In 1981, at the age of 29 the author of HOW TO RETIRE EARLY AND LIVE WELL WITH LESS THAN A MILLION DOLLARS (February 15, 2000; $12.95 trade paperback; 256 pages) began living off his investments of just several hundred thousand dollars. In the intervening years, Gillette Edmunds has made more than $5 million in investment profits. Edmunds was not an investment advisor or a commissioned mutual funds sales representative: he was a financial journalist and an individual investor. HOW TO RETIRE EARLY AND LIVE WELL WITH LESS THAN A MILLION DOLLARS describes step by step how a retiree can live comfortably on $500,000 or less. Americans will discover that they can walk away from work in less than five years. This is the first book to tackle these topics that is written by an actual retiree. Using simple, original investment strategies and formulas, the book shows how to assemble your nest egg and achieve steady, tax-advantaged returns every year for the rest of your life. In Part One, the reader is shown step by step how to determine if they have enough money to retire, and if not, how to get enough. For those that have enough, Part Two shows how to divide their money into different asset classes like stocks, bonds, real estate, foreign stocks, and small business interests so they will achieve steady high returns every year. Then for each asset class, they are shown how to get the highest returns with the lowest taxes. Part Three shows those still saving for retirement how to quickly amass their nest egg. Finally, for the rare years when all asset classes go down, The Epilogue shows the reader how to prosper emotionally while waiting for the markets to come back.