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Work Less, Live More: The Way to Semi-Retirement
Ready to pursue the rest of your life? Get going with Work Less, Live More
Professionally, you're experiencing the success that years of hard work brings -- but the long hours are taking their toll and you're burning out fast.
Fortunately, there’s an alternative to the Semi-retirement. Work fewer hours, realize your goals and dreams, spend time with your loved ones -- and do it all years, even decades, before the "normal" retirement age of 65.
With Work Less, Live More and a little planning, you can do it. The book provides a rational investment system based on Nobel Prize-winning research, a safe lifelong withdrawal plan and sensible spending guidelines.
More importantly, the book provides the inspiring stories and insights of many successful early semi-retirees, walking proof that meaningful work -- rather than full-time work -- is both fulfilling and rewarding.
The 2nd edition focuses on every age group -- especially "late bloomers" who may feel way behind. It also includes more information on healthcare issues.
If you're ready to pursue the rest of your life, turn to Work Less, Live More and get going!
Professionally, you're experiencing the success that years of hard work brings -- but the long hours are taking their toll and you're burning out fast.
Fortunately, there’s an alternative to the Semi-retirement. Work fewer hours, realize your goals and dreams, spend time with your loved ones -- and do it all years, even decades, before the "normal" retirement age of 65.
With Work Less, Live More and a little planning, you can do it. The book provides a rational investment system based on Nobel Prize-winning research, a safe lifelong withdrawal plan and sensible spending guidelines.
More importantly, the book provides the inspiring stories and insights of many successful early semi-retirees, walking proof that meaningful work -- rather than full-time work -- is both fulfilling and rewarding.
The 2nd edition focuses on every age group -- especially "late bloomers" who may feel way behind. It also includes more information on healthcare issues.
If you're ready to pursue the rest of your life, turn to Work Less, Live More and get going!
365 pages, Paperback
First published October 10, 2005
13 people are currently reading
1675 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
August 24, 2010
Outdated as it was written before the current financial crash. But among a lot of B.S. there is a bit of good financial information about financial planning for retirement but really designed for someone other than me. Overall though, overly simplistic, and seems to written for the young dot-com millionaire or people who can save money by cutting back on their multiple vacations at fancy hotels and $100,000 cars. I'm glad it's a library book and that I didn't buy it.
March 10, 2018
Great book on early semi-retirement. I felt this gave real information and ideas, not just the common sense issues. The budgeting, rational investing, and safe withdrawal messages were great for finances. I appreciated that the book also discussed ideas for semi-retirement hurdles and benefits.
April 28, 2018
I mainly read this book for his chapters addressing the emotional/work side of semi-retirement. I appreciate his down-to-earth perspective that simultaneously acknowledges a desire in some people to live a slower life combined with the fact that they are unlikely to be satisfied long-term not having any type of meaningful work-like activity in their life. He addresses many key aspects including why you would want to aim for semi-retirement, types of work you might do, concrete exercises for discovering your passions, and possible pitfalls and emotions that might arise (like guilt). His advise is concrete and helpful.
However, the majority of the book is focused on the practical financial sides of reaching semi-retirement. I found this information mostly not useful since I have already figured this piece out. I skimmed through it and unfortunately I can't recommend the book for this part because much of it is quite dated and specific to the time it was written, around 2007. There are more recent books that will be more helpful for the practical financial side of things, such as The Bogleheads' Guide to Investing.
If you are interested in the emotional aspect of things, this is still a book worth picking up, and I'm glad I did.
However, the majority of the book is focused on the practical financial sides of reaching semi-retirement. I found this information mostly not useful since I have already figured this piece out. I skimmed through it and unfortunately I can't recommend the book for this part because much of it is quite dated and specific to the time it was written, around 2007. There are more recent books that will be more helpful for the practical financial side of things, such as The Bogleheads' Guide to Investing.
If you are interested in the emotional aspect of things, this is still a book worth picking up, and I'm glad I did.
August 12, 2019
Work Less, Live More was written before the 2008 financial crisis, so many of its suggestions seem laughable now (especially the repeated suggestion that semi-retirees can subsist on owning and flipping multiple homes). I appreciated the focus on how semi-retirement differs from the initial idea of retirees spending their languid days with no worthwhile pursuits, and some of the ideas of ways to find meaning and small income after leaving a 9-5 job were quite interesting. Overall, this book was not as useful as I hoped it would be outside of discussing the psychological impact of retiring and how to fill one's days with worthwhile pursuits.
October 21, 2018
For something written a dozen years ago this is quite well done. I'm more into the Boglehead approach as opposed to the author's Rational Investment Portfolio, but that may be splitting hairs. (Although I am not a big fan of the author's use of only 30 years of history for the data so I'll stick to Bogle.) Anyway, had I had this book in 2007 I'd have been better off today, if for no other reason than the well thought out non-financial advice this book has.
May 8, 2021
I had heard about this book for years but ultimately was disappointed. The financial advice was meh and the journey wasn’t anything new. The b eat part was hearing about how to spend your time once you retired and reading stories from semi-retired people.
January 10, 2018
This book is in a line of books I have been thinking about. It discusses financial and personal aspects of working fewer paid hours per week. Its good if that is something your thinking about
April 22, 2018
Invaluable read!
October 25, 2018
Helpful!
December 13, 2022
Perhaps suggesting a method of predetermining what is labor, work income generation types, tax types and real life purpose. Not just rambling of everyone wants to be like me.
