On Reading

Have you ever read a book that had just one wrong fact that you couldn’t get over, that made you enjoy the book less? I did recently.

The problem? The heroine was being urged to invest a large sum of money she’d inherited in an individual retirement account — an IRA. But, the most you can invest in an IRA this year is $4,000 — $5,000 if you’re age 50 or older, which the heroine wasn’t — plus another $4,000/$5,000 for your spouse. A grand total of $8,000/$10,000. These amounts have never been more.

I’m sure the author thought it was a minor point. It IS a minor point. I probably fixated on it because I write about retirement planning a lot in my day job. Some of what I write goes into the education sections of 401(k) plan enrollment books. (I may have written the “how to invest” section of your employer’s retirement plan enrollment materials.) Since I educate people about retirement planning, I hate to see inaccurate information out there.

Otherwise, I really liked this book. But I could have loved the book if this small point — a point that no one else probably noticed — hadn’t bothered me so. And now I’m bothered that I could do the same thing to one of my readers.