How to Retire

20 Lessons for a Happy, Successful, and Wealthy Retirement

By: Christine Benz

Narrated by: Laurel Lefkow, Rachel Handshaw, Nezar Alderazi

What are the secrets to a healthy, happy, and wealthy retirement?

To answer that question, longtime Morningstar columnist and podcaster Christine Benz asked 20 retirement thought leaders to go deep on a single lesson that they believe contributes to success in retirement.

These lessons range from nitty gritty financial matters to quality-of-life considerations that help pre-retirees and retirees maximize their “time on earth” allocations.

On the financial side of the ledger, the book delves into knowing your retirement income style (Wade Pfau), understanding how your spending might change in retirement (David Blanchett), and organizing your portfolio to support in-retirement cash flows (William Bernstein).

Other interviews probe softer but no less important considerations, such as how to spend in order to optimize happiness (Ramit Sethi), the value of burnishing relationships later in life (Laura Carstensen), and living life so that you have no regrets in the end (Jordan Grumet). These lessons help soon-to-retire and already-retired individuals and their advisors tackle retirement with confidence, wisdom, and a specific plan for maximizing their financial and human capital.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2024 Harriman House (P)2024 Macmillan Publishers International Ltd

Concise summary of diverse topics in Retirement

The unique Q & A format adds interesting takes on different aspects of Retirement. Christine Benz consolidates a lifetime of learning, writing and speaking on Retirement in an enjoyable primer for both neophytes and experienced adults!

An excellent survey of expert perspectives on retirement, curated by someone who really gets it, Christine Benz

I liked that Christine collected top experts in different subtopics and got them to distill their expertise, as well as hearing differing perspectives occasionally (e.g. on SPIA/DIA annuities).

The only thing I did not like is that some of the narrators clearly didn't know the subject they were reading as they repeatedly spelled out acronyms that are always pronounced. Thankfully, the narrator for Christine pronounced the acronyms when appropriate (and even sounds somewhat like Christine).

Great book. Love Benz. Terrible audio

Great book. Love Benz. Terrible audio if you can get past the terrible voices and style it’s great material.

The interviewer style was perfect. The Bucket Strategy is my favorite.

I love the conversational approach with the interviews. Board topics but broken down and interweaving between financial and personal matters makes it easier to digest.

All your retirement questions in one book

The feature that I appreciated most in this book is that each chapter taps a different expert. Not only did this give me a comprehensive view of the many facets invloved with retirement it also gave me many new sources I could follow up with going forward. Overall this is a great resource for those planning for retirement and those who are looking to help their parents move into the next chapter of their lives. My only critique is some of the narration is so stilted and robotic it distracts from the content.