The Number: What Do You Need for the Rest of Your Life, and What Will It Cost?

An accessible, enjoyable read. But my real point is this book was entirely instrumental in my understanding, and giving serious thought to planning, what I needed for my retirement. Having previously sat through numerous meetings & presentation on the subject, seen reams of relevant industry literature and much else besides, this book actually connected for me. Maybe it will for you.

I purchased this book because I wanted to understand the ‘number’, what it takes to retire early, things to consider in understanding this and calculating the number, given what I want from my future… it’s probably in there somewhere, but I couldn’t get to it. This book reads as the authors love letter to himself and takes an eternity to get to the point because the authors priority seems to be self flattering quips and name dropping to give each point a grinding/ unnecessary amount of background.The good stuff is no doubt in there somewhere. Would love to hear from anyone who has had the patience to endure the gumph and can summarise this for me.

Love the general concept but it's written in a very American style. Felt dated if I am honest.

Most of the examples in this book are fine if you are a citizen of the USA but not if you live in the UK.Some useful stuff at the end re planning for retirement and achieving your number but you can skip the rest.

Not the book I was lead to expect. As far as I was concerned it didn't deal with the issues confronting the ordinary man.

Was quite a long winded book to read, and have to say it didn't really ignite me. Some useful information - but not a keeper for me.

Retirement made simple; you're never healthy or wealthy enough to live long enough - as planned. Definitely fun to read and you'll be laughing all the way to the poor house.

It is a very old book and pages are in rusted iron color. I started reading the book. It looks like a useful book.

Ein tolles Buch, das man unbedingt gelesen haben sollte, auch wenn man erst um die 30 Jahre alt ist (wie ich): denn es ist gut möglich, dass unsere Generation einmal locker 100 oder noch mehr Jahre alt wird, und das ganze noch recht gut drauf in Sachen Gesundheit und Lifestyle. Doch was wollen wir eigentlich mit der ganzen Zeit anfangen, ist einer der zentralen Fragen in diesem Buch, und: wer soll das alles bezahlen? Als Europäer denken wir da vielleicht instinktiv an den Staat, doch die Kostenexplosion im sozialen Bereich wird wohl auch bei uns bald dazu führen, dass wir immer mehr aus der eigenen Tasche bezahlen müssen, und dazu sollte man sich lieber früher als später Gedanken machen. Und dazu inspiriert dieses Buch in sehr amüsanter, oftmals satirischer Weise und mit einem sehr flüssigen Schreibstil, was erstaunlich ist bei solchen Themen wie Renten- und Gesundheitssystem. Dieses Buch ist allerdings weniger geeignet für jemanden, der einen praktischen Einstieg in die Welt der persönlichen Finanzplanung sucht, unter anderem wegen dessen US-amerikanischen Optik.

This is written at a philosophical level for people who already 'have enough' but aren't sure they do. The couple of pages devoted to how much you really need to save to have enough cash flow for the rest of your life is too brief, but accurate.

Most retirement books focus on the amount of money that one will need to retire, taking into account personal circumstances. And they pretty much all attempt to crack the whip, noting that most Americans need to save more -- usually far more -- than they currently are. This book does all of this admirably well. However, this work also attempts to get the reader thinking about why they want to retire. Is it simply to be free of a workday or is there some greater meaning, some greater goal, for this time in life? What will make us happy and financially is that reasonable? It is the marriage of fulfillment and finance on which we need to focus. Most of the discussion of this aspect comes in the final fifth of this book. I wish that it would have been more dominant, but that the topic was raised at all sets this book apart from most.While not perfect, I would recommend this book over most like it. It at least prods the reader to ask the right questions.