Includes index.

"A Contrarian Twist to Saving for Your Golden Years The Essential Retirement Guide: A Contrarian's Perspective brings a much-needed shift in thinking to the age-old question of how best to prepare for your retirement. This handbook helps you reject confusing, outdated information and figure out how much wealth youreally need to retire securely. In the process, this groundbreaking text discusses when to save, why to save, how to save, and how much to save--providing new insights in an environment that is cluttered with misinformation about retirement planning. This comprehensive resource explains when you should start saving for your golden years, how to prioritize your retirement saving amid other spending obligations, and how much you can comfortably spend each year once you have retired. Additionally, the text provides hard data that underscores the fragility of humans in spite of ever-increasing lifespans and how that fragility should inform our actions in the earlier stages of our retirement. With baby boomers approaching their golden years, retirement planning has become more popular than ever before. This book offers fresh insights on how to: Dispel some of the inconsistent messages about retirement, such as the conventional retirement income target and the 4 percent rule Determine your lifespan and how it is affected by your lifestyle Consider the possibility of long-term care and how it may affect your retirement planning Prepare for the change in spending habits that typically occurs over the course of retirement The Essential Retirement Guide: A Contrarian's Perspective takes a fresh look at retirement saving strategies and guides you in creating a plan that fits your finances and your lifestyle"-- Provided by publisher.

"The Essential Retirement Guide will detail saving for retirement-- when, why, how, and how much. There is much miscommunication and false information about retirement planning. Inconsistences such as retirement target percentages of final pay, the amount of retirement income needed, and the use of proper investment vehicles, most of which cost hundreds of thousands of dollars more than necessary, all add to the mystification of most retirement planning advice. The book will answer: - When should I start to save? - What takes priority: paying off the mortgage or saving for retirement? - What is the most tax-effective investment vehicle during the accumulation phase? - How should I invest? - How much money do I need to retire comfortably? - How much retirement income will I need? - What percentage of my assets can I spend each year in retirement? - How will my spending habits change over the course of my retirement? - Do I need to worry about the cost of long-term care?"-- Provided by publisher.

Print version record and CIP data provided by publisher.

The Road to Retirement: Detours -- Doubts about the 70 percent retirement income target: Niggling doubts; Saving for retirement is a 2-dimensional problem; The macro case against 70 percent; Low-income workers -- Honing in on the Real Target: Setting the ground rules; Howard and Barb; Steve and Ashley 1.0; Steve and Ashley 2.0; Expressing consumption in dollars -- A New Rule of Thumb: Guiding principles; Retirement income targets under different scenarios; General rule of thumb -- Quantifying Your Wealth Target: A rough and ready estimate; A more actuarial approach -- Why Interest Rates Will Stay Low (And Why You Should Care): The rise of the savers; The Japan experience; Applicability to the US and Canada; Possible remedies; Implications -- How Spending Decreases with Age: Doubts; Quantifying the decline in consumption; Why does consumption decline?; Next steps -- Death Takes a Holiday: Present day life expectancy; Dispersion of deaths; Who is benefiting the most?; Why is mortality improving?; The future -- Estimating Your Own Life Expectancy -- Is long-term care in your future?: Long-term care (LTC); What does LTC entail?; What are the chances you will need LTC?; How long is LTC usually required? -- Paying for Long-term Care: Typical LTC insurance contract; Does the math work?; The verdict; The consequences of not insuring LTC -- Putting It All Together: New wealth targets; Buffers -- Picking a Savings Rate: Historical performance; Lessons learned; What the future holds; Generalizing the results -- Optimizing Your Savings Strategy: The goal; Strategy 1--Simple; Strategy 2--Simple Lifecycle approach; Strategy 3--Modified Lifecycle; Strategy 4--Variable contribution; Strategy 5--The SMART approach; The Third Lever; Methodology -- A Gentler Approach to Saving: Path 1--Pain now, gain later on; Path 2--Smooth and steady improvement; A comparison in dollar terms -- Rational Roulette: Call to action; Watch out for your children.

Revisiting the 4 Percent Rule: The 4 percent rule; Problems with the 4 percent rule; A more rational spending rule; A Monte Carlo simulation -- Why people hate annuities (but should still buy one): Why annuities should be popular; The psychology behind the unpopularity; Tontines; The insured annuity strategy; Indexed annuities?; Forget it -- How Workplace Pension Plans fit in: Why employers offer workplace plans; Getting the most out of your workplace plan; How a workplace pension plan affects your dollar target; Online forecast tools -- Bubble Trouble: Why worry about financial bubbles?; Examples of recent financial bubbles; Common characteristics; The everything bubble -- Carpe Diem: The numbers; Healthy life years; Trends; Personal genome testing; -- A Life Well Lived: Retirement and happiness; Final thoughts Notes -- Appendix A: Similarities between the US and Canada: Social Security programs; High-level comparison of retirement vehicles; A tax comparison -- Appendix B: Social Security in the US and Canada: Name of Social Security pension plan; Purpose of Social Security; Earnings base for pension calculation; How pension is calculated; How the plans are funded; Normal retirement age; Early retirement age; Delayed retirement; Indexation; Other government-sponsored pension plans; Taxability -- Appendix C: Retirement income targets under other scenarios -- Appendix D: About the assumptions used in the book: Thoughts on Conservatism; Assumptions used to estimate personal consumption; Assumptions used to calculate future retirement savings; Assumptions used to estimate the historical accumulation of savings; Couple contemplating long-term care insurance; Assets needed to cover long-term care (LTC).