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)

New Retirement Quotes

This is my website that features retirement quotes, some of which will appear in my new ebook The 777 Best Things Ever Said about Retirement:

The Retirement Quotes Cafe

Here are some new retirement quotes just for this blog post:

"My retirement plan is to join the folks with the torches and pitchforks rioting and storming the Bastille."
— Jim Jim (ordaj), commenter on a Retirement Article

"Elevating your wants to your need list is another way to trick yourself into being
broke in retirement."
— from How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free (The World's Best Retirement Book)

"The least we can do is make a suicide pill so those of us with nothing left to live on [in retirement] can take the dignified way out."
- Jennifer Adams (jedadams)

"You Say You Want to Work Past ‘Retirement’? How's Your Health?"
— Joseph F Coughlin

"Like life, retirement can be full of surprises. Take when you retire, for example."
— Talbot Boggs

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

"Result for many Americans When TheyPunch 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

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

"The greatest stock market you can invest in is yourself. Finding this truth is better than finding a gold mine."
— Byron Katie

"Planning to never retire is not a true retirement plan. It, in fact, is a sign of delusion — and of denial about one's inability to save enough for one's retirement."
— Dave Erhard

"I semi-retired when I was a kid and became very good at it. That's why I now get paid the big bucks for getting up late in the morning and then experiencing true freedom for the rest of the day. I am still a kid, by the way, because my first priority is to go for a intense, but pleasurable bike ride before work ever enters my mind."
— from The Joy of Not Working

"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

Here are three more of my websites with quotes about retirement:

Sensational Retirement Quotes for Smart People
Funny Retirement Quotes
Retirement Quotes on Squidoo

What Are Your Retirement Goals?

What are your retirement goals?

You can see some of my retirement goals at my retirement plan.

At this link are the World's Top 100 Goals according to the website 43 Things:

Notice that writing a book is the second top goal after losing weight. In fact, 82 percent of Americans think that they have a book in them.

When I look at the list of the World's Top 100 Goals, I can think of at least 10 great ideas for a new book.

How about you?

If you decide to write a book, these quotations about writers apply:

"Write without pay until somebody offers pay. If nobody offers within three years, the candidate may look upon this circumstance with the most implicit confidence as the sign that sawing wood is what he was intended for."
— Mark Twain

"If you want to be a writer — stop talking about it and sit down and write!"
— Jackie Collings

"Writing is a profession in which you have to keep proving your talent to people who have none."
— Jules Renard

"The best effect of any book is that it excites the reader to self-activity."
— Thomas Carlyle

"Nobody ever committed suicide while reading a good book, but many have while trying to write one."
— Robert Byrne

In short, it's amazing how long it takes to write a book that you are not working on.

As an aside, check out the leisure quotes on this webpage, particularly the second last one.

The Elders Speak about Leisure

Sure, I am thrilled to be quoted alongside the likes of Pablo Picasso, Bertrand Russell, and Henry David Thoreau, but nothing beats being quoted alongside Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh.

For more on Bhagwan Shree Rayneesh, see Osho on Wikipedia.

A House Is Not Part of My Retirement Plan

I received the following e-mail today:

From: David Down
Subject: Hi
To: Ernie Zelinski
Received: Sunday, December 4, 2011, 4:00 AM

Hi Ernie

You said you liked hearing from people, so here I am. I have bought most of your books, so I guess I have contributed to your joy of not working.

I guess the main lesson you give is that is possible to scrape by without a job. You have done it, although it would appear you don't own a home or have really much savings for retirement. And as you have said, you're not such a good writer.

I am like many who buy your books; looking for an exit from the drudgery of it all. The trick is of course how to do that and still have a roof over your head and be able to do some of things you want to financially. In Australia at least homes are very expensive. The less fun jobs allow you to pay off the home quicker, even if you buy a modest one.

I think once I own somewhere I would be happy to live for a long time, I'll be in a better position to take risks.

Regards
David

This was my response to David:

Hi David:

Thanks for reading my books.

Yes, I am not a great writer and yet my books have sold 700,000 copies worldwide. This has helped me with my retirement planning.

Actually, I did scrape by financially for a little while, living at or near the poverty line, but I never considered myself poverty stricken.

I actually semi-retired when my net worth was MINUS $30,000. (due to student loans).

People say that can't be done but I proved that it can be. To be able to this one has to play in a realm that is about 3 levels above the majority and one in which the majority don't want to play in.

Regardless of the fact that I have worked ony 3 or 4 hours a day for many years, I am better prepared financially for retirement than most people my age.

I purchased the half duplex that I rented for 28 years in 2007. I placed a $163,000 down payment and a mortgage of $162,000 on it. I promised that I would pay it off in 5 years. I actually paid it off in 4 years. Although the half duplex is worth only about $285,000 now since the drop in house prices, I am not concerned. My home was never part of my retirement plan. I have always maintained that a house is a consumer item and not an investment of any sort. People who think a house is an investment and an important part of a retirement plan is a dummy. The house crash in the U.S. proved that this is the case.

I also have saved about $400,000 for retirement because when I started making decent money about 7 years ago, I saved 50 to 60 percent of my pretax income. Saving only 10 percent of one's income is for amateurs and sissies.

My strategy on how to do this is covered in my book Career Success Without a Real Job: The Career Book for People Too Smart to Work in Corporations.

Many thanks and so long for now,

Ernie Zelinski
Best-Selling Author, Innovator, and Prosperity Life Coach
Author of the Bestseller How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free
(Over 150,000 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)

Here is another reason why house prices will not recover for years: U.S. Echo Boomers Have Little Interest in Home Ownership.

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

Let Gary McPherson Inspire Your Retirement Planning

Gary McPherson

A recent survey by the AARP Public Policy Institute indicates that over half of American workers (55 percent) in their 60s have less than $100,000 in their retirement accounts. One in four Americans age 50 or older said they had exhausted all of their retirement savings during the recession, while 67% at least reduced their retirement savings account balances during the previous three years.

Are you one of these American or Canadian retirees who don't have enough money to retire on? Do you think that Social Security Is a Secure Way of Getting Great Pleasure from Being Terribly Deceived? Then get off your butt and do something about it. Create a retirement plan that works for you even if it just takes creating one of many possible retirement jobs. Whether it's like my retirement plan or one that is completely different, you have to take 100 percent responsibility.

If you feel that you don't have the ability or the resources to create more retirement income, let me tell you about Gary McPherson (see photo above), who passed away a little over a year ago. I had the pleasure of meeting Gary through my friend Mark Anielski, who asked me to make a presentation at a University of Alberta "Social Responsibility in Business" class that Mark and Gary designed and taught.

Gary spent over half of his life in the hospital breathing with the aid of a respirator before he learned to frog breathe (something the doctors had said was impossible). In spite of being severely handicapped, (a quadriplegic since he was nine), Gary accomplished 10 to 100 times as much in his life as most people would be able to do in five lifetimes without the limitations that Gary had.

As my friend Graham Hicks wrote about Gary in the Edmonton Sun shortly after Gary passed away:

"A quadriplegic since he was nine — one of the last full-blown cases of polio paralysis in Canada — Gary did more in his 63 years on this Earth than most of us would do in several lifetimes."

"Who and what was this Gary McPherson, that on his death he is so lauded?

"The Order of Canada, the Alberta Order of Excellence, Honorary Doctor of Law, social activist, political strategist, political candidate, superb organizer, administrator, health nut, sports addict, a great dad and a loving husband."

This I can tell you: Gary McPherson never considered using an excuse such as
not having the ability or not having the time when he wanted to write his book "With Every Breath I Take." Gary just wrote the book — in spite of being a quadriplegic — and left the excuses to people with 10 times the abilities and resources that Gary had. (See my Redroom Blog Post Write a Best-Selling Book — Just Cut Out All Your Excuses!

Here are a few more things about Gary:

• Gary didn't allow his well-being to be contingent on anything external to himself — not the weather, not the economy, and definitely not the government.




• Gary would never indulge in silly conspiracy theories or in thinking about devious ways to get governments or other entities to take care of him.




• Gary was a truly a free man and was not imprisoned by the absurd idea that someone had taken away his freedom. (Don't get me going on the lunatics in this world such as the Freemen who lament about their not having the freedom they deserve. If anyone has taken their freedom away, it is they who have imprisoned themselves with their preposterous thinking.)




• Gary didn't dwell on illness or disease. He lived his life as if he was in perfect health.




• Gary didn't have time for self-sabotaging stuff like complaining and criticizing the successful people of the world. Instead Gary chose to become successful himself.




• Gary came from excellence, integrity and honor — not from a sense of entitlement. He would never have thought of Winning the Lottery as a Retirement Plan.

Interestingly, the online articles in the Edmonton Journal and the Edmonton Sun that paid great tribute to Gary are no longer available. Gary may be gone and the articles may be gone but Gary's Spirit lives on with many people — including me. His Spirit will continue to inspire me to create great retirement books such as How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free and The Joy of Not Working and to operate out of high intention instead of mediocrity that is the norm in North American society today.

Here are the links to two articles about Gary McPherson that are still available online.

Gary McPherson: A stubborn hero who saw ability, not disability

Remembering Gary McPherson

His Retirement Plan vs My Retirement Plan

Here is the latest e-mail that I received about The Joy of Not Working:

Ernie,

I just wanted to let you know how much I enjoyed The Joy of Not Working on the beaches of Playa Del Carmen recently.

It makes a lot of sense!

A lot of the things you mention like the North American work ethic of living to work instead of working to live. How workaholics [don't have fun at work and] actually produce less than normal workers, having coffee breaks to re-juvenate yourself, pursuing more leisure, fun activities etc. [real success] are things I always believed in.

Thx

Doug

PS: My youngest brother retired at 47 and has never looked back, or regretted it!

Note: See and "Like" The Joy of Not Working Facebook Page:

Here is the latest e-mail about How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free from a gentleman whose retirement plan is different from my retirement plan.

Hey Ernie,

Just an update [to my e-mail earlier about How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free].

My company went public with my retirement last week and we have named my successor. I have decided not to call it retirement but rather the death of "corporate Jay" my friends are holding a wake instead of a retirement party. April fools day is the last day of my corporate life! Btw I could use a couple of snappy responses to "your too young to retire" and "what are you going to do all day"

... Jay:

This was my response to Jay:

Congratulations on your retirement: I don't believe that you need any retirement advice.

From my book The Joy of Being Retired: 365 Reasons Why You Will Love Retirement here are 10 of the reasons why you should love retirement.

1. Retirement allows you to pursue your first love — which is living life to the fullest!


2. You get to appreciate one of life’s great pleasures — lots of time on your hands.


3. By having retired early, you don’t have to wind up like so many people who retire too late — they have given so much of themselves to their companies that they don’t have anything left in the tank for their retirement years.


4. If a Meyer