Couple Money » Book Reviews

Can I Retire? Review

Elle — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 15:31:16 +0000

When I was at the Financial Blogger Conference last month, I got to meet many personal finance bloggers, representatives from banks and financial sites, and authors.

One blogger/author attending the conference was Mike Piper from Oblivious Investor. In addition to running the site he’s written seven personal finance book, including the one I’m reviewing today – Can I Retire?

Basic Book Info

Full Title: Can I Retire?: How Much Money You Need to Retire and How to Manage Your Retirement Savings, Explained in 100 Pages or Less
Author: Mike Piper
Price: $14.00

Can I Retire? Overview

What’s Inside

If you’re curious about what Can I Retire? covers, here is the table of contents:

How Much Money Will You Need?
Safe Withdrawal Rates: The 4% “Rule”
What if 4% Isn’t Enough?
Index Funds and ETFs vs. Active Funds
401(k) Rollovers
Asset Allocation in Retirement
managing Your Long-Term Bucket
Roth Conversions
Distribution Planning
Asset Location
Other Tips for Taxable Accounts
Finding Help With Your Plan

As you probably noticed right away, all of these topics are extremely important to retiring successfully. Mike doesn’t have fluff in this book; he jumps right into what matters.

Mike designs his book to be concise as his books are 100 pages or less. He has recommendations for those who want to investigate deeper with their retirement portfolios and plans. His audience are those interested in getting a quick grip on their finances.

My Highlights from the Book

First off I want to point out that I was able to read the book on the car ride back to our place. Mike’s writing is so clear and understandable that I was able to glide through the chapters. It really is a quick read and will allow you to either have enough knowledge to get your retirement setup started/adjusted or have an intelligent discussion with your financial planner.

I also appreciated how easy Mike made it for me to find more information about relevant taxes and why index funds and ETFs are a smart investment. I recommend getting a highlighter to mark off things you need to do once you’re finished reading. It’s packed with plenty of practical information.

Thoughts on Can I Retire?

I highly recommend this book for anyone looking at retiring in the near future. It’s a great way to become familiar with retirement planning and it may encourage you to look into further.

I love to hear from other readers and their perspectives on the book. Did you find it beneficial for your situation?

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Turn Your Clutter Into Cash

Elle — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 16:00:53 +0000

Earlier this week, I had pointed out that you could sell some of your unwanted items and make earn some cash for your emergency fund.

I will say up front that I’m a fan of all of Baker’s work on ManVsDebt. He has a done an amazing job showing others how he and his family were able to simplify their lives and focus on eliminating debt.

Baker’s Purpose and Goal

In case you’re not familiar with ManVsDebt, Baker is an expert in selling clutter because he has done it himself. He and his family decided to simplify their lives and travel to the other side of the world. To accomplish this goal, the cut down their stuff to the essentials.

Removing junk isn’t the focus of Sell Your Crap. Baker’s guide doesn’t just talk about the mechanics of selling your useless (to you) stuff, but he also tackles the reason why you have all this clutter. Many of us don’t shop to get things that we’ll stop using. We tend to slowly acquire different things, but we don’t remove the old stuff. It can be do to its sentimental value or maybe we think we’ll use it later.

Who is this Guide For?

I know some people are living paycheck to paycheck and may not have the income to build substantial saving. This guide can be very helpful since you’re selling stuff that you’re not using. It doesn’t interfere with your monthly budget and you can have cash to set aside.

If you’re already enjoying a minimalist lifestyle, you might not get as much from this guide. It still has some wonderful information on selling, so maybe you can use it to sell your friends’ stuff.

What’s Included in ‘Sell your Crap’?

Good question, there are two packages for the guide, each one tailored to a specific need.

Barebones Edition ($37)

If you just need to get started with selling some of your stuff, then the barebones set can fill that need.

The primary Sell Your Crap guide
The Definitive Step-by-Step Guide to Selling Your Crap on eBay
$100 Effectiveness Guarantee

Clutter Crusher Edition ($47)

If you’re determined to make some solid money and get rid of junk in your house, check out the clutter crusher edition.

The primary Sell Your Crap guide
The Definitive Step-by-Step Guide to Selling Your Crap on eBay
The Definitive Step-by-Step Guide to Selling Your Crap an craigslist
The Definitive Step-by-Step Guide to Selling Your Crap an Amazon
Special access to all11 Bonus Interviews
$100 Effectiveness Guarantee
30-Day email support [Limited Time bonus]

I think with the step by step instructions you should be able to earn some money for your financial goals, whether it’s emergency savings, debt reduction, or a vacation fund.

Thoughts on Baker’s New Guide

If you’re looking to make some money relatively quick, this is something to look into. I’d like to hear your thought on it.

Do you have junk in the house that you could sell? If you’ve sold clutter and have simplified your life, what tips can you share?

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Unautomate Your Finances Review

Elle — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 12:09:58 +0000

Today Adam Baker from Man Vs Debt is releasing his first financial guide, Unautomate Your Finances. I’ve had the pleasure of reading the guide and wanted to share and review some of my thoughts on the book.

Unautomate Your Finances Overview

Unautomate Your Finances is packed with a lot of information. It flows from motivation on getting your finances organized and educating you on having a system to teaching doable actions that can get your finances in line with your values. Here’s how it’s broken down:

Theory: Baker introduces the core concepts of his book and gives his personal results.
Science: Moving from Theory, Baker uses exercises to help you personalize the plan with your ideal life. he also shows you how to figure out what next step to take.
Application: The last section has tactics for you to get your financial house in order.

Baker's new guide is out!

Automation – Good or Bad?

First off, this a great guide and Baker goes into depth with finances and getting to a point of where you are working towards your goals and ideal life. Many people equate automating finances as a solution, but Baker points out it may be only a quick fix.

As someone who automates much our finances, I found this notion intriguing. After all automation helped me pay off my credit cards, helped us pay off the car loan, and was a big part of having a down payment for our place. I’m couldn’t believe Baker was going in that direction, but I trust him and I read the guide with an open mind.

I found that Baker addresses this issue head on in the first section and he explains how automation is merely a tool and not the solution. He gets into the core of his unautomation principles (consciousness, sustainability, and focus) and shows how it’s much better than just automating.

Reading through I saw how working through this concepts with specific actions leads to a simplified and effective way of handling your money. I love his action plans and I think many people will be like me and trying out to see what works best.

Unautomate Your Finances Bonus Stuff

Unautomate Your Finances includes more than just the 80+ paged guide. Baker has really put together some great bonuses for those who want the guide.

A 27 minute interview with Leo Babauta (ZenHabits)
An audio interview with J.D. Roth (Getrichslowly.org )
He includes a 2-page printable PDF budgeting template
Minimalist excel template of same budget
Baker plans on updating the guide with case studies, more interviews, etc...

Who is This Guide For?

If you are struggling with finances or you want to optimize your system, this guide is a must read. I’m reviewing and using the Application section of the guide to clean our financial system. I think we’ve automated our finances well, but we could do a better job on being more aware of our miscellaneous spending.

Your Take

If you grabbed a copy of the guide, please share your thoughts on it in the comments!

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