Book Review: The SmartMoney Guide to Long-Term Investing

Published in 2002, some of its numbers and information with respect to particular funds or retirement contribution limits are outdated. However, the book is a useful starting point for understanding the different facets of retirement planning, college savings, and long-term investing, so if your local library has a copy, it might be worth a glance.

The book contains several worksheets for determining how much you need to save for retirement, how taxes might impact your retirement savings, an asset allocation worksheet that assesses factors such as your risk tolerance, a college savings worksheet and more. In a way, it comes across as a financial planner replacement for those that prefer to go it alone rather than seek the advice of a financial planner.

The problem, though, is that many of the charts and tables are now readily available on the web through online calculators on many finance websites (see my previous post about DinkyTown). When you consider this and the fact that a good bit of the information is outdated (for example, it only gives the IRA contribution limitations through 2005), I think this book is in need of a new edition to make it truly useful.

Final verdict? If you're just starting out and are merely looking for a primer on the differences between stocks, mutual funds bonds, IRAs, 401(k)s, asset allocation and the like, then this book might still be useful. However, keep in mind that the actual facts with respect to retirement contribution limitations and their recommendations of mutual funds are outdated and you should seek out more current advice in this regard.