The Value of Debt in Retirement: Why Everything You Have Been Told Is Wrong

By Thomas J. Anderson

Increase the odds you won't run out of money in retirement – using debt!

Conventional wisdom is wrong – being debt free in retirement may actually increase your risk. The Value of Debt in Retirement teaches you how incorporating debt into your retirement strategy may increase your return, lower your taxes and actually lower your risk. You read that right. If handled correctly, debt—that thing we've all been taught to avoid—can play an integral role in your life, especially in retirement. New York Times Best Selling Author and nationally acclaimed financial expert Tom Anderson shows you how to use the time tested strategies of the best companies and the ultra rich to retire comfortably, minimize taxes, buy the things you have always wanted to have and do the things you have always wanted to do.

Thought provoking and against the grain, Anderson explains why your risk tolerance doesn't matter, why being debt free may actually increase your risk and why rushing to pay off your mortgage may be a financial disaster. Full of shocking revelations and tricks high- net-worth individuals have used for years, The Value of Debt in Retirement opens the world to a new approach to wealth management in retirement, one that factors in both sides of the balance sheet as an integrated ecosystem.

Real-world case studies illustrate how informed debt strategies can lead to a happier, healthier retirement. See how an individual with a net worth of more than $5 million can spend $20,000 per month - after taxes - and pay less than $5,000 per year in taxes, how it is possible to increase your rate of return by 50%, and how a lower risk portfolio with debt could increase the chances you do not run out of money.

Specifically written to Baby Boomers, practical guides and checklists show how to use debt strategies to fund primary and secondary properties, refinance credit card debt, and finance hobbies, such as cars and boats and recreational vehicles. Additional guides show how you can help your children, help your parents and leave a bigger legacy for your heirs and favorite charities. Regardless of your net worth, The Value of Debt in Retirement provides tools to use to apply these concepts to your personal situation.

There is no free lunch: the book delivers a balanced perspective focusing on the potential risks and benefits of the strategies discussed. A discussion on economic history highlights some of the shocks the economy may face and provides important warnings that you should factor into your retirement plan. Anderson not only shows that your life expectancy may be longer than you think, but also illustrates that many investors may be on track to average returns well under 4% for the next ten years – a potentially devastating combination. Irrespective of your beliefs about debt, The Value of Debt in Retirement proves risk is more important than return for retirees and provides suggestions on ways to minimize that risk.

Not all debt is good and high levels of debt are bad. The Value of Debt in Retirement is about choosing the right debt, in the right amounts, at the right time. Perhaps most importantly, this book isn't for everybody. This book requires responsible actions. If you can't handle the responsibility associated with the ideas then this book then it isn't for you. If you need a rate of return under 3% from your investments then you may not need this book. But if you can handle the responsibility and if you need a return above 3%, this book may offer insights into the best (and potentially only) way to achieve your goals.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wiley
• Release date: Feb 27, 2015
• ISBN: 9781119020004

Book preview

The Value of Debt in Retirement

Why Everything You Have Been Told Is Wrong

Thomas J. Anderson

Wiley Logo

Cover design: Wiley

Copyright © 2015 by Thomas J. Anderson. All rights reserved.

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.

Published simultaneously in Canada.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

Anderson, Thomas J. (Certified investment management analyst)

    The value of debt in retirement : why everything you have been told is wrong / Thomas J. Anderson.

       pages cm

    Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-119-01998-5 (hardback); ISBN 978-1-119-02001-1 (epdf); ISBN 978-1-119-02000-4 (epub) 1. Finance, Personal. 2. Retirement—Planning. I. Title.

    HG179.A5597628 2015

    332.7084′6—dc23

2014049407

This book is dedicated to two very special sets of retirees

who have given me the insight and unconditional love

necessary to write this book:

Grandpa John & Grandma Kay Kay

Marty & Julianne Smith

Contents

Foreword

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Caution: You Could Burn Your House Down Baking a Cake!

