The Worried Boomer by Derek Foster – Book Review and Giveaway

Derek Foster is back again with his sixth book – The Worried Boomer (link).  While his first five books were mostly about investing, this one a little bit different where it’s all about retirement.

Who is Derek Foster?

Derek Foster is known as Canada’s Youngest Retiree when he retired at the young age of 34. How did he do this? Through starting young and sticking with his investment plan of buying strong dividend paying stocks. He feels very strongly about his strategy and rightly so as he has achieved great success. His first book Stop Working: Here’s How You Can is a Canadian Best Seller.

Foster currently lives off and supports his family through dividend distributions, book sales, and speaking engagements. Note that he retired before publishing his first book. You can read more about him in my book review of Stop Working: Here’s How You Can and an interview we had with Derek Foster.

About the Book

As the title suggests, this easy to read book is about retirement and how to simplify what’s made out to be a complicated topic.  How much is enough for retirement?  The traditional model for retirement income, or what the financial services industry wants you to believe,  is 70% of working income.  Similar to myself,  Derek is a believer in calculating expenses for upcoming retirement first, then figuring out the income required to support your lifestyle.  You can see some of my own calculations in my early retirement series.

The book includes work sheets so that you can work through your personal scenario.  This book also does a good job simplifying the various income options that Canadian seniors have available to them such as government benefits, pensions, annuities, and stocks/equities.  I recommend this book for people who are approaching retirement and/or anyone interested in learning the nuts and bolts of retirement in an easy to understand manner.

The chapter outline includes:

Part 1: Lights

• Normal problems, novel solutions!

Part 2: Camera

• Spending your way to poverty?
• Finishing your vegetables before enjoying dessert!
• Is work a four letter word?
• You see $20 on the sidewalk, do you pick it up?
• Your financial toolbox, which tools do you need?
• A pension plan for you, even if your employer doesn’t offer one!
• Your basic retirement checklist.
• How much would you pay for a good nights sleep?
• Giving gifts – Do it right!

Part 3: Action

• Retirement action workbook

Want a Free Copy?

The author is offering Million Dollar Journey readers the chance to win a free copy of the book.  The details are below:

1. New and Existing Money Tips Newsletter Subscribers will be drawn at random for a free book (you can subscribe here). (+1 entry)
2. Leave a comment in this post by clicking here. (+1 entry)

• Only one comment entry per person (valid email addresses only please – privacy policy).
• Contest will end Sat 5pm EST Dec 3, 2011 and the winner, drawn randomly, will be contacted shortly after!