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Retirement Game-Changers: Strategies for a Healthy, Financially Secure, and Fulfilling Long Life
Are you approaching your retirement years and wondering if you have enough money to stop working? Are you afraid of poor health, high medical costs, and outliving your savings? Well, stop worrying—and start planning for the 21st century retirement! Retirement Game-Changers helps you make smart choices about your finances, health, and lifestyle as you transition from your work life into your retirement years. Filled with invaluable resources, checklists, and wit, Retirement Game-Changers shares ground-breaking tools and research to help you enjoy a long, healthy, and financially secure life. In this easy-to-follow guide, you’ll discover how
314 pages, Paperback
Published June 24, 2018
About the author
Steve Vernon
251 books208 followersHi! I'm Steve Vernon and I'd love to scare you. Along the way I'll entertain you. I guarantee a giggle as well.
If I listed all of the books I've written I'd bore you - and I am allergic to boring.
Instead, let me recommend one single book of mine.
Pick up SUDDEN DEATH OVERTIME for an example of true Steve Vernon storytelling. It's hockey and vampires for folks who love hockey and vampires - and for folks who don't!
For more up-to-date info please follow my blog at:
http://stevevernonstoryteller.wordpre...
And follow me at Twitter:
@StephenVernon
yours in storytelling,
Steve Vernon
If I listed all of the books I've written I'd bore you - and I am allergic to boring.
Instead, let me recommend one single book of mine.
Pick up SUDDEN DEATH OVERTIME for an example of true Steve Vernon storytelling. It's hockey and vampires for folks who love hockey and vampires - and for folks who don't!
For more up-to-date info please follow my blog at:
http://stevevernonstoryteller.wordpre...
And follow me at Twitter:
@StephenVernon
yours in storytelling,
Steve Vernon
Ratings & Reviews
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Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
January 30, 2020
Occassionally I get in a passing discussion about finances or retirement planning with friends, acquaintances, or some person in the elevator and I’m often shocked, yes shocked! about some aspect that they don’t know about that seems completely obvious to me.
Then in a moment of intermittent introspection, I wonder if they are thinking the same thing about me, so I check out a book like this just to brush up on things.
‘Game-changers’ is a good intro book, covers the appropriate variety of subjects and to its benefit, not so exhaustively as to bore your eyes out. The angle it takes is to supply a list of a dozen or so books and websites at the end of each chapter, should you really wish to ‘get deep into it’.
Oddly there is a life-style chapter suggesting one takes up gardening or recycling. All well if you do or want to do these things, but I’d think by time someone gets to 60+ they’ve got their hobbies sorted out.
Then in a moment of intermittent introspection, I wonder if they are thinking the same thing about me, so I check out a book like this just to brush up on things.
‘Game-changers’ is a good intro book, covers the appropriate variety of subjects and to its benefit, not so exhaustively as to bore your eyes out. The angle it takes is to supply a list of a dozen or so books and websites at the end of each chapter, should you really wish to ‘get deep into it’.
Oddly there is a life-style chapter suggesting one takes up gardening or recycling. All well if you do or want to do these things, but I’d think by time someone gets to 60+ they’ve got their hobbies sorted out.
January 16, 2019
This book is squarely targeted at people retiring their 60s with $100,000 to $1,000,000 in savings. If you are younger than that, have less than that, or have more than that, this book really won't have much for you. That said, most Americans probably fall into its target audience.
This book is actually based on a research report that Vernon co-authored for the Society of Actuaries and the Stanford Longevity Center on retirement. You can go download those and read them for free. It isn't exactly the same: those are focused almost entirely on spending strategies in retirement, whereas this book covers a lot more ground.
Despite the title, this doesn't really offer any "game changers". That doesn't mean the book is bad. But if you've read pretty much any other retirement book, you are unlikely to find a lot of value here. Writing a book on retirement is challenging because "retirement" is such a broad topic that it is impossible to actually do it justice in a single volume. There's not just the financial side of things -- that's complicated enough -- but also all the softer topics like how a husband and wife will suddenly be spending 40+ extra hours together and that might cause friction.
Entire books have been written on each of the chapters that Vernon provides. In some ways, that's the main strength of this book. None of its chapters really go into enough depth to be actionable. But each of them gives you an idea of the kinds of questions you need to answer and the research you need to do. If you think of this book less as "it will give me the answers" and more as "it will provide a roadmap" then it becomes more useful. Towards that end Vernon provides the best set of "go here to read more" references of any retirement book I'm familiar with.
But, again, that's really only going to be useful if this is the first retirement book you pick up.
I had some annoyances -- Vernon tries too hard to pretend that he's offering any game-changing advice here. Early on he tries to convince us retirements today are vastly longer than those of our grandparents. He abuses life expectancy statistics to claim that our retirement will be 30 years longer than our grandparents's retirement. That's clearly false, as the Social Security Administration data makes abundantly clear. In 1900, the average 65 year old man lived 11 more years. 100 years later, the average 65 year old man lived 15 years. An increase of just 4 years. Meanwhile, the retirement age has been pushed back from 65 to 67, so it is actually just an extra 2 years of retirement.
Likewise, the actual financial advice is the same thing financial advisors have been telling people for at least a decade. Defer Social Security as long as you can. Build a secure income floor. Put extra stuff in more risky investments. This is usually called the "floor and upside" strategy but Vernon invents new terminology ("retirement income generators") for the same concepts.
