A Prosperous Retirement Plan Cannot Be Based on Laziness

In this photo is my client's Presentation Center that I spoke at recently. I talked to 50 business owners from across North America about The Joy of Not Working and How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free .

The presention center is located just behind my client's marvelous house. It holds 50 attendees comfortably and is much, much better than many presentation centers in luxury hotels that I have presented in. It has tall windows about 20 feet high that give the attendees an incredible view of the lake beside it. I would venture to say that the house and separate presentation center are worth at least $2.5 million.

My client is obviously very successful and prosperous and now works only about 10 to 12 hours a week. No doubt he could take early retirement if he wanted to and live very comfortably on a retirement plan that would far out do my retirement plan.

Apparently my client purchased The Joy of Not Working about 10 years ago and the book along with other books such as The 4 Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss inspired him to find a way to be more prosperous by working fewer hours a week. He now coaches other business owners from across North America how to do the same and has guest speakers such as me to add to what he has to say.

This is not about being lazy, in the truest sense of the word, however. This is about working smart and not hard so that your retirement plan is one that reflects prosperity. If you would like to attain even a modest fraction of the prosperity for your retirement that my client has attained, pay heed to these inspirational prosperity quotes:

"If you desire something that was created by human hands (especially hands that expect to be fairly compensated for their efforts) such as a nice home or a speedy piece of technology, then laziness is largely a path to scarcity. Get used to being denied many of life’s benefits if your attitude is entrenched in laziness."
— Steve Pavlina

"Laziness isn’t spiritual — unless your intent is to cultivate an unrefined and
slothful spirit. If that’s the case though, you should have incarnated as a rock."
— Steve Pavlina

"No one can achieve extraordinary prosperity with ordinary thinking and ordinary behavior. If you aren’t doing your best and creating something out-of-the-ordinary, how can you shamelessly expect extraordinary prosperity in return? If you are generating mediocrity, expect to receive the same in return from the Universe. That’s only fair, isn’t it?
— from Life's Secret Handbook

"Sooner or later, those who win and end up prosperous and free are those who decided that they must do the many necessary things that others think don't need doing."
— from Life's Secret Handbook by E.Z.

I would like to thank my client for having paid all my expenses out to Vancouver, for having paid me for making the presentation, and for having given me the opportunity to have associated with so many highly spirited individuals including his wife and himself.

My client has certainly given a lot of credence to an inspirational quotation by a well-known writer and publishing executive stated:

"The fastest way to succeed is to look as if you're playing by somebody else's rules, while quietly playing by your own."
— Michael Korda

Being a Wall Street Protestor Is Not Good for Your Retirement Plan

Joining the Wall Street protestors will not be good for your retirement plan. I know for certain that it would not do anything for my retirement plan if I joined them. Here's why:

Most of the these protesters are people with too much time on their hands. They are "opposition looking for something to oppose." I certainly wouldn't want to hang out with them. I prefer to hang out with great friends.

Don't get me wrong. I am not a big fan of corporations. I know that a lot of them operate without any integrity, decency, and excellence and some of their executives should be in jail for the things that they do.

That is why I have not had a corporate job for over 30 years. My point is that there is still a lot of opportunity in North America - recession or no recession. Opportunity cannot be capitalized on by joining negative protesters who are operating out of a mentality of being "opposition looking for something to oppose."

As an individual, I am quite successful and prosperous in my life and have gained a lot of freedom, more than 95 percent of the population, even though I don't have a corporate job or government job. I even know how to make money while you sleep. I know that I would not have attained this success, prosperity, and freedom, however, if I operated out of the negative beliefs and behaviors that these protesters operate out of. Results don't lie, in other words.

These inspirational quotes about life (which also make great retirement quotes) apply:

"If your daily life seems poor, do not blame it; blame yourself, tell yourself that you are not poet enough to call forth its riches."
— Rainer Maria Rilke".