February 26, 2019
This book was a pivotal tool in my quest to retire early. It encapsulated and confirmed everything I'd learned from my own research, and served as a guide and reference. It's packed with a ton of vital details. It provides an excellent investment strategy and model portfolio, tailored specifically for early retirement; it discusses taxes and how to minimize them; it talks about the withdrawal rate, and provides plenty of charts and tables to show how different withdrawal rates hold up for various time periods.
It also has quite a bit of fluff, but it has a nice way of sparking fantasies about how nice early retirement will be. It talks in great length about the psychological struggles of being retired, which may be an even bigger risk than a stock market tumble. Still, I think a lot of this fluff could have been trimmed, which would have turned this into one powerful little book.
This book tries very hard, probably way too hard, to portray early retirement as a vast grey area, rather than an all-or-nothing proposition. It almost always calls it "early semi-retirement." In nearly all examples, it includes the option to subsidize retirement with little side jobs. I think this is great, because it makes the whole endeavor far more realistic and achievable, but I also think he took it too far. Sadly, I think most people walk away from this book remembering that it's about how to settle for a partial retirement, rather than its real strength, which is the investment, withdrawal, and tax advice.
It also has quite a bit of fluff, but it has a nice way of sparking fantasies about how nice early retirement will be. It talks in great length about the psychological struggles of being retired, which may be an even bigger risk than a stock market tumble. Still, I think a lot of this fluff could have been trimmed, which would have turned this into one powerful little book.
This book tries very hard, probably way too hard, to portray early retirement as a vast grey area, rather than an all-or-nothing proposition. It almost always calls it "early semi-retirement." In nearly all examples, it includes the option to subsidize retirement with little side jobs. I think this is great, because it makes the whole endeavor far more realistic and achievable, but I also think he took it too far. Sadly, I think most people walk away from this book remembering that it's about how to settle for a partial retirement, rather than its real strength, which is the investment, withdrawal, and tax advice.
January 4, 2011
I'm not ready to read this book. I think I should start with the regular book, not the workbook.
I think I should diversify and also reduce my risk, but I don't really understand my current asset allocation,
-Current investments are fragmented among many different brokerages
State / DOT investments are required to be separate
Vanguard funds must be with Vanguard
*I could group my TDAmeritrade ROTH |to Vanguard in Jan 2011|,
Portfolio 21 ROTH |moving to Vanguard in Jan 2011|,
Pioneer fund |cash check & go to Vanguard general in Jan 2011|,
Sharebuilder stock |group into one account and ignore it in Jan 2011|,
and Zecco stock together |leave Zecco alone|
I don't understand my asset allocation or volatility
I think I should diversify and also reduce my risk, but I don't really understand my current asset allocation,
-Current investments are fragmented among many different brokerages
State / DOT investments are required to be separate
Vanguard funds must be with Vanguard
*I could group my TDAmeritrade ROTH |to Vanguard in Jan 2011|,
Portfolio 21 ROTH |moving to Vanguard in Jan 2011|,
Pioneer fund |cash check & go to Vanguard general in Jan 2011|,
Sharebuilder stock |group into one account and ignore it in Jan 2011|,
and Zecco stock together |leave Zecco alone|
I don't understand my asset allocation or volatility
August 24, 2010
This had some good examples of how you don't have to buy into the mind set of working till you are 65. There are other ways to live.
It did seem a bit biased towards already being rich (most people owned their homes and had substantial stock portfolios). If you have a lot of money already, you should figure out what your budget is and then determine if you can live off of 4% per year of your wealth. Evidently 4% is the magic number that will keep you from running out. It has a huge section on how to invest to keep your portfolio intact, but pretty much ignores doing that if you want to invest in a socially responsible manner. Maybe there is no way to do that though.
It did seem a bit biased towards already being rich (most people owned their homes and had substantial stock portfolios). If you have a lot of money already, you should figure out what your budget is and then determine if you can live off of 4% per year of your wealth. Evidently 4% is the magic number that will keep you from running out. It has a huge section on how to invest to keep your portfolio intact, but pretty much ignores doing that if you want to invest in a socially responsible manner. Maybe there is no way to do that though.
October 25, 2012
This book shows us that with disciplined saving, a focused approach, and a keen eye on your expenses, semi-retirement can become a reality, and you can really enjoy your Golden Years.
Albena Liebigt
Branch Manager, Hornepayne
Albena Liebigt
Branch Manager, Hornepayne
Read
May 2, 2014An utter disappointment. Helpful only if you own your home already and make 200K/year and up. Blah.
June 8, 2014
Good reference.
August 6, 2014
This book was so interesting. Gave us lots good ideas. Perhaps by living at or below our means we won't have to work until the day we die.
June 5, 2015
Really good. Gives concrete steps advice and lots of good ref material for getting to semi retirement.
Read
November 19, 2015Pretty good thinking around what a semi-retirement looks like. Basically just not working a normal 9-5.
May 9, 2016
The book is really old and outdated, but I did enjoy reading the stories of how different people and families approached semi-retirement. I only skimmed most of it.
September 10, 2016
Needs to be updated but still has some good information that will always hold true such as living below your means.
May 11, 2013
possibly my favorite book on living the good life while you're still young!
March 29, 2017
Practical advice for achieving and living semi-retirement
Many books talk of reaching financial independence but few address what to do once you arrive. This one does and it enforces the need to live and embody serenity and grace.
Many books talk of reaching financial independence but few address what to do once you arrive. This one does and it enforces the need to live and embody serenity and grace.
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews