Rags To Retirement

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One Size Doesn't Fit All

Affordable retirement strategies.

Retirees who want to live in retirement Now!

Rags To Retirement
Alan Lavine , and Gail Liberman
Manufacturer: Alpha
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Retirement Planning | Personal Finance | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
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Retire on Less Than You Think : The New York Times Guide to Planning Your Financial Future

ASIN: 1592570933
Release Date: 2003-11-04

Book Description

This is the guide that comes to the rescue of the majority of Americans who would like to retire but don't think they can. It features profiles of ordinary people who have a net worth of less than the amount popular retirement books say is needed to live a comfortable lifestyle, but who, despite facing the same struggles as many of the intended readers, have retired comfortably. Readers will learn how these people reached their retirement goals, not by amassing great wealth, but by taking the initiative to implement an unconventional strategy. Complete with a tally of the subjects' assets, this book identifies exactly how they took control of their money and their lives to accomplish their dreams.

Customer Reviews:

One Size Doesn't Fit All.......2003-11-27

Gail Liberman and Alan Levine leave no doubt that the old adage "one-size-fits-all" isn't the least bit applicable to retirement. The twelve retirees profiled in their book reveal a dozen different ways to enjoy life-after-work without needing a ton of money to do it. Real-life stories about people who retired in their 30s, 40s, 50s, and 60s recount how it's possible to quit working and be happy living on much less than the $1 million or more commonly recommended by financial advisors.

From perpetually traveling the world to living on a sail boat, seeing the U.S. in an RV, moving to a foreign country, living in co-housing, relocating to a "planned community," or simply staying in one's own home, "Rags to Retirement" provides alternatives, insights, and strategies to help readers achieve enjoyable retirements regardless of their income. My wife and I are pleased to be profiled in chapter 9. To read our story and eleven others that present retirement from a different perspective--one that is encouraging rather than discouraging--pick up a copy of this book.

Larry Ferstenou, Author
"You CAN Retire Young: How to Retire in Your 40s or 50s Without Being Rich"

Affordable retirement strategies........2003-11-27

The stories of 12 couples that have retired and done well despite not having large nest eggs are interesting and, in some cases, inspiring. The couple that bought a truck and fifth wheel to travel the country are the envy of many of us. The information about the gentleman living on his sailboat and the couples living abroad provides good food for thought. The final chapter was different in that the couple profiled declined the authors' request for an interview. It appears that it was written by researching both the couple's website and magazine articles that have been written about them. Creative thinking.

There are tips at the end of each chapter to assist in implementing the strategies discussed by the retiree(s) profiled. Good clarification except for two that don't seem applicable to retirement planning.

Rags to Retirement is a enjoyable read but doesn't have quite enough information to draw you back for a second reading. For those that are seriously considering retiring early and well on a limited income, a better book to purchase may be Your Money or Your Life, Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin. The two books could even be good companion reading for how to and done.

Retirees who want to live in retirement Now!.......2003-11-18

Book Review: "Rags to Retirement," by Gail Liberman and Alan Lavine. Alpha Books. 2003.

By George Fulmore (Artofret@aol.com)

With so many articles and columns being written these days about retirees needing to delay their retirement start date, or that the majority of Baby Boomers plan to continue working in retirement, or of people who have tried retirement, been dissatisfied and returned to work, it's nice to have a new book out there on the other side of the equation.

"Rags to Retirement" gives profiles of 12 couples or individuals who have retired earlier than conventional wisdom would advise and/or with less money than they should be expected to have. The theme of the book, to me, is to display a variety of folks who are determined to be retired on their own terms and are successfully making the best of it

One couple, who take the retirement plunge without any retirement benefits and before being eligible for Social Security, sell their house and most of their possessions, and buy a truck and a one-bedroom recreation vehicle. The two say that they had heard too many stories of people waiting too long to get started having retirement fun. As the wife puts it, "We wanted to do it now....If you sit around and wait for all the lights to turn green, you're never going to make it out of town."