"No one, even God, can mess up your life — that's your job!"
— from Life's Secret Handbook

Also, keep in mind that all the great tributes to Steve Jobs recently. Steve Jobs was a big part of corporate America. Without corporate America investing in Apple, the Mac, Iphones and the iPad would never have been possible. No doubt a lot of these hypocritical protestors are using iphones, ipads, etc. If they had any integrity, they would not be using anything that was created by corporations. Of course the majority of these people themselves do not have the integrity that they believe corporate executives should have.

Last point: You would never find highly spiritual, and successful people such as Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hanson, Deepak Chopra, Dr. Wayne Dyer, or Louise L. Hay at these protests because they know how detrimental these negative protestors would be to their well-being.

These inspirational quotations apply:

"Keep company with people who uplift you, whose presence calls forth your best."
— Epictetus

"Invite more mentors into your life. Hang out with accomplished individuals — the
passionate, the innovative, the risk-takers, the well-intentioned, the doers, and the truly prosperous — who create value for the Universe and get rewarded handsomely
for it. Allow their spirit to strike a bright light within you, to make your own difference in this world, so that your legacy inspires those adventurous souls who live here after you to do the same."
— from Life's Secret Handbook by Ernie Zelinski

Tips for Retirement from Great Retirement Experts

I received the following e-mail the other day as a result of my international selling book, How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free:

----- Original Message -----
From: Carlos Oliva
To: vip-books
Sent: Tuesday, October 04, 2011 10:35 AM
Subject: From Chile, El Mercurio Newspaper

Dear whoever,

I'm Carlos Oliva, business reporter from El Mercurio Newspaper at Chile. I'm preparing an article about "tips to aging people from great finance experts". So, I woud like to ask some questions to Mr. Zelinski, according to his last book (How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free); May I? I will appreciate your answer asap.
--
saludos

Carlos Oliva Vega
Economía y Negocios
El Mercurio

After I replied to Carlos, he sent me his questions, which follow in bold, along with my answers in normal type for the respective questions:

1-Why do you think that retirement life means a perpetual smile in seniors’ face?

Retirement life can bring a perpetual smile to your face. The three most important character traits that will help you do this are:

1. Attitude
2. Attitude
3. Attitude

2-How important could be create a new identity? Why?

It is particularly important to create a new identity for people such as workaholics whose identity is all tied to work. When a workaholic retires, he or has no identity. So a new identity has to be created through some new purpose in life that has nothing to do with work.

3- What do you mean when you said that seniors need to crate a new structures and routines with their leisure?

Retired people should create their own structure and routine simply because most human beings like some structure and routine in their lives. The workplace provides structure and routine while people are working in their careers. When they retire they must create their own structure and routine, which will provide some sense of order in their lives. For those unable to this on their own, they may have to get a retirement job. Check out my retirement plan for how I intend to place structure in my retirement life.

4-How important is taking a joy course of personal growth?

If you don't include personal growth in your life, you stop growing as a human being. This passage from my new book applies:

"Be a Learner first,
a Master second,
and a Student always."
— from Life's Secret Handbook by Ernie Zelinski

5 -How important could be money for seniors?

No doubt money is important for retirement. Money and retirement go hand in hand. How much money a retiree needs for a happy retirement is another matter, however. Some people in North America, for instance, can be happy with a retirement income of $20,000 a year whereas some people require $100,000 or more. The important thing here is studies have shown that the most satisfying leisure activities don't cost a lot of money. So money is not as important as some people claim it is.

6- Do you think this [retirement] is an age to find happiness? How?

