Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Retirement Quest - Make Better Decisions



This book is written by John Hauserman, CFP. The back cover reads -

Get the unbiased advice you need. Avoid costly mistakes. Where are you getting your financial advice? How do you know your interest are being safeguarded? How do you know that your advisors are comptetent? How can you know they’re putting your interests first? John Hauserman has spent years building a better way for you to pursue your investment goals. This book shows you how to get unbiased advice and avoid costly financial mistakes. If you want to build a secure financial future, this is the book that will help show you how.

I loved the end of chapter 12 that said, “What we can do for our country is to prepare ourselves financially, thus providing a social cushion for the challenges ahead. Prepare ourselves so that we might help our children out of the economic mess which our leaders seem recklessly intent on handing them. Prepare ourselves so that we might provide an example by which we can hold our elected officers accountable.”

The end of chapter 13 says, “How is it possible that this great nation of take-charge, self-reliant, responsibility seekers could possibly have become comfortable consistently spending more than they earned?”

John Hauserman further said, “By the late 1960’s an entire generation had spent its formative years in a hall of plenty, shaping ideas and decisions for decades to come. They dreamed of better lifestyles, high-minded values of fairness, love, and cooperation. What they did not spend as much time dreaming about, were the costs associated with such endeavors.”

In chapter 15 he states, that the pupose of this work is to help the reader accept, and embrace, individual efforts, the ramifications of which may be far greater than most imagine. Like it or not, we are a generation caught in transition. For decades, our leaders have promised benefits while simultaneously kicking the can of responsibility down the road. He says, “The good news is that we as a culture are on the verge of the greatest accumulation of wealth.”

The last chapter is called, Looking Ahead. He has many good ideas. At first I wasn’t convinced that I needed to read this book, but I’m glad I did. Because I’m well past retirement there isn’t a lot that I can do, but there are things in this book that my children should know about.

The only thing I can say about the book is that I wish it had a title and picture that would have made me want to buy this book. I'm glad I read it, although I'm not sure if I were in a book store that I would have picked it up. Don't be mislead by the title. This is a great book and one I'm sure you will be glad you put on your list to read.