Money Lovers:

 

Weirdly, it was through synchronicity that I found the article below. For my new book "Money Wisdom for Smart People — Dummies Don't Bother," I was looking to add to my list of recommended financial books. The first result on Google was:

The 10 Best Personal Finance Books of 2020:  "Manage your money better with these reads" BY BEVERLY BIRD - Updated April 10, 2020

https://www.thebalance.com/best-personal-finance-books-4154809

Here's how the 10 books played out for me:

• I didn't read the first one, find it interesting, so I ordered it.
• I own and have read the next 5.
• The 7th I wasn't that interested in.
• The 8th I don't have, I find it very interesting, and ordered it!
• The 9th — I saw that book somewhere before — Oh right, I have around 500 copies of it downstairs!
• The 10th — Not that interested in it so I didn't order it.

In short, even though I don't need any new books on how to handle money, I still ordered two new books on the subject.

Of course, people who are broke and handle money badly likely have not read any of these books — and will not order any of them!

(Oh well, as Mark Coker recently stated, "Darwin will sort out the delusional, pig-headed, and willfully ignorant.")

Just a note that I have finally published the new edition of THE LAZY PERSON'S GUIDE TO SUCCESS — FINANCIAL INDEPENDENCE AND PERSONAL FREEDOM TOO!

Copies can be ordered at:

The Lazy Person's Guide to Success on Amazon.com

The Lazy Person's Guide to Success on Amazon.ca

Best Retirement Books

Someone the other day posted that I don't know how to write.

Another woman with a "Masters in English" (which she emphasized) trashed my book How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free.

I  suggested that the woman search "best retirement books" and look at the Number 1 retirement book that appears on left in the images.

According to these images How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free is the best retirement book out there. Note that my The Joy of Not Working is also in the top 10 of best retirement books.

I also suggested that the woman refer to my website How to Retire Happy where on the homepage I list 30 major websites and blogs that have written about How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free in a positive way.

You can see the list at Best Retirement Books on How to Retire Happy.

Below are some of the entries:

First in September 2014 the AARP posted the article 6 Retirement Books You Should Read Now on their AARP website. The AARP placed How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free (now over 390,000 copies sold) in the Number 6 Position although it has out sold all the other retirement books since it was released in 2003.

Along with some of the other World's Best Retirement Books, here are more of the many places where How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free is highly recommended by major media or bloggers, including US NEWS, USA TODAY, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and Christian Science Monitor:

1. 10 Great Retirement Books by Steve Holbrook of USNEWS: In this article US NEWS lists How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free in the Number 1 Position.  "In How to Retire Wild, Happy, and Free, life coach Ernie Zelinski advises retirees on how they can relax and enjoy their lives. From retirement savings to envisioning your retirement goals, Zelinski offers guidance on a broad range of topics."  

2. 7 BOOKS ON RETIREMENT YOU SHOULD READ RIGHT NOW BY REBECCA BOWSLAUGH:(Note that How to Retire Happy, Wild and Free is Number 1.) "Many retirement books focus on the financial side of retirement; specifically how much money you’ll need before the big day arrives. How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free is something different. This book focuses on life (and how to live it!) after retirement. It encourages physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being and improvements and helps the reader set goals to achieve a better life. And Zelinski is Canadian, so his humourous advice is not only relevant, but also practical. His is also the author of The Joy of Not Working: 21st Century Edition – A Book for the Retired, Unemployed, and Overworked an equally humorous and inspiring book for retirement and potential retirees."

26. 10 Best Selling Retirement Books on Amazon: by Knowing My Retirement.com: NOTE: How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free is Number 1. Here "are 10 of the best selling books from AMAZON.COM on the non financial aspects of retirement. They are ranked starting with the most popular. We reviewed about 108 titles to develop this list. So for AMAZON, financial retirement books outnumber non-financial ones by about 10 to 1, pretty much the state of the art for retirement information."

27.  10 Books to Read Before You Retire: By Jeff Somers January 2018: More Best Retirement Books of All Time: Some people dream of retiring and living a jobless life. Others want to work until they fall over. No matter which camp you fall into, retirement planning is essential. 

28. Retirement Books: Pinterest Collection by Retirement Style: Deborah Williams's Suggestions for books that can help you make decisions about retirement planning, spending or living.

30. Early Retirement Books by Todd the Financial Mentor: (Invest Smart. Build Wealth. Retire Early. Live Free.) Most people dream about early retirement, but few make concrete plans and take the required actions to achieve the goal. Readers on this site are different. I’ve have made it my mission to teach the methods I used to retire early at age 35. I’ve taught these same principles to 100’s of coaching clients with great success. The truth is anyone can retire earlier than old if you’re willing to commit to the goal, create a plan based on proven principles, and take persistent, consistent action. Surprisingly, it’s really not that hard when you know what to do. Here are several books that give you different perspectives on early retirement including How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free.

This is the front cover of my new book The Joy of Being Retired: 365 Reasons Why Retirement Rocks — and Work Sucks! It actually has 50 Bonus Reasons for Why Retirement Rocks — and Work Sucks! for a total of 415 Reasons. Each of the reasons has an accompanying cartoon image so this book is a little different than my two other bestselling retirement books. Just to let you know that the POD (Print on Demand) edition of The Joy of Being Retired is as of today available on Amazon.com and Amazon.ca. I just ordered 2 copies from Amazon.ca.

At Amazon.com, you can order a copy here:

The Joy of Being Retired on Amazon.com

At Amazon.ca, you can order a copy here.

The Joy of Being Retired on Amazon.ca:

Heck, if you order a copy in the next 24 hours and pay for express shipping, you may get the copy before I get my 2 copies. I am also doing a print run of 1,700 copies of a traditional offset print run but these won't be available until the third week of January. (Two financial advisors have already ordered 200 copies each to give to their clients.)

To my special friends and clients, I will be giving you a complimentary signed copy or sending you a copy of the traditional offset print copy once I get them.

Best Retirement Planning Websites

A long time ago I learned from some of the top Internet marketing gurus such as Tom Antion that ugly websites can attract a lot more traffic and make a lot more money than professionally designed websites. (Of course website designers wanting to charge you thousands of dollars for a website that will be a total waste of money don't want you to know this.)

In June my "Retirement Cafe" website was the number 2 listing on "Top 55 Retirement Planning Websites" awards by GoldRetiree.com. 

Check out the number 2 listing on "Top 55 Retirement Planning Websites awards."

Incidentally, I designed the "Retirement Cafe" website using a cheap website design program that cost $175. I used that same program to design about 15 other websites, including the "Retirement Quotes Cafe". Not so long ago someone offered me $15,000 for the "Retirement Quotes Cafe" — I declined because I didn't want anyone messing around with the design. Ultimately, it's not how pretty the website looks that counts — it's the quality of the content that you have on the website that makes the difference and ends up making you the big money.

Furthermore in July the Washington Post mentioned the "Retirement Cafe" as one of the better websites in an article titled "Best web sites for boomers and retirees":

Again, I make the point that ugly websites can attract a lot more traffic and make a lot more money than professionally designed websites. The Washington Post states the "Retirement Cafe" is "Not as pretty and polished as some of the others, but packed with information and links . . ."


Incidentally, not that long ago Seth Godin, one to the top marketing gurus in the world, wrote a brief blog post about how pretty websites are often not as effective as the not-so-pretty (ugly) ones.

"Pretty websites ... are rarely websites that convert as well as unpretty ones . . . it's a mistake to also expect your pretty website to generate cash, to have the maximum percentage of clicks, to have the most efficient possible funnel of attention to action."

— Seth Godin

For the record, my ugly retirement websites are one of the major factors for my books How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free having sold over 300,000 copies and The Joy of Not Working having sold over 295,000 copies.

You can also check the Best Retirement Websites on the Retirement Cafe.

Things to Celebrate in October - Including Book Marketing

This October was the 35th anniversary of my being fired from my Engineering job for taking too much vacation. I have not had a regular job since then. These quotations apply:

"Hard work is no match for relaxed, creative action." 
— from The Lazy Person's Guide to Success 

 "Those who make the worst use of time most complain of its shortness." 
— Jean de La Bruyère 

 "Sometimes it’s important to work for that pot of gold. But other times it’s essential to take time off and to make sure that your most important decision in the day simply consists of choosing which color to slide down on the rainbow." 
— Douglas Pagels 

 "The work ethic is a terrible mistake — a cute term gone haywire. 
 — from "The Lazy Person’s Guide to Success" 

"If people knew what they had to do to be successful, most people wouldn't. "
— Lord Thomson of Fleet 

"If you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain." 
— Dolly Parton

"If people knew how hard I worked to get my mastery, it wouldn't seem so wonderful at all." 
— Michelangelo

What's more, in late October I did a tally and realized that my books have now sold over 900,000 copies worldwide since I started self-publishing in September 1989. That’s an average of 34, 615 copies per year over 26 years. 

Still more, Book marketing guru John Kremer on Facebook said he was looking for more ideas for the new edition of his book “1,001 Ways to Market Your Books”. So I sent him a few of my marketing techniques — which I didn’t think he would use. Surprisingly (to me), he did a blog post about some of them:

http://bookmarketingbestsellers.com/ernie-zelinski-creative-book-marketing-strategies/

Of course, sending John Kremer some of my marketing techniques is another marketing technique of mine to get me publicity in the new edition of his book. As it turns out, I got publicity on his blog post too. Some more words of wisdom:

"A master in the art of living draws no sharp distinction between his work and his play; his labor and his leisure; his mind and his body; his education and his recreation. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence through whatever he is doing, and leaves others to determine whether he is working or playing. To himself, he always appears to be doing both." 
— Francoise Rene Auguste Chateaubriand

REPLY LINK

Did I Say That - Quotes by Ernie Zelinski

Just discovered this webpage (that I have nothing to do with).

Quotes by Ernie J. Zelinski

I didn't know that I said all of these things — or at least I forgot that I said some of them!