Retirement can be a time when you are happy. Ultimately, you are as happy as you want to be. Here is a passage from another book of mine that gives the prescription for happiness:

Prescription for Life-Long Happiness:
Purpose enough for satisfaction;
Sanity enough to know when to play and rest;
Wealth enough for basic needs;
Affection enough to like many and love a few;
Self-respect enough to love yourself;
Charity enough to give to others in need;
Courage enough to face difficulties;
Creativity enough to solve problems;Humor enough to laugh at will;
Hope enough to expect an interesting tomorrow;
Gratitude enough to appreciate what you have;
Health enough to enjoy life for all its worth.
— from The Lazy Person's Guide to Happiness

Note: See teacher retirement quotes on The Retirement Quotes Cafe:

Carlos later sent me this email:

----- Original Message -----
From: Carlos Oliva
To: Ernie Zelinski
Sent: Wednesday, October 05, 2011 12:59 PM
Subject: Re: From Chile, El Mercurio Newspaper


Hi Ernie. First of all, thanks for your answers. Second, I would like if you can explain us a little more this question:

-Retired people should create their own routine. Ok, but, How retirement can create this routine whitout job? Furthermore, May you give us a couple of tips?

cheers,
Carlos Oliva
El Mercurio Newspaper

This was my response to Carlos

Hi Carlos:

Regarding creating a routine in retirement, here is my routine:

I get up late in the morning, sometimes around noon. After I eat a bit of fruit, and shave, the first priority is doing some intensive exercise for at least one hour, preferably two hours. I either go for a bicycle ride or go running. Then after I take a shower, I go to a favorite coffee bar for two to three hours where I play (and sometimes work) on my laptop and talk to friends. Then I go home for an hour or two to eat a bit and mediate. Then I go to another coffee bar for two to three hours where again I play and work on my laptop and talk to friends. About 10 PM, I will buy some food at a grocery store, before goinig home. By the way, I very seldom watch T.V., because watching a lot of television is detrimental to a happy retirement. I can go for four months without turning the T.V. on even once. In fact, one of the topics in my book How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free is: "You don’t have to watch one minute of TV when you retire — and perhaps you shouldn’t"

Anyway, I hope that helps.

Ernie Z.

Debt in Retirement

One of my bank accounts has only about $200 in it — but it alone makes me almost $15 trillion richer than the U.S. Federal Government.

See the U.S. Debt Clock which shows that minimally the US Government debt is $15 trillion:

It appears that the new retirement for a lot of today's retirees is to have a lot of debt.

Accumulating debt, in fact, is a way for people how not to retire rich.

Here are some retirement quotes and quotes about debt management that should help you put debt in proper perspective so that you don't accumulate too much yourself.

A creditor is worse than a slave-owner; for the master owns only your person, but a creditor owns your dignity, and can command it.
— Victor Hugo

Clearly, true prosperity is living easily and happily whether you have lots of money or not. I have had the fortune of being on both sides of the fence. I have been broke, over $30,000 in debt, and have had to borrow money to pay the rent. At one time I even had the sobering experience of sleeping in my car for two cold winter nights when the temperature was -21º F. Extremely cold, of course, but this is still far from the bottom.
— from How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free

You can't put your VISA bill on your American express card.
— P. J. O'Rourke

Who pays his debts, gets rich.
— French proverb

Never run into debt, not if you can find anything else to run into.
— Josh Billings

If you'd lose a troublesome visitor, lend him money.
— Benjamin Franklin

The national budget must be balanced. The public debt must be reduced; the arrogance of the authorities must be moderated and controlled. Payments to foreign governments must be reduced. If the nation doesn't want to go bankrupt, people must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance.
— Marcus Tullius Cicero, 55 BC

He who borrows gets sorrows.
- Turkish proverb

And here are some last words of famous people to add humor to this post:

LAST WORDS OF SOME FAMOUS PEOPLE

"Draw the curtain, the farce is over."
— Last words of François Rabelias

"If this is dying, then I don't think much of it."
— Last words of Lytton Strachey

"I have spent a lot of time searching through the Bible for loopholes."
— Last words of W. C. Fields

"They couldn't hit an elephant at this distance."
— Last words of John Sedgwick (immediately prior to being killed by enemy fire at the battle of Spotsylvania in the American Civil War, May 1864)

"Dying is a very dull, dreary affair. My advice to you is to have nothing whatever to do with it."
— Last words of W. Somerset Maugham