That Used to be Us by Thomas L. Friedman and Michael Mandelbaum

Another book co-authored by Thomas L. Friedman, New York Times columnist and author of The World is Flat and others. The subtitle is: How America fell behind in the world it invented and How we can come back. Sobering commentary on how we as a country moved away from our tradition formula for success--five pillars that together form a foundation that as achieved so much. They are: public education for more and more Americans; building and continual modernizing of our infrastructure--bridges, roads, bandwidth, etc.; sensible immigration policies; government support research and development;  and implementation of necessary regulations on economic activity.  (Not just regulation for regulation sake.)

Adding to this group of issues is the grid-lock presently in our our political system---Liberals seem to feel government can solve everything and Conservatives feel that government is THE problem. The authors discuss how we have arrived at our present situation---two decades of not paying attention to the world we live in.

Actually, we as Baby Boomers have engaged in behaviors more suitable to toddlers not adults--hence the name Terrible Twos. Across the board Baby Boomers have over-indulged -- from individuals over-extended in credit & unaffordable huge mortgages to Wall Street for shady behavior in investments to governments rolling back taxes while conducting two long foreign wars and extending the national deficit.

Offering some suggestions-- something like wake up and smell the roses/fish smell.  A third party candidate to bring the two main parties back toward the central and possible compromises to move forward the country. Individual Americans are doing things--creating businesses, etc. and finding ways to prosper.

This is a similar book to Tom Brokaw's book The Time of Our Lives which I read & reviewed awhile back. Much more detail is provided in Friedman/Mandelbaum but observations are similarly focused in both books. Lots of possibilities to improve and better our country for future generations but we as a people need to make some hard choices and decisions and stop in-fighting and getting distracted from our real challenges.

The Big Retirement Risk by Erin Botsford

The subtitle of this book is: "Running out of money before you run out of time". Now for those of us near or at retirement, that's the concern/fear/worry!  We, baby-boomers, are entering the retirement years at a fierce rate and haven't always saved enough or prepared enough for the retirement years which now can stretch out for 30+ years or more. Add to that the current state of inadequate funding/reform of Social Security and Medicare and state/city pensions, and this group of retired folk are moving into uncharted and dangerous financial waters.

The author provides a new way of looking at retirement expenses and another prospective on what constitutes a truly diversified investment portfolio. Financial  advisor, Erin Botsford shows readers how to identify their preferred lifestyle and sustain it throughout retirement.  The book provides some worksheets to allow individuals to work through a budget and define what is required to maintain the type of preferred lifestyle desired during retirement. Breaking categories into what is absolutely required to maintain this lifestyle and how best to secure that income stream. She discusses various types of investments with their relative values and risks thoughtfully explained.  And along the way, she exposes financial myths for the facilities they are.

This book provides a new look at some real problems and solutions that could help many achieve some peace from this real fear of being elderly and out of money.