Retirement Planning Guidebook: Navigating the Important Decisions for Retirement Success

by Wade Pfau

The Retirement Planning Guidebook helps you navigate through the important decisions to prepare for your best retirement . You will have the detailed knowledge and understanding to make smart retirement decisions : - Understand your personal retirement income style , which can then help you navigate through the conflicting opinions about retirement strategies to choose your right path. - Learn about investment and insurance tools that may best resonate with your personal style. - Determine if you are financially prepared for retirement by quantifying your financial goals (annual spending, legacy, and reserves for the unexpected) and comparing them to your available assets. - Make smart decisions for when to start Social Security benefits, which could potentially support an additional $100,000 or more of lifetime income from Social Security over your lifetime. - Develop a plan for making the best initial and ongoing choices from the alphabet soup of Medicare options , as well as how to find health coverage if you retire before Medicare eligibility. - Assess where you wish to live in retirement and whether there are helpful ways to incorporate housing wealth into your retirement strategy. - Decide how to manage your long-term care risk between self-funding, Medicaid, or private insurance, and take steps to support living at home for as long as possible. - Understand how to manage your taxes to pay less , to avoid common pitfalls, and to have more for your lifetime and your legacy. You will be able to apply tax diversification, asset location, tax bracket management, and Roth conversions to enhance the sustainability of your retirement assets. - Get your finances organized and understand how to get your estate and incapacity planning documents in order, including your will, account titling, beneficiary designations, financial power of attorney, and advance health care directives. - Identify whether there is a role for trusts in your estate plan for reasons related to avoiding probate, controlling how and when assets are disbursed, obtaining creditor protections, or helping to manage estate taxes. - Prepare for the non-financial aspects of retirement , including the need to find purpose and passion, to understand if there is a role for work in retirement, to enhance relationships and social connections, and to maintain an active and healthy lifestyle. Retirement has an entire vocabulary associated with it. We’ll demystify the 4% rule, sequence-of-return risk, time segmentation and buckets, reverse mortgages, income annuities, variable annuities, fixed index annuities, long-term care insurance, living trusts, irrevocable trusts, budgeting, the funded ratio, Medicare Advantage, Medicare supplements, diversified investment portfolios, Roth conversions, the hazards of the Social Security tax torpedo and increased Medicare premiums, buffer assets, 401(k) plans and IRAs, the rollover decision, distribution options for defined-benefit company pensions, required minimum distributions, qualified charitable distributions, aging in place, cognitive decline, and so much more. The Retirement Planning Guidebook does not let important matters fall through the cracks. This is a comprehensive look at the key retirement decisions to achieve financial and non-financial success. You will have the foundation to make the most of your retirement years, and I hope you’ll be able to do something great!

Genres: Finance, Nonfiction, Personal Finance, Money, Economics

476 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 7, 2021

About the author

WADE D. PFAU
PhD, CFA®

Professor of Retirement Income

RICP® Program Director

Co-Director of the New York Life Center for Retirement Income

Areas of Expertise:
Annuities, Financial Planning, Investments, Life Insurance Planning, Life Insurance Practices, Portfolio Management, Retirement Planning

BA, University of Iowa
BS, University of Iowa
MA, Princeton University
PhD, Princeton University

Reviews

[Mike Andrewartha · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent comprehensive coverage of the issues to consider in preparing for retirement. It is focused on the financial side of planning for retirement and optimizing spending and taxes after retiring. It touches briefly on major non financial topics but references other books for more in depth coverage

On the financial side I learned several important things to consider in my own planning. As the name implies the book is a guide for creating your own plan. My copy has many post it notes sticking out to mark tasks to return to.

Highly recommend for those with a detail oriented do it yourself mindset.

[Fritz Gilbert · Rating 5 out of 5]

The most comprehensive work on retirement planning I've ever read. Be prepared, it's a hefty read, but you'll learn more about retirement planning by reading this one book than any other you can read. Highly recommended for the more advanced investor.

[Lynn Schluns · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dense is a good word for this book. Not for the faint of heart. Lots of good info but plan to read and reread for clarity.