The biggest failure of the book is that none of the advice is detailed enough to really be actionable. Vernon says that if Social Security alone isn't enough we should consider buying an income annuity -- a SPIA. Okay. But when? At age 65? At age 70? How much of our assets should we use? 30%? 50%? Do we buy it all at once or do we ladder the purchases -- half at age 65 and half at age 70?
The same basic pattern repeats in nearly every chapter. We know there's a new topic we need to research but we don't know enough to make a decision based on this book. Ultimately, that makes the book pretty unsatisfying.
There are also a few gaps on topics that Vernon doesn't cover. He doesn't really discuss taxes or tax efficiency. This is an important topic, especially if you take his advice and defer Social Security until age 70. You'll have a few years with no income -- you'll be living entirely off of savings. That means you have the ability to do things like Roth conversions of tax gain harvesting while your income is near $0.
Despite the weaknesses, the references are very useful for someone getting started on researching all of this.
This book is actually based on a research report that Vernon co-authored for the Society of Actuaries and the Stanford Longevity Center on retirement. You can go download those and read them for free. It isn't exactly the same: those are focused almost entirely on spending strategies in retirement, whereas this book covers a lot more ground.
Despite the title, this doesn't really offer any "game changers". That doesn't mean the book is bad. But if you've read pretty much any other retirement book, you are unlikely to find a lot of value here. Writing a book on retirement is challenging because "retirement" is such a broad topic that it is impossible to actually do it justice in a single volume. There's not just the financial side of things -- that's complicated enough -- but also all the softer topics like how a husband and wife will suddenly be spending 40+ extra hours together and that might cause friction.
Entire books have been written on each of the chapters that Vernon provides. In some ways, that's the main strength of this book. None of its chapters really go into enough depth to be actionable. But each of them gives you an idea of the kinds of questions you need to answer and the research you need to do. If you think of this book less as "it will give me the answers" and more as "it will provide a roadmap" then it becomes more useful. Towards that end Vernon provides the best set of "go here to read more" references of any retirement book I'm familiar with.
But, again, that's really only going to be useful if this is the first retirement book you pick up.
I had some annoyances -- Vernon tries too hard to pretend that he's offering any game-changing advice here. Early on he tries to convince us retirements today are vastly longer than those of our grandparents. He abuses life expectancy statistics to claim that our retirement will be 30 years longer than our grandparents's retirement. That's clearly false, as the Social Security Administration data makes abundantly clear. In 1900, the average 65 year old man lived 11 more years. 100 years later, the average 65 year old man lived 15 years. An increase of just 4 years. Meanwhile, the retirement age has been pushed back from 65 to 67, so it is actually just an extra 2 years of retirement.
Likewise, the actual financial advice is the same thing financial advisors have been telling people for at least a decade. Defer Social Security as long as you can. Build a secure income floor. Put extra stuff in more risky investments. This is usually called the "floor and upside" strategy but Vernon invents new terminology ("retirement income generators") for the same concepts.
The biggest failure of the book is that none of the advice is detailed enough to really be actionable. Vernon says that if Social Security alone isn't enough we should consider buying an income annuity -- a SPIA. Okay. But when? At age 65? At age 70? How much of our assets should we use? 30%? 50%? Do we buy it all at once or do we ladder the purchases -- half at age 65 and half at age 70?
The same basic pattern repeats in nearly every chapter. We know there's a new topic we need to research but we don't know enough to make a decision based on this book. Ultimately, that makes the book pretty unsatisfying.
There are also a few gaps on topics that Vernon doesn't cover. He doesn't really discuss taxes or tax efficiency. This is an important topic, especially if you take his advice and defer Social Security until age 70. You'll have a few years with no income -- you'll be living entirely off of savings. That means you have the ability to do things like Roth conversions of tax gain harvesting while your income is near $0.
Despite the weaknesses, the references are very useful for someone getting started on researching all of this.
November 28, 2020
I would call this book wide, not deep. That is to say therre a lot of chapters on a lot of topics. Each chapter has a rather extensive bibliography of other books, articles and web sites to get more information. Most of the ideas are basic personal finance. For example, make sure that in any plan you make your income exceeds your expenses.
I liked the author's definition of retirement as "improving your life by changing your work."
I also liked how he focuses on the three stages of retirement: your go-go years, your slow-go years and your no-go years (and then you die).
This is a good book to use to identify holes in your retirement plans with the resources on where to go to get them fixed.
I liked the author's definition of retirement as "improving your life by changing your work."
I also liked how he focuses on the three stages of retirement: your go-go years, your slow-go years and your no-go years (and then you die).
This is a good book to use to identify holes in your retirement plans with the resources on where to go to get them fixed.
January 25, 2025
I gained quite a few fresh insights from reading this how-to guide from financial expert Steve Vernon. This book is extremely well organized, and I found its greatest value in the softer side of retirement... where will you live? what will you do? what might your social life look like? Another valuable aspect is the focus on multiple streams of retirement income. Steve is at the center of an entire movement dedicated to planning for (and making the most out of) one's final chapters of life. I view this book as an excellent place to start!
January 16, 2019
A short and easy to read book with excellent advice on planning for retirement. It covers not only the financial considerations but also health, work, where to live, emotional well-being, and planning your legacy. At the end of each chapter is an extremely valuable bibliography of websites and books with additional information.
November 19, 2019
I’ve been reading books for work. For anyone seriously planing for retirement, this is definitely a must read.
July 23, 2021
Very well written and full of helpful advise. Helped us evaluate where we are in terms of future retirement readiness. Would recommend to young and old.
July 24, 2019
same old, same old. Skip if you already have read other books on the same topic.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews