Most financial books tell you come up with a retirement goal and to save towards it. Period. But have you ever wondered if you were on the right track? At 30, how much should I have saved for retirement? What about 40, 50, etc? What about debt, savings, etc.? Where do I stack up against my peers?
The great thing about Farrell’s book is that he goes beyond most financial books and actually lays out a road map for all of these goals by using a series of simple ratios to figure out where you are. The ratios are easy calculated; they mostly involve taking your income and dividing it by some other easily obtainable factor. Farrell then lays out a table of ratios for every stage of ages from 25 to 70 that should be used to tell you where you should be at certain points of your life.
The book goes beyond simple retirement advice and extends into many discussions about where you should be with debt, savings, insurance, and even your child’s college savings. Farrell goes into quite a bit of discussion about how much you can expect to spend in retirement and how Social Security will play a part in it (Spoiler: He believes it WILL play a part).
Although it would help to know a little bit about what stocks and mutual funds are before you read this book, it could be very helpful for someone just beginning in personal finance. It is easy to read and certainly manageable to comprehend. This is definitely a one-stop, must read for anyone taking the next step towards understanding what milestones you should be striving to achieve.
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