Unlock Financial Freedom: A Comprehensive Guide to Planning for a Stress-Free Retirement

Genevieve Hayes: I am a qualified actuary and data scientist and "How Much Money Do I Need to Retire?" is both one of the best books I have read on retirement planning AND one of the best books I have read on the dangers of applying pure data science principles to financial modelling.

Tresidder starts by explaining many of the financial and statistical principles I first learned about in my actuarial and data science training. Then, in the space of just 200 easy-to-follow pages, systematically explains how these principles can fall apart when applied to an individual - something I had not previously considered, despite applying these principles professionally for my entire career.

Most data science techniques are based on statistical averages and the assumption that the past (as reflected in your dataset) is a good indicator of the future. Yet, no dataset can adequately capture all aspects of the past, and "statistics don't work when you're a sample size of one".

The solution is to start with the financial truths and then bring quantitative discipline to them, rather than the other way around (as is often the case in data science), and Tresidder shows the reader how to do just...

Australia on Aug 04, 2023

Brian And Nicole Cdn: This book is designed for a 20 or 30 year old to advise them on how much money they need to retire on. As a 65 year old who just retired it was not as useful. My important takeaway was the destructive factor of inflation. Easy to read and helpful hints.

Canada on Aug 16, 2020

Daniel Simanca: Pretty succinct review of what took me a long time to get from many other books, websites and forum discussions, plus the author's specific roadmap to planning. I suspect that I would have needed much more time to let some of the concepts sink had I not been working previously on the topic, so expect to make notes and explore the concepts for much longer than a 1 hr seating ("60 min!") if this is the first book you tackle on the subject.

The exercises suggested in the book using the calculators are incredibly valuable- I had gone through many of these on my own beforehand, and revisited many scenarios while reading the book. It really makes the rest of the book and advice concrete.

Excellent way of approaching the planning from the perspective of a "user" like myself.

Canada on Jul 06, 2016

Lakelander: Todd Tressider has a background in hedge fund management that he has distilled and applied to his personal wealth management enabling him to retire in his mid 30s. This book gives readers the benefits of the insights he's gained through this experience and his further post-'retirement' wealth coaching work. The first part deals in close detail with the problems and limitations inherent in predicting retirement funding goals and offers solutions and perspectives that are insightful and compelling. Todd's website has a collection of retirement calculators that are a valuable resource for everyone who would like to stop working before the day they die, and they complement the book well. A few numerical examples highlight the key elements of part one. There is quite a lot of technical material that some finance novices like me may find a struggle to work through but some of this is crucial to grasp and very novel and surprising, such as the close relationship between price/earning ratio of a portfolio of assets on retirement and the safe withdrawal rates the portfolio can provide. Ultimately I think the message of this was that this whole prediction based approach is so beset with...

United Kingdom on Mar 28, 2015

Meraz: This book was a great buy. It is helpful for developing a retirement strategy and for thinking through options to make that possible. There is technical information in the book as you would expect. However, Todd is very clear and as he explains the chapters containing detail can be skipped if you don't want to go into it. I have listened to various podcasts and articles written by Todd, but this book had a lot of extra helpful ideas. I have recommended it to someone today. If you are trying to answer the question of how much you need to retire and want to actually understand this issue - then buy this book. It will help you make a better decision.

United Kingdom on Feb 07, 2015

E. Gasaway: Everyone who is contemplating retirement should read this book; but expect to be scared by the time you finish it.

I'm currently approaching a possible early retirement (age 56), and have been trying to figure out if I have actually saved enough money. The money was accumulated using an approach that Mr. Tresidder considers to be almost impossible for the average person: saving a large portion of my income and investing it wisely. It worked for me, but he is probably right that most people don't have the discipline for this approach. After several years of running the numbers using Fidelity's retirement calculator (which I recommend), I read this book looking for a second opinion. I'm an engineer with a statistical background, and knew that there were issues with the approach taken by the Fidelity calculator.

I particularly liked that Mr. Tressider recommends starting with the retirement calculators provided by the large investment companies. This allows you to go through estimating your expenses in retirement (the Fidelity calculator is great for this), and get that first opinion on what it will take to retire. He then point out everything that's wrong with these...

United States on Aug 25, 2014

David J. Bates: This book is written by a financial expert who retired at 35 years old. Todd Tresidder was a very successful hedge fund manager and now runs a financial mentoring and coaching service. This book is the fifth in the series of books under the group title of "60 minute Financial Solutions". What Todd Tresidder is doing with his books, is distilling much of the information that is available on any single topic, and then writing down only what is essential for you to know about that topic, in order to successfully secure your retirement. He stresses that the stuff he writes about works, and he is living proof of that. The information once learned will empower you to take charge of your finances.
He expresses the concern most people do not have the necessary skills and knowledge to plan their retirement themselves. In deed many of the financial advisers they use to help them, may be in the same boat. His book sets out to help you.
I liked the book very much because it provides me with a roadmap on how I could calculate my retirement savings to achieve my goal and how to make my plan robust. I like systems and this is a system. I was able to do a quick read of it in 60 minutes, but...

United States on Sep 11, 2012