20 Retirement Decisions You Need to Make Right Now

by Ray LeVitre

You're in control of Your Retirement Future Inside are twenty major financial decisions which 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 book, you'll learn how to manage your assets and prepare for the best possible retirement. Ray E. LeVitre is a Certified Financial Planner with nearly twenty years of experience in the financial services industry, working for Fidelity, CitiCorp, Mutual of New York, and Merrill Lynch before starting his own firm. He has been featured in the Chicago Tribune, Money magazine, Newsweek, and Kiplinger's. A fee-only advisor, Ray does not receive commission from any product or service he recommends.

Genres: Reference, Nonfiction, Finance, Business

368 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2003

Reviews

[Rick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book with much insite in several areas of preparing for retirement. Not just investment recommendations. I'll need to read this again and particularly go back and look at highlights I made in the Nook. I would recommend this book anyone within 10 years of retirement.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Basic information to consider for retirement. Since this was published some time ago a few details and numbers may be off. (percentage rates and interest) This is a good reference book to look up specific questions or concerns.
While nothing is presented as a must do/ the suggestions are appropriate. The questions brought up are very helpful in making sure you consider all aspects of retiring. On the other hand, some subjects are discussed in great detail that are a bit wordy and hard for me to follow.
This books has a little something for almost everyone, so parts will be more relevant than others.

[Cindy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Due to the copyright date, I am not sure how much of this is correct information. I had a hard time getting through some of the book; not due to the difficulty, but it is such boring reading. I wish the author would have made it a little more interesting. In fact, I confess that I just skimmed some of it.

[Alisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent information; well worth reading. I started it before I officially retired and read the first half then. I ran into more information on investments than I was interested in at that time, and so shelved it for quite some time. I think the recommendations are valid and useful. It is more a reference than a book to read straight through - at least it proved that way for me.

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

A few colleagues and I are reading some retirement books to see which ones we can recommend to others. This one won't make the cut. I sympathize with authors trying to write a book like this actually. They are trying to distill complexity into rules and guidelines that are as simple as possible for someone that doesn't spend most of their time thinking about financial matters. I can't imagine writing a book that delved into all the nuance. So, while I found the book simplistic in many places, I understand the constraints in writing the book and I did learn some valuable things here and there.

There were two things that really held me back from recommending the book, one of which I will admit is petty. The first is that he steadfastly uses historic returns when making his projections about how investments will perform in the future. Again, believe me, I understand why people do this, but it is backward looking and we have to look forward. Are those old returns relevant? He doesn't touch this topic, but I think it is dangerous giving people an expectation for future returns based on historic return from a country that became the global military and economic superpower over that time frame. Not to mention demographics and increased leverage.

This will seem petty, but he glorifies the CFP designation to the exclusion of all else. I admire the CFP designation, but it is certainly not the only valuable designation in the world of finance. As you might guess, I don't have a CFP designation. Still, it gave the book the feel of an advertisement that validated the choices he had made professionally.

Two stars sounds harsh, but "It was ok" summarized my opinion best. If you are thinking about retirement and it is this book or nothing, then you will be better off reading this book, but I'm hoping to find a better one.

[Wanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great information. Now to use it.

[Sue L. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good information for someone just starting to think about retirement.