"Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pound ought and six, result misery."


Charles Dickens (1812-1870), Novelist, from David Copperfield

Books to Enhance Your Financial Well-Being

Whether it's wise retirement planning, careful estate planning or avoiding fraud and scam, the books below offer tips and guidelines for making the most of your financial resources as you age.

Every time you click on either a book photo or a book title and purchase that book, WISE & Healthy Aging receives a gift. Now, that's making sense with your cents!

Ethical Wills

Some of your most valuable assets may not be material. More and more people today are taking the time to consider drawing up an ethical will as well as one that covers financial and legal issues.

The Wealth of Your Life: A Step-by-Step Guide for Creating Your Ethical Will by by Susan Turnbull. Many people are realizing that their life’s learning is as important an asset as cash, property and investments. This guide can help you create an ethical will, a written or recorded document that let parents and grandparents pass on their life stories and life’s learning to their descendents.

Retirement Planning

As people live longer, retirement is lasting longer and longer. Good planning is the key to retirement years that are golden rather than copper.

In today’s world, many people are facing retirement sooner than they expect thanks to a turbulent economy. Many retire with good health, high energy and a desire to do more than relax. Thinking to the future and rediscovering your passions and dreams can help make this time of your life golden.

Transitions: Making Sense of Life’s Changes by William Bridges. Nothing is more constant than change in today’s world. Retirement, forced early retirement, layoffs -- all bring endings and beginnings. Bridges discusses the emotions, necessities and physical changes making life's transitions can bring. His book offers tips and suggestions for making the most of the opportunities that come with change.

Your Complete Retirement Planning Road Map by Ed Slott. It's hard to plan for an experience that you haven't yet had. This book covers everything from insurance to asset protection to estate planning. It gives you a 360 degree perspective on how to prepare for the years following retirement. The process of examining the issues that Slott raises gives you a chance to prepare to make retirement some of the best years of your life.

The Complete Retirement Survival Guide by Peter J. Strauss and Nancy M. Lederman. Strauss was a pioneer in the field of elder law who now serves as a partner in a New York law firm and adjunct professor of law at the New York Law School. He is a founding member of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys. Ms. Lederman is an administrative law judged for New York state agencies. Their book is a complete updating of the popular The Elder Law Handbook. The book covers issues such as planning for health care needs; managing and paying for medical and long-term care; life planning for individuals and their families; taxes; working during retirement; housing needs; and getting help. The book serves as a foundation for making sure that older people and people with disabilities maintain their independence and protect their resources.

Estate Planning

Beyond the Grave: The Right Way and the Wrong Way of Leaving Money to Your Children (and Others) by Gerald M. Condon and Jeffrey L. Condon. Written by a father and son legal team, this book lays out the spectrum of potential family conflicts that can grow out of inheritance. It provides ground rules for how to avoid them.

Estate Planning Basics by Denis Clifford. This is a simple overview of the estate-planning process. Whether you're preparing to see an estate planning attorney or seeking to get your life in order yourself, it offers a clear foundation of the issues and the alternatives available to you. It covers most of the documents you need and basic issues of planning. It has information for those whose net worth is less than $500,000 as well as for those with more.