Here are a few more quotations by yours truly (Ernie Zelinski) to add to those on that webpage:

"Around some people it's best to keep quiet
about what we know.
Fools care little about wisdom and will
resent us for sharing it with them.
It's sort of silly to try to delight the undelightable,
wouldn't you say?"
— from Life's Secret Handbook 

"Don't tell the world your problems.
The world doesn't care about your problems.
Instead, tell the world all the great
blockbuster solutions you have
generated for all your problems."
— from Life's Secret Handbook 

"Before you climb over the side of the fence to
where the grass appears greener, try watering your
side first!"
— from The Lazy Person's Guide to Happiness 

"Where is this incredible expansive
energy called "high intention"?
There is no place that it is not if that
is where you are coming from."
— from Life's Secret Handbook (Reminders for Adventurous Souls Who Want to Make a Big Difference in This World)

 "Anything great that has been accomplished in the history of humanity has started with one small thought. We all have those thoughts; few people do anything with theirs, however. What do you intend to do with yours?"
— from Look Ma: Life’s Easy 

"There are two principles for creative success — one general and one definitive.
The general principle is that everyone has the ability to be creative and make a big difference in this world.
The definitive principle is that almost everyone has volunteered to be exempt from the general principle."
— from The Lazy Person's Guide to Success (over 110,000 copies sold)

"The best advice that anyone can give you for choosing a specific career is never to accept someone else's advice. Indeed, one of the biggest reasons for choosing the career you have chosen should be that no one told you to."
— from Career Success Without a Real Job
"Being unemployed is the true test of who you really are."
— from The Joy of Not Working

Also see Inspirational Quotes by Ernie Zelinski

The 777 Best Things Ever Said about Money

No doubt few things spice up an article, a book, a conversation, or a speech more than a well-chosen quotation. Given that money and prosperity are two of the most written and talked about subjects in Western society, there should be a book of inspirational and sensational quotations about prosperity and money. The 777 Best Things Ever Said about Money is the book!

Organized into over 110 categories for easy reference, this is the ultimate collection of the best things anyone ever said about prosperity and money. This classic book will resonate with professional speakers, journalists, writers, career coaches, life coaches, and connoisseurs of great quotations. It also makes great reading for just about everyone who is interested in money.

This book has it all: Wisdom. Ridicule. Irony. Sarcasm. Paradox. Nonsense. Comedy. Mockery. Social commentary. Valuable insight. All told, you will have in your possession the best things anyone ever said about money.

Better still,

Here are some of the quotations about money that you will encounter in the book:

“Where is your focus? On money or spirit?
Truth is, money is just a symbol. If you focus on the
energy it respresents, you will attract it.”
- Joe Vitale

"A bum came up to me and said,
“Can you lend lend me $20 until payday?”
I said “Sure, but when is payday?”
“He replied, "How the hell should I know?
You are the guy with the job!”
— Henny Youngman

“Keep your credit card
maxed out — so if you lose it,
no one can use it.”
— David Patterson, Host of CBC Radio's "The Debators"

“Whether we are from the meanest streets
in Detroit or the finest in Beverly Hills,
time and money will show us to be
fools or geniuses.”
— Jon Hanson

“I'm going to retire and live off my savings.
What I'll do the second day, I have no idea.”
— Unknown wise person

“If a man empties his purse into his head,
no man can take it away from him. An investment
in knowledge always pays the best interest.”
— Benjamin Franklin

“Aside from temporary setbacks and extraordinary
fortunes of inheritance or luck, if you want to
know how someone feels about himself or herself
— look at their bank account.”
— Darren Hardy

“Lethargy bordering on sloth remains
the cornerstone of our investment style.”
— Warren Buffet

“I love money. I love everything about it.
I bought some pretty good stuff. Got me a
$300 pair of socks. Got a fur sink. An electric
dog polisher. A gasoline powered turtleneck
sweater. And, of course, I bought
some dumb stuff, too.”
— Steve Martin

“Money may not buy happiness, but I'd rather
cry in a Jaguar than on a bus.”
— Françoise Sagan

“Looking in The Wall Street
Journal every day for a
"good investment" while
loaded with debt is like
lusting for salt while
dying of thirst.”
— Jon Hanson

Also see these resources for more quotes about money:

Money Quotes on Squidoo

Money Quotes on The Money Cafe

How Much Money Do I Need to Retire

Retirement Quotes for Retirement Planning

I received the following email from my friend Todd about retirement plannig and used some new retirement quotes to respond to his concerns:

Ernie,

There seems to be a rel shift going on in terms of retirement planning, according to the CIBC poll about Consumer Debt in Canada:

"Two years ago, 24 per cent of respondents aged 45-64 named retirement planning as their top financial priority, which fell to just 12 per cent among that age group in this year's survey."
This is interesting because people have always had debt. So I wonder if this apparent attitudinal shift to saving and managing day-to-day bills, instead of planning for retirement, indicates that people are getting concerned about the economy and don't see their current debts as sustainable as they did previously, or if retirement planning "was selected by only seven per cent of respondents overall, down from 11 per cent last year and 13 per cent in 2011" because this generation doesn't really plan to retire in the same way that previous generations could.
In fact, I wonder if the idea of retirement was only a short term social myth that was really only relevant to the middle and upper class of the last 60 years or so, and that the "experiment" of retirement has proven a falsehood for most of the masses. For my grandfather, and generations before him, there was never really a concept of "retirement". He simply worked until he couldn't physically work any more, or died.

Keeping in mind that the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) was only started in 1966 (the plan is younger than me and is only 47 years old), it still seems to be in its "experimental phase". A very interesting fact is that I am one of the first Canadians to pay into the plan my entire life but will also be the first recipient who will see some of these benefits start to be clawed back (I will not receive Old Age Security until 67, causing an even heavier reliance on CPP for several years).

Anyway, I would venture to guess that this drop in retirement contributions most likely reflects a straightforward shortage of household income. As a person's household income and purchasing power erodes, I have always assumed that the first thing one would naturally cut back on is the retirement investments because they are such a long term futuristic concept and having food on the table or gas in your car is an immediate functional need. I am always surprised that these great "thinkers" in the CIBC analyst pool (or any other financial think tank) release these numbers without juxtaposing them with mean and median income figures to show correlation income down, retirement savings down; income up, retirement savings up. They make it sound as though Canadians have somehow started to belief that saving for retirement is no longer an important value to them.

Todd

This was my reply:

Todd:

I believe that there are a number of factors at work here.
One of the factors that caused the shift in saving for retirement is the low interest rates for years that encouraged people to purchase cars, houses, and all sorts of other crap they don't need with easy credit. Now there is a restructuring happening to pay for this bad behavior, including raising the level for CPP and Old Age Security. There will be a lot more restructuring — such as many government worker pension plans and corporate pension plans will see the level of benefits paid out to retirees lowered dramatically.

It's a case of the whole nation being invovled in a fraud against itself and then being penalized for it — with everyone being in denial that they contributed to the problem.

There was a time when savers were rewarded with interest rates of 10 percent or higher on GIC's. In 1990, if you had $500,000 in the bank in GIC's, you could retire comfortably off the interest of $50,000 a year. There was a real incentive to save at that time. But for years now, savers have been penalized and the debtors were rewarded. This is really stupid and most people in society are in denial that this is stupid.
Now stupid governments (in response to the stupid people that elected them) are trying to solve the problem with what created the problem — low interest rates to stimulate the economy and get people into even more debt. How insane is this? Sooner or later the pain of paying off the debts has to be felt. The longer it is put off, the greater the pain will be.
Having said this, there will still be people who retire early — those not willing to buy into the silly consumerism and the insanity that characterizes most people in society.

Here is a blog that I just listed for the ebook edition of How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free:

Retire by 40: Forget about Freedom 55. That’s for amateurs. It’s really possible to retire by 40. Joe Udo explores why it is possible to leave your day job much earlier than 65. This can be accomplished by aggressively saving and investing as soon as you start working. Many financial advisers will tell you to save 10 percent of your income for retirement. This is an OK model for some, but not for people who don’t love their jobs. For this reason you should be like Joe and his wife who have been saving and investing over 50 percent of their take-home income for many years now.

Here again are two reasons that I cite for most people having the debt levels that they have:

1. Instant gratification takes too long.

2. A necessity is any luxury that the neighbor happens to have.

In other words, elevating all your present "wants" to your "need list" is another way to trick yourself into being broke in retirement. This is what many people are doing. Spending $50 or $75 a month on a cell phone plan is not a need. It is an expensive luxury. Forrest B. has a land line and a cell phone. He needs a cell phone in addition to a land line almost as much as a giraffe needs strep throat. Forrest has made a lot of money over the years, and unless he wins a lottery or inherits some money, he will be broke in retirement. Who is to blame? Larry Wingett covers a lot of this in his book, You're Broke Because You Want to Be. As Larry Wingett says, "For anyone who gives me a bunch of excuses for why they weren't able to save, I will give you examples of people who had it a lot worse in a lower income, more living expenses, and other circumstances, and still managed to save a bundle."

I just heard this the other day: This applies to a lot of people I know, and the probems they have, including debt problems:

"I'm in love with the system that keeps me down."
— Words of a Song Heard on CKUA Radio

Regarding putting off retirement by working later, I always chuckle at studies showing that a large number of people have decided that they will work forever, instead of retiring at 60 or 65. Frankly, the majority of these people are delusional. As retirement expert Joseph F Coughlin stated, "Planning to keep working is NOT a retirement plan." This is the reality for a lot of people:

"I'm already worn out now — how do they expect us to work several years longer? My body hurts so much and I start working every day at five in the morning."
— Norbert Schmittbauer, a 50-year-old construction worker in Berlin, in response to Germany's proposal to have workers retire at 70 instead of 65

Plain and simple: Studies show that most people who had wanted or planned to work in their retirement years (60 and higher) aren't able to do so. There are about 5 important reasons why they aren't able to do so but I won't get into that.

I could go on and on about this but it would end up being a whole book.
Here are a few more great retirement quotes that I came across in articles and comments to articles, which place retirement planning in perspective.

