A readable and invaluably thorough resource for understanding retirement finances.
A comprehensive guide offers advice on preparing for retirement.
Pfau begins his exhaustive breakdown of retirement planning with a note of caution for prospective retirees about to enter the labyrinthine jungle of United States federal regulations: Patience and information are the only surefire ways to make it through. “Fight the impatience that could lead you to choose short-term expediencies carrying greater long-term costs,” he warns, and his book is designed as the ultimate weapon in that fight. The author takes readers through every aspect of constructing their retirement’s financial superstructure, balancing the realities, and preparing for the unexpected. Everything from stock market speculation to the pluses and minuses of annuities to life and long-term-care insurance are discussed in great detail. Pfau acknowledges that there are many competing schools of thought on all of these issues, and he bases his own framework on the fact that different people approach their retirement finances in different ways. Some place their top priority on dependability, while others want more flexibility. As the manual explains the author’s approach, it is often seriously technical, full of thorny terminology and many charts and graphs, as befits the complexity of the subject. Readers are given clear but extremely in-depth instructions on how to navigate the intricacies of Medicare, for instance (a lack of understanding of the rules, Pfau writes, “can lead to gaps in coverage, overpayment on services or coverage, and unanticipated outcomes”). And in every section, readers are urged to do the “legwork” of discovering their options. The ultimate goal is to create a sufficient and sustainable retirement portfolio. Although the sheer amount of granular detail the author brings to the subject can seem daunting, the clarity of his explanations will smoothly carry even financially illiterate readers along.
A readable and invaluably thorough resource for understanding retirement finances.Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-945640-09-4
Page Count: 474
Publisher: Retirement Researcher Media
Review Posted Online: Sept. 20, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
It’s not Shakespeare, not by a long shot. But at least it’s not James Franco.
A noted actor turns to verse: “Poems are a Saturday in the middle of the week.”
McConaughey, author of the gracefully written memoir Greenlights, has been writing poems since his teens, closing with one “written in an Australian bathtub” that reads just as a poem by an 18-year-old (Rimbaud excepted) should read: “Ignorant minds of the fortunate man / Blind of the fate shaping every land.” McConaughey is fearless in his commitment to the rhyme, no matter how slight the result (“Oops, took a quick peek at the sky before I got my glasses, / now I can’t see shit, sure hope this passes”). And, sad to say, the slight is what is most on display throughout, punctuated by some odd koanlike aperçus: “Eating all we can / at the all-we-can-eat buffet, / gives us a 3.8 education / and a 4.2 GPA.” “Never give up your right to do the next right thing. This is how we find our way home.” “Memory never forgets. Even though we do.” The prayer portion of the program is deeply felt, but it’s just as sentimental; only when he writes of life-changing events—a court appearance to file a restraining order against a stalker, his decision to quit smoking weed—do we catch a glimpse of the effortlessly fluent, effortlessly charming McConaughey as exemplified by the David Wooderson (“alright, alright, alright”) of Dazed and Confused. The rest is mostly a soufflé in verse. McConaughey’s heart is very clearly in the right place, but on the whole the book suggests an old saw: Don’t give up your day job.
It’s not Shakespeare, not by a long shot. But at least it’s not James Franco.Pub Date: Sept. 16, 2025
ISBN: 9781984862105
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
The lessons to draw are obvious: Smoke more dope, eat less meat. Like-minded readers will dig it.
The chef, rapper, and TV host serves up a blustery memoir with lashings of self-help.
“I’ve always had a sick confidence,” writes Bronson, ne Ariyan Arslani. The confidence, he adds, comes from numerous sources: being a New Yorker, and more specifically a New Yorker from Queens; being “short and fucking husky” and still game for a standoff on the basketball court; having strength, stamina, and seemingly no fear. All these things serve him well in the rough-and-tumble youth he describes, all stickball and steroids. Yet another confidence-builder: In the big city, you’ve got to sink or swim. “No one is just accepted—you have to fucking show that you’re able to roll,” he writes. In a narrative steeped in language that would make Lenny Bruce blush, Bronson recounts his sentimental education, schooled by immigrant Italian and Albanian family members and the mean streets, building habits good and bad. The virtue of those habits will depend on your take on modern mores. Bronson writes, for example, of “getting my dick pierced” down in the West Village, then grabbing a pizza and smoking weed. “I always smoke weed freely, always have and always will,” he writes. “I’ll just light a blunt anywhere.” Though he’s gone through the classic experiences of the latter-day stoner, flunking out and getting arrested numerous times, Bronson is a hard charger who’s not afraid to face nearly any challenge—especially, given his physique and genes, the necessity of losing weight: “If you’re husky, you’re always dieting in your mind,” he writes. Though vulgar and boastful, Bronson serves up a model that has plenty of good points, including his growing interest in nature, creativity, and the desire to “leave a legacy for everybody.”
The lessons to draw are obvious: Smoke more dope, eat less meat. Like-minded readers will dig it.Pub Date: April 20, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-4197-4478-5
Page Count: 184
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: May 5, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2021
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