Notes

PART I: BASIC IDEAS AND CORE CONCEPTS

Chapter 1: A Better Path

A Successful but Controversial Debut

The Fifth Indebted Strength

Who Can Benefit from This Book? Not Only Millionaires! (But They Can, Too)

Everyday Example #1: Immediately Better Credit Card Debt

Getting beyond the ABLF and Focusing on Retirement

Notes

Chapter 2: Debt in Retirement

What Some Popular Retirement Books Get Right—and Wrong—about Debt

The Good versus Bad Debt Camp

Bach Where We Started: The Irresolutely Against Debt Camp

The (Very Small) Sometimes It’s Okay to Have Debt Camp

Everyday Example #2: A Bridge Loan over Troubled Quarters

Notes

Chapter 3: Why and Whether to Adopt a Holistic Debt-Inclusive Approach in Retirement

A First Look at the Three Main Types of Debt: Oppressive, Working, and Enriching

Seven Rules for Being a Better Debtor

In the Company of Longer Life Spans

Winging Your Way to a Successful Retirement: The Whole Chicken Approach

Everyday Example #3: A Holistic Business Recipe for Success

Notes

PART II: THE POWER OF DEBT IN REDUCING TAXES, INCREASING RETURN, AND REDUCING RISK

Chapter 4: Returning to the Return You Need

Cash Flow and Incoming Money: The Ultimate Key to Resource Management

You Have to Get Your Numbers Right!

Regardless of Your Net Worth, Distributions Are Rarely Constant over Time in Retirement

How Much Can You Safely Take Out?

How You May Be Able to Increase Your Rate of Return

How Is This Possible? A Big-Picture Overview

Risks and Problems

Everyday Example #4: Retiring the Loan Survivor

Notes

Chapter 5: The Power of Debt Meets Our Ridiculous Tax Code

Some Brief Preliminaries: Income versus Incoming Money

The Websters: A Tale That Taxes the Imagination

Your De Facto Tax Advisor

An Inconvenient Truth

How to Pay Almost No Taxes in Retirement: A Few More Examples

Everyday Example #5: Auto You Not Be Sure You Are Getting the Best Loan?

Notes

Chapter 6: Risk Matters More Than Return

Why Your Personal Risk Tolerance May Not Matter

A Simple Understanding of Risk

An Overview: What Time Is It?

A Detailed Understanding: How the Watch Works

Proof That Debt Can Reduce Your Risk in Retirement

Everyday Example #6: A Lot to Think About? Not Really

Notes

PART III: HOW TO GET THERE: A GLIDE PATH

Chapter 7: The World Is Full of Risk—Especially Now

Not Your Usual Serious Caution

Learning from What Companies Do—Value Liquidity!

What about Interest Rate Risk? Fixed versus Floating Rate Debt

Investment Risks: It Isn’t the Debt That Matters, It Is the Quality of Your Investment Decisions!

Asset Allocation and Investment Considerations

A Six-Step Approach to Diversified Investing in Retirement

Lessons from Math and History Suggest Caution

Be Careful What You Watch!

My Opinions on Asset Allocation

Notes

Chapter 8: The Sooner the Better

Understanding the Implications of These Ideas for Your Life Plans

Getting a Handle on Whether You Should Adopt a Strategic Debt Approach

The Need-Want-Have Matrix

Watch Those Ratios! A First Glide Path into Retirement

What If You Are Not Optimal Today?

Dying with Debt?

Final Mortgage Considerations

Notes

Chapter 9: Conclusion

A Checklist Review

Bringing It All Together: A Strategic Debt Strategy in Action

A Last Word: The Value of Debt in Retirement

Notes

PART IV: GUIDES

Guide 1: Leaving a Legacy

General Giving Philosophy

The Benefits of Giving While You’re Working

Giving to Create Income

Notes

Guide 2: Managing the ROI of Retirement

Retirement ROI: Resources, Outer Pragmatics, and Inner Dynamics

Retirement Is Coming: A Holistic Roadmap of the Territory before You Retire

Meta-Management against a Background of Accelerating Change

Staying Effective and Informed over Time

Resource Management for the Long Haul

Partial Retirement/Partial Income

You Can Test-Run Retirement

Real Estate, Small Business Ventures, and Personal Guarantees

Medicare

Long-Term Care Insurance

Thoughts on Life Insurance

Reverse Mortgages

How You Should (or Should Not) Factor in Inheritance

Outer Pragmatics: Real World Concerns, Issues, and Details

Legal Planning

Medical Planning

Residency Planning

Life Planning

Inner Dynamics: Meaning, Purpose, and Pleasure in Retirement

Sharpening the Saw

Particular Considerations on Retirement and ROI for the LGBT Community

Notes

Guide 3: How to Help Your Family and Buy the Stuff You Want and Need

Act Like a Company/Think Like a CFO

Principles When Financing the Purchase of a Desired Item

Managing Credit Card Debt

Helping Your Kids with Their Credit Card Debt

Helping Your Parents

Buying a Luxury Car

Buying a Boat/Airplane/Art/Antiques/Jewelry, Paying for a Dream Vacation, Financing a Hobby (Horseback Riding, Car Racing)