"The top retirement planning strategy today is not to retire."
— Joseph F Coughlin

"You say you want to work past retirement? How's your health?"
— Joseph F Coughlin

Result for many Americans When They Punch in Their Data into a Retirement Calculator:
"According to your latest data if you retire today, you can live reasonably well until 5 p.m. tomorrow."
— Dave Erhard

"If you own your house and have SS, you will have a comfortable retirement. You don't "need" much else. That 401k and IRA are pure discretionary money."
— locke

"Save 15% of your money starting at age 30 and you'll be fine !! Live below your means.........or don't blow all your money !!! No fancy cars, big houses. Save your Rubles. That's what I did and just retired at 57."
— Carumba

"Babyboomers spent themselves into oblivion and now they are trying to take healthcare and food from the poor. Christianity sure failed, big time."
— kellamd. Alias for a person posting a comment on a USA TODAY article

"Those who didn't save for retirement should not be able to steal from those who did."
— Happily Retired Guy

"Homes are NOT investment vehicles, you morons."
— "Marine20" , Alias for a person posting a comment on a USA TODAY article about

"Treat your house as a home and not as an ATM — then you'll be fine."
— DeanG72, Alias for a person posting a comment on a USA TODAY article

"If you want the best retirement outcome possible, get rich. If that fails, consider getting married, staying married — and doing your best to die before your spouse does."
— Andrea Coombes, (This is serious — see article Half of Americans Will Die With No Money)

"While your financial assets are a good predictor of your retirement well-being, it’s worth noting that as many retirees say that they have “just enough” to live on with an annual income of $7,800 as they do with $130,000. So it’s not just how much you have, but how you want or expect to live."
— Dr. Joanne Earl, UNSW psychologist and careers expert

"A happy retirement doesn't require oodles of money, nor should it mean fighting the cat for food."
— Shelley Fralic, Vancouver Sun

“I didn’t want to die at work. I decided to start spending the money I’ve saved and enjoy it, because who knows how long I’ll live.”
— Lynda Thompson, 65, retired from being an artist for the Kansas City Area Transportation Authority who was diagnosed with cancer

To sum up, as Talbot Boggs stated, "Like life, retirement can be full of surprises. Take when you retire, for example."

One more: I can't forget the wisdom of Richard Parker:

“Retiring is easy. Staying retired — now that’s the trick!”

Actually, I wish I would have said that.

Ernie J. Zelinski
International Best-Selling Author
Helping Adventurous Souls Live Prosperous and Free
Author of the Bestseller How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free
(Over 175,000 copies sold and published in 9 languages)
and the International Bestseller The Joy of Not Working
(Over 250,000 copies sold and published in 17 languages)

Writing Retirement Books Is a Business

My international bestseller How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free (over 175,000 copies sold and published in 9 languages) has been in the top 1,000 books sold on Amazon for the last week or so, which means that it is selling really well, particularly it being Christmas season.

A lot of people think that it is really easy to accomplish what I have done with this book, which could end up being my $1 million book in profits (more about this some other time). 

Note: as of August 15, 2016 How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free has now sold over 300,000 copies and has earned me over $1 million in pretax profits.

Here are some great quotations to put the business or writing retirement books (and it is a business) in proper perspective:

“What people really want . . . is to be broke. At least, that’s one likely interpretation of a new YouGov poll that shows more people [in Britain] would rather be a writer than anything else. Now, it’s possible they’ve all got their eyes on the J. K. Rowling squillions, but the financial reality is rather more depressing. Most book manuscripts end up unwanted and unread on publishers’ and agents’ slush piles, and the majority of those that do make it into print sell fewer than 1,000 copies … It’s not even as if writing is that glamorous. You sit alone for hours on end honing your deathless prose, go days without really talking to anyone and, if you’re lucky, within a year or so you will have a manuscript that almost no one will want to read. Your friends and family will come to dread requests for constructive feedback . . .”
— John Crace writing in The Guardian

“No amount of money or marketing can overcome a book that doesn’t deliver. So your first challenge is to write a book that your networks assure you is as good as you want it to be. The content of your books will determine how you sell them to publishers and promote them to book buyers. Content precedes commerce.”
— Rick Frishman

“People think that just because they’ve written something, there’s a market for it. It’s not true.”
— Cathy Langer, Tattered Cover Bookstore in Denver

“Are you publishing this book to make a living? Good luck with that. Less than 3% of newly published authors make enough in royalties and advances to be happy to live on.”
— Seth Godin

And I am going add a quotation by Joe Konrath. For the record, I am not a big fan of Konrath, mainly because of his constant criticism of traditional publishers (My opinion is that Konrath hasn’t applied critical thinking skills in his analysis of traditional publishers.) Nevertheless, I do admire and acknowledge the success that Konrath has achieved. What’s more, I particularly agree with Konrath’s statement:

“Write a damn good book. This should be your main priority. It’s also one of the hardest things to do, and the hardest things to judge for yourself if you’ve done it. The problem is, most writers believe their books are good. Even at our most insecure, we believe complete strangers will enjoy our scribblings enough to pay for the privilege.”
— Joe Konrath

Note: I don't want to discourage anyone from writing books. In fact, I encourage all my friends to do so. The point is: If you want to make real money at this game and have a true bestseller (one that has sold 100,000 copies or more) you have to be a 1 percenter. A 1 percenter is a person who is willing to be more creative and more industrious than 99 percent of the population is willing to be.

Check out the blog post Creativity Trumps Following the Rules


Also, check out the number 2 listing of "Top 55 Retirement Planning Websites awards."

Impostor Syndrome - Leave It to "Best-Selling Authors" Who Aren't

Rachelle Gardner, a literary agent representing Christian writers, asked these questions on her blog post yesterday: 

1. "What about you? Do you ever feel like an impostor?  
2. What makes you feel that way?
3. What reminds you of the truth about yourself?"

