cover image Grow Rich Slowly: 2the Merrill Lynch Guide to Retirement Planning

Grow Rich Slowly: 2the Merrill Lynch Guide to Retirement Planning

Don Underwood. Viking Books, $27.5 (544pp) ISBN 978-0-670-84674-0

Underwood, a Merrill Lynch executive, and former Forbes associate editor Brown here offer a clear, comprehensive layperson's guide to retirement planning, covering a spectrum of investment possibilities. In an exceptionally penetrating analysis of the Social Security system, they warn the baby-boom generation not to count on receiving benefits and to develop their own programs. Citing case histories, the authors show how a variety of investment instruments--stocks, bonds, mutual funds, investment trusts, IRAs, etc.--can be structured to meet individual financial goals. The emphasis in the book on equities, ``dollar cost averaging'' and leveraged ``margin'' stock purchasing might result in clients for Merrill Lynch's brokerage operations, but Underwood and Brown successfully avoid the taint of a sales pitch. 100,000 first printing; author tour. (Feb.)