The Procrastinator's Guide to Financial Security: How Anyone Over 40 Can Still Build a Strong Portfolio--and Retire Comfortably

Book Description

For the burgeoning number of baby boomers, retirement is barreling full-steam ahead. And for many of them, having spent their lives focused more on consumption than on saving and investing, the future is looking pretty meager.

According to a recent study by the AARP, the average boomer's net worth is less than $50,000--far less than a person needs to retire comfortably. The good news, though, is that it's not too late to rectify the situation.

The Procrastinator's Guide to Financial Security supplies a crash course in the fundamentals of money management. In a clear, straightforward way--but with a tone that stresses the urgency of the situation--the book helps readers develop the knowledge, skills, and discipline they need to secure a comfortable retirement. They'll find sound advice and step-by-step strategies on how to:

* Curb their impulse spending and get out of debt
* Set up a financial plan and stick to their budget
* Estimate the annual income they need to retire and use IRAs and salary deferral programs to reach that goal
* Make savvy financial decisions concerning life insurance, refinancing a home, and saving for college tuition
* Develop a personal investment philosophy
* Practice smart investment strategies designed to increase wealth--plus much more.

Customer Reviews:

Stop procrastinating with your finances.......2001-06-13

This is an excellent book to have a good understanding of all aspects of your personal finances. David Teitelbaum presents all financial planning issues with an easy-reading style that is both clear and educational. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in having a well-rounded knowledge of personal finances. Every chapter of the book presents a number of useful web addresses on related subjects that are excellent for further reading and a more in-depth understanding of certain issues. It is never too late to get this book. Stop procrastinating with your personal finances!

Not Just for Baby Boomers.......2001-05-15

I highly recommend this wonderful book to anyone who wants to learn how to take control of their financial future. The financial truths in this book apply to Generation X and Boomers alike. Mr. Teitelbaum makes the complex seem simple and takes the mystery out of investing. He has written this book for people who are not financial experts, so you can feel confident that his book can and will help you learn how to handle your finances. Mr. Teitelbaum explains the world of personal investing in a smooth, easy-reading style. So, whether you are a beginning investor or somewhat experienced, this book can serve as an invaluable resource. Mr. Teitelbaum champions the get quick slowly approach to investing based in common sense and long-term planning. If you are interested in building wealth but are prone to a get-rich-quick approach, then this book is the tonic you need. Mr. Teitelbaum addresses all of the building blocks to wealth creation including: sensible budeting, ridding yourself of expensive debt, developing a savings plan and developing a solid long-term investment plan. Also, he provides valuable insight into the usual suspects (stocks, bonds, mutual funds, life insurance and annuites) and explains how they fit within a broader investment philosophy. Mr. Teitelbaum gives broad coverage to so many areas of personal finance that his book will also serve as a great reference guide. He also, shows you where to find out more information about a particular financial topic. I consider this book a great achievement, and it will undoubtedly help many people. I highly recommend this book. I give it 5 stars!!!

Knowledge Is Power.......2001-05-06

The author makes a very good point in this book--that most of us are not taught in school this basic life skill of budgeting and investing our money. He makes another good point that the quality of each person's life in retirement will depend to a great extent to how well he/she has planned and invested, because no longer do most of us work for paternal companies that take care of us. Even the federal government's retirement plans are not what they once were. We're expected to make more and more choices for ourselves, and most of us are oblivious about what we'll have in retirement. We also don't want to think about long-term care, but we can see how important it is as we look around and see our parents needing care and are suddenly surprised to see that Medicare/Medicaid doesn't go far. I, for one, never was exposed to any of the basics, and I admit have no head for it. My eyes glaze over at the mention of dollars and cents. But this book is so easy to follow and so logical that I feel like the author is personally holding me by the hand and starting me out with Step One. There are background chapters about, for example, how Social Security got started; how it used to work; how it works now; and what we can and can't expect it to do for us in retirement. There is an excellent index that enables the reader to search for specific topics. There are easy-to-follow headings on things like What Drives Up the Market, Paying for Long-Term Care, and Buying Mutual Funds At Banks. The author even includes website information, which makes the book all the more useful. In short, this is a basic handbook--not just for baby boomers, but for younger people starting out. I've given two copies to recent college graduates entering the workforce because I don't want them to be as oblivious as I was for so many years. I want to thank the author for opening my eyes before it was too late!