 This was my reply:

Regarding, “impostor syndrome”, I would imagine anyone who started from nothing and attained any measure of success may suffer from it.

Me too, occassionally, but then I remember these words,

“If you done it, it ain’t bragging.”
— Walt Whitman

If anyone should be suffering from “impostor syndrome”, it’s the many self-proclaimed “best-selling authors” whose books have sold only fifty, a hundred, or fewer than 1,000 copies. Even having a book sell 5,000 copies does not make it a best-seller in the U.S. As self-publishing guru Dan Poynter says, a true best-seller is one that has sold at least 40,000 copies.

I have checked out many authors calling themselves “best-selling authors” and have found that their books have only sold 100 or 200 copies or 500 copies through normal book channels. These are the true impostors. If they are suffering from severe “impostor syndome” — they likely should be!

Having said that, I wanted to give a great quote about impostors. There aren’t many — but here is one that will offers food for thought to all of us.

“While the impostor draws his identity from past achievements and the adulation of others, the true self claims identity in its belovedness. We encounter God in the ordinariness of life: not in the search for spiritual highs and extraordinary, mystical experiences but in our simple presence in life.”
— Brennan Manning, in “Abba’s Child"

Some Alarming (and Questionable) Retirement Statistics from Economic Secrets Website

"I want you to take a look at these alarming facts:

• 96 percent of Americans never achieve financial independence! (According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, they end up dependent on charity, welfare, or family … or are forced to work past their ‘retirement age’.)  
• 85 percent of the people reaching age 65 years don’t have even $200 in their bank accounts! (That figure comes straight from the IRS!)
• 97 percent of all Americans, according to the US Census Bureau, will be forced to scratch out their retirement existence on a paltry $10,000 – or less! – a year.
• Americans aged 85 and older are now the fastest-growing segment of our population! (In fact, Hallmark sells TENS of THOUSANDS of birthday cards for 100-year olds every year!)
• Within 20 years, there will be 70 million Americans aged 65 and older (That’s more than DOUBLE the number in that age group in 2000!) "

Question: Are these retirement statistics right? If they are, many retirees and soon-to-be retirees must be experiencing impostor syndrome.

Note: Check out Cliff's Moen Family website.

More Money Quotes - Money Dislikes Being Equally Distributed

This is one of my favorite books ever:  Living the 80/20 Way by Richard Koch.

My review of this book is featured quite prominently on the Amazon page.

Although the book is about living a great balanced life, I also liked the chapter about money.

Here are quotes about money from Koch's book that I am using in The 777 Best Things Ever Said about Money. (soon to be released as an ebook)

"Money dislikes being equally distributed."
— Richard Koch

"Money clones money."
— Richard Koch

"Can money buy happiness? Yes, if you are poor."
— Richard Koch

"We sacrifice our independence and time to make money, believing that more money will make us happier. It doesn't. All we do is squander our life energy at ever-higher levels of affluence."
— Richard Koch

"More wealth also requires more management. Looking after my money irritates me. (Don't offer to relieve me of it; it irritates me less than giving it away would!)"
— Richard Koch

"Shun anything — shares, property, or the latest hot trend — with recent sharp appreciation. Bubbles burst. Wait until prices fall and then stabilize. Never buy in a market that is rising or falling fast. In the short term, stick to safe investments, even if you can only get 5 percent."
— Richard Koch

"Money is a force, like the wind, the waves, and the weather."
— Richard Koch

"Money is for freedom, not slavery; for security, not worry. Unless money is used to give you greater freedom and happiness, accumulating money is a burden."
— Richard Koch

No doubt, "Money is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one." If you end up living in poverty like
tens of millions of North Americans will in their retirement, well, good luck with your writing money off as an illusion. I will take an adequate amount of money to escape this poverty, even if the money is an illusion.

For more great quotations about money and about money tips for the retired, check out:

Importance of Money in Retirement

Sensational Quotes about Money for Smart People

How Much Money Do I Need to Retire

Best Retirement Job Book

I received this e-mail from a woman obviously looking for a way to work in retirement at a retirement job.

From: Marlene S
Subject: Recommendation
To: success101coach
Received: Thursday, September 27, 2012

Ernie,

If I may be so informal.

On Monday I am being transferred to another department in our company. I’ve spent the last year enjoying my role as Project Manager and have received numerous accolades on my success. Although it’s probably the best job I’ve ever had in all honesty I know it’s just another detour.

Overnight, the new head cheese, has decided he only needs a few project managers and suddenly I’m only qualified to write documents. It’s business and not personal and most likely a preliminary to fewer document writers. Oddly enough, my new manager encouraged us to remember that we are a family and need to work together during this change. I’m curious if he’s ever had to fire or layoff his sister or his cute, but unproductive and smelly grandmother recently.

But I digress . . .

I am grateful to have a job still as many are losing theirs. As I enter my sixth decade, however, I am more interested in expressing my gifts, exploring my creative nature and stopping on occasion to smell the roses or contemplate the lint in my navel. This would be easily done but I feel my current total lack of financial sustenance a bit prohibitive.

Your books appear to be just what I need if only for a fun pick me up and creative kick in the right side of my brain. So with the few extra dollars I have at the moment I would like to ask . . . . of all your books . . . and considering I feel like a butterfly with cement boots on . . . which of your many charming books would you recommend if I could only buy one?

