Early Retirement: A Step-by-Step Plan for Making It Happen »

Tired of commuting? Fed up with your boss? Bored with your job? There is a solution: Start living and doing what you want to do. Lie in a hammock or on a beach, swing your golf club, or hit the open road. Get control of your life, become financially independent, and RETIRE EARLY. If you want to retire early - before age 65 - you are not alone. In a survey of workers ages 30 to 50, more than half plan to retire at 60 or younger and only 6 percent plan to work past 65.

There are three things you need to do to retire early: 1) Manage your expenses and reduce or eliminate debt, 2) accumulate capital, and 3) save and invest wisely. It is easy, but requires patience and self-control, and with the guidance of this new book you will be on your way to achieving this goal. You will learn how to take control of your life, set realistic long-term goals, choose appropriate lifestyle trade-offs, and learn effective savings techniques and simple investing strategies. You will learn how to calculate how much you need to retire early, get the most from your investment portfolio, reduce your taxes, use retirement planning tools, increase your income while retired, reduce living expenses, deal with inflation and deflation, and calculate social security and pension payments. This book will be your road map to turn the dream of early retirement into reality.

Introduction     13
What Does Retirement Mean to You?     15
Asking the Hard Questions     16
Will You Have A Working Retirement?     20
You Will Likely Live Longer     21
What It Means to Retire Early     22
When Do You Want to Retire?     23
What Does Retirement Hold for You?     23
Have You Considered What You Will Lose?     25
What Did You Learn?     26
Yes, Money is Necessary     29
Where Will the Money Come From?     30
Are You Counting on a Pension?     31
Social Security Will Take Care of You, Right?     32
How Much Money?     34
Planning for More     45
What Else Goes Into Your Retirement Plan?     47
Defend Your Future     52
It is Not a Simple Cut and Dry Deal     55
Giving Up Who You Are     56
Getting Professional Help     59
Planning the First Years     60
What Is Really the Point?     61
But It Is Retirement! Why Should I Work?     62
The Evolution of Work: Three Stages     63
Just Do It: Make the Changes     66
Be Patient     66
How Much?     67
Limited Work Hours in Your Current Career     67
Find New Interests     67
Take a Break     68
Take It Slow     68
Life Changes in Retirement and Before     69
Illness and Health     70
Housing     72
Divorce     74
Death of a Spouse     74
Family Changes     75
Remarriage     77
Leaving Something Behind?     78
Caring for Your Parents     79
College, Children, and Money     81
Where Do You Stand?     81
So, what does this mean to you?     81
Having Money and Being Wealthy     83
What Is Your Net Worth?     84
Live Off Your After-Tax Income     85
Balancing Desires     86
Understanding Your Risk Tolerance     87
Types of Risk     89
Diversification     90
Define Where You Stand     92
Additional Factors in Your Decision     93
Balance, Balance, Balance     94
It Is Not Set In Stone     96
Wealth - You Can Get There     97
Can You Live With It?      98
Can You Keep Track of It?     99
Can Everyone Agree?     100
Just Do It     100
Gathering Information for a Budget     101
Determine Your Monthly Expenses     102
Tweaking To Perfection     104
Food and Household Expenses     105
Maintaining Your Home     105
Transportation     105
Medical Expenses     106
Entertainment     106
Caring for Children     106
Make Your Spending Plan Function     107
Reassess Often Enough     107
The Debt Issue     108
Protect Your Income     124
Disability Insurance     125
Life Insurance     126
Property Insurance, Casualty Insurance     126
Health Insurance     127
Umbrella Coverage     128
You Are a Millionaire in Training!     129
Start Early     129
Keep Track of Your Spending     132
Live Below Your Means     133
Take Advantage of Free Money     135
Facts about Today's Millionaires     136
Get Your Plan Together     141
Up to Age 62     141
From 62 to 70      144
From 70 On Up     145
Now a Look at Income     146
Social Security Income     146
Consider the Income the First Years     148
Other Income Sources     149
Get It Written Down     150
Your Income Goals     151
Pulling It All Together     151
How Much Do You Need?     153
Hiring Professionals to Make It Happen     155
What Is a Financial Planner?     156
The Financial Planner's Job     157
Interview Prospective Financial Planners     159
Consider His or her Contracts     159
References and Referrals     160
Do Your Homework     160
Get a Team in Place     161
The Right Investment Strategy for You     165
Where Do You Go From There?     166
Index Funds     167
Bond Mutual Funds     169
Money Market Mutual Funds     170
Using Portfolio Strategies at Your Age     170
Wealth Maintaining Portfolio     171
What about Those Tax Costs?     173
Making Investing Second Nature     175
Save Aggressively     175
Tax and Inflation Can Hurt     177
Realize Your Goal Is Long Term     178
The True Secrets to Investing     183
Make Your Money Work     184
Keep Putting Money In     185
Asset Allocation and Diversification     186
Keep the Process Simple     186
So You Want to Manage Your Own Money     188
How will you choose to manage your portfolio?     189
Indexes Work for You     190
Sector Funds     191
Additional Managed Fund Options     193
Stocks     194
Retirement Building Without the Tax Man     197
401(k) Retirement Accounts     199
Withdrawing from Your 401K for a New Job     202
It Is Time to Retire     205
Self-employed? You Are Not Left Out     212
Simple IRA: Is It Simple?     213
SEP IRAs: Another Option     214
Keogh Plans     215
The Pension?     217
The Risks of Counting on Pensions     220
It Is Time to Withdraw Your Money     222
Summing It Up     223
IRAs Must Be Understood     227
Making Sense of Contributions     229
Types of IRAs Broken Down      232
Choosing the Right IRA for You     235
I Have a Traditional IRA, but I Want a Roth IRA     239
What about the Taxes?     241
Well, Then, Now What?     242
IRA Disbursements: Getting to the Money     244
Roth IRAs: The Biggest Benefit     245
Traditional IRAs: Getting To Your Money     248
Required Minimum Distributions: What in the World Is That?     249
Your Estate Plan     255
Is a Will Good Enough?     256
Then There Was Probate     258
Rights of Survivorship     259
The Perils of Estate Tax     261
Methods to Avoiding Probate     262
Other Considerations for Your Estate Plan     267
Conclusion     271
Bibliography     277
Author Dedication and Biography     278
Glossary     279
Index     283