401k Books

Saving money for retirement is not always easy, knowing where to put your money is perhaps complex with so many options. Depending on your situation, you can choose a plan with various tax consequences. Understanding the options is the first step towards a financially secure retirement.

This step-by-step guide will bring more understanding to the question of how to build a nest egg. The important principles of retirement plan investing are set out in a uncomplicated way. There are practical explanations to help you make sense of the legal and financial restrictions and opportunities. Charts show a visual representation of where you stand now and explain how you can reach your goals.

Will Social Security be enough to live on? According to the American Association of Retired Persons, Social Security benefits will replace 43% of the income you earn during the year before you retire. This income will also not protect you against inflation, so it is wise to plan for your own future.

Did you know there is a way to withdraw money from an IRA without penalty before you officially retire? See page 18. You might also want to consider an education IRA which is not a retirement account, but a vehicle to help pay for a grandchild's education. This handy book shows if you are eligible and what the contribution limits are.

While the information on taxes is comprehensive, you will still want to consult with a professional before making any final decisions. Some of the tax laws might have changed slightly from this edition but overall, the information will make you more aware of the choices you should consider to make the most of your money.

~The Rebecca Review

In his latest book "Prophecy", Robert T. Kiyosaki predicts a major stock market crash in the near future. This, he says, is a result of the baby boomers (mostly) saving for their retirement via stock investments and given that a large number of them will retire from 2016 onwards their investments will have to be cashed in as it will be needed and as a result the market will fall if not crash. Apart from that, RK says, that most baby boomers may not actually see their money ever again as more often than not most of it is invested in their own companies, i.e., the ones they work for, and if their employer goes down the drain so will their funds saved for retirement. Kiyosaki uses the demise of Enron as an example to demonstrate this.
Granted, there is nothing really new about all this. If you have spent any time working in the financial field you would know about this - although over the years I felt that people tend to stick their heads in the sand and hope that this will not happen or somehow go away

Apart from complaining about the existing system and the financial illiteracy of the vast majority of the market participants (and that would appear to be the main problem), Kiyosaki in Part II of the book sets out a game plan on how to build your own financial ark.

What I like about Kiyosaki's book is that he is pointing his finger straight at what could potentially happen and he does it in rather convincing style. There is indeed a good deal of information here that Kiyosaki has mentioned in his previous books, but I am not terribly upset about this as it serves to reinforce the message. Besides, if you haven't read any of the previous Kioysaki books, you would be stuck in the middle of nowhere if Kiyosaki left out the previously published information.

The premise of the phrophecy is that the baby boomers will pretty much take their money out of the stock market suddenly and cause it to crash. I suspect the market is far more vast than considered and the baby boomers' 401ks combined represents only a few drops in the bucket. If the market crashes, it won't be because of this prophecy's premise.

Robert Kiyosaki is a motivational speaker that also happens to sell books. If you are looking for a "How To", then you're in the wrong place. The Rich Dad, Poor Dad author seems to always strive to make you think about your financial future, and Rich Dad's Prophecy is no different.

Using scare tactics to elicit a response from you, this book strives to tell you that the stock market is a bad place to invest your money, and presents reasons for this opinion. However, looking historically, this has not been the case. One of Kiyosaki's main points is that the market will crash because all of the baby boomers will be drawing out their money at a rate that the stock market won't be able to handle.

Kiyosaki's point could be a valid one, but there is too much wealth in the world (that is not controlled by the United States' small group of retiring workers) for this speculation to be factual. Read Kiyosaki's book for the motivation it will provide if you need it. Don't read Kiyosaki's book if you're looking for ideas on how to invest your money (unless you're thinking of building a motivational book series with your "Pay Yourself First" funds).
http://rhapsodiesofross.blogspot.com/2008/06/rich-dad-richer-dad.html

Kiyosaki does a great job explaining the decline to come. Par for the course, the author is less than clear with his advice. If you have not read "The Second Great Depression" or other books like it I do highly recommend this volume. However, your money may be better spent on a more technical manual on how to profit during a declining market.

There is nothing to see (read) here. You know now what you will get from this book. Spend your money elsewhere on Amazon.

Scarborough preys on the gullibility and ignorance of the average investor. In addition, his writing style is heavy and dull. Finally: Some of his (favorable) reviews have been written by employees of his company (such as Clay Dietz). My guess these are about authentic as a "Yes" vote for Saddam!

