Can I Retire? – How Much Money You Need to Retire and How to Manage Your Retirement Savings, Explained in 100 pages or Less.

Author in his own words: “Mike Piper is the author of seven personal finance books as well as the popular blog, Oblivious Investor”.

Price: Check Amazon.com because Mike runs various promotions.

Pages: 99 plus additional pages for appendixes, glossary,  index, etc.

What worked

As the booked claimed, it is written in plain English and lacks confusing technical jargon. The book covers a wide variety of retirement topics such as: asset allocation, purchasing annuities, tax planning, and picking the right financial professional,  to name a few. Surprisingly at 99 pages it is able to provide a rather comprehensive guide to retirement planning without getting lost in redundant details.

Each chapter as has a “Simple Summary” that breaks the chapter down in 3-5 bullet points that help reinforce points made. The author also does a great job of reinforcing his points with examples that are concise and easy to follow.  There are also footnotes that are  easy to read and/or provide links to where additional information can be found.

This book would work as a great gift for anyone looking to dip their feet into investing or retirement planning.

Even though I read the book like a text book, highlighting and rereading key passages along the way, I was able to read the book within a day, taking about 4 to 5 hrs.

What didn’t work

There was not anything that didn’t work in this book. I was very happy with the purchase of it and will keep it for my collection.

My only note  is as a reader of Mike’s blog (Oblivious Investor) for approximately a year now I did notice overlap between the different forms of media. This is mitigated by the fact the book explains away multiple key subjects  in one convenient resource. It comes down to your preferred choice of media but for Mike the  two do work in concert.

Final Thoughts

All and all, I really liked the book and I am planning on purchasing several additional copies of the book to pass out to family and friends as gifts.  I want to do this because at a 100 pages I think there is a chance they will give it a chance and finish it. My thought is if they read the whole book they will get a great basic education and hopefully be motivated to learn more about retirement planning.

I would definitely recommend this book for anybody that wants to start the proces understanding of retirement planning related concepts.  This is a great place to start for anyone that doesn’t know were to start.