Job Optional*

Job Optional* is a thoughtful and down-to-earth guide to retirement planning that offers unbiased, commonsense advice based upon the author’s experience as a retirement planning professional. It offers both a primer to the financial world as well as a step-by-step guide to planning your own retirement and makes abstract financial concepts real and understandable. Job Optional* is written in terms that a newcomer to investing can understand while providing all the pertinent information necessary to make informed financial decisions. Interestingly, for a book about money, the first recommended step in financial planning has nothing to do with the stock market or annuities, but the need for an individual to have a life purpose. This book is written in conversational language with investment information intertwined with stories taken from the author’s life, his parents’ lives, and his clients. Retirement brings with it its own set of life changes, challenges, and situations. Sharing stories makes financial planning real. It also underscores the book’s message that success isn’t money, but purposeful living—and that good financial planning will allow people to achieve this goal and be a success on their own terms. The author’s goal is that readers identify their life purpose and create a plan to organize their assets to most efficiently accomplish that end. Then it’s time to step into the world of finance with an analysis of today’s investment risks and a strategic plan that will put readers on the path toward reaching their goals. Five chapters of the book deal specifically with financial concepts, strategies, and terms, presented as an organized outline to the logical steps in retirement planning. These are: purpose-based asset allocation, liquidity planning, income planning, growth planning, and estate planning.