A solid, specific look at investing for income and structuring a portfolio to achieve specific goals. This is also useful to those who have some background on general investment vehicles as you can skip some of the background on the products and go to the sample portfolio discussion. ( )

This book was a lot better than I had anticipated. Whereas many books in this genre of retirement planning are vague, and subscribe to the conventional wisdom of just purchasing an index fund, the author does an excellent job in covering many of the bases - creating your own stock portfolio, especially with dividend-paying stocks; the advantage of bonds and the disadvantages of bond mutual funds; master limited partnerships, etc. Obviously in a book of this size it's impossible to give detailed, or personal, advice, but Graves does a creditable job. Highly recommended for all - not just those about to retire. ( )

I wish I'd known this was aimed at a person about to retire. I'm in my mid-thirties and was hoping to find ways to adequately prepare for retirement, rather than reaching the age and discovering I should have done things differently. With that said, it does a decent job of covering the basics, from stocks, bonds, mutual funds, ETFs, annuities, etc. In spite of the title, he begins hedging about actually being able to reliably make 7%, saying it's the high end and an ideal. It makes the title come across as misleading. The writing was dry, and the author frequently wrote odd phrases that seemed out of place. I noticed them enough to become a distraction. In short the book has good information, but nothing that I haven't read elsewhere (I've read heavily in the investing and personal finance category). If you're about to retire and haven't read anything, this might be a good fit, otherwise I'd look elsewhere. ( )

The author does a great review of the details of some financial products. You probably don't get that level of detail elsewhere. However, I didn't really know before getting the book that it was so heavily slanted towards Baby Boomers. The financial advice is primarily geared towards those within a few years of retirement, and the language of the book often says "we" when referring to boomers. While the information in the book seems solid, that one quirk pretty much turns me off. I've got a few decades yet before I retire and my generation will certainly not be considered boomers. Not to mention that advice for us will be quite different. ( )

I liked this book in that it promotes a few simple financial concepts that you can walk away with- have a stop value where if your stock falls below a given amount you always sell; pick a portfolio and select the assets for that porfolio in such a way as to get a return that meets your needs in the future. I did think some of the concepts covered in the book needed more introduction for your average investor. ( )

The 7% Solution written by Certified Life Underwriter and Financial Planner John Graves is an excellent book for the novice baby boomer looking for answers about their portfolio. Graves uses simple language (when possible) to dissect money issues and vocabulary into understandable concepts for the average investor. REITS (Real Estate Investment Trusts) simple annuities, LLC’s, bonds, etc…are explained with risk factors and historical data where relevant. Graves includes a comprehensive chapter on what a financial planner does, and will cost you, in addition to worksheets for the reader to visualize their own assets and liabilities toward their financial goals. I even liked the addition of the” Finviz.com” website so readers can research further and screen stocks on their own. A terrific book that is much needed, in this time of increasingly more boomers reaching that magic age! ( )

I cannot believe that I got to be an early reviewer for this book - I am just entering retirement, and I am a do-it-yourself (DIY) investor. This book is right up my alley, as it is concerned with showing investors how to be DIY investors planning their retirement portfolios to get a comfortable return on their investments. The author is a professional financial adviser, so it is rather incredible that he would write a book that encourages people to take the DIY approach, and (even more incredible) discuss just how little one really needs a financial adviser - mostly to the tune of "why pay someone else to play with your money?"

The book's title refers to the "conventional wisdom" that, at retirement, one should expect to draw 4% from their portfolio each year (leaving the rest for emergencies, or for later in life when you will need more money - medical care, etc.). Graves shows that it is, in fact, possible to get as much as 7% return on your investments (not counting capital growth) without taking any undue risks (avoiding the financial planner's fee by itself increases your yield). This means more money for the here-and-now without risking what you have available for the yet-to-come.

PROs:

1. This book is accessible. I've read more than my share of investment guides, and most of them are full of techno-babble and formulas. Graves keeps his discussion at a conversational level, and where he needs to use techno-babble he is careful to explain what he means. The few formulas he presents are also well-explained and almost obvious. You do not need to be an MBA, CPA, CFA, or PhD to get your money's worth out of this book.

2. Graves discusses virtually all elements of investment, not just stocks and mutual funds. I, personally, learned a great deal about investing directly into the bond market - something usually left to mutual funds. He also discusses many other investment opportunities, explaining each, and pointing out the benefits and risks of each.

3. He gives solid, understandable and feasible examples of portfolio design, showing the reader various ways of divvying-up their investment pool that provide low-risk, fair-yield ways to use one's money.

4. Graves identifies a plethora of excellent resources for investigating investment opportunities. Perhaps the most valuable I've found so far is FINVIZ.com - a free website that provides the most detailed information on stocks I've ever seen (and which does provide a set of very useful tools, although one has to pay for the additional features).

5. He firmly points out that following "conventional wisdom" is not always the best way to make money in the investment marketplace. "Buy and hold," "diversify," etc., may be fine as general rules of thumb, but one should always be ready to break those rules if and when economic situations dictate otherwise.

CONs:

1. The book is aimed at the Baby Boomer who has managed to save $250,000 - $500,000 or more with which to finance the investment portfolio. This does little more than reinforce the idea that it takes money to make money, a bias that will make many people toss the book away (I, for one, do not have anywhere near $250,000, and there are probably more people who don't than who do). Graves' bias should not influence you, however: the investment ideas in this book do not require huge amounts of money to implement, unless you want to design your portfolio the way Graves would want you to.

2. Graves harps a little too much about the costs of financial advisers and mutual funds, making it sound as if one would have to be fairly ignorant to resort to such things. At the same time, he admits that there are legitimate reasons for using these resources he harps so much about.

3. Short shrift is given to Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs), which, in my experience, are maybe one of the most important investment means available. My portfolio is anchored by 6 very basic ETFs, following both the equity markets and the bond markets. ETFs provide automatic diversification for any portfolio, thereby enabling someone with less than $250,000 to design a solid portfolio that will outperform most markets.

In general, this book is a valuable resource as long as you hold realistic expectations about your own financial resources. I will never see the $50,000 dividend/interest return per year that Graves talks about, but I currently stand to see better than 10% return (for 2012) on what I do have invested, even more considering capital growth along with dividends and interest.

Not bad for a portfolio worth $11K.

Of course, Graves and I, and anyone else who invests, will tell you that no investment is a sure thing, that even the best-looking investment on Earth can go bust, and that when you invest in the marketplace you accept an indeterminate amount of risk - you may even lose everything. Never take anyone's word until you've done the research for yourself (and this is true even if you have a financial planner/adviser). ( )

I am sure this is a good book on retirement but it was very dry and, since I am financially illiterate it was difficult to grasp all of the ins-and-outs of his methodology. It was also seemed to be geared to individuals who have money to invest and, unfortunately for me, I am not one of them.

He did try to explain the different terminology and concepts but I agree with 'chuewyc' when it was described as very dry and difficult to read through. ( )

Factually are very good sound book. Just very difficult to read through. Very dry. I do think the author does a good job going thru all of the different ways you can invest and try to get to the 7% solution. But i did find hard to follow and understand i have my series 6 lisc. ( )