No pressure.

Thank you for expressing yourself and be well

Marlene S.

This was my responese to Marlene:

Marlene:

If you are looking to semi-retirement and working in retirement at some sort of retirement job to earn some income, I would suggest my book Career Success Without a Real Job: The Career Book for People Too Smart to Work in Corporations

I would also suggest Making a Living Without a Job by Barbara Winter.

Many thanks and so long for now.

Ernie J. Zelinski
Best-Selling Author, Innovator, and Prosperity Life Coach
Author of the Bestseller How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free
(Over 165,000 copies sold and published in 9 languages)
and the International Bestseller The Joy of Not Working
(Over 250,000 copies sold and published in 17 languages)

P.S. Here are some retirement planning resources for getting a retirement job or working during retirement.

Retirement Jobs at UnrealJob.com
Retirement Jobs on Real Success Website
Retirement Jobs on Squidoo

My Retirement Plan Is My Retirement Book

First, I like this article Smoking Is My Retirement Plan. Needless to say smoking is not part of my retirement plan.

And here is a short article about about a retirement study done in Australia that won't be a big surprise to either you or me. It is about how to retire happy with money or without much money.

The last part of the article states.

"While your financial assets are a good predictor of your retirement well-being, it's worth noting that as many retirees say that they have 'just enough' to live on with an annual income of $7,800 as they do with $130,000. So it's not just how much you have, but how you want or expect to live."

Of course, I have said the same in my two retirement books, only in different words.

Incidentally I was searching on Google for a great unsolicited review of How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free on Quintessential Careers that I was aware of. I typed in my other best-selling book The Joy of Not Working by mistake.
I came across this review of The Joy of Not Working that I was not aware of.

Of course, my retirement plan entails selling 500,000 copies of How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free which has now sold around 165,000 copies (over 300,000 copies as of August 15, 2016).

Here are some quotations about retirement to help your retirement plan and my retirement plan:

"Shun anything — shares, property, or the latest hot trend — with recent sharp appreciation. Bubbles burst. Wait until prices fall and then stabilize. Never buy in a market that is rising or falling fast. In the short term, stick to safe investments, even if you can only get 5 percent."
— Richard Koch

"The things that are most precious to the human soul are those that are beyond price — integrity, true friendship, health, achievement, reputation, true courage, great character, gratitude, greatness, emotional stability, common sense, self-esteem, creativity, wisdom, spiritual fulfillment, and peace of mind. These can’t be rented, bought, or sold — regardless of how much money you acquire."
— from Look Ma, Life's Easy

"Smoking is no retirement plan. Instead, it’s a death on the installment plan — with higher and higher payments. You’ll pay fiscally, mentally, socially — and physically. And most times the payments will go on for as long as you’re alive."
— Matthew J. Edlund, M.D

"If you want the best retirement outcome possible, get rich. If that fails, consider getting married, staying married — and doing your best to die before your spouse does."
— Andrea Coombes

"Re-retirement martinis tonight. Sad to be saying adios to such wonderful people, but happy to be thinking about my own stuff instead of other people's stuff. That, my friends is the definition of retirement."
— Sydney Lagier

"Today, every prosperous retired person who does not work in some retirement job has a grand scheme that does work."
— Dave Erhard

"You are the author of your own life, and you — and only you — can create the financial conditions for the ideal early retirement."
— Anon financial advisor

"If I would have known that retirement was going to be this great, I would have never have got myself a job after I graduated from school!"
— Unknown wise person

"Can I retire? The answer is obviously "no" if I am asking myself this question."
— Dave Erhard

"No one should rely on their home equity as a source of money for retirement. Home equity should be considered emergency money. I paid my home off 8 years prior to retirement and banked the mortgage payments for 8 years. Retirement plans must include worst case scenarios, a set amount you will need to retire. You should start living as though you retired a couple of years before you retire, to ensure that you can meet your monthly expenses. No one said retirement is going to be easy and no one should take for granted that it is going to be."
— "Popog", Alias for a person posting a comment on a USA TODAY article

Retirement Planning - Freedom 55 Is Just an Illusion

Retirement planning is a big issue nowadays, particularly with baby boomers. Of course my retirement plan has always been a little different from others and I don't even know how much do I need to retire. 

The following is an e-mail I received from a friend of mine and his concern that many Canadians will not have sufficient retirement income when they retire.

----- Original Message -----
From: Todd L
To: Ernie Zelinski
Sent: Monday, August 20, 2012 7:27 PM
Subject: [Retirement] Freedom 55 is an Illusion

Hey Ernie,

Just back from a trip to San Francisco.

I saw this article on Huffington Post. I would love to hear your feelings on this just because is exemplifies the tension that is growing between those who are trying fulfill a sense of purpose of life in retirement years, and the hard reality that at least half of Canadians are really not even close to fulfilling the "entrepreneur's" (or economist's) view of a fruitful retirement.

Canadians to Work in Retirement

You are also aware, I am sure, of the newest statistics that came out citing how many Canadians (53%) had "NO" emergency savings. This is not stating simply "low" savings for retirement, but NO savings.

Retirement Savings of Canadians

I fit into this last category, and I suspect our friend Jim does too in some ways. No retirement, no savings, and no assets (basically, to speak of).