Paying for Fractional Ownership (Home/Plane/Boat)

Helping Out Our Kids and Student Loans

Homes: Downsizing/Moving/Building

Purchasing a Second Home: Pluses and Minuses

Rent versus Buy a Second Home

One Hundred Percent Financing: The No-Down-Payment Real Estate Purchase Option

Notes

PART V: APPENDICES

Appendix A: About the Companion Website

Appendix B: Details for Chapter 4

Understanding the Ideas of Chapter 4, with Charts and Tables

Notes

Appendix C: Chapter 5 Detail

Understanding RMDs

The Liger at Work Again

Understanding Cost Basis and a Step-Up in Basis

Notes

Appendix D: Details for Chapter 6— A Study of Withdrawal Rates in Retirement

Background: How the 4 Percent Rule Came to Life

Trinity Study Results

Trinity Study: Unfortunate Timing

Notes

Appendix E: A More Detailed Discussion on Risk, Return, and Correlation

Notes

Appendix F: More Detail on ABLF, Risk Details, and Official Statement of Disclosure and Understanding

More Detail on ABLF

Statement of Disclosure and Understanding

With Respect to ABLFs

Additional Important Notes

Notes

Glossary

Bibliography

About the Author

Note

Index

EULA

List of Tables

Chapter 3

Table 3.1

Chapter 4

Table 4.1

Chapter 5

Table 5.1

Table 5.2

Table 5.3

Chapter 6

Table 6.1

Table 6.2

Table 6.3

Table 6.4

Table 6.5

Table 6.6

Table 6.7

Chapter 7

Table 7.1

Table 7.2

Chapter 8

Table 8.1

Guide 2

Table G2.1

Appendix B

Table B.1

Table B.2

Table B.3

Table B.4

Table B.5

Appendix C

Table C.1

Appendix D

Table D.1

Table D.2

Table D.3

List of Illustrations

Introduction

Figure I.1 Strategic Use of Debt in Retirement May Help You

Chapter 1

Figure 1.1 The Five Indebted Strengths

Chapter 5

Figure 5.1 Hercules the Liger

Figure 5.2 The Websters’ Basic Personal Information

Figure 5.3 Other Income: The Websters

Figure 5.4 Total Taxable Income before Deductions: The Websters

Figure 5.5 House Deductions: The Websters

Figure 5.6 Donations: The Websters

Figure 5.7 Other Deductions: The Websters

Figure 5.8 Final Estimated Taxes Due: The Websters

Figure 5.9 How The Websters Generate Sufficient Cash Flow in Retirement

Chapter 6

Figure 6.1 Modern Portfolio Theory, the Efficient Frontier

Chapter 8

Figure 8.1 The Continuum of Different Types of Debt

Figure 8.2 Amount of Assets Held by Those That Have Different Types of Debt

Figure 8.3 Debt Evolutions over Time

Figure 8.4 Assets and Debt Overlay

Figure 8.5 The Opportunity to Change Course

Figure 8.6 Need-Want-Have Access Chart

Figure 8.7 Optimal Debt Ratio Glide Path over Time

Guide 1

Figure G1.1 Happiness Curve

Guide 2

Figure G2.1 Retirement ROI

Figure G2.2 Roadmap for Measuring the ROI of Retirement

Appendix C

Figure C.1 Summary of Inputs for Alice

Figure C.2 Summary of Inputs for Fred and Joanne

Figure C.3 Summary of Inputs for Randy

Appendix D

Figure D.1 Example Balance Sheets—The Johnsons and Smiths

Figure D.2 Additional Example Balance Sheets—The Johnsons and Smiths

Appendix E

Figure E.1 Risk/Return Trade-Off: Expected

Figure E.2 Risk/Return Trade-Off: Actual

Figure E.3 Asset Class Return 1994–2013

Foreword

You have worked hard for your money. You have saved. If you are reading this book, you are likely in retirement, near retirement, or an advisor to those who wish to retire. When it comes to retirement, Charles Dickens said it best: It was the best of times; it was the worst of times. Boomers are getting pushed and pulled in a lot of directions as they retire or near retirement. They are the sandwich generation—helping their kids, helping their parents. At the same time, many want to enjoy life, take trips, and buy the things they’ve always wanted. How can retirees balance these conflicting demands and desires?

