Retirement Bites
A Gen X Guide to Securing Your Financial Future
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- $24.99
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- $24.99
Publisher Description
From two personal finance experts, a road map to plan for your retirement, tailored to the specific financial circumstances of Gen X
“Retirement Bites is like having a savvy financial planner at your disposal, one who understands where you’ve been and where you want to go.” —Christine Benz, author of How to Retire
A Wall Street Journal Best Book of the Year
The oldest members of Gen X are less than a decade from retirement age, but many of the sixty-four million Americans born between 1965 and 1980 are not sufficiently prepared. While it could be easy to label Gen Xers as slackers, there are several underlying economic issues making it harder for this cohort to save for retirement. Company-funded pensions vanished just as Gen X started working, 401(k)s were less widespread for much of their early earning years, and Gen X’s earnings have been disrupted by multiple financial crises during their work lifetimes.
Retirement Bites is a retirement playbook that specifically targets this overlooked generation. Personal finance experts Kerry Hannon and Janna Herron lay out a blueprint for Gen Xers to take control of their financial future: from understanding investment options, to boosting financial security, to creating a retirement income stream, and more. The goal is to embrace not just saving for retirement but saving for life.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Yahoo Finance columnist Hannon (In Control at 50+) and journalist Herron urge the 65 million members of Generation X to plan for a successful transition to retirement in this offbeat but practical guide. The authors acknowledge the challenges people born between 1965 and 1980 face. For example, one in four have no retirement account, and 21.2 million carry student loans. However, they also note that more than 70% are homeowners and that Gen X is expected to inherit $30 trillion over the next two decades, in what Hannon and Herron call "The Great Wealth Transfer." The authors lay out a playbook for retirement preparation, showing readers how to create a financial plan, understand their investment options, and increase their income, perhaps by taking on contract or remote work after retiring. They season their advice with pop culture references that will resonate with the intended audience, beginning each chapter with epigraphs from TV shows and movies like Seinfeld and Ghostbusters. The best chapters tackle health care and Social Security; without being alarmist, the authors note the spiraling upward cost of the former and the vulnerability of the latter. They encourage resisting the urge to claim Social Security benefits early and increasing wellness before retirement to reduce health costs down the line. It adds up to an accessible and perceptive overview of the opportunities and difficulties Gen Xers will face in the coming years.
