katz—both veteran problem solvers—have tapped the talents of a range of experts whose breakthrough thinking offers solutions to even the thorniest issues in retirement-income planning: Sustainable withdrawals Longevity risk Eliminating luck as a factor in planning Immediate annuities, reverse mortgages, and viatical and life settlements Strategies for increasing retirement cash flow In Retirement Income Redesigned, the most-respected names in the industry discuss these issues and a range of others.

You're in Control of Your Retirement Future Inside are twenty major financial decisions that could profoundly impact your lifestyle over the next forty years. For many retirees, these decisions come as a surprise and must be made hastily without proper consultation. But by reading the expert, commission-free advice in this fully revised and updated edition, you'll learn how to manage your assets and prepare for the best possible retirement. Do I have enough money to retire now? How will I cover my medical expenses during retirement? When should I begin taking Social Security? How much should I invest in stocks, bonds, and cash? What criteria should I use to identify the best investments? Should I cancel my life insurance policy? Should I pay off my mortgage at retirement?

The Bogleheads are back-with retirement planning advice for those who need it! Whatever your current financial situation, you must continue to strive for a viable retirement plan by finding the most effective ways to save, the best accounts to save in, and the right amount to save, as well as understanding how to insure against setbacks and handle the uncertainties of a shaky economy. Fortunately, the Bogleheads, a group of like-minded individual investors who follow the general investment and business beliefs of John C. Bogle, are here to help. Filled with valuable advice on a wide range of retirement planning issues, including some pearls of wisdom from Bogle himself, The Bogleheads' Guide to Retirement Planning has everything you need to succeed at this endeavor. Explains the different types of savings accounts and retirement plans Offers insights on managing and funding your retirement accounts Details efficient withdrawal strategies that could help you maintain a comfortable retirement lifestyle Addresses essential estate planning and gifting issues With The Bogleheads' Guide to Retirement Planning, you'll discover exactly what it takes to secure your financial future, today.

Your Next Chapter: A Woman's Guide To A Successful Retirement You are on the threshold of Your Next Chapter. Hopefully, it will be an exciting and satisfying one. This book will help you navigate the unfamiliar waters on both an emotional and financial level. Written by women for women, Your Next Chapter focuses on the issues you need to address so you can have a sustainable and rewarding future. YOUR NEXT CHAPTER provides important information to help you make the necessary decisions you now face. To illustrate these concerns, the authors present detailed scenarios of four hypothetical women in various situations in different geographic locations as they approach retirement. Among the topics examined: - What retirement means for you - How you should revise your investment and estate plans - How your emotional and physical health will be impacted by retirement - Why your planning should be flexible and adaptable as your needs and desires change

"This is a much needed guide to the psychological aspects of retirementand how to make your retirement relationship happy, fruitful, loving, and successful ... drawing from actual accounts of retired couples this book: helps you prepare emotionally for the dramatic life changes during retirement; coaches you to find new purposes to your life beyond work; nurtures the relationship with your companion to strengthen your friendship and love; explores sexuality after retirement and how you can enjoy each other as much as you did as a younger couple; recommends strategies to successfully deal with differences around money, time together versus apart, housework, and family relationships. It is crucial that couples prepare themselves and their marriages psychologically for what could very well comprise a quarter of their lives."--Back cover.

How much can you spend in retirement? Naturally, this is an essential question for those approaching this important life transition. Essentially, if you wish to retire one day, you are increasingly responsible for figuring out how to save during your working years and convert your savings into sustainable income for an ever-lengthening number of retirement years. The nature of risk also changes in retirement, as the lifestyle of retirees become more vulnerable to the impacts of market volatility, unknown longevity, and spending shocks. Retirees have one opportunity to build a successful plan. It is not an easy task, but it is manageable. This book focuses on sustainable spending from investments, which is an important piece of any retirement plan. People want to know if they have saved enough to be able to fund their lifestyle in retirement. In this book, I explain the findings of a large body of financial planning research regarding sustainable spending from investment portfolios in the face of a variety of retirement risks. That body of research tends to begin with the 4 percent rule of thumb for retirement spending. I explain how and why it was developed, what it means, and when it may or may not be appropriate for retirees. William Bengen''s 1994 study gave us the concept of the SAFEMAX, which is the highest sustainable spending rate from the worst-case scenario observed in the US historical data. The Trinity study added portfolio success rates from the historical data for different spending strategies. Both studies suggest that for a thirty-year retirement period, a 4 percent inflation-adjusted withdrawal rate using a 50-75 percent stock allocation should be reasonably safe. I have reservations about the 4 percent rule. It may be too aggressive for current retirees for reasons including increasing longevity, historically low interest rates coupled with higher than average stock market valuations, the impact of the international experience with the 4 percent rule casting a different light than 20th century US historical data, the need to maintain a rather aggressive asset allocation to have the best shot at success, and because the 4 percent rule assumes that investors do not pay any fees or otherwise underperform the underlying market indices. However, other factors suggest that sustainable spending may be even higher than traditional studies imply. Reasons for this include that actual retirees may tend to reduce their spending with age, that they build more diversified portfolios than used in the basic research studies, that real-world retirees may be willing to adjust spending for realized portfolio performance, and that some retirees may have the capacity and tolerance to accept higher portfolio failure probabilities because they have other sources of income from outside their portfolios. Related to these points, I also analyze nine variable spending strategies for retirees as well as the use of strategies that support short-term spending needs with individual bonds and longer-term spending needs with stocks. Retirees need to weigh the consequences between spending too little and spending too much-that is, being too frugal or running out of assets. This book is about implementing what I call the "probability-based" school of thought for retirement planning. It is especially relevant for people who plan to fund their retirements using an investment portfolio and those who are hesitant about using income annuities or other insurance products. I will explore annuities and insurance more extensively in later volumes since I do believe in the value of risk pooling as an additional source of returns to more efficiently meet retirement spending goals. But for now, we have plenty to discuss within the world of sustainable spending from an investment portfolio in retirement. The book concludes with a discussion about how to put these ideas together into a retirement spending plan.