Jim Otar's Book
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REWahoo
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give
You might want to try this freebie first: Home » LibreOffice
Ed_The_Gypsy
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
I have the latest LibreOffice running on Win7. I am sure it won't handle the macros in a real Excel file. (Short review of LibreOffice: brittle, slow, somewhat compatible with Microsoft Office documents, free. I use it at home because I didn't want to buy MS Office again, but DW bought MS Office again, so we have it. When I use the LO writer, I always save the document as MS Word 2003 .doc, as I want to be able to read it with MSO somewhere else. It breaks a lot even with the simplest actions.)
Both FireCalc and Otar's spreadsheet use historical data and are NOT Monte Carlo-based.
FireCalc does everything I need (and probably everything that Otar's spreadsheet does) for a very reasonable cost (free). And it works.
Go ahead and buy Otar's book! How can you go wrong for $6? He says some interesting things that I didn't cover. I don't think he got the Efficient Frontier right, but close enough.
target2019
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
I once read that a high percentage of spreadsheets have at least one formula error.
I downloaded that sample spreadsheet, and actually looked through the various tabs and macros. My head was spinning so I closed it and got another drink.
I downloaded that sample spreadsheet, and actually looked through the various tabs and macros. My head was spinning so I closed it and got another drink.
DH is preparing to "take the plunge" and I have found this to be the most comprehensive book in terms of determining if one is financially prepared for retirement.
I put a request into my county library system that it be considered for purchase.
I put a request into my county library system that it be considered for purchase.
Brett_Cameron
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
This book is a wealth of information. I will have to go back and study some portions of it later.
Ed_The_Gypsy
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
It is only $6 for the pdf file. Go for it!
clifp
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
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Yup
PDF books can be a somewhat of a pain to read, but Otar is more of reference and so having the information in searchable format is very valuable.
I agree with your review, in truth I only read the first half and then skimmed the rest. Like many ebooks it would have greatly benefited from a better editor, but of course so would all have my posts.
ducky911
Recycles dryer sheets
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Pdf is free just read it and also being an engineer i love math but still skipped most of his graphs.
From most of what i have read on this forum i am a bit surprized that this book is well liked . It is down on index funds, it tells you to seek out active managers that will beat the market. And...it give you an equation to calculate market timing........?.?
I did find his sideways years interesting...and if i ever was to consider an annuity i would go back and read those chapters ( i skipped those they are a large part of the book)
From most of what i have read on this forum i am a bit surprized that this book is well liked . It is down on index funds, it tells you to seek out active managers that will beat the market. And...it give you an equation to calculate market timing........?.
?I did find his sideways years interesting...and if i ever was to consider an annuity i would go back and read those chapters ( i skipped those they are a large part of the book)
floridanurse
Dryer sheet aficionado
am I missing something? The 2nd post in this thread is a link to a free version of the PDF. I am looking at it now and it appears complete?
Why am I spending the money to buy it when its free in the beginning of the thread? Is there something else you get from the purchase?
Why am I spending the money to buy it when its free in the beginning of the thread? Is there something else you get from the purchase?
Nope. That's it. Go for it.
Pdf is free just read it and also being an engineer i love math but still skipped most of his graphs.
From most of what i have read on this forum i am a bit surprized that this book is well liked . It is down on index funds, it tells you to seek out active managers that will beat the market. And...it give you an equation to calculate market timing........?.
I did find his sideways years interesting...and if i ever was to consider an annuity i would go back and read those chapters ( i skipped those they are a large part of the book)
Investment advice was not the "meat on the bone" of this book.
REattempt
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Because it's the right thing to do...
I've had some correspondence with Jim and I would be surprised if he intended for it to be free. My guess is whomever owns this site bought it and posted it figuring Jim would never figure it out. Or, alternatively, for about a month when it first came out, the book was free. Maybe this individual figures "I got it for free so I can give it out for free."
Either way, you need to be able to live with yourself and sleep at night. As for me, though I am a LBYM type and I pinch pennies, I'd rather do the right thing...
YMMV
Midpack
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
The Zone Strategy sections and the related calcs are best part of the book IMO.Pdf is free just read it and also being an engineer i love math but still skipped most of his graphs.
From most of what i have read on this forum i am a bit surprized that this book is well liked . It is down on index funds, it tells you to seek out active managers that will beat the market. And...it give you an equation to calculate market timing........?.
I did find his sideways years interesting...and if i ever was to consider an annuity i would go back and read those chapters ( i skipped those they are a large part of the book)
As for taking the book for free, I don't think it's asking too much to give the author (his cut of) $6. YMMV
Personally, I googled it and found it in pdf form, so I read it. There was no indication that there was a fee. It is highly likely that I will purchase a hard copy of the book for my personal use.
I DID fill out an on-line form for our county library suggesting that they buy at least one copy for each branch. If they do (and I'll keep bugging them), Otar will certainly benefit from that. It would be great if everyone who thinks this book is beneficial to them would do the same.
I DID fill out an on-line form for our county library suggesting that they buy at least one copy for each branch. If they do (and I'll keep bugging them), Otar will certainly benefit from that. It would be great if everyone who thinks this book is beneficial to them would do the same.
REattempt
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For those looking for the free version of the book as listed in the second link in this thread...Jim asked them to remove the link and the book from their site.
They removed the link and the file.
They removed the link and the file.
floridanurse
Dryer sheet aficionado
REattempt said:
to each his own.
I have no trouble sleeping at night. But that probably has to do with the fact that i am without morals, ethics, or conscience. and i don't believe in karma....
W2R
Moderator Emeritus
+1 Photoguy and I seem to agree completely on this so far.
I really WANT to like this book, so I re-read the first 150 pages and the last 80-100 pages last night. To me the math seemed trivial at best and left me thinking, "and...so?" His writing was tedious, disorganized, and didn't really say anything that isn't obvious IMO. He didn't summarize enough and to me he did not seem especially insightful. I especially loathed his initial examples like the guy who retired with a million dollar portfolio and withdrew $60K/year starting at the great depression, and didn't vary his withdrawals. 6%? Ya think? Who would DO that? It's as though he was writing his book in the 1990's when everyone was wearing rose-colored glasses.
OK, OK, don't beat me up for this post. I'll try reading the middle of the book again tonight. I am really, really trying to keep an open mind. Maybe I was in a negative mood.
Midpack
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
If you restart in the middle, you'll never get to the most valuable part IMO.
I read the whole thing and it's badly overwritten and when I saw he wanted $50 for it, I thought that's ridiculous. To me, the valuable part of the book is The Zone Strategy, chapter 41 probably page 400-something. You'll have to jump back for some of the metrics, but The Zone Strategy is worthwhile IMO. If you don't find value in that, I couldn't recommend the rest of the book.
And I agree I was startled at the first few examples until I realized they were 6% WR's, unrealistic to be polite.
KB
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Sorry about the awkward link situation. I found that link when I read that Jim had offered the book for free. Guess that has changed.
unclemick
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Ya buy the book and put it on your coffee table - cover side up.
Pre memorize your pontification spiel when someone asks - or even if if they don't.
heh heh heh - me? 1994's Bogle on Mutual Funds. I talked and watched their eyes glaze over.
I had similar feelings although admittedly I read only the first ~100 pages. Will get around to the rest one of these days. I realize a lot of people really like the book. And for $6, you can't go too wrong. But I wouldn't spend $50 for it.
I thought it was going to be a good book after quickly thumbing through the pages. Lots of equations, tables, and figures. Cool. But I found the presentation to be somewhat unpolished. Better editing would have been useful.
More so, perhaps, I didn't like several of the examples or the conclusions obtained from the examples. I thought he made a good point in emphasizing that averages do not account for extreme events. But he kept using a 6% withdraw rate as if this was the accepted norm. So no, it didn't scare me or surprise me that a person's savings will be depleted in 10 years if they retire immediately before an event such as the Great Depression with a withdraw rate of 6%.
He seemed to criticize asset allocation, diversification, and rebalancing, pointing out that these techniques don't save a person from large drops in the market. But these techniques aren't meant to do that. Instead, they provide a (hopefully) optimal and appropriate balance between risk and return. He said that people rebalance to reduce portfolio volatility. Not really. I rebalance to keep an appropriate asset mix and to prevent me from making emotional decisions. His suggestion to rebalance based on the presidential election cycle likely results from coincidence (any number of patterns can be found in limited data).
Again, I read only the first 100 pages. But I thought these pages were too focused on the details of specific examples. There is nothing wrong with that, but I believe it would have helped if he took a step back and looked at the problem with a broader perspective. Perhaps he provides that in the rest of the book.
Huston55
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Yes but, karma believes in you.
