Synopses & Reviews
Here is a single-sit read than can change the course of your retirement. Written by Dr. Teresa Ghilarducci, an economics professor, a retirement and savings specialist, and a trustee to two retiree health-care trusts worth over $54 billion, How to Retire with Enough Money cuts through the confusion, misinformation, and bad policy-making that keeps us spending or saving poorly.
It begins with acknowledging what a person or household actually needs to have saved—the rule of thumb is eight to ten times your annual salary before retirement—and how much to expect from Social Security. And then it delivers the basic principles that will make the money grow, including a dozen good ideas to get current expenses under control. Why to “get rid of your guy”—those for-fee (or hidden-fee) financial planners that suck up valuable assets. Why it’s always better to pay off a loan or a mortgage.
There are no gimmicks, no magical thinking—just an easy-to-follow program that works.
About the Author
Teresa Ghilarducci is the Bernard L. and Irene Schwartz professor of economics at The New School for Social Research. She has a Ph.D in economics from the University of California at Berkeley and has taught previously at the University of Notre Dame. Her book When I’m Sixty-Four: The Plot Against Pensions and the Plan to Save Them was named as advancing the best economic idea of 2008 by The New York Times. Labor’s Capital: The Politics and Economics of Private Pensions won the American Publishers award for the best business book of 1992. Her New York Times opinion piece, "Our Ridiculous Approach to Retirement," was the most emailed Times article for 10 days.
Dr. Ghilarducci serves as a trustee of two retiree health-care trusts, the $50 billion trust for UAW retirees of Ford, GM, and Chrysler, and the $1 billion trust for United Steelworkers members who worked for Goodyear Tire. She was also a trustee for the Indiana Public Employees Retirement Trust and for the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation. She is a frequent speaker for trade organizations and at universities, has testified before Congress, and in 2014 was named to the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Commission on Retirement Security and Personal Savings.