Reduce Debt and Accumulate Wealth Through Personal Growth

Retired attorney Gordon presents a manual for navigating personal-finance challenges.

“Most people enter financial situations unthinkingly,” the author asserts early on, “trusting and hoping that all will go well but not knowing enough to ensure the result will be the desired outcome.” In this book, Gordon aims to help readers avoid such situations, and he begins by laying out some basic tasks. For instance, he advises that one establish an emergency fund with three to six months of living expenses. He also notes that individuals should view their finances as businesses do, using “balance sheets and profit-and-loss statements” to improve their financial state. He offers ways to track expenses (“If you keep track of everything, you will be amazed by how much money you spend on unimportant things”), set a budget, and increase income. Regarding credit-card debt, he sensibly stresses the importance of dealing with cards that have the largest interest rates first. Later chapters dig into such topics as pre-retirement planning and whether to consider buying a home as an investment. One year before retirement, the author asserts, one should consider: “Is your house too big, or should you downsize or move elsewhere?” However, he frames retirement as not merely a financial matter, but also a situation that requires a significant shift in one’s self-perception. The author tells his own story of the difficult transition he faced when he realized that he was no longer a practicing lawyer; he had to come to terms with the idea that he was now “Ted Gordon, who was an attorney.”

Over the course of this book, the author frequently and effectively draws on his experiences as an attorney and as a retiree, and this personal touch results in moments with notable impact. For instance, although he does not encourage people to file for bankruptcy, he says that he’s witnessed situations “when bankruptcy is the only solution,” citing the story of a client who faced “hundreds of thousands of dollars of medical debt without a job.” The book’s early sections are full of standard advice that readers will likely find in many other personal-finance manuals. However, when Gordon gets into specifics, his tips are most helpful and succinct. An appendix, for example, helpfully offers five questions to ask about the optimal time for receiving Social Security payments (“Do you need the money immediately?...In the cash is a necessity, then all other questions are irrelevant”); a chapter on employment law presents an informative list of questions that are illegal for employers to ask candidates and advice on what to do if a potential employer asks something inappropriate, such as “How much do you weigh?” There’s also a great deal of material that potential homeowners may find useful, as well, such as how to vet a neighborhood and why one should never waive inspection of a property. All told, just about anyone with late-in-life money questions will find something here that’s pertinent to their current situation.

An easy-to-read, practical guide to money management whose personal touches shine.