Make Money Jot

The Book

Live it Up without Outliving Your Money!: 10 Steps to a Perfect Retirement Portfolio

Author: Paul Merriman

Paul Merriman is the President of Merriman Capital Management, a weekly radio talk show host, a syndicated columnist, and publisher and editor of FundAdvice.com, so he’s quite well engrossed in writing, talking, giving, and practicing financial advice.

Planning for Retirement

The book is a quick read at 232-pages, but it is packed with solid advice and clear steps for conquering the ultimate financial hurdle – retirement. I’m not that old (still young enough to chase the elusive night life), but I know that time is the greatest determinate in investing. Time works for you, but it can also work against you. The sooner that you start to evaluate and plan a retirement, or what I prefer to call long-term, investment strategy, the better your chance of meeting and even exceeding your goals.

Why to Start Now – Risk!

Risk is the general measure of the return for a fund and most people who delay their retirement plans tend to take greater risks in order to compensate for the time. However, at the same time, risk is best mitigated THROUGH time; you need time to balance short-term loss and setbacks from riskier investments.

10 Steps To A Perfect Retirement

Paul’s book presents and covers the following 10 Steps:
Step 1: Determine how much you will need to live on in retirement.
Step 2: Determine how much you want to live on in retirement.
Step 3: Determine your tolerance for taking risks.
Step 4: Make all your decisions based on what’s probable, not what’s possible.
Step 5: Determine the kind of assets that will give you the returns you need to achieve your goals.
Step 6: Combine those assets in the right proportions into a portfolio that’s tailored specifically for you.
Step 7: Learn to recognize and control the expenses of investing.
Step 8: Make sure you understand enough about the tax laws to avoid giving Uncle Sam a bigger-than-necessary cut of your money.
Step 9: Establish the right distribution plan that will give you the income you need in retirement along with the peace of mind of knowing you won’t run out of money.
Step 10: Put everything you do on automatic pilot.

Additional Benefits

In addition to the 10 Steps to a Perfect Retirement, Paul also covers 16 Common Mistakes, 12 Lessons from Smart People, investor’s enemies – expenses and taxes, and investor’s biggest adversaries – Wall Street, the media, and your emotions.

Paul also presents solid advice for selecting a financial advisor and avoiding the critical conflict-of-interest problem.

The book is also filled with reviews of common strategies and balancing (diversification) the strategies. Also, you will find a review of notable investment firms.

Who Should Read

You get a pretty well-rounded and in-depth approach to retirement planning, so the book is valuable to anyone who is planning their retirement, is a little behind in planning their retirement, approaching retirement soon, and already in the midst of the execution of their retirement. Basically, the book is good for any adult who isn’t loaded beyond human ability to spend in a lifetime.

Other reviews:

“Paul Merriman’s new book is a rich and meaty guide to achieving real retirement security. It’s full of wise, easy-to-follow advice that will stand the test of time.”
—Knight Kiplinger, Editor in Chief, Kiplinger’s Personal Finance Magazine and The Kiplinger Letter
“Read, Live It Up! Not only does Paul Merriman know the secret to making your money work as hard as you do, he loves helping people achieve their goals and dreams.”
–Paul B. Farrell, author of The Millionaire Code, The Winning Portfolio and The Lazy Person’s Guide to Investing

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