Thus the pain felt by anyone (such as myself), per se, who will see their Old Age Security rolled out to age 67. Therefore, I am not quite sure what the "incentive" is, even within a full-on capitalist dog-eat-dog philosophy, to think that Canada creates a sufficient landing space for those who work their entire life (like me) and pay their Canada Pension and Taxes (like me) for 40 years (like me) and end up basically making less than the poverty line once they "reap" their eventual Canadian Pension Plan. It says, to me, that if a certain person couldn't score a private pension and savings plan, then we (as Canadians) are prepared to let all of those folks who fall into the "middle" ground national pension plan of $18,000 per year (which is fine if you live in an airstream trailer, but not cool if you try to rent a simple apartment). Forget having anything near "home care", at some eventual stage of Alzheimers,but what about basic electricity, garbage pick-up, or water/sewer.

Having said all of that, each situation is different, and guys like Jim and I live on cosmic rules that allow us to "get beyond" the basic needs in life, so ultimately I am not concerned about "us". But what of the other 52%?

This is not a question about finding your way within a system that has opportunity, but reflects views of those who are increasingly facing dwindling pensions/incomes and aren't able to generate "dynamic entrepreneurial energy", but at age 60 or s, just need a bit of a social safety net. Where will they all go in the ext 10 years?
This seems to me to be an important question that you could answer on your blog. Perhaps food for thought?
Todd

This was my response to Todd:

I already cover some of these retirement issues in my blog and on several of my websites such as 1001 Ways to Enjoy Your Retirement.

Yes, many Canadians are going to have it tough in retirement. Americans as a whole are going to have it much tougher, however.

Refer to my recent blog post Dying Early as a Retirement Plan:

Here are some retirement quotes as well as retirement sayings to place retirement planning in proper perspective.

"My retirement plan is to find a shopping cart with good snow tires."
— Patty Doy

"My Retirement Plan: Get a job that will last until I am dead."
— Anon, in response to a retirement article

"The Republican Party is a friend of Social Security the way Colonel Sanders was a friend of chickens."
— Charles T. Manatt

"My retirement plan has always been quite a bit different from what retirement experts say is the ideal retirement plan. I semi-retired when I was thirty-five and had a net worth of minus $30,000 (due to student loan debts). Many people will say that this is unreasonable, impossible, and stupid. I did the right thing, however. That is why I have been able to work at my leisure four or five hours a day outside corporate life and make a great living."
— Ernie Z.

"I'll assume that when I retire I can find a good spot under a bridge to park my shopping cart and get some shut-eye."
— darko714 (Alias for person commenting on USA TODAY article about Social Security)

"My wife and I have our retirement figured out ... we will head to the Reno area ... nice climate. On one corner my 70-year-old wife will be a hooker and across the street I will be selling hot dogs until the day I die. I can't think of anything else to do."
— dryheavesdaily, in response to MarketWatch article Four ways 60-year-olds can save their retirement

"My retirement plan is to get great pleasure from living solely to enrage those who are paying for my Social Security and company pension."
— Unknown wise retiree

"As long as I get air conditioning in my cardboard box, I'll be OK [in my retirement]."
— Barbara Whelehan, Bankrate.com Writer

"My Retirement Plan:
1) Work 70hr weeks for average pay.
2) Live beneath my means and save 15-20 percent of my income.
3) Diversify my holdings between cash, RRSPs and PM's
4) Watch cash get destroyed by inflation, and RRSP get destroyed by fraudulent markets and gold get destroyed by deflation when interest rates eventually stop getting manipulated by the government.
5) Retire in a cardboard box living on a diet of catfood and dumpster diving.
— Unknown Canadian in response to Globe and Mail retirement article

In addition to this blog post, I recently read an article about the biggest fear that North American women in their 50s have. It is not about their looks. Their greatest fear is that they will live in poverty in their old age.

Two last quotations about retirement to add to those above:

"A happy retirement doesn't require oodles of money, nor should it mean fighting the cat for food."
— Shelley Fralic, Vancouver Sun

"Uh oh. Half of my neighbors will have to develop a taste for cat food and dandelions. Hey dandelions are great and highly nutricious (just dont eat the ones you've been spraying), as for cat food, I'd prefer to skip that dry stuff and just down the cat."
— Unknown person commenting on USA TODAY article Retirement planning: Assume you won't get Social Security)

One note about the study of Canadians nearing retirement mentioned in the Huntington Post blog. It was best covered (even better than in all the Canadian publications) in this other American publication:

Canadians Short on Retirement Savings

Fact is, I have several friends and acquaintances who are likely to live at the bare minimum of $18,000 a year. On the other hand, I have several friends and acquaintances who will be able to live very well in retirement, much better than me, given that their net worth is anywhere from $1.5 million to $3 million.

In short, there is no answer to the retirement dreams that people have been conned into. There is a serious restructuring going on to account for the excesses that North American baby boomers lived through and must now pay for in terms of a lowered standard of living.

Ernie J. Zelinski
International Best-Selling Author and Prosperity Life Coach
Author of “How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free”
(Over 165,000 copies sold and published in 9 languages)
and The Joy of Not Working
(Over 250,000 copies sold and published in 17 languages)