Tom Anderson has received multiple national awards for his wealth-management expertise and studied at many of the top schools in finance. Wealth management is all he has done and all he has studied. While others were at summer camp, Anderson went to Wall Street Camp. In The Value of Debt in Retirement, Anderson shows you some potentially shocking revelations, tricks that high-net-worth individuals have used for years. These include:

Why rushing to pay off your mortgage in the name of being debt-free when you retire may leave you with less liquidity, less tax efficiency, and a profound inability to take advantage of the basic ideas, strategies, and practices in this book.

How an intriguing combination of selling and borrowing—selling from your IRA and borrowing against what’s called an Asset-Based Loan Facility—can provide you with greatly superior, highly tax-efficient results.

How and why financial advisors, despite their claims that they are not giving you tax advice, could be doing exactly that . . . often in a way that primarily amounts to guessing with your future.

How conventional wisdom is generally flat-out wrong with respect to assumptions that are made regarding taxes, annuities, IRAs, and Roth IRAs.

Helpful guides at the end of the book will help you see how in the current environment you can buy a $100,000 car for $250 per month with no required monthly payment. How to buy a $1 million second home, 100 percent financed, for $2,500 per month, fully tax deductible. You are going to get amazing ideas on better ways to help your kids, help your parents, and leave a bigger legacy for your charities. Along the way you will see how you can be prepared for emergencies and opportunities that come your way.

Increasing return, reducing taxes, and lowering risk—all with a goal of making sure that you do not outlive your money—is what this book is all about. But make no mistake: There is no free lunch. Not everyone will be able to implement these ideas, and they come with many risks. But I can promise you this: Anderson is going to challenge you. He challenges me most every day!

Sarah Anderson

President, Better Debt, LLC

Revolutionizing Debt™

The leading expert in securities-based lending education, tools, and solutions

www.betterdebt.com

Acknowledgments

There may be some books where somebody sits down, writes on a computer, hits send, and poof!—a book comes out. This isn’t one of those books. Writing a book like this would not be possible without an incredible team surrounding it.

My core business would not be possible without Kerry Abdoney, Jon Bancks, Stacey Halyard, Darla Lowe, JoAnn Masters, and Julie Vogt, as well as my many partners throughout the country. I can’t tell you how much you have contributed to my ability to do this project and how much I value you. You are all part of my family and I love you.

Rafe Sagalyn, Brandon Coward, and the team at ICM have been excellent agents and facilitated a great relationship with Wiley. I appreciate our long-term partnership and sincerely value your advice and guidance.

Jordan S. Gruber once again was a true partner and able to take my initial ideas and turn them into a publishable manuscript. I can’t thank him enough for his efforts. I love how we connect on projects and am excited that we are already working on the next one.

The following readers gave candid feedback that helped refine our initial work: Mike Finn, Karla and Denny Goettel, Jim and Ann Hoffman, David and Pat Knuth, David Lessing, Jim Mohni, Dr. Jerry and Nancy Shirk, Dean Swinton, Pen Shade, and Marty and Julianne Smith. Randy Kurtz, you are brilliant and you went above and beyond. The comments this group provided on this work were transformative.

Damian Pardo and Robert Espinoza, I am so thankful for the time, energy, and effort you spent in helping me develop the guide for the LGBT community. This is a small start on an important topic, and I hope together we can expand on these ideas in the future.

An absolutely amazing group of people from diverse backgrounds served as a powerful sounding board that helped beta test many of the concepts and related ideas. These individuals include: Simon Algar, Angela Billick, Adam Browne, Gian Cavallini, Corey Chisnell, Chris Claus, Dodge Daverman, Daniel Eckert, Suzanne El-Moursi, Jeff Finn, Maddy Halyard, Chris Harper, Mike Gibbs, Jim Guthrie, Mike Jackson, Bernardo Jorge, Walter Joyce, Paul Krake, Todd Kurisu, Ed Lomasney, Krista LaFrenz, Britton Lombardi, Chris Merker, Carrie Merritt, Paul Mulvaney, Colin O’Brien, Jeff Prochnow, Linhard Stepf, Josh Stein, Anne Stanchfield, and Scott Watenberg. Sarah and I can’t begin to thank you enough for your support during this project. We are blessed to consider each of you to be dear friends.

Brittain and Steve Ezzes, I sincerely appreciate your inspiration and contributions.

