There’s a new retirement book that’s worthy of your attention, and it’s being released TODAY.
I received an advance copy of Dana Anspach’s new book, “Living Off Your Acorns – Your Guide To The Four Phases of Retirement” (Amazon Affiliate link), and am excited to share what’s inside. A quote from the back cover is a great summary of the book:
“Grounded, practical, and refreshingly human, Living Off Your Acorns shows you how to transform your savings into security, purpose, and peace of mind.”
Living Off Your Acorns is one of the best books I’ve read on retirement planning, and a perfect complement to Dana’s first book, “Control Your Retirement Destiny.” (Amazon Affiliate link) Her first book was one of the most influential for me as I planned for retirement. Living Off Your Acorns takes a different approach, for reasons I’ll explain below. Together, they comprise two books everyone should read as they prepare for and live in retirement.
Bottom Line: This book is worth your time. If you do nothing else, order this book now. (Amazon Affiliate link).
I’m proud of my writing partner, Dana. For months, she’s been telling me about the new book she’s been writing, and I’m excited to be one of the first to read it. Even if I didn’t know Dana personally, I would strongly recommend this book; it’s that good. To celebrate her accomplishment, I shared the following post on my LinkedIn page when I received the book:
The book organizes retirement planning considerations into the Four Phases of Retirement (Pre-Go, Go-Go, Slow-Go, and No-Go), an effective system to organize the tasks required at each stage. At the end of each phase, she presents an excellent “Checklist” to ensure you don’t miss any of the critical planning elements. As I present each phase below, I’ll include a quote from each that resonated most with me.
Within each phase, she uses the same outline to present the major considerations. It’s an excellent and consistent way to introduce the key elements required at various stages. The format provides a good “flow” and provides relevant content regardless of where you are on your retirement journey.
I loved Dana’s explanation for why she took a different approach with this book. Her first book, Control Your Retirement Destiny, was tactical, with a deep dive into financial opportunities presented by legislative realities of the day. This book, in contrast, takes a more “conceptual” approach. Her point is that legislation changes all the time (The OBBBA legislation came out as she was writing her book), but the concepts remain the same. Understand the concepts, then consider how to apply them when the time comes, based on the legislation in effect. It’s a solid approach and ensures this book will provide value for years to come.
Four of the high-level things I most liked about the book are summarized below:
A Holistic View: It includes both financial and non-financial considerations.
Client Examples: Excellent use of real-world examples to illustrate the concepts presented.
Time-Phased: One of the first books I’ve read that breaks down planning considerations by phase.
Comprehensive: While easy to read, it hits on all of the major themes in retirement planning.
For those who prefer video format, you may be interested in this recent webinar, where Dana discusses the key elements of her book:
Below, we’ll dig into the highlights of each of the retirement planning phases. To avoid spoiling the book, I’m keeping my comments general and concise. If you want more details, order the book. You won’t regret it.
Yes, I took a lot of notes while reading the book.
The Pre-Go Phase
As promised, I’ll present my favorite quote from each phase as an introduction. For Pre-Go, it’s…
“Your financial well-being in retirement is shaped by the timing of your withdrawals, the sustainability of your income, and how well your strategy protects you from a worst-case scenario during your retirement red zone years.”
In each section, Dana breaks down the planning consideration into the following elements:
What We See in Practice
Key Mindset Shifts
Risks
Spending Changes – What to Expect
Tax & Planning Opportunities
How to Invest
Checklist / Summary
As an example, when discussing the Key Mindset Shifts in the Pre-Go Phase, she cited the need to allow time for curiosity and experimentation. I was honored to see that she quoted my 4th Commandment from my article, The Ten Commandments of Retirement, which was “Make No Obligations.” It’s an example of how she weaves in other people’s experiences to support the concept she’s describing. I found her use of client examples and real-life stories to be one of the most interesting elements in the book.
Dana does an excellent job of explaining The Red Zone of retirement and how the risks change from those faced in our accumulation years. She focuses on the importance of preparing for the “Paycheck Transition” well before your retirement date (Sequence of Return Risks), and highlights the importance of “Cash-Flow Based Planning” over more traditional approaches.
In short, Cash-Flow Based Planning “focuses on protecting against market downturns by systematically converting growth into secure income” (pg. 83). The book also includes an excellent overview of how Bond Ladders work and provides clear examples of a pre-defined process you can use throughout retirement to decide when to add rungs to the ladder.
