The Truth About Retirement Plans and IRAs Paperback – April 8, 2014

I will preface this with, "I am an Edelman client", and did receive a copy for free. After reading it, I purchased several more copies for family members, all of whom are in the first few years of their working careers.This book does an excellent job of explaining all the details behind saving for retirement, and most importantly, why it's important to save. He takes the story all the way to how to draft from your IRA/401k/403b after retirement, and how to make your money last your entire retirement. He mentioned pitfalls, such as the dangers of "borrowing" from your retirement accounts, and why it's highly unadvisable.I do see there are a few who did not like this book. To be fair, there are people who will not like it. Those who are very financially literate will surely find it "basic" - it's supposed to be basic. It's designed to educate people, not offer profound mysteries to those already educated in financial matters. Edelman is also very critical of inventments which are a bigger benefit to the broker selling them, than to "you", the buyer. As such, product-pushing financial salespeople, selling annuities and other expensive investments, will also dislike the book. This book isn't for "them". It's for "you".One critic said this is a push for Edelman to get more clients. To be clear, he often recommends, for information specific to your situation, "Talk to *your* financial advisor, and if you don't have one, call us". He does not discourage people who already have their own advisor, provided their advisor is acting as a fiduciary - someone who must operate and advise in *your* best interest, rather than trying to merely make a product off of you.This book is excellent for anyone who is not already well-versed in retirement savings. I would strongly recommend it especially for those just starting in their careers. The more you save "now", the more you'll have when you retire. As Edelman has said many time, "Nobody goes into retirement wishing they had saved 'less'".

I just love Ric Edelman's books! I have them all, and yes! I do listen to his radio show! I have purchased each of my son's Ric's book "The Truth About Money" as a gift. All of his books are basic, easy to read, common sense information. I would love to tell you I have a million in the assests due to following his information, however, I sometimes just can't get out of my own way! Let me just say that I had adjusted my investments according to info I gathered from my Edelman "Reads" just prior to the horrible market "adjustment" a few years ago and it saved me thousands in my 401K and other investments. While I did lose a little $, it was not nearly as bad as it would have been if I had stayed positioned like I was! I have suggested Ric Edlemans books to all my friends and coworkers. Even if you have a financial manager, education is a powerful thing! Be informed, or be a victim!

Let me be clear! I believe this book has very useful information to anyone concerned about their retirement. I am not an expert, but simply one of those persons who want to make sure that am I doing the right things now so that when I do retire, I have sufficient income to support me for the rest of my life. That being said, I was very excited to acquire a copy of this book so much so that I pre-ordered it at Amazon, which is something I usually don't do. However, while I found the information usual, I personally got the book because I was interested in one particularly topic: TSP contributions and allocations advice.As a member of the Armed Forces with less than one year of active duty service, I wanted to learn about Ric Edelman's perspectives on specifically investing in the federal government's Thrift Savings Plan (TSP). It literally was the main reason why I preordered a copy of the book as opposed to skimming through it at a bookstore. The reason I gave this review four stars and not five is because I was disappointed that the book did not cover, in more detail, a discussion on investing in the TSP. Even if the answer is, "it depends", which would not be surprising, some general guidance as to what fund or what allocation, specific to TSP, would have been preferable. Of course, from reading the book, I could piece together the fact that stock funds (C, S, I) would be ideal and the 40%, 40%, 20% split he suggests on page 106 is applicable to the funds in the TSP (e.g. 40% in C fund, 40% in S fund, 20% in I Fund). If that's true, it really wasn't clear to me and I would have preferred, and was someone expecting, a more focused discussion just on the TSP.I read the book in order (didn't skip parts 1 or 2) and I used the index to verify that I didn't miss any focused discussion on the TSP (I didn't). It may seem harsh to rate this book 4 stars on what is otherwise, by all indications, a fantastic book that is a wealth of useful information. But, because I was so disappointed as stated above, I chose to give this book four stars.Let me conclude, however, by saying that Ric Edelman remains one of my favorite financial advisors to listen to.

The book is very easy to read (except for a couple of sections, and Ric says to skip them if it's not your cup of tea). I love it that he provides the rationale for his assertions as well a data to support them. He doesn't just offer his opinion, although given that he's a leading expert in this field, his opinion might well be considered all the justification needed. He interjects amusing little remarks along the way, often as short footnotes, which make the book even more fun to read. I've already increased the amount going into my retirement account as a result of reading this. But it would have been even better for me to have done that 20 years ago. Still, I've got another 15 years to go till I plan to retire, so all is not lost! Excellent book.