The success — or failure — of your financial retirement strategy depends solely on your own actions. If that assessment of today’s employment reality just sent shivers straight down to your toes, Ric Edelman’s latest book, The Truth About Retirement Plans & IRAs, can help you rethink your approach.
Edelman is an investment adviser, radio host and author of seven previous books. His newest book provides detailed information on your many options for retirement plans, the ways to invest your retirement portfolio, how to handle distributions after retirement and even what to look out for before dividing up assets in the event of a divorce. There’s also an enlightening riff on the surprising effect the media has on our retirement-planning choices.
I liked Edelman’s message that it’s possible for each of us to create a solid retirement plan on our own, even as pensions and the Social Security system change or pay out much less in the future. He emphasizes just how important it is for each of us to take control of our own retirement planning even if we still think our employer will provide for us later.
Still more encouraging is the author’s belief that this planning process can be a lot less trouble than we might assume. “If you want a financially secure and comfortable retirement,” he says, “it’s up to you to create it, and it’s much easier than you might think.”
The book’s 36 Key Take-Aways, a cheat sheet of Edelman’s most essential advice, makes the book especially worthwhile. If you’re worried you won’t have enough time to finish the entire book (trust me, though, it’s a fast read) or you’re looking for a quick way to figure out what you most need to know, these points combined with the additional Q&A section in the back of the book serve up the answers to all those questions Edelman hears most often.
Read The Truth About Retirement Plans & IRAs if you want retirement planning advice that matches your specific financial situation and you’re either not ready to meet with a financial planner or are committed to investing on your own.