Per the book, in the first 2 ½ years on the road for this couple, they have leisurely traveled through nine U.S. states, plus the western part of Canada. They estimate that the $3,000 that they spend per month is substantially less than what they would have spent per month if they had continued to live in their house. The wife says her back pains that she suffered as the result of her work are gone and, she adds, "We're not tired all the time. "

Another story is of a retired couple who sold the house in the U.S. and moved to Mexico. There, they live on their Social Security, plus some annuity income, to receive the luxuries of a private swimming pool, a maid and a gardener at their two-story masonry brick and stone home that sits on about a half acre in a gated community of about 130 homes. Both do volunteer work and take advantage of many of the group activities offered in their community. Living in the Guadalajara area, they have access to Costco, Wal-Mart and Sam's Club when needed. They generally make one trip a year by car to the U.S. for a vacation, but have no plans to return permanently.

Others stories include a couple who "drop out" in their 30's for a life of permanent travel and relocation. And there is one about a woman who uses income from a reverse mortgage on her home as a way to make her retirement years more meaningful. Then, there's one about a guy who lives permanently on a sailboat, and of a couple who live in a co-housing community.

I consider "Rags to Retirement" a good read for those either contemplating or already into their retirement life. The book presents real stories of real people making retirement work for them in a way that, in most of the stories, conventional wisdom would not endorse as wise.

So, are these folks foolish? Isn't that for them to decide? Then, does the book mislead others into thinking that they have the right to declare themselves retired, on their own terms, not those of others? Absolutely!

I come away feeling that all of the subjects of the book have done the right thing at the right time for their lives. I come away inspired that I've also made the right decision to retire "early," before all the lights in town have turned green. I recommend the book highly, and I hope it sells well.

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Rags to Retirement: Stories From People Who Retired Well On Much Less Than You'd Think
Alan Lavine , and Gail Liberman
Manufacturer: Authors Choice Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0595438180

Book Description

Wondering where you're going to get the $1,000,000 experts say you need to retire? Join the crowd.

Meet 12 ordinary people who found ways to meet their retirement goals, without sizable nest eggs. Authors Alan Lavine and Gail Liberman describe the journeys these people took to achieve their dreams and the setbacks they experienced along the way.

"Yes, you can retire. Learn how others did it, and how they are living the good life on less."-Evan Simonoff, editor in chief, Financial Advisor

"Real world! Real people! A must read. You can learn how people like yourself made the most of their retirement savings."-James A. Barry Jr., CFP chairman of the Barry Financial Group and host of Jim Barry's Financial Success on PBS

"I'll tell you what's so good about Rags to Retirement, what distinguishes it from the long catalogue of damnably boring finance books out there. I'll tell you why it matters. Simple really. It's about story, not accounting. It's about people, not money! People like you and me. We're not rich, never will be. We should have taken Economics 101, but we took Latin or geography, and now we're facing our golden years with trepidation and empty pockets. Well, take heart, folks. We don't need a million in the bank, but we do need to live creatively. That's the lesson in these refreshing and moving stories of people who've led hardscrabble lives and have somehow managed to settle with dignity and independence into their golden years. And we can do it, too! Rags to Retirement: such stuff as dreams are made on."-John Dufresne, author of Deep in the Shade of Paradise

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Up and Away (From Rags to Retirement)
Robert Young
Manufacturer: Firehouse Print Shoppe
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000KELP96

Book Description

In From Iuka to Vicksburg, 1862–1863, Grant leads the Union army to victory. The story of western operations testifies to Grant’s effectiveness. He and his soldiers move through Kentucky, and Tennessee and down the Mississippi Valley during a difficult winter. Ahead is Vicksburg and a turning point in the Civil War. One critic called this volume “probably the most thoroughly documented study of Grant in the West.”

Customer Reviews:

Interesting Take on Grant and the Western Theater.......2007-02-11

I think the book is better than the other review gave it credit for. I will agree that he does go out of his way to discredit Grant's drinking. But on the whole these are pretty informative books not as dry as the other review says they are. The two new editions by the University of Nebraska Press have great introductions by Grimsley and Simpson. Simpson gives more credit to Williams than the review here gives. These introductions are excellent. But the volumes are not always about Grant. The Kentucky Invasion is covered in the second volume as is the battle of Murfreesboro. I recommend these books to anyone interested in Grant and/or the Western Theater of the Civil War.

Overly dry and boring.......2000-09-02

Kenneth William wrote a series of five books on Ulysses S. Grant in the 1950's. He died before he could complete his supposedly "definitive treatment" of Grant the general. Williams' books are well-researched and you will find few factual gaffes. However, his writing style is often torturous and his passion for meaningless minutiae will probably drive you crazy. He excels in listing every detail of a battle until you're shaking your head or holding it as you reach for the aspirin bottle.