She explains how to “stack the odds in your favor,” and provides key concepts to reduce the risk of running out of money. She demonstrates the value of long-term thinking and highlights how numerous risks impact decision options (e.g., the risk of longevity impacts Social Security claiming, Roth conversions, portfolio allocation, the role of annuities, reverse mortgages, etc).
Finally, her introduction of Key Lifetime Metrics and her preference for the Fundedness Ratio are helpful tools to ensure you’re considering the long-term impact of decisions you make during the critical Pre-Go years.
An example of the Checklist from the Pre-Go Phase is included below (to avoid spoiling the book, I won’t be including these for any of the other phases):
The Go-Go Phase
“Metrics replace guesswork with clarity.”
I was pleased to see the excellent summary of Dr. Riley Moyes TED Talk on “The Four Phases of Retirement” in the “mindset” section of the Go-Go Phase. His work is the best I’ve seen on the subject, and the article I wrote about the topic is one of my most-viewed ever. It’s yet another example of how this book does an excellent job of providing broader viewpoints when presenting an issue.
Another example is the “License to Spend” topic also covered in this section, which draws from the research of Blanchett and Finke. It also illustrates why I chose the quote above as my summary for this phase. One of the key themes of this section is the fact that no plan is perfect, and we’ll all face surprises. Dana tells the story of clients who had a big “overspending” year, followed by a bear market. Rather than panic, they were able to review their long-term metrics, make some minor adjustments, and continue to enjoy their retirement.
Dana encourages us to “expect the unexpected” and develop a plan that will provide guardrails to our spending decisions throughout retirement. She provides overviews of the “two primary metrics to monitor a retiree’s financial plan over time” (Critical Path and Fundedness Ratio). Get your metrics right, and the quote above will apply.
Dana also does an effective job of summarizing the key tax-planning opportunities in the Go-Go years, and the importance of understanding your “Effective Marginal Tax Rate.” She also provides guidance on how to “Maintain Your Moat,” a term she uses to explain the process of refilling your annual spending bucket. Her summary of “Investing Do’s and Don’ts” is, alone, worth the price of the book.
The Slow-Go Phase
“As your priorities evolve, so does your relationship with money. In earlier phases, we may joke, ‘Well, you can’t take it with you.’ But in the Slow-Go years, that truth begins to land more deeply.”
The Slow-Go Phase is when risks of cognitive decline and vulnerability to scams begin to escalate. The case studies in this chapter are excellent, with four examples in particular:
Wise Preparation
Out of Options
Planning for One
Unplanned Changes
As I read these case studies, I couldn’t help but think about the future my wife and I will face. They are powerful examples that highlight the importance of planning and why we need to plan ahead (while we still can). In addition to providing an excellent overview of Aging In Place vs. Continuing Care Retirement Communities (CCRC), the book provides an evaluation checklist for things to ask if you’re considering CCRC’s.
This section also includes valuable details on how to work with an elder law attorney, critical Estate Planning decisions, the importance of naming the right fiduciaries, and how to find a licensed fiduciary in your area. There was some interesting content on spousal gifting, and some creative approaches to “using spousal gifting to access stepped up basis” to avoid capital gains. Finally, there was a great overview on how to design a “Thoughtful Later-Life Plan,” and what it should include.
I learned a lot in this section, and suspect you will, too.
The No-Go Phase
“When our decision-making abilities begin to slide, we may be the last to see it. That’s why it’s critical to establish backup plans and determine who can help you oversee things long before you need it.”
In the final, and shortest, section of the book, we see the consequences of the planning from the earlier phases. Do them well, and your wishes and plans come to fruition, even if you’re no longer able to handle the details yourself.
Dana presents various case studies to illustrate the realities of those who have done their planning versus those who haven’t. It’s a powerful reminder of why the planning phases recommended in the earlier sections are important and the consequences of procrastination.
Conclusion
Whether you’re 5 years ahead of retirement or in your 80’s and want to make sure you haven’t overlooked any important planning considerations, Living Off Your Acorns is a book you’ll want to read. I gave it a 5-star rating on Amazon and strongly recommend it to all the readers of this blog.
It’s comprehensive, well-written, and full of real-life examples to demonstrate the points.
The fact that our friend, Dana, wrote it is just frosting on the cake.
Congratulations, Dana, on a job well done!
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