To my dad, thanks for everything you have taught me over the years, particularly the time we spent traveling to the Iowa farms, raising cattle and learning about agricultural marketplaces. Those experiences helped to shape my world view and create a foundation for a thriving business and fulfilling life.

To John and Patti, thanks for being wonderful readers of the book. Thanks also on a personal note for your unconditional support of Sarah and me, our family, and our businesses. We are so fortunate to have your shining examples inspire our life. We love you!

The charitable giving guide was inspired by a conversation with Jeremy Scarbrough at Washington University. He later gave thoughtful suggestions to make this section be much more robust.

Robyn Lawrence and Stacey Halyard were incredible early editors who synthesized feedback from early readers and made the book much more impactful. Dave Knuth, your math editing skills were exceptional.

Emmons Patzer is a fountain of creative ideas. Importantly, the concepts of Oppressive, Working, and Enriching debt are developed from base material he provided. Emmons has been a true mentor and advisor and friend throughout the project.

Speaking of Emmons, he, along with Bill King, David Lessing, Dr. Mahendra Gupta, Eliot Protsch, and Steve Vanourny have served as an outstanding board of advisors. Your stewardship, passion, and intelligence are stunning.

This leads me to one of my greatest areas of thanks. I am incredibly enthusiastic about the growing partnership with The Olin School of Business at Washington University in St. Louis that is helping further develop some of the academic studies outlined within this book. I would like to highlight the efforts of Dr. Mahendra Gupta, Anjan Thackor, and Charles Cuny. Charles in particular has been an amazing academic advisor and mentor. Hopefully, together we are scratching the surface of what could prove to be some tremendous breakthroughs in personal finance. To be clear, much of the material that is being presented is only at a Phase 1 level of academic rigor and merits much more study, but it is my sincere hope that we will be able to further expand on these ideas together in follow up works.

Wiley has again assigned a top-notch team. I would particularly like to thank Tula Batanchiev, Associate Editor, who continues to be my North Star guiding me. I sincerely appreciate our partnership. Thank you to Helen Cho, Editorial Program Coordinator, and Melissa Connors, Publicity. Steven Kyritz, Senior Production Editor, and Stacey Rivera, Senior Development Editor, were invaluable and I appreciate their skills. Any remaining mistakes are my own.

The team at Timber Wolf Publishing took an idea and ran with it. Bryan Goettel, Lauren Kurtz, Ted Nims, Brandon Swinton, and David Zylstra all contributed to the project and made it Better!! I want to highlight Jaramee Finn, Fred Rose, and Julie Schmidt. They are the honey badgers. This would not have been possible without their incredible efforts, contributions, and attention to detail. They are the shepherds who have not only guided this book, but also vastly contributed to the content and ideas.

Rowan, Rory, and Reid—I could not be more proud of you. You are excellent helpers! I know that you sacrifice a lot and I can’t tell you how much I appreciate your support.

Sarah—I know who you are, and you are the smartest, most talented and magical person I know. You are my inspiration and you are my partner. All of my ideas are really just yours said another way. This book is yours. It isn’t that you make this possible—it literally couldn’t happen without you.

Introduction

Retirement is wonderful, but it certainly isn’t easy. It brings with it many fears, uncertainties, and doubts. You’re concerned about your health and wellness, your family and extended family, your financial resources and ability to live the life you have always dreamed about. It brings questions about inner purpose, fulfillment, and, frankly, even the meaning of life.

While retirement is an adventure that you will experience only one time, I have had the opportunity to vicariously experience thousands of retirements.1 Using my academic, professional, and personal experiences, I have learned tricks and tools that may help you live the retirement of your dreams. I take strategies that the best companies and the ultra-affluent have been using for years and apply them to specific personal situations to create the best possible outcome for clients and their families.

My goal is to reframe the conversation around debt in general and highlight its potential benefits as well as the potential risks of being debt free. I deliver a new way of thinking about your risk tolerance in which your decisions depend on your needs. In doing so you will see why I care virtually nothing at all about your risk tolerance. What I do care about are your needs and the best way to accomplish your goals and objectives. If you need a low amount of income—less than a 3 percent return—from your portfolio, you may not need to embrace a debt strategy. For example, if you have $1 million and need less than $30,000 per year in income from your portfolio, then you may have little need for debt. However, if you need a return between 4 and 6 percent, it’s quite likely that you can benefit from debt. If you need a return of more than 6 percent, I recommend that you pay very, very close attention to this book. It may be the only way that you will be able to achieve your goals.