[Lindy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent guidebook for those close to retirement. I highly recommend it if you are within 3 or so years of retiring or are early in retirement, and do not have a pension which covers a good percentage of your basic living expenses. The level of detail is daunting but accessible. Of course, you can be like me and quickly scan the in-depth discussions on topics that don't fit your specific concerns and circumstances. I borrowed this from the library and suspect I will eventually purchase a copy for reference or borrow it again. This is that rare retirement related book that doesn't focus at all on how to save for retirement but provides an abundance of information for funding and spending during retirement. It is a lot to take in and some sections warrant re-reading.

[George McDonald · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lot of useful information, but it reads like Pfau is getting paid by the word. I suspect he has tons of two page articles/blogs on different retirement planning topics, and it feels like perhaps he has strung a lot of these together, without editing out all the filler. There is a lot of repetition of basic facts that made reading this feel like panning for gold. Sift through a lot of dross to get to the nuggets.

That said, there were a lot of nuggets, and I believe this advice/guidance will probably save me a lot of money in the long run. I ended up with several pages of notes, all of which seem useful.

He does an especially good job of talking about risk. As one moves to retirement, understanding risk becomes much more important because you have much less capacity to adjust/respond to negative outcomes. I thought Pfau did a good job of making those risks real, and explaining how to quantify them. Lots of good advice on how to take advantage of Social Security, how to look at Medicare holistically (both costs and benefits) and how tax strategies will be different.

Beware of the chapter on annuities. Mind-numbing enough to make you wish for a short retirement. Who knew there were so many ways to package up the same thing and make it seem different?

[Jake Holaday · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some of the negative reviews for this book claiming it "reads like a textbook" or is "boring and too extensive" are amusing! To me, that's the whole point—it’s a textbook, and a well-executed one. It compiles everything you need to build a successful retirement plan in one place. If you’re not a fan of textbook-style books, I’d recommend hiring a professional to handle your retirement planning, because that’s precisely what this book is: a thorough, professional-grade guide.

That being said, if you’re nearing retirement or simply want to deepen your understanding of retirement planning, this is probably the most comprehensive resource out there. It surpasses any licensing or credential study material I’ve come across by focusing on what truly matters for retirement planning. It doesn’t spend unnecessary time on non essential details. Granted, if your situation is unusually complex or abnormal (which most are not), this book may not address every nuance—but for the vast majority of people, it will do great!

Was it the most thrilling read? Absolutely not. But let’s be honest—if you’re looking to a retirement planning book for entertainment, something is messed up in your head... You do have to have a decent amount of financial knowledge to fully understand the (text)book. If you are completely new to concepts like RMDs, Medicare Planning, Roth conversions, etc. I would start elsewhere.

[Clint Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Full disclosure… I’m an insurance agent and registered investment advisor, so that definitely impacts my perspective of this book. There were parts that were a bit dry early on (and I love retirement planning books), but definitely educational. As the book progressed it became easier to read and more impactful. It has easy to scan topics/chapters that would allow individuals to read the parts most applicable to their situations. It also has the most comprehensive list of action items for various retirement stages as I’ve seen anywhere. I found so much value in this title and made notes of many customers to connect with on various thoughts in this book. I highly recommend it for any retirement planners, whether professionals helping others or individuals in any stage of retirement or retirement prep.

[Eric · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you are within a few years of retirement, this book is an excellent source of clear information about how to prepare for living off your savings, collecting social security, signing up for Medicare and managing taxes. After reading the chapter on Social Security, I realized my wife needed to sign up immediately even though she was not yet 67. The section on IRAs lead me to conclude that I will want to withdraw from my 401k before the mandatory age of 75, and to deposit much of the money I withdraw during that time into a Roth IRA, so that my kids don’t have to pay taxes on the inherited IRA withdrawals during their peak earning years. Wade Pfau’s expert financial guidance easily saved me many times the cost of the book.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Extremely thorough.

Of particular interest was Chapter 11 on Legacy Planning. Useful tables (p.361) of what documents to leave upon death. List of documents which might be needed by heirs to close the estate.