Williams' reverence for Grant is evident throughout. He is also peculiarly defensive about the issue of Grant's occasional over-indulgence in whiskey and in his footnotes he becomes almost hysterical on this topic. This type of hagiography is misplaced in a serious work and seriously undermines the credibility of the work. William's five volumes have been pretty much forgotten in the modern era and for good reason. He tells the reader almost nothing about Grant as a human being, his private life (pivotal in Grant's story) is regally ignored throughout.

Book Description

Ulysses S. Grant was a store clerk in Galena, Illinois, in April 1861 when he answered President Lincoln’s call to fight for the Union. In The First Year, 1861–1862, Grant begins as a colonel of Illinois volunteers and moves into prominence after strategically important battles at Belmont, Forts Henry and Donelson, and Shiloh.

Customer Reviews:

Not Terrible.......2001-07-23

Complex, dry and lifeless.......2000-09-02

Book Description

Thought-provoking, sensitive, factual history by this retired professional librarian. She includes Native American Folklore stories and many of their photos. While her father supervised an experimental farm, the author lived at Fort Duchesne during 1925-1935. She gives a detailed physical, geographical, day-to-day, and emotional account of life there, and includes her observation of the plight of her friends, the Uintahs and Ourays, who were forced to live in the old Fort converted to an Indian Reservation. It changed her forever and in ways that were in conflict with the opinions of the adults around her. In 1883, Fort Duchesne was converted from a military stockade to an Indian Reservation for the Uintah and Ouray Indians. Old Fort Duchesne, now gone, was located a mile south of U.S. Highway 40, hidden behind a large grove of Cottonwood trees. When the Indian lands in the Uintah Basin were opened to white settlement in 1905, it was Utah's last frontier. A growing network of roads and canals connected the small settlements of Ashley (now Vernal, Utah) in Uintah County and Roosevelt, in Duchesne County. This book recounts memories of a little girl's early childhood spent at Fort Duchesne between 1925 and 1935. Thought-provoking, sensitive, factual history by this retired professional librarian. She includes Native American Folklore stories and many of their photos. While her father supervised an experimental farm, the author lived at Fort Duchesne during 1925-1935. She gives a detailed physical, geographical, day-to-day, and emotional account of life there, and includes her observation of the plight of her friends, the Uintahs and Ourays, who were forced to live in the old Fort converted to an Indian Reservation. During our "long talks," Johnny Victor told me most of what I learned about Native Americans. He had been sent to a special school for Native Americans and had learned about many tribes. He told me they called themselves "The People." He told me the Creation Myth of the Utes, which explained how they got their name. He talked about their dances, explaining that the Sun Dance didn't belong to the Utes. Their totem was the bear, whose characteristics they tried to emulate. The dance of the Utes was the Bear Dance. Johnny told me various myths about animals. In general, I listened to his stories much as I did the stories my Swedish grandfather told, as pastimes. I have rewritten them as I remember them, and as they pertain to my experience. Virginia Carlson Parker, of Logan, Utah, obtained her Bachelor of Arts degree from Stanford University. She has Masters' Degrees in Library Science from the University of California at Berkeley and American Studies from Utah State University.

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Fuguitt and Wilcox skillfully guide analysts, public sector managers, and students of decision-making through a full range of the essential steps to perform, interpret, and assess cost-benefit analysis. Their book shows how to grasp the principles of cost-benefit analysis and several related economic valuation methods, how to apply them in undertaking an objective analysis, and how to use the analysis as a decision-making tool across a wide range of fields and applications. An extensive knowledge of economic theory, calculus or advanced graphical analysis is not needed to understand the principles or techniques. Accessible to those who understand basic algebra and have a beginner's hold on statistics, the book also provides a bridge to the more advanced literature in economics and to other analyses used to perform sophisticated valuations. A unique, much-needed presentation of all that is required to gain an immediate, useful understanding of the topic. The authors explain basic economic concepts and show how they are relevant to understanding an analytical approach. They enumerate principles and detail such technical components as "with and without" analysis, discounting, decision criteria and uncertainty assessment. The book provides especially extensive coverage of the contingent valuation method along with market valuation, the travel cost and property value methods, human life valuation, and cost-effectiveness analysis. They explain empirical methods used to perform these valuation techniques and cover survey and regression analysis as well. Most importantly, Fuguitt and Wilcox treat the topic within its real-world context--as a decision-making tool to assess a particular policy's efficiency and to provide the decision maker with necessary information. Trade-offs between efficiency and other policy objectives are also addressed, as is the interdisciplinary setting within which cost-benefit analysis is interpreted, enabling readers to understand that policy advocates and adversaries bring their own values and competing interests to bear on any decision-making process.

