Hi everyone the eBook has been selling quite well. I have been selling it at a 50% discount to my planned price and have now decided it is time to remove the 50% discount. Even at twice the price if you can use the information in it to save even 0.1% on the cost of your nest egg then you have more than recovered the cost of the eBook.

If you use the information in my eBook to negotiate reduced fees with your financial planner a 0.1% reduction on a $250K nest egg is $250 - ten times the price of the eBook.

This eBook is an education in itself about what the costs are to your nest egg and how the financial markets take your money from you over time in what seem reasonably small amounts. If you have read me recent post on "Government takes control of Baby Boomer Nest Eggs, you will realise it is now time to learn to manage your own nest egg.

It is far more important to limit costs and losses to your nest egg in retirement than chase high returns. The fund managers are paid to obtain high returns and high returns can only be achieve in the main by taking huge risks. This is something you do not want to do with your money if it is your nest egg and you are in retirement.

I qualified that statement by saying in retirement because when you are it is likely you are not earning anything like the money you were when you were working. So losses to your portfolio due to the stock market, fees and charges, inflation and taxes significantly reduce it over time even without you taking a pension.

Add your pension and you may end up with a nest egg that will lose so much of its capital that it will not be able to recover from a large stock market loss. Even if you want to continue working it is nice to have a choice. So don’t blow it by not taking control now. For just $19.97 USD from 1st August 2008 my eBook will help you do just that. You can still get it now for $9.97 though.

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Although this is an American report it is probably no less valid in most countries where Baby Boomers have to manage their own retirement nest egg. Baby Boomers are caught in a Retirement Catch-22 between their retirement expectations and their retirement preparedness.

The Report “Baby Boomers and Retirement: A Generations Catch-22″ is the results of a survey done to find out how Americans feel about retirement. It is published by Thrivent Financial for Lutherans. It is only 16 pages but well worth reading.

Their Web site is very comprehensive and full of information about all facets of retirement. Even though it is organized for the Lutherans this site will help you to think about your retirement in an organized way. The topics discussed are relevant to all Baby Boomers world-wide.

It’s News section carries surveys on Baby Boomers so you can see what others are concerned about too. For instance here is the results of a survey to Reveal Retirees’ Priorities. Read the rest of this entry »

Hello to all the Baby Boomers in Australia that have visited this blog today. I hope you find it informative and useful. You probably got here after reading Annette Sampson’s article in the Money section of the Sydney Morning Herald.

Please take the time to read the About Me so you may know more about me and what I am trying to do.

This blog is aimed at all Baby Boomers all over the world who are in retirement or just about to retire. it is not a blog for investment advice though.

The blog aims to help Baby Boomers protect their nest egg in retirement and reveal to them all the ways their nest egg can be taken from them when in retirement. Read the rest of this entry »

It really doesn’t matter what country you belong to. If you have a retirement nest egg and you are in retirement then it is still subject to the same dangers whether you are in the USA, Australia, Europe or Asia. Protecting your nest egg is universal.

Buy and Hold will cause you the same anxiety right now wherever you are in the world as you watch your nest egg dive just when you need it. GE that once great Buy and Hold company is down 84% from its highs.

Large losses are not the preserve of one nation. The global community makes sure we all get our share. But often that share is unevenly distributed. Avoid them like the plague.

High Fees and charges do the same damage to a nest egg whether it be in Australia, USA, Europe or anywhere good people have to contribute to their own retirement by building a retirement nest egg.

Read the rest of this entry »

The wealth management industry focuses on returns. This is how they sell their funds. But Baby Boomers in retirement should ignore this noise and focus on costs.

When in retirement and not adding to your nest egg any costs if not controlled can seriously deplete it. These costs primarily are Fees and Charges, Taxes, Inflations and Stock Market Losses.

I am included Stock Market losses here because if your nest egg suffers a large loss it will seriously cost your nest egg dearly.

If you look at any business out there they focus on costs. You are in the business of managing your nest egg in retirement. As such you too need to focus on costs.

Saving just one dollar this year means that dollar can be put to work earning income for your nest egg. If you pay it to your financial planner, the tax man or you lose it due to stock market losses it will cost you money in the long term. Read the rest of this entry »

The question we should ask now is, “who can we trust with our nest egg in retirement?” Note I said “Nest Egg in Retirement” NOT “Retirement Nest Egg”. The real danger is when we are in retirement. Trust is more important than safety, safety more important that risk and risk more important that reward in retirement. That’s the natural order of things.

After the subprime debacle and a looming potential disaster in the credit derivative market if any one ever tells you to invest for the long term and hope the market doesn’t drop, you need to bail them up and throw them out the nearest window. They do not have your interest at heart.

If this person came to your door and asked for all your money and said they would invest it in assets that might drop 50% in value but you will still pay them 2% a year regardless, would you even let them in your front door? Then why do you go to their office and just hand over your nest egg without so much as a thought?

Read the rest of this entry »

What is the perfect financial planner for a Baby Boomer? I thought I might put some thoughts down and let my subscribers comment on it. Together we might come up with the perfect financial planner for us all.

We might also get the wealth management industry to sit up and take notice. We will be telling them what to sell us without all that expensive market research!

It often seems to me that with about 85% of our retirement nest eggs invested in Mutual Funds there are no other options. But that is not the case. There are many options and what to chose depends on the amount we have but also what is happening in the markets and in the asset classes. If we have saved enough all might be well. But even if we think we have saved enough an extended bear market can wreck our retirement plans unless our nest egg is actively managed.

I know I keep saying it but I do not want to wait until I have lost 40% of my nest egg to take action. And I do not want to be told by my financial planner to sit back and wait for my nest egg to recover the losses because in retirement it may not.

Off the top of my head here is my list for the Perfect Financial Planner for someone who is in retirement. It is in no particular order. It could do with some refinement and maybe I’ve missed some things but I think it is a good start. I wonder if there is a financial planner out there that is my perfect financial planner? Read the rest of this entry »

Is the subprime mortgage market just the tip of an iceberg? Well according to an 23 page report written by Daniel R. Amerman CFA and available on his web site “The Secret Power Within Your Mortgage“, it is. Please spend some time on his site it is excellent.

So how does this affect Baby Boomers and their nest eggs?

Most Baby Boomers who have a nest egg will have seen it eroded in the recent subprime debacle. If it isn’t the nest egg it is our house prices or it might be both. And we have taken a financial hit through no fault of our own.

However this may well be small beer when compared to what might be a credit derivative tsunami. You see according to Mr Amerman the credit derivative market is 30 times larger than the subprime mortgage market. I’ll repeat that - it is 30 time larger and if it goes the way of the subprime mortgage market we are in for a lot more pain.

The US Financial system has already socialized the losses on the subprime mess in order to protect the banking system. So what do you think they will do if the credit derivatives market starts to crash too? Its a $35 trillion problem.

Mr Amerman has written a free report called, “Credit Derivatives Dangers in 2008 & Beyond” which I believe is a must read. The prior report called, “The Subprime Crisis is Just Starting” is also on the read it now list. Here is just a small part of this very informative report to get your interest. Read the rest of this entry »