Also something I've never seen before on p.41 is a chart titled Lifetime Sequence of Return Risk. It graphs how the greatest threat to best lifetime income from savings (e.g. IRA) occurs in the first 5-7 years after starting to draw down the savings. In other words, after those early years, things like market fluctuations become increasingly irrelevant. Or, the early years are the most important to get through without major disruptions.

[Marian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gotta be honest here, I read some of this book and skimmed over most of the chapters. It’s a very good and detailed book about all the financial aspects of retirement. I’m already familiar with a number of topics, and although I may have learned about some details which may or may not apply to me, I didn’t feel a need to read more about those. Frankly it’s more information than I want to absorb at this point and I’ll definitely keep it as a good reference in case I need that info in the future. Great textbook if that’s what you’re looking for. Leisurely reading material, not-so-much.

[Amaan Pirani · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the best "how to" book I've ever read tbh. It is incredibly comprehensive on retirement planning and includes details many people would naturally forget (i.e. you should probably write a letter of your memories for your loved ones, you should plan for incapacitated geriatrics care, etc.) I found many discussions helpful and actionable and applicable to people of all different retirement goals (i.e. legacy creation, etc.)

[Claire Binkley · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author made a note about how difficult the process of writing was, which I in particular can agree with, so he wanted to make sure that every piece of praise was gotten, so here is what I had to say about this piece of work.

Because approximately 75% of the rest of what I understand about calculation is on the computer I read this book on it, too, even if ebooks tend to give my eyes problems.
Maybe it actually would be better if I had a "Kindle" but I never got one before.

[Val Ras · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is written in the textbook style, very dry. A lot of space is dedicated to the best strategies for the investment withdrawal in retirement and I didn't find it very useful. A lot of various, sometimes complicated considerations, but as author admits himself it is all based on assumptions - and there are many. The part in the book towards the end, dealing with retirement preparedness was much more useful to me.

[Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is one of the BEST retirement planning books I have come across offering a comprehensive well organized approach. Very well written and organized , the author does a great job of breaking down complex planning strategies. This book will be a staple I out library and plan to refer to the material again when needed. If you are getting close to retirement and want to understand and plan for plotting a steady course, this book is fantastic!

[Marcel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very comprehensive book that incorporates all facets of retirement planning. Does a good job of showing all available approaches to tackle retirement income planning without showing a bias towards any one approach.

[Andy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Comprehensive retirement planning. Includes everything you can imagine. Each chapter is a great stand alone reference, but they also fit together to create a dynamic and understandable plan. Very well done!

[Sarah Van Velsor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very comprehensive guide with tons of great information, especially about retirement income strategies, but I feel like it would be more useful closer to retirement. I learned some useful things to file away and will definitely come back to this one in the future

[Jen Juenke · Rating 3 out of 5]

a very detailed book about retirement.
it got bogged down in the details, made my eyes water and I would yawn because of how dull it was.

The parts that were mind numbing is the annuities, bonds, and anything to do with numbers.

I think that I will need a condensed version of this book.

[Ray · Rating 5 out of 5]

As the other reviews state, the book is very comprehensive and thorough. It read more like a textbook than a guidebook for the average person. If you prefer a well researched peer reviewed journal article over a blog post, read this book.

[Virginia Hodges · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book is very comprehensive and thorough, providing tons of useful information and covering many topics that need your attention in retirement or when planning to retire.

[Sandy Salzinger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent reference guide on all things retirement planning

[Jack Cohen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Worthwhile reference.

[Roger Whitney · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wade does a deep dive into the financial aspects of developing a retirement strategy. I'd not suggest reading it straight through. I use it as a reference book when noodling on a topic.

[Sandy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read it and then read it again and then when it gets closer to retirement read it again.

[Kishore J. · Rating 5 out of 5]

dense and didactic read, but full of great information

[Kyle · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Retirement Planning Guidebook is thorough and comprehensive, but it's also a total slog. Do yourself a favor and find a more digestible personal finance book.