Raymond J. Lucia - Ready... Set... Retire!: Financial Strategies for the Rest of Your Life

Contents

R ay Lucia doesnt look like a financial type. Hes not a thin, anemic-looking guy with suspenders, horn-rimmed glasses, and flinty blue eyes. Nor does he sound like a financial type. His voice is rich, sonorous, and alive, like that of the rock singer and guitarist he is. (He has the battle of the bands awards to prove it, handed to him by a member of The Who.)

Rays sound and message are never boring, never number crunching, never dry statistics. When he talks, its more like Pete Townshend singing. Maybe a bit frank, but not boring in the slightest.

What comes out of Ray when you meet him and listen to him is the exact opposite of what comes out of most gurus of financial planning: Ray is as warm and magnetic as they are cold, cold, cold. Ray is a people person, and he exudes concern about the people in this country like an old-fashioned country priest. He may know more than you do about (financial) salvation, but hes never going to hold it over your head. Hes going to help you with what he knows because he cares about his people, those who come to him for advice and counsel.

And, wow, does he know a lot! He knows about investments, about their track records, about their future prospects, about how theyre taxed, and about how they should be held. He knows about retirement vehicleshis spcialit de la maisonof every description. He knows them so well that when I talk to him, Iwho have studied this area for decades and have written books about itam staggered by my own limitations. (He never makes me feel bad about them, though.)

Ray knows about rules, about taxes, about ways to stick it to the tax man and save your family first. He knows how to guard your future by accumulating savings in different forms, how to make sure you dont outlive your money, and how to provide a cushion for your retirement future against inflation by maximizing your returns from stocks while keeping liquid in the short and medium run. His strategy is called Buckets of Money. Its the future, and it works.

The easy way to say it is that theres almost nothing Ray doesnt know about retirement planning. And he knows this above all: that people do not care how much you know until they know how much you care. Ray cares. Hes already rich and already has a beautiful wife, so hes not in it to pay his bills. Hes in it to help, and help he does... at his seminars, in his money-management work, and in this book about retirement.

Presented in the same readily accessible, warm, and caring way Ray conducts his life, in expository paragraphs, conversations, and give-and-take, Ray tells us what we need to know in every possible dimension. This book is Ray on the printed page: a rock star of personal finance, available to you, understandable by youoptimistic, upbeat, and right on target.

I wish Id written it. I didnt, but Ray did, and now its your joband your pleasureto read it. You really cant consider yourself ready to prepare to retire until youve read this book. Go ahead. Be good to yourself.

Ben Stein

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R etirement, despite what you might have heard, is more than a number. And its not so much a destination as it is a journey, a process, a plan in the making, and a work in progress. Whether youre already retired, about to retire, or a part of that massive wave of baby boomers whose retirement is coming up faster than you probably ever imagined, you need a strategy.

It wasnt always so. Remember how retirement used to be called the golden years? Pretty much the only strategy then was to kick back. It was to be the fun time, when you could relax and do what you never had the leisure to do when you were younger. You know, like sign up for yoga lessons; read great books; play with the grandkids; and maybe take long, meandering trips in a RV.

You hardly ever hear it described that way now. Instead, retirement is usually painted as complicated and emotion laden, almost more of a burden than a liberation. It doesnt need to be