Book
review: 'Saving for Retirement' | | By Claes
Bell • Bankrate.com |
| Who should read it
Novice investors wanting to know more about how their retirement accounts tick.
Synopsis
In "Saving for Retirement,"
Gail MarksJarvis takes investing beginners down the bunny slope with step-by-step
explanations of investing and retirement fundamentals. A long-time financial columnist
for the Chicago Tribune, MarksJarvis guides readers slowly and patiently through
the process of creating and contributing to a retirement account.
MarksJarvis gives readers easy-to-read explanations on the various benefits and
drawbacks of 401(k)s, Roth IRAs and conventional IRAs, as well as
the many types of investment vehicles that can go into them. "Saving for Retirement"
offers the same sound, meat-and-potatoes advice recommended by fee-based planners
and finance gurus alike. Each concept gets its own chapter and is broken down
into short, easily digestible subchapters that seek to reach readers where they
make their most important retirement-funding decisions -- in their homes and the
benefits office at their workplaces.
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| Book review | |
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Author: Gail MarksJarvis | | | Publisher:
FT Press | | | ISBN#:
0132271907 | | | Available
in paperback | | | |
| |
MarksJarvis peppers
her writing with plenty of real-world examples of how using the solid financial
concepts can affect real-world dollars, as well as concise breakdowns of the bewildering
alphabet soup of jargon used by the finance industry. But perhaps the most valuable
advice MarksJarvis provides readers is the constant reassurance that no matter
how bad a reader's retirement picture looks now, whatever he or she can save will,
in the long run, be much better than nothing. Strong/weak
points
The good: Investing newbies will appreciate MarksJarvis' earnest
hand-holding and refreshing lack of judgmental finger-wagging at those who have
yet to put any money away for retirement at all. Unlike many financial writers,
MarksJarvis is writing for the middle-class Joes and Sallies who could care less
about the intricacies of personal finance, as long as they can retire comfortably
and on time. So she keeps the tone light, the statistics and technical details
of investing brief, and the chapters to the point. The bad:
The line between helpful and condescending is thin indeed, and MarksJarvis skirts
it frequently. Sometimes her writing is so repetitive and her metaphors so simplistic
(comparing stocks to baked goods, or dogs and lions) that the reader may get the
impression she was aiming for "everyman" and hit "toddler" instead.
Also, while much of the advice she gives is solid, she gives no advice on how
to navigate the stock market, other than advice on picking funds. Her reasoning:
The average person is too ill-informed to win by investing any portion of his
or her savings in stocks picked by themselves. While many in the world of finance
would agree with her, it might have been nice to have at least a primer on earnings
per share, debt-to-equity ratio and other stock-buying concepts that help investors
tell the difference between good and bad buys. Takeaway
"Saving for Retirement" is a great guide for greenhorn investors and those looking
to get a good return on their retirement savings with minimum hassle. Those searching
for anything beyond a basic primer, however, should look elsewhere. | 
