Review of Reconfigurement

[Alida Spies]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Reconfigurement" by E. Alan Fleischauer.]

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5 out of 5 stars

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Reconfigurement: Reconfiguring Your Life at Any Stage and Planning Ahead by E. Alan Fleischauer is a non-fiction book that provides financial guidelines to people who want to reconfigure their lives. It places a lot of focus on planning for retirement and is intended to target the left and right sides of the brain. It was written during the Covid pandemic when lots of people left their jobs, willingly or unwillingly. Those people would surely have to enter the job market again at some point and that triggered some of the sections in this book.

People live longer now than twenty or thirty years ago. It stands to reason that more money will be required during their retirement years. Fleischauer provides several options to supplement one’s income during those retirement years, ranging from working past the normal retirement age of 65 to employing various financial instruments to create additional income.

There are several questionnaires referenced for people who want to get to know themselves better in order to make an informed decision when embarking upon a new career. This section is useful to people who are unhappy in their current jobs as well as for people nearing pensionable age who would like to do something different once they have retired. The questionnaires are easy to understand, quick to complete and most of them are free.

The financial instruments cover a wide range of insurance and investment products. The positives and negatives of the instruments are provided as well as the tax implications. Other information that will be useful to the buyer is included for example when to engage with a financial or legal professional.

There are also sections on estate planning (the kind of estate that arises when one dies), trusts for those who would prefer to utilise it and medical aid options. These topics become very important as people age.

The author encourages everyone to compile a budget and provides a list of suitable products to use. The products make it easy to compile and control a budget.

Alan has been a financial consultant for more than 20 years and runs his own business. As such he possesses in-depth financial knowledge that is clearly displayed in this book. He explains complicated financial concepts in a way that most people will be able to understand.

I loved the corny jokes that the author added at regular intervals. They provide a few moments of relaxation before plunging into the next topic.

I did not find anything in this book that I did not like. The author wrote the book as if he was actually talking to the reader by inserting comments, interjections and commiserations.

There were not many errors in the book and the editing was done very well.

I therefore rate this book 5 out of 5.

The book will be useful to everyone, but the financial instruments and implications of each will only apply to people living in the USA.

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Reconfigurement
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[Amy Luman]

I appreciate that the editing was well-done and the recommendation. I just don’t find the subject matter interesting. I am nearing the age where I will need this, but I find it almost impossible to get motivated.