Not Just for Baby Boomers.......2001-04-01

Though this book is aimed at baby boomers, I, who have been collecting Social Security for several years, found the book illuminating and educational. Like most Americans, I grew up disinterested in what I perceived to be too difficult in learning more about savings and investing - both how to do it and why they are both so important. I'd certainly be more comfortable in retirement now had I had this knowledge years ago! In addition, numbers have always baffled me. David Teitelbaum's book provided an easy gateway to learning about financing retirement, getting out of debt, how to start investing, and how the markets work. His writing is warm, friendly, and easy to follow, and you certainly feel that he cares about you as well as what he is writing about. I particularly found the chapter on Family, with its discussions on life insurance, long-term care planning, and wealth transfer, both useful and helpful. Because of what I have learned from his book, I am encouraging my adult children and grandchildren to read it and be more prepared than I was.

You have to read this!.......2001-03-29

This is the book you need to work towards financial security. It's never too late to start and David Teitelbaum makes you feel like you really can do it. This book is one of the best financial planning books on the market. The writing is easy to understand and it makes sense. You can't help but feel David Teitelbaum's passion about good financial planning -- for everyone. Get the book and start taking steps towards your healthy financial future. You can do it!

Book Description

At age 31, having left a stifling decade-long marriage, Debi Holmes Binney set off alone into the harsh Utah desert to find direction and spiritual renewal. Armed with only basic supplies and her writing journals, she spent an extended sojourn in a place by turns physically terrifying, psychologically invigorating, and gloriously beautiful. Her moving account will appeal to both physical and spiritual adventurers.

Customer Reviews:

Woman survives in spite of herself.......2006-06-07

Since it's been covered already, I won't get into the incredible lack of preparation and education of "her" environment Debi showed. I can only think she was being self-destructive. How else to explain such outright disregard for the wilderness and, dare I say, stupidity?
I couldn't put this book down, but only because I kept looking for some redemptive qualities. I have no idea what she learned about herself, she seemed to grow very little from her experience and her writing was less than inspiring. I kept waiting for her "Midnight Stalker" to take her out and deliver us all out of her and our misery.
One thing I appreciated was when she finally acknowledged the help she'd received and realized that "no man is an island." However, she continued to talk about how she had proved she could take care of herself. Ah...really? Without the wood stove and wood, not to mention the correctly-sized staples and staple gun and, oh yeah, the warm jacket, Debi would not have made it.
I can't remember being so frustrated by a book I've read. I guess that's something...

Speaking from the heart - listening from the heart.......2006-04-16

I am preparing to spend some time alone in the desert. As I looked through the stacks at my local library Desert Solitaire was checked out - but Desert Sojourn was there on the shelf and I checked it out.

Perhaps it is because I too am yearning for deeper meaning in my life and therefore am listening from the heart - but I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book.

It takes great courage to sit with yourself without the escape routes of books, tv, radio, telephones, and all those other distractions.

I was puzzled by some of the reviews - I think they say more about the reviewers than the author.

This is a woman - who was in psychic pain - and she listened to the summons of her soul - and it led her to the desert and deeper into her life.

Because of my interest in Soulcraft (Bill Plotkin) and the work of the animas valley institute (animas.org) this book was a welcome addition to my preparation... and even more so - because I wasn't looking for it - it found me.

Thank you Debi... The world needs wanderers...

Five stars probably from her friends, but then.............2006-03-18

I wouldn't even give this book one star but there is no lower rating. The publisher is at fault for this disaster of a book (they never should have accepted it in the first place) that I hope will someday embarrass the author--the reason I hope that is that eventual embarrassment will show that the author has grown out of whatever strange mental land she was living in when she undertook this sojourn. Others have commented on her lack of proper clothing and equipment so I won't repeat that. What hasn't been mentioned are the food stores she chose to take seemed designed to be not only dreary and monotonous, but extremely constipating. It's as if she deliberately built in self-punishment and failure. I can't remember if she said she did any research before undertaking this fiasco, but it certainly doesn't appear that she did.

