Spend 'Til the End: The Revolutionary Guide to Raising Your Living Standard--Today and When You Retire

Front Cover
Simon and Schuster, Jun 10, 2008 - Business & Economics - 352 pages
Rich or poor, young or old, high school or college grad, this book, written by economist Laurence J. Kotlikoff and syndicated financial columnist Scott Burns, can change your life for the better! If you follow the advice in this book, it will raise your living standard (possibly by a lot), improve your lifestyle, and help you spend 'til the end. And it will completely transform your financial thinking, turning every bit of conventional financial wisdom on its head.

If this sounds like a revolution in financial planning, you got it. So do The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Time, Consumer Reports, and other top publications that have been featuring the authors' economics-based "consumption smoothing" approach to financial planning.

Spend 'Til the End substitutes economic wisdom for the "rules of dumb" that currently pass for financial advice. In the process it indicts the investment and financial-planning industry for giving most people saving and insurance targets that are much too high and then convincing them to invest in risky mutual funds and expensive insurance policies. The result is that most people are scrimping and saving during the years when they could be spending and enjoying their money -- and with no sure payoff.

Easy to read, this book is packed with practical and often shocking advice on whether to work, how to pick a career, which job to take, where to live, what sort of house to buy, how much to save, when to retire, which kind of retirement account to use, whether to have kids, whether to divorce, when to take Social Security, how fast to spend down your assets in retirement, and how to invest.
 

Contents

SMOOTH FINANCIAL PATHS
15
FINANCIAL PATHOLOGY
53
RAISINGYOUR LIVING STANDARD
107
Does It Pay to Play?
141
Converting
156
Cashing Out
160
Double Dip on Social Security
169
Russian Roulette for Keeps
175
Pricing Procreation
219
Can We Help the Kids?
224
Charity Stays at Home
228
PRESERVINGYOUR LIVING STANDARD
233
Are Stocks Safer Than Bonds in the Long Run?
237
Diversify Your Resources Not Your Portfolio
243
Spending Down
250
Beware of Averages
256

Learning Your Bs and Ds
183
Holding Your Nuts
186
Fire Your Broker
191
Downsize
196
Equitable Alimony
199
PRICINGYOUR PASSIONS
203
Ciao Baby
205
Shacking Up
208
Take the Leisure and Run
214
Portfolio Choice
263
Public Policy Risk
267
Sell Your Boss Short or Long
272
The Troll Under the Bridge
277
Should I Care About LongTerm Care?
283
A SafetyFirst Strategy
287
Is There an Economist in the House?
295
Index
301
Copyright

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About the author (2008)

Laurence J. Kotlikoff is a professor of economics at Boston University and president of Economic Security Planning, Inc. His company websites are ESPlanner.com and MaximizeMySocialSecurity.com. To learn more, visit GetWhatsYours.org.

Scott Burns is a nationally syndicated personal finance columnist distributed by the Universal Press Syndicate. He is an M.I.T. graduate and the author or coauthor of three previous books. He is also a founder and the chief investment strategist of AssetBuilder, an internet-based asset management firm that delivers optimized risk-measured index portfolios for investors. His company website is www.assestbuilder.com.

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