It may seem ironic that retirement – the thing where you finally get to quit working so hard – can require so much preparation. Isn’t the whole idea that you mostly just... don’t do anything for a few years? That you’ve done enough and now you can simply relax? 

To some extent that’s true, but if you’ve lived and worked long enough that you’re starting to think about your retirement savings or you’re looking into the best retirement planning apps, you probably figured out long ago that almost everything requires planning and preparation. Even happy events – vacations, weddings, eating out with family – need a little research and groundwork to make them go smoothly. That’s OK, though – you've already started by reading this exact article. 

Knowledge Is Power (and Income) 

The internet is a wonderful tool and an amazing source of information and ideas. Obviously, we’re big fans because we’ve gone to great trouble to try to get you here to read what we have to say and we’re happy it worked – at least this one time. You should absolutely take advantage of your online options, including the rest of the Goalry family but going beyond that to the many other reputable sites out there.  

This being the internet, however, you’ll want to remember that just because it’s posted all fancy on some site with lots of official-looking graphics and making big, big promises, doesn’t automatically mean they have your best interest at heart. Even the most sincere sources out there can’t seem to agree on much when it comes to major money decisions.

When you do finally find a site ready to talk real talk about retirement planning, it seems like it’s either so packed with pop-up ads you can barely make it through an article. Or you end up reading and re-reading unclear and conflicting advice, or articles that assume you’ve already laid the groundwork for your entire retirement portfolio.

You could bookmark those other articles and come back to them when you’ve gathered enough foundational information to process them on your own terms and make your own informed decisions about which are worth your time and which ones are just... not for you. For me, personally, it usually starts with the right books.  

Five Books On Retirement Planning You Should Plan To Read 

I’m a big fan of e-books when I’m reading for pleasure or learning for the fun of learning. When it comes to stuff I may wish to revisit, however, I’m still partial to having the volume in my own pudgy little hands. That’s just me, of course –you can find any of these titles easily in hardcopy or electronically.  

And when I say “can,” I really mean “should.” As in, “you should find (and get) these.” The Bitcoin miracle plan and the dilithium crystal economics can wait. 

Keys to a Successful Retirement: Staying Happy, Active, and Productive in Your Retired Years (Fritz Gilbert) 

Let’s be honest. Money matters. The entire Goalry family is anchored in the idea that most people are perfectly able to take more effective control of their personal or small business finances if they’re simply given the tools, information, and connections to do so. Money is important and managing it effectively makes so many other things easier. But it’s not the endgame. It’s not a goal in and of itself.  

We care about helping you get your financial life organized because of what that does for the rest of your world. Like maintaining your physical health or changing your truck’s oil every 5,000 miles, there’s a larger goal.  

That’s why the top spot on my list of books on retirement planning you should plan to read has to go to Keys to a Successful Retirement: Staying Happy, Active, and Productive in Your Retired Years by Fritz Gilbert. This shouldn’t be the only book you read in preparation for your own retirement, but it simply must be near the top of your list.  

What This Book is About

Gilbert covers essential financial logistics like generating a reliable monthly income and maintaining your “nest egg” throughout retirement. He’s both practical and motivational about the realities of making the most of your retirement savings. Gilbert’s writing makes you feel smarter while you’re learning, partly because he’s able to break down potentially complicated or intimidating topics so they feel completely doable – like maybe they’re a big deal, but you got this!

I can’t imagine why that would resonate with those of us here at Goalry. Hmmm... 

Keys to a Successful Retirement goes beyond that, however, and addresses the personal realities of retirement as well. How do you distinguish between relaxation and pointless meandering? How can we maintain or create some sort of meaning or purpose in our day-to-day lives when no one’s counting on us to show up and there’s no clock to punch? In short, why should we still get out of bed in the morning once we’re retired? (Spoiler Alert: turns out there are plenty of good reasons!) Gilbert strikes a perfect balance between motivational and concrete. Read this one as you start planning on retirement, then again after you’ve settled into your post-working life. Or, buy it as a gift for someone about to enter that stage of their life. Either way, you can’t go wrong starting with this wonderful little guide.  

How to Make Your Money Last - Completely Updated for Planning Today: The Indispensable Retirement Guide (Jane Bryant Quinn) 

This is a practical guide to preparing for retirement. It primarily focuses on financial issues, but Quinn’s perspective on the role of money in our lives is similar enough to my own that I couldn’t help but find her warm and accessible while tackling some potentially tricky topics. If that's my own bias showing through, so be it.  

Quinn’s basic approach is that almost anyone with reliable income in their adult life can take the steps necessary to provide for their own retirement. How to Make Your Money Last assumes we may know little or nothing about the basics going in, yet never seems to be talking down to the reader – quite the opposite. Quinn elevates her audience, encouraging while informing. She’s openly skeptical towards what I think of as financial “miracle books” (ANYONE CAN RETIRE AT 27 WITH A PASSIVE INCOME OF $25,000,000 A DAY TAX-FREE!) and while she’s not against utilizing investment professionals, she’s a realist about the marketplace and the many ways in which “experts” profit by pushing packages and promises off on normal folks who find themselves intimidated by the world of retirement, investments, savings, insurance, real estate and the like.  

Get prepared for Retirement with this Book

This is a book best enjoyed and utilized several years BEFORE you actually retire. The emphasis is on preparation, particularly when it comes to self-education and seizing the initiative. If you’re looking to be daring and frighten your grandchildren with your post-employment choices, there are plenty of other options out there. If, on the other hand, you’re looking for a practical, even-you-can-do-this guide to investing your resources effectively, this is a great place to start.  