It is my opinion that the investment process traditionally used by professionals and do-it-yourself investors alike is broken. It is missing half of the picture! Too many people guess with respect to debt—they don’t have a strategy. I often find that if they do it isn’t well thought out or comprehensive. Generally it is as simple as pay it all off as fast as possible. It is time that we consider, as companies do, debt to be a tool and open the world to a new approach to wealth management in retirement, one that factors in both sides of the balance sheet as an integrated ecosystem.

Equally important is that regardless of your beliefs with respect to debt, I want you to have a different understanding of the word risk and for you to think about risk differently. Many baby boomers have undersaved for retirement and are making decisions that mathematically make it virtually impossible for them to be successful. In this book I put the greatest care in examining trade-offs. I provide you with tools to compare and contrast different risks. For example, it may turn out that being debt free is great for you. It may also turn out that being debt free in fact considerably increases your risk. My goal is knowledge and empowerment around the risks we all face.

Part I of this book lays the foundation and discusses why you should consider the use of strategic debt in retirement. I begin with a discussion of the benefits of strategic debt. Chapter 2 provides an overview of conventional wisdom, what authors are currently saying about debt, and why it might be time for a new approach. Chapter 3 outlines the different types of debt—oppressive, working, and enriching—and establishes the seven rules for being a better debtor. It also discusses the impact of longer life expectancy on retirement planning. The longer our expected retirement, the more important it is that our money lasts for us, which means it’s even more important that we take a holistic approach to personal financial management that includes both assets and liabilities (debts).

Part II focuses on what debt can do for you. I prove that with a proper debt strategy you may be able to virtually eliminate your taxes, increase your rate of return, and reduce your risk (Figure I.1). The more you understand these ideas, the more confident you will feel that you will have sufficient resources throughout your retirement. Confidence about your resources can ease many of the traditional fears, uncertainties, and doubts that come with retirement. This will in turn let you spend more time focusing on family, friends, charities, and maybe even the purpose and meaning of life!

Figure I.1 Strategic Use of Debt in Retirement May Help You

A proper debt strategy may be able to virtually eliminate your taxes, increase your rate of return, and reduce your risk.

This section could fundamentally change your life! I start out by discussing the importance of getting your numbers right and look at some big mistakes that even professional advisors make every day. I then prove that debt can enhance your rate of return and increase the probability that you will never run out of money.

This section includes one of my most stunning case studies, an individual with a net worth of $5.5 million who spends $20,000 per month after taxes and pays less than $4,000 per year in taxes. More important, I show you how—regardless of whether your net worth is higher or lower—it may be possible to make these strategies work for you, too!

Finally, I focus on the fact that risk is equally important—if not more important—than return when you are retired and look at the potential role of debt in reducing your risk. You read that right. I prove that it is possible that debt can actually reduce your risk, increase return, and lower taxes.

Part III focuses on the how. I discuss the risks in detail, outline a glide path on how to embrace these strategies, and conclude by bringing it all together.

It was fascinating to get feedback from early readers. Some people told me that they wanted more detail—and others told me they wanted less detail. Some told me that they wanted to hear more about my experiences with the emotional aspects of retirement; others said stay focused on the numbers. In order to address these conflicting comments this book is laid out differently than most. The nine chapters are written with a big-picture perspective and are intended to be simple illustrations of the ideas and concepts. In order to address the conflicting comments, I have designed a series of guides and appendices for those who want more detail on specific topics.

The last section of the book is intended to be a customized experience for you and your interests. Think of it as a nonfiction choose your own adventure. There are three guides. The first is a guide to charitable giving strategies to consider. Here I will give you win-win ideas on how you can protect your needs and leave a legacy. The second guide focuses on things to consider as retirement approaches and how to be mentally prepared. The final guide focuses on the financial aspect of retirement, suggesting better ways to pay for things you want to buy. The goal is that you can use the table of contents to turn to a specific topic that is relevant to you. Finally, I offer a few appendices with helpful information and detail for you to consider as you move forward with implementation of these ideas.

Caution: You Could Burn Your House Down Baking a Cake!

If you read a cookbook it may tell you to chop carrots or to bake something for 30 minutes. Think of all of the risks that these activities include: Chopping with sharp instruments, 350-degree ovens, and maybe an open flame—in your house! Risks range from minor injury