Clay Dietz works for Michael Scarborough...no wonder he wrote such a glowing review of this book. I wonder how many other of these 5 stars reviews are posted by employees?

This is the worst financial book I have ever purchased.

The Scarborough Plan: Maximizing The Power Of your 401(k) presents a comprehensive and effective system for retirement investment planning. 401(k) investment advice pioneer Michael Scarborough writes with humor and expertise, carefully and intelligible taking the reader step-by-step through every stage of the retirement planning process. What makes The Scarborough Plan stand out from a host of other financial planning "how to" books is its informal conversational style peppered throughout with no-nonsense advice, insights, anecdotes and humor. If you have, or are considering, a 401(k) program of your own, then you need to sit down and read The Scarborough Plan!

This book offers a good, well balanced and easily laid out process for making sense of retirement planning. The big picture is much clearer now. He addressed everything you would need to accomplish in order to successfully retire. And thanks to this book I now have a clear plan.

Thanks for the help

After the first few paragraphs I realized the author was preaching anti free market propaganda. The time spent reading these few sentences was a complete waste.

The 401K was a substitute for funded pensions which employers hated to pay to an ever aging population. We are now at the mercy of the free...Not so free market which has proven over time to be manipulated by the power brokers. I would suggest you invest in your 401K only if your employer matches and allows it to be self directed.
There is no one out there more interested in taking care of your own future than yourself.
Buy the book and others like it if only to educate yourself.

The Great 401(k) Hoax is real!!!!

Or at least that's what the writers of this book, surpisingly former Business Week contributers, will have you believe. ("Surprisingly" because of the lack of free-markets bent.)

The conclusion is that our entire futures are based around a flawed and imperfect system of investing that has led us all astray and has jeopardized our future. This is ten to fifteen pages of The Great 401(k) Hoax. The rest of the book provides historical comparisons to the post bubble/9-11 period that "prove" we are in for stagnant returns in the stock market from now (the now being mid 2002 when the book was written) to...well, who knows when. Quite honestly, the historical connection is incredibly signficant as history may not be indicitive of future returns (as all mutual funds are required to tell you), but history can be darn close. This part of the book is very interesting and important. Also included is a analytical perspective on the destruction of the pension plan which is fine and good, but intuitive.

What lacks is the clear cut conclusion of "what do we do?" Part of the title of this book is "What You Can Do About It." After reading the entire book, I'm still not entirely clear on what I can do about it. The writers offer investment suggestions, but in the end still seem a little inconclusive on whether they are viable options for a safe retirement. In the afterward, written a year or so after the original release, many of the writers' original investment suggestions are (obviously) rescinded, such as bonds which had 3 years of strong growth following the continuing decline of stocks. Ultimately, one investment option is highly recommended, both in the book and the afterward. I won't ruin the surprise for readers, but their TIPs are anti-climactic.

I read and was enlightened by the hardcover edition of Wolman and Colamosca's book when it was first published and am looking forward to reading the updates in the recently released paperback edition. Companies encouraged baby boomers to join the 401-K bandwagon. Now, as we begin to enter retirement years, our large demographic may provide a magnified study of the impact of such plans. Perhaps this will benefit younger members of the workforce, especially if the Bush Administration re-visits its efforts to foster worker-managed-retirement-investment programs.

If a person wants to invest in the stock market or in other forms of investments (bonds, govt. securities), and the primary purpose behind these investments is for retirement, this is a book that one should read. As with so many things that the government does, often in cahoots with businesses, this book shows how the 401(k), a supposed benefit to employees, is anything but. The `average' employee is getting ripped off in his/her 401(k) plan. The primary benefits of 401(k)'s are to the businesses, themselves, and to the top 10% of households based on wealth. Simply put, the rich get richer at the expense of the middle and lower class. If you have a 401(k) or are thinking of participating in one, read this book first and then decide if or how you want to participate. Rating: 4.0.

The great 401(k) hoax has a long-term view that is very sobering and that people must pay attention to. The public has been told that they will do best if they take care of their own pension plans -- this saves corporations billions of dollars!

The Title of the book states "Why your family is at risk, what you can do about it?" After nearly 188 pages on the first part of this phrase, the authors talk about "stillwater" investing which seems to be "random walk" by another name. The authors complain loudly and convincingly (with some irritants mentioned by other reviewers), but I'd have expected similar vigor and greater clarity in listing out the solutions....disappointed.