Cost-Effectiveness in the Nonprofit Sector: Methods and Examples from Leading Organizations

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Cost-Effectiveness in the Nonprofit Sector: Methods and Examples from Leading Organizations

Manufacturer: Quorum Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Corporate Finance | Finance | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0899306276

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This work not only makes the case that responsible nonprofit managers must routinely utilize cost-effectiveness analysis, but also gives many outstanding examples of how it can be done. The examples are drawn from prestigious nonprofit organizations as varied as the National Gallery of Art, Girls Inc., and the Nature Conservancy. Drawing on TechnoServe's search for a practical methodology to measure the cost-effectiveness of its own work, editor Schmaedick provides a unique synthesis of the principles of cost-effectiveness analysis in the opening chapter. The guidelines he provides are almost universally applicable and make cost-effective management an attainable goal for all nonprofits. Rather than subject the reader to arcane explanations of intricate mathematical formulae, Schmaedick provides hard-nosed practical directions for nonprofit managers. Those seriously interested in upgrading the management systems of their organizations to produce more results at lower costs will find this a challenging, but not intimidating, prescription.

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Cost-Effectiveness in the Nonprofit Sector
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Manufacturer: Greenwood Pub Group 01/1//1993
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000N5RIVQ

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Steam, electric and wall/floor hating methods are often neglected in other texts because they are not as widely used as other methods. For home inspectors who expect to see them in their practice, this book offers a solid introduction to the materials, components, operating principles, and safety controls of these heating methods.

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Vision in the Desert is a humorous self-portrait of an extraordinary dancer.

Vision in the Desert is the funny, delightful, and touching autobiography of Vassili Sulich, a joyful man who found he could not live without art, music, beauty, and most of all, without dance in his life. Follow Vassili's career as a dancer, from the children's performing group in a refugee camp in Egypt during World War II, to England, France, South America, Spain, Switzerland, and finally to America where he reigned for nine years as the principal dancer in the famed Folies Bergere. Feel his agony as he struggles to build a classical ballet company in the "cultural wasteland" of Las Vegas. Share his ecstasy when the Nevada Dance Theatre becomes the "crown jewel" of the arts in Nevada. Relive the times of turmoil and strife as his company grows in stature and gains rave reviews while touring nationally, and as Vassili gains fame as a choreographer for ballet and opera companies. Vassili Sulich is a man who brings joy, originality, vitality, sensitivity, and enthusiasm to everything he touches, and his autobiography is humorous and filled with gratitude and warmth. The book includes many stories of the famous people he met throughout his career as a dancer, but it is not a "tell all."

Customer Reviews:

PLEASE, SOMEONE MAKE THE MOVIE!.......2002-06-01

THIS IS AN EXTRAORDINARY BOOK, SO FULL OF THE LOVE OF LIFE, AND WILL MAKE AN ENGROSSING AND VERY PROFITABLE MOVIE!

Vassili The Great.......2002-05-06

Reading Vision in the Desert is a wonderful Trip in Time
The honesty and sincerity of Vassili capture your Heart and Mind and can't put the book down. Wishing some Producer will make a Movie there is enough Memories and Emotions to be an Academy Award.

A fasinating history.......2002-02-27

This is the story of Vassili Sulich, written by him, in his own words. You can hear his voice as you read it. Dancer, choreographer, painter, & poet; it's a fasinating life story of a man filled with many famous names in dance and theatre. For anyone interested in the world of dance, classical or theatrical, it's filled with stories involving many legendary names. For someone that worked with Vassili for many years, it's a revelation. His story is a part of the heritage that makes the dancers of today. And finally, the entire book is an affirmation of his drive to communicate life through dance and the great joy that he has in it.

Book Description

Most of Alexander Posey’s short and remarkable life was devoted to literary pursuits. Through a widely circulated satirical column published under the pseudonym Fus Fixico, he did much to document and draw attention to conditions in Indian Territory. He rose to prominence among the Creeks and played a leading role as spokesman on a number of serious political issues. Daniel F. Littlefield Jr. has written the first full biography of Alexander Posey, a pioneer of American Indian literature and a shaper of public opinion.

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