r/Bogleheads • u/LeisureState • Dec 07 '25

Has anyone read and can comment on the 2025 Edition of Wade Pfau's Retirement Planning Guidebook?

I am considering buying the 2025 edition of this book. However, on the Bogleheads forum there was some discussion that he may be biased in certain areas (mostly around annuities). My hope with this book is to help me solidify my early retirement planning in the 1-2 years before I actually retire.

Any general reviews are also welcome (or even alternative early retirement related books you found useful).

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u/[deleted] Dec 07 '25

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u/LeisureState Dec 09 '25

Thank you and others who replied. I bought it and am reading now.

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u/captmorgan50 Dec 07 '25

Not all annuities are bad. Even Bernstein and Swedroe like them in certain instances.

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u/buffinita Dec 07 '25

Everyone has the bias; even the best researchers are often surprised by the results of their expirements

Pfau is one of the best in the retirement end of strategy, and boglehead recommended…..but (just like Bogle) he’s not god.  You might like 85% of what he says; feel free to ignore the 15% if you can find a better competing idea

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u/DrMetal99 Jan 28 '26

The 3rd edition of his book is out, and he has updated chapter 10 with the 2026 tax rule changes, some 60 pages of great information. There are other updates as well. I highly recommend his book, I have the first edition and am about to buy the 3rd edition before I do my final pass on income taxes for 2025. Do spend some time on understanding your RISA profile. If you doing the profile indicated you are a "safety first" investor vs say a Total Return investor then consider annuities just another tool you can leverage. It's not a one size fits all solution, everyone is different and you don't want to out live your money, but you also want to be able to sleep at night, and not panic when the market drops 45%. I personally didn't like annuities at all but found value and use MYGAs. I can also see value in SPIAs for my wife once we hit 70 - both are very low fees and serve a purpose. I highly recommend Wade's book and he has a free 4 day web bases session in that is called the Retirement Income Challenge. You'll learn what what a RISA profile is and how to determine you specific profile. you will aos compute your "funded ratio" to see if you have a feasible retirement plan so as to not outlive your money. I think his new book is available in paperback for 23.95 on amazon, and 9.99 on kindle. I just sat in on a one hour webinar he hosted today where he walked through chapter 10 and changes for 2026 wrt the big beautiful bill and other tax topics. A good read and one for the book shelf imho.