The 7 Most Important Equations for Your Retirement: The Fascinating People and Ideas Behind Planning Your Retirement Income

INTRODUCTION

AN EQUATION CAN'T PREDICT YOUR FUTURE … BUT IT CAN HELP YOU PLAN FOR IT

Most books about retirement planning are written as guides, instruction manuals or “how-to” books. The authors tell you what to do, when to do it, and what to expect. I know this quite well because I have authored many such tomes myself.

Rest assured, this is not one of those books.

This book tells stories which I hope will lead into conversations. It is a narrative involving seven people, their discoveries and the conceptual innovations that made it possible for you to stop working and enjoy the money you have accumulated, one day. These protagonists—or scientific heroes—didn't achieve their breakthroughs while hunched over a laboratory workbench, peering through a microscope or trekking through jungles. They made their discoveries sitting in front of a blank sheet of paper, but while thinking very carefully about life and money. And, like the greatest thinker of them all, Albert Einstein, they too expressed their discoveries using a very beautiful language called mathematics. Alas, the seven equations profiled in this book aren't as famous or as elegant as the simplicity of E = MC², but they are far more practical for your retirement.

You see, time is running out. North American baby boomers are getting within shouting distance of their golden years. Most have finally grasped that—despite the dreamy commercials and brochures—retirement isn't a long vacation that begins at the mythical age of ...