Looming crisis! Impending doom!
So shout the covers of a spate of new books describing the grim prospects of baby boomers in retirement.As publishers know, scary thrillers sell. But if you like that sort of thing, stick with Stephen King. The situation isn't as dreadful as the doomsday authors would have you believe.
While all of the following books document the potential pitfalls facing boomers, only the first one gives you the tools to put a savings plan into action and avert disaster in your own retirement:
- "ESCAPING THE COMING RETIREMENT CRISIS" (Pinon Press, $24). Author Ted Benna, the benefits consultant who created the 401 plan, isn't flashy. His book is long on nuts-and-bolts advice and short on hyperbole.
He includes tables and work-sheets to help you figure out how you're doing and how much further you need to go. Unfortunately, aside from offering cautionary advice about launching your own business in retirement, he doesn't address part-time jobs or second careers that many baby boomers will likely undertake as they reach retirement age.
- "DON'T COUNT ON IT!" (Simon & Schuster, $23). Thomas Donlan, editorial-page editor of Barron's, explains why your pension may be in jeopardy. But there comes a point in the book when it's a struggle to read about yet another pension calamity.
Donlan does raise important questions, though, about the optimistic assumptions the Social Security Administration uses to make its long-range forecasts, and proposes an intriguing plan for reform.
- "PENSIONS IN CRISIS" (Arcade, $22.95). This book by Karen Ferguson, director of the Pension Rights Center, and Kate Blackwell addresses many of the same issues but enlivens them with real-life anecdotes.
Each chapter documents legitimate flaws in the pension system. But the prescription - mandatory universal pension coverage - isn't in step with the mood in Washington or the changing relationship between employers and employees.
- "THE RETIREMENT MYTH" (HarperCollins, $18). Author Craig Karpel opens by skipping ahead to 2015, when he's volunteering in a homeless shelter filled with "dumpies" (destitute unprepared mature people).
He predicts a world in which Social Security will be axed, employers will renege on pension prom-ises and a stock-market and hous-ing slump caused by boomers sell-ing off assets triggers a "world-wide economic collapse."
In the more-upbeat second half of the book, Karpel describes how working in retirement will become fashionable with the help of virtual offices and computer technology.