HOLISTIC RETIREMENT PLANNING

Forensic economist Missun presents a detailed guide to money management in retirement.

The author opens his nonfiction debut about retirement planning by noting that many people wish they could be allowed “do-overs” when it comes to personal finance issues. He imagines, for example, that he would advise his 16-year-old self that “investing early and often is essential”—adding, with amusing granularity, that he’d also explain compound interest to his younger self, and “relate the historical results of investing in large US stocks, as measured by Standard and Poor’s 500.” Missun’s goal in these pages is give readers the tools that they need to remove the necessity of do-overs by becoming “better-informed consumers of financial services.” He covers a wide range of financial topics from budgeting to investing to health care and Social Security. His book brings readers through the various stages of retirement planning, starting with accumulating assets and tracking one’s net worth and ending with all the complexities of estate planning. Throughout, Missun balances his financial advice with personal insights; for instance, he writes at length about the behavioral biases that can work against investors: “People invest more often in companies they know,” he says at one point, adding that it’s “one of the several reasons many Americans who invest in stocks own little or no foreign stocks.” He also includes charts and other illustrations to clarify subjects such as health insurance marketplace costs, estimated premium tax credits, Medicare premiums, and bond allocation outcomes.

Missun conveys a lot of specific information in fewer than 250 pages, but the strongest aspect of his book, by far, is its consistently compassionate tone. He never comes across as being solely driven by numbers; rather, his tone is that of a friendly confidante who happens to be very knowledgeable about finance. For example, at one point, he sensitively writes about shifting from paying into retirement accounts to drawing money from them—the true turning point of entering retirement: “Moving from accumulation to withdrawal can be a significant psychological challenge,” he writes, “sometimes causing a loss of self-worth, boredom, and depression.” He also discusses how retirement itself can be difficult to process, at first: “Some people do not realize how much they tie their self-worth to the answer to ‘What do you do?’ during their working years.” This sense of humanity is present throughout his comprehensive work, which tackles an array of complex subjects. They include what to look for when vetting a financial advisor, how to tackle the intricacies of changing one’s state of residence upon retirement, and how to budget for escalating health care costs; the last is a key concern, as most retirees haven’t earned lifetime health benefits from former employers. Also of value is Missun’s consideration of the psychological factors that might prompt someone to retire early, and whether one is always wise to trust those gut feelings. Overall, readers will glean plenty of useful information from this book’s wide-ranging advice.

A thoroughly comprehensive and invaluable manual for managing retirement.