This intelligent book lays out some startling truths for babyboomers about to retire --mamany of them have only a small stake in the stockmarket because their incomes may not have been particularly high and they will only have a tiny portion of what they will need later in their lives. It's a wake-up call to reinvent themselves and work longer, find more interesting work and keep bringing in income.

I have been reading a lot of books lately regarding investments and finances. This book trips itself up on some kind of a political agenda (I have yet to figure out if the authors were trying to smear Republicans, Democrats, or both), so much so that I was completely distracted by what the authors had to say and quit reading after a few chapters. The political jabs were distracting and they made the authors seem less credible. The book had too much of a "doomsday/completely hopeless future" feel to it, it almost was painful to read, it made me squirm inside!
There are many books out there that can offer a lot more help (and hope) than this one, if you are looking to secure your financial future.

Like several other reviewers who I should have read first, I found myself seeing a loooong stretch to this book's short stack of information and too much snarky cereal filler. You'll be angry, trust me.

Must have family who edited the thing and printed it.

Written by the top officer of Entrust, whose business is to manage self directed IRAs, this book is not to be taken as an objective analysis of the benefits and drawbacks of buying real estate within a self directed IRA. Although never actually lying (I'm sure Entrust's attorneys made sure of that), it avoids the topic of fees and lack of control, that are involved in maintaining any real estate investment within an IRA. It also doesn't mention any of the costs of setting up an LLC with one or more members. Setting up an LLC is a likely scenario and was, in fact, recommended to me, by Entrust. Buying real estate within an IRA is very different than doing the same investment outside of an IRA. Given the fees involved with this type of investment, what would be the minimum investment recommended to absorb these fees/costs and still realize an acceptable return? No answers here. Examples of returns are unrealistic in today's more normal market conditions. The author does make some good points, and the concept is really great. But buyer beware. I was so disappointed to come to the conclusion that buying a $350K investment property, using the required non-recourse loan with a higher rate, and setting up an LLC with 2 members (the bank and my IRA) was too complicated and restrictive. This book is an excellent starting point, but the drawbacks either aren't mentioned, nor fully addressed. Basically, the author is selling. Remember what he does for a living. Get your highlighter out and read carefully!

This is an excellent book to learn about the inside secrets of the mutual fund industry, of which there are many...and it provides a good explanation as to why mutual funds are probably not the greatest investment choice.

Where the author loses his footing is by suggesting that the solution to the problems in the industry can be solved by more regulation, and that the alternative to mutual funds are either 1) index funds, or 2) equity indexed contracts.

This, sadly is a mistake that was made also by Edward Winslow in "Blind Faith". Government regulation and interference in the financial markets is what is causing the problems in the financial industry. Between the Federal Reserve, the SEC, the FINRA, and a host of seemingly unending regulations, the mutual fund industry is likely doomed to failure from here on out.

Thankfully, there are a few helpful chapters in this book that are accurate and help to explain to the reader what is going on in the industry and why mutual funds have become, on the whole, terribly inefficient.

In a field as "ever-changing" as retirement plan management and pension administration, it takes a special set of resources to keep up with these changes. Dearborn is excellent, simply top notch with their securities and insurance publications; but with defined contribution and pension plans, unfortunately, their data is lacking, too basic, and out of date. Emphasis should be placed on compliance testing as well as the reform bills passed through congress affecting pension plans. I just don't feel this is covered here.

If you want the creme de la creme of pension books, get Aspen Publishing's pension answer book series.

Pension books are like Y2k Survival Guides. Once the year in question is over, what good is the book? That's what you run into with Pension books nowadays, material that has to be updated on a yearly basis or it's woefully out of date.

As I mentioned in a previous review of the 1996/97 version of this book, it was lacking in the compliance and regulatory sections. These sections are KEY to understanding pension plans.

As a former student of Dearborn's security texts, I can tell you they are THE source for any of the securities exams - absolute top notch. But when it comes to pensions, they need to incorporate more detail and focus separately on defined contribution and defined benefit plans.

Too basic and outdated

As far as pension industry books go, anything published over two to three years ago can be considered obsolete. This being published in 1992 missed all the changes that have affected 401(k) and pension plans, especially EGTRRA. You are better off finding something either written in the current year or something written after 2002.

Unfortunately, the short "How To Rollover 401K Funds Into an IRA" is basically useless. Not only does not it explain a rollover, it also does not give important information about all of the requirements of a self-directed IRA.