Debi, where are you now? In a far better state, I hope. Maybe you had to write this book to get there. Don't be disheartened by all the bad reviews. Sometimes we have to crash through the bottom to come out on the other side. And at the very least, you had the guts to do it, and that counts.

Great book, but frustrating as well.......2002-09-25

I greatly enjoyed this book...as a thirty-something myself who has gone through a divorce, I could relate to a lot of the emotions and the urge to find oneself. Debi's sojourn into the desert, or at least the concept, is one that I often daydream about as a way of searching out my soul and realizing my purpose. I think she has a lot of courage to face herself alone in isolation as I'm not sure I could sleep so many nights in the wilderness alone without dying of fright. The book was well-written, if not a little whiney, at times.

However, at the same time, I found numerous things disturbing. First, the author divorces her husband and leaves her child with him, except for holidays. Then she runs off with some literature guru who lets her live with him jobless and complaining for however long. Second, she goes into the wilderness ill-prepared for 40 days alone - no waterproof hiking boots, no warm jacket, etc. For anyone who has ever camped or skied in extreme conditions, they know that those two items are first and foremost on the survival list. What was she thinking when she brought Reeboks and cowboy boots? Third, she would've surely died had not the ranger and his wife provided her with a parka, wood stove and wood, and staple gun. Fourth, she spent half of her time hiding out in her shelter before realizing that she could occupy her time with creating a camp site area that would make her feel at home. It occurred to me while reading that this is the first thing I would've done - explored my area, created a home, and thus felt safe and comfortable.

Regardless of the frustration, this is a definitely a recommended book.

Disappointing |Sojourn.......2002-01-09

I opened the book with high expectations...What a terrific title...and what a shame to find such immature writing. I kept waiting for the moment when I could share the author's experience...when I could admire her...or sympathize with her..but honestly...a pet fly! A captivating topic...wasted!

The Sonoran Desert by Day and Night (Dover Pictorial Archive Series)

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The Sonoran Desert by Day and Night (Dover Pictorial Archive Series)
Dot Barlowe
Manufacturer: Dover Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0486423697

Book Description

Entertaining, educational coloring book abounds with realistically rendered illustrations of wildlife found in this area: tiny lizards, an antelope jack rabbit, a darting road runner, a desert tortoise, a turkey vulture, and more. 29 ready-to-color illustrations, 5 in full color on covers. Introduction. Captions.

Falling Into the Face of God: Forty Days and Nights in the Judean Desert

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Another inspiring, lovely book from this talented writer

Falling Into the Face of God: Forty Days and Nights in the Judean Desert
William J. Elliott
Manufacturer: Thomas Nelson
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0849900719

Book Description

In early June of 2002, I left the United States and traveled to the locus of my own soul. If one were to look at a map, they would say that my destination was Israel (specifically the Judean Desert) and that I had traveled 6,497 miles. But in actuality, I traveled much farther than that-upon a road whose traversing is not measured in miles, but by the deepening of the human experience, love and acceptance; and not by direction (for there is only one direction-inward). And whose perilous mountains, cliffs, and valleys were not composed of stone or sand, but of one's own psyche (the most dangerous of the world's creations).

In Bill Elliott's forty days in the Judean desert he learns many deep and poignant truths about himself, his world, and his relationship with God. He reflects back on significant (and insignificant) moments in his life and learns from them as well-his parents dying at his home when he was 12, a dream he had about TV psychiatrist Frasier, the comical relationship with his best friend Dave who later committed suicide, and other incidents.

This book is truly in the vein of the introspective works of Anne Lamott, Don Miller, and others. If you're looking for a deeper spiritual experience, you will devour this book.

Customer Reviews:

Another inspiring, lovely book from this talented writer.......2007-03-25

It's not the average Wisconsinite that would choose to spend forty days in the hottest of deserts, but William J. Elliott is not average. If you are lucky, you have discovered this writer's previous works in which he travels worldwide to interview the great spiritual leaders of our time. In both of his must reads, Tying Rocks to Clouds and A Place at the Table : A Journey to Redicover the Real Jesus with Guidance of Various Teachers, from Billy Graham to Deepak Chopra, Elliott wanders far from his native Madison, WI to seek the wise words a far flung array of folks from Mother Teresa to Neil Douglas-Klotz. In this narrative, however, Elliott goes on his own inner journey to experience the Judean desert as Jesus did. Elliott writes, "...my going to the desert was the next step in my relationship with God. And this relationship demanded a consummation; a confrontation of both love and anger..."

My guess is that during most of his heat tortured days in the Judean desert, Elliott would have gladly traded his saunalike tent and gecko-infested cave, for the relative comforts of his motor home which gave him shelter and wheels on his previous journeys. But in Falling into the Face of God, Elliott has no choice but to share his days and nights with flies, ants, bees, lizards and other unsavory types with only a mosquito net between them. What gets him through all this? Mediation, getting up at 4:30 a.m. to cook when it's only 100 degrees and Clif Bars to name only a few things.

One of the many things I adore about Elliott's writing is his wide range of references. Whether he's quoting the Gospel of Thomas, likening an event to Bill Murray's Groundhog Day or conjuring up Louis Armstrong singing "What a Wonderful World", you know Elliott is once again turning the ordinary occurrence -- not even observable to most of us -- into an extraordinary, exquisite moment. I also appreciate his ironic sense of humor and perspective despite the fact that he is pushed mentally and physically to his humanly limits. Elliott crawls to the edge of a 250 foot cliff for fear that he'll trip and fall. While unbelievably rappelling down the same cliff when rock climbing enthusiasts passing by adopt him, Elliott compares the desire to quickly end the experience to speaking with his girlfriend about some emotional issue.

Elliot's writing reminds me of the spiritual quest of Anne Lamott or C.S. Lewis with a dose of Nick Hornsby's humor and spot on observations. Hard to believe? Try reading one of Elliott's books. If nothing else, if you make the right decision to read and hopefully purchase this book, you'll learn about the rules of the desert including "....from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., do not move!" From this WI native to another, thanks, for taking us on another incredible journey. Can't wait for the next trip!

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A Night and Day in the Desert (Night & Day in the Desert)
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Weekly Reader Book Set (Hardback) What Makes Day and Night, What Is a Butterfly, Why Is It Cold, Why Does It Snow, What Is a Volcano, What Is a Mountain, Why Does It Rain, What Is a Desert, What Is a Rainbow, Why Do Animals Sleep Though Winter
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Cloud By Day Fire By Night Messages Form the Third Annual Conference of the Weigh Down Workshop in Nashville, Tennessee (DESERT OASIS '98 THE WEIGH DOWN WORKSHOP THREE AUDIO CASSETTES)

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Cloud By Day Fire By Night Messages Form the Third Annual Conference of the Weigh Down Workshop in Nashville, Tennessee (DESERT OASIS '98 THE WEIGH DOWN WORKSHOP THREE AUDIO CASSETTES)
GWEN SHAMBLIN
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Messages from the third annual conference of the WEIGH DOWN WORKSHOP in Nashville, Tennessee. A part of the Weigh Down Workshop. Learn how to submit to the power of God for personal impowermnet. Insightful message will encourage listeners in times of testing to wholeheartitly love and trust God. the set also contains heartfelt testimonies from the 4000 partisipants.

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Day and Night in the Desert

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Desert Sojurn: A Woman's Forty Days and Nights Alone
Debi Holmes-Binney
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Fire by day and flame by night;: With the fighting hermits of the African desert;

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Fire by day and flame by night;: With the fighting hermits of the African desert;
Aage
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Book Description

Daws Butler was the Master of Voice. He spoke the words for most of the classic Hanna-Barbera characters: Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound, Quick Draw McGraw, Elroy Jetson, and a hundred others. He also originated the vocal character of Cap'n Crunch and other famous Jay Ward cartoon characters. His significant work as both a writer and an actor with Stan Freberg in the 1950s on The Stan Freberg Show and multi-million-selling records such as St. George and the Dragonet are still held in reverence today.

He also ran a voice acting workshop for years.

This is his book of scenes, exercises and advice for voice actors, written for those who are now tops in the profession. Among his many successful students are Nancy Cartwright (voice of Bart Simpson), and Corey Burton (from Closet Cases of the Nerd Kind to Disney's Treasure Plant), who wrote the Foreword.

For the first time in print, finally a book for voice professionals by the top man himself!

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