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SandyQ

SandyQ

Currently reading

Lord Peter Views the Body
Dorothy L. Sayers
One Summer: America, 1927
Bill Bryson
How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free: Retirement Wisdom That You Won't Get from Your Financial Advisor - Ernie J. Zelinski It was okay, but nothing special. I'm glad I checked it out of the library and didn't waste my money on it.

The advise was pretty obvious - you'll have a better retirement if you have friends and hobbies and stay healthy. And the author's bias was clearly toward "adventure retirement" - you're supposed to bicycle through New Zealand and run 5 miles a day and so on. Also, lots of nightlife - he was quite derogatory about the "early to bed, early to rise" lifestyle - yet, at the same time, he kept preaching that you were supposed to do what you enjoy it and so on - well, how about people who LIKE to be up early in the morning? A definite bias for sunset over sunrise.

The other thing that bugged was his repeated blithe statements that it didn't matter how much money you had set aside or whether you had an adequate income to survive in retirement. He kept touting people who retired in their 30's or 40's, with no savings, plenty of debts, etc. - yet, somehow, they had the $$ to travel around the world. He also repeatedly suggested that money didn't matter, you had to be adventurous and not worry about security, etc. From his bio, he appears to be only in his early 50's - if he weren't raking it in from writing all these books with the same advice, I have to wonder if he'd feel the same way - especially when he's in his 70's.

I realize that he's trying to deal with the other aspects of retirement, but it seems a little simplistic to just advise people to stop working, do what they will, and not worry about the money.

I wouldn't bother with this book - each chapter has one simplistic theme - make friends, stay healthy, etc. - and then the chapter is padded by essentially repeating the same thing over and over and over.