Retire Inspired: It's Not an Age, It's a Financial Number (Chris Hogan) 

I’m going to recommend this one with some context and clarification. It’s definitely one of my top five books on retirement planning you should plan to read. It’s just not quite the “perfect for everyone whatever their situation” recommendation as some of the other titles on this list.  

If you buy a vegan cookbook, you expect to get recipes built around vegan ideals. If you check out a book from your local library about Christian parenting, you’re probably not surprised when the author keeps referring to stuff Jesus said and did. The same is true when you read up on retirement strategies as described by a noted disciple of Dave Ramsey. You’re going to get marinated in Ramsey-ism in both rhetoric and strategery. 

That’s not a bad thing by any stretch, but you have to take it for what it is. If you’re not familiar with Dave Ramsey, perhaps you’ve seen those Pelaton commercials where affluent sweaty people go above and beyond in their home gyms thanks to the energy and urgency of long-distance coach-cheerleaders. (“I KNOW IT HURTS BUT JUST LOOK AT THAT BOOTY GETTING TIGHTER!”) Ramsey is the Pelaton of personal finance. It may not be for everyone, but it’s wildly effective for many and certainly sets the company apart from its potential competitors.  

In Retire Inspired, Chris Hogan channels Dave Ramsey with a little more Baptist Preacher and a little less scolding parent in the mix. Readers who’ve already done some homework on investing towards retirement may enjoy the streamlined validation herein. Others may find it a bit redundant, particularly if they’ve already been utilizing Ramsey’s approaches to finance. Hogan’s are the same, only framed specifically with retirement in mind.  

This Book Provide You Retirement Ideas

If you’re just beginning, Hogan offers a slew of concrete steps and formulas to help you get started. (“If you start investing X when you’re Y years old, your monthly income at the time of your retirement could be Z!”) The tone is at times similar to that of the financial “miracle books,” but the substance is largely reliable. If I have any quibble at all, it’s that Hogan – like Ramsey – is at times a bit idealistic and leaves too little room for personal strengths and weaknesses. I tend to see financial principles and retirement planning as a set of ideas for which we should all strive, realizing that not all of us will accomplish the same things in the same way. I also suggest doing things that improve our odds, believing that there are no sure things in personal or small business finances. There will always be outliers who live foolishly and prosper, just like there are folks who do everything right and fail. We can’t control everything, but we can dramatically shift the odds in our favor by making better choices.

Then again, perhaps what I see as grace for the individual is actually just making excuses for being unwilling to do what we all know deep down we should. I’ll leave that for you to decide - but you gotta read it first to make an informed decision! 

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Investing (Edward T. Koch & Deborah Johnson) 

There are a few potential stumbling blocks in recommending this as one of the best books on retirement planning you should plan to read. First, one of the authors is a former mayor of New York. Depending on how you feel about his time in office (or whether you care about it at all), that could be a pro or a con. Second is the title – the “Complete Idiot’s Guide.” Now, if you’ve read “Dummies” or “Idiots” or similar titles before – about personal finance or pretty much anything else – you know the title is primarily meant to be catchy and to indicate a particular approach and format. Books of this ilk tend to be somewhat informal, to break down big ideas into manageable chunks, and to give lots of easy-to-process examples.  

This title is no exception.  

This Book Will Learn You Basics About Investing

Finally, of course, there’s the fact that “retirement” isn’t actually mentioned in the title. That's because this one’s not technically about retirement. (Duh.) On the other hand, a whole lot of preparing for retirement is making sensible investments. Even if someone else is making those investments for you – a professional consultant, whatever organization your employer uses to manage employee benefits, or whoever – it's still a good idea to have a basic understanding of how the major investment mechanisms work. What determines “low” vs. “high” risk? What’s the difference between stocks, bonds, and mutual funds? Why do so many people keep talking about buying CDs when your kids download everything online as mp3 files these days? 

You’re not an “idiot” if you read up on the basics of investing in order to prepare for retirement, whether that's three years away or three decades. One could argue the opposite, in fact. I’m not going to call anyone names, but I will say I think it’s pretty smart to start the process by admitting to yourself what you do and don‘t know. 

??? (???) 

No, that’s not some quirky title recently published by the author formerly known as Duane whose name is now a series of question marks. They’re just question marks intended to leave a little room for you to find the book (or two, or three) that completes the list. 

That's because everyone’s needs and interests are different. Once you’ve perused the other titles and educated yourself on the basics, you’ll have a much better idea of what you’d like to know more about and what you can live without. The internet can be a real mess, but it’s pretty good at letting you preview and read reviews of pretty much anything out there. The point is, keep reading and learning and preparing. Retirement is coming whether you’re ready or not. It’s just that it will be so much more enjoyable if you are.  

Let Us Know If We Can Help 

I mentioned your presumed search for the best retirement planning apps a bit earlier. If you haven’t found one that you absolutely love, we may just have the right thing for you. We have an app that is actually a collection of personal financial management tools which will allow you to track your spending, monitor your budget, access your various accounts, compare interest rates or other financial offers, and a number of other things, all about as easily as you text your mom to make up some reason you can’t come for dinner this weekend or you share some offensive meme on social media.  

Let us know if you have questions or if we can do anything to help!