Retire THIS!!!!

After reading Jane Bryant Quinn's "How To Make Your Money Last," I thought I would be done reading retirement books for at least a decade or so: it was a nicely authoritative, comprehensive and readable book. Since then, though, I learned that one of my favorite money writers, Christine Benz, has written her own book, simply titled "How to Retire." I think I first learned about Christine through her work with the Bogleheads conference and as a presenter, but since then I've read quite a few of her articles for Morningstar, and I really like her: she has great principles, a combination of curiosity and directness, and focuses on what matters, which tends to be very rare in the financial press.

 

The book ended up being a pretty nice kind of companion piece to Jane's. The structure is interesting: instead of a "normal" book, organized by subject, it's a collection of twenty interviews Christine has had with various experts on retirement-related subjects. These include some of my favorite people, notably William Bernstein, Wade Pfau, Mike Piper and Maria Bruno, as well as many others who I was only vaguely familiar with or who were completely new to me. The interviews mostly focus on a person's area of interest and expertise, such as Mike Piper talking about taxation while others might address subjects like estate planning, steps to take in the years leading up to retirement, living situations, finding a new sense of purpose, and so on. The interviews aren't rigid, so the conversation naturally flows and you get some overlap or digressions, but I really loved those - you get a sense for peoples' values and priorities, which in turn helped me process how to apply their ideas to my own life, much like how you might interpret a film critic's recommendation differently based on their point of view.

So in some ways, this ends up being kind of an opposite book to Jane's. What I loved about "How to Make Your Money Last" was that it had some good, strong opinions and gave direct advice: do this, don't do that. The world of financial writing is overflowing with discussions of different options and too little guidance on which options are good or bad, so Jane's book was a breath of fresh air. The reality, of course, is that there isn't a one-size-fits-all solution for everyone: we all have different backgrounds, resources, goals and futures, and a certain option might be good for one person and not another. Christine's book ends up being sort of a survey of what good, smart, respected and thoughtful people think about retirement, and they don't all agree with each other! This ends up having a powerful effect. Over the course of the book, you hear many different people agreeing with certain ideas, which gives them extra power: for example, that most people should usually delay taking Social Security until they turn 70. A few people raise the possible caveats and exceptions to that, while others just touch the main principle and move on. Other topics see more sharply divergent opinions, most notably annuities: some strongly dislike all forms of annuities, some like one or two types in specific situations, others think various types of annuities could be helpful for people in a variety of situations. I think a person reading this book will walk away with a good understanding of the areas of expert consensus (holding a portfolio diversified across risk levels), areas of legitimate debate (annuities, long-term care insurance), and what charlatans to avoid (crypto).

Is that good or bad? It depends! I think someone who wants to get a survey of the field and is interested in doing a lot of additional reading and mulling through things could end up with a really great and highly personal strategy for retirement. People who are more indecisive by too many options or feel overwhelmed may be better served by Jane's book.

I should also mention that "How To Retire" seems more timeless to me. The subjects Christine writes about are evergreen and pretty big-picture. There are a couple of discussions related to specific elements of the tax code that have changed in recent years and may change again in the future, like Roth IRAs not being subject to RMDs or IRMAA surcharges for Medicare Part B, but for the most part these conversations would have been as relevant in the 90s as they are in the 2020s. "How To Make Your Money Last" has both the big-picture and the granular details: Jane rewrote it after the TCJA to incorporate the latest changes in the code, and has a lot of good, specific tactical advice. So Jane's book is more directly applicable, but also may not age as well as Christine's.

Oh, and a final general comment: I've been focusing mostly on the financial aspects of retirement, both in this post and as my focus in reading, but both books put a strong emphasis on the non-financial aspects as well. "How To Retire" in particular is probably more than half about emotional and social topics, including motivations behind retirement, keeping a sense of purpose, the difference between how men and women define themselves, sources of happiness, finding ways to keep busy and fulfilled, how to talk with loved ones about end-of-life issues, and many more. Partly because of this, I think "How To Retire" is probably especially useful to people like me who are still a ways off from retirement, as it's geared to prompt thinking about subjects that many people don't consider until much later.

All in all, I wouldn't say this is essential reading, but is definitely worth picking up if you or a loved one are in or nearing retirement. It would make for a great conversation starter, as an early warning for potential blind spots or "known unknowns" lurking in the future. It doesn't serve as a complete solution to retirement planning, but would make for a great introduction to that journey.