This page sets forth links to articles referring to Rob Bennett’s book Passion Saving: The Path to Plentiful Free Time and Soul-Satisfying Work, to his daily Financial Freedom Blog, to the rise of The New School of Safe Withdrawal Rate Analysis (founded and led by Rob) and to Rob’s other writings on the Passion Saving approach to money management.
ABC News,
Video of Seven-Minute Interview with Rob on “Ten Unconventional Saving Tips”
Juicy Excerpt: Are you tired of the same old how-to-save-money tips? Wish you had some fresh ideas? This is pretty exciting.
MSNBC Money,
Retired by 50: Real-Life Stories
Juicy Excerpt: “This to me is like a mission,” Bennett said, “to have some meaningful work and time with my family.”
The Money, Mission and Meaning Podcast,
Getting Excited About Saving: The Passion Saving Mindset and Methodology, Part One
Juicy Excerpt: I want to say straight out that I think you’ve accomplished something radical with your idea of Passion Saving. From my perspective, you’ve really created not just another ‘how to’ money book, where you show people how to invest, or a motivational book that just has people do the things they already know to do. You actually offer a whole new way of thinking about saving money that taps into our human psychology and desire. Now, I am going to have you highlight each of the key ideas in Passion Saving for my listeners so that they can have their minds blown like mine was.
The Money, Mission and Meaning Podcast,
Getting Excited About Saving: The Passion Saving Mindset and Methodology, Part Two
Juicy Excerpt: It’s just amazing to me that in all of the years that I have been studying this, I have never heard this particular way of putting it and how much it opens up…. I was in the financial planning business…. I probably read 50 books on finance and money and saving and investing, and I can count the number of them on one hand for which I said, “well, there is something really new and important in here”, and your book is definitely in that category. I just want to thank you for that because that’s a gift to me.
News Radio KEX in Portland, Oregon, Sunday Morning Update
This 15-minute interview with Rob (in five parts of three minutes each) was conducted by Maxine Frost and aired from October 7, 2001, through November 4, 2001, on the Sunday Morning Update program on Newsradio KEX in Portland, Oregon. It provides a good overview of the ideas explored in depth in the book.
Network Abundance Radio, Interview with Rob re the Passion Saving Approach to Money Management
WritersHelper.com, Review of Passion Saving
Juicy Excerpt: Passion Saving is the Diets Don’t Work of the financial world….Rob’s expertise both in training and life shine through every page. His voice of authority creates trust. Every detail, including the look and feel of the book, shows Rob’s respect for his information and his reader.
Dollar Stretcher, Review of Passion Saving
Juicy Excerpt: I found Bennett’s style very enjoyable to read and his ideas intriguing. I even experienced my own ‘aha!’ moment while reading this book! You could say that “Passion Saving” is the “Your Money or Your Life” book for a new generation!
Motley Fool, The Plan: Financial Independence
Juicy Excerpt: The elegant simplicity of his ideas throughout warms the heart and startles the brain….Reports like this one, and books like Your Money or Your Life, should be required reading for anyone seeking a high-school diploma.
Note: The excerpt immediately above is from Motley Fool Co-Founder Tom Gardner’s Rule Maker column on Rob Bennett’s Secrets of Retiring Early report. The report set forth an early exploration of the themes explored in greater depth in Bennett’s subsequently published book Passion Saving: The Path to Plentiful Free Time and Soul-Satisfying Work.
Payscale.com, Thinking Big: From Middle-Class American to Millionaire
Juicy Excerpt: “My best year I saved $88,000.”
Market Movers Blog, A Look at Long-Term Stock Valuations
Juicy Excerpt: Think of Rob as a buy-and-hold kinda guy with very infrequent reallocations, just like most sensible financial advisers. But Rob’s reallocations are really infrequent: only once a decade or so…. This plan isn’t really about market timing: it would have had you underweight equities for pretty much all of the big 1990s boom…. I think Rob’s approach has a lot to be said for it, but I do have a few problems with it…. For people who like to take a 30,000-foot view of investing, this is a very handy little tool.
Scott Burns’ Column in the Dallas Morning News, As You Age, Tap More of Nest Egg (Link No Longer Available)
Juicy Excerpt: Let’s review the latest thinking on safe withdrawal rates. While most of the research says any retiree can safely start with a withdrawal rate of 4 percent to 5 percent a year, a newer school of thought believes the safe withdrawal rate depends on how stocks are priced at the time you start making withdrawals.
Scott Burns’ Column in the Dallas Morning News Rates of Withdrawal Add Up to Confusion (Link No Longer Available)
Juicy Excerpt: You should know, by the way, that there is a very vocal group on the Internet that believes the 4 percent to 5 percent withdrawal rate is far too high most of the time. They believe, following research originally done by Steve Leuthold and renewed later by Rob Arnott, that future stock returns depend on the price-to-earnings ratio of stocks at the time you start. Retire in a high P/E period – such as 1972 or 1999 – and the odds of portfolio survival decline, because future returns are likely to be poor. Retire in a low P/E period – such as 1981 – and the odds of portfolio survival soar because future returns are likely to be high.
Note: I am grateful to Scott for bringing some attention to the New School of Safe Withdrawal Rate Analysis. I need to note, however, that he is wrong to say that the New School argues that a 4 percent withdrawal is “far too high most of the time.” That is so today for those with high stock allocations. At times of reasonable valuations, however, the safe withdrawal rate for those with high stock allocations rises to 5.4 percent. At times of extremely low valuations, it can rise to as high as 9 percent.
MSN Money, To Cut Costs, Move to Small Town USA
Juicy Excerpt: After losing his dream job in the 1990-1991 recession, Rob Bennett made financial independence his goal. A former reporter covering tax legislation on Capitol Hill, Bennett took a corporate job “for the money” and started saving as much as he could. He and his wife, Mary, paid off the $148,800 mortgage on their Arlington town home in four years while researching small towns where they could live inexpensively.
Bankrate.com, Six Worthless Excuses for Not Saving Money
Juicy Excerpt: “I call it spending money at The Freedom Store,” says Bennett. “Just like you buy a product or buy a service, you buy freedom. And every time you put money into savings, you are a little more free than you were before.”
Links.com Stock Valuation Tool — Predicting the Future Stock Market (Link No Longer Available)
Juicy Excerpt: This Stock Market Valuation tool on the PassionSaving.com may take a long time to load, but we think it is worth the wait. The calculator is based upon the principle that over the long term, stock market prices will reflect the ten years earnings growth of the underlying companies.
Karthick’s Random Ramblings, Your 401(k) Is All Wrong!
Juicy Excerpt: What’s nice about the Passion Saving website is that it uses a much simpler way to bring the valuation issue to focus.
The Wall Street Journal, Forcing 20-Somethings To Save
Juicy Excerpt: Rob Bennett, the author of a book called Passion Saving,, thinks the saving problem is partly one of packaging. So he prefers to couch it in the language of freedom: “What works with young people is, ‘How do you feel about the fact that you’ll be under the thumb of an employer for the rest of your life?’ ” he says.
The New York Times, To Showcase Your Skills, Seize the Initiative
Juicy Excerpt: Staying too long in a job where you don’t feel relevant takes a toll, said Rob Bennett, who worked for years in a well-paying corporate communications job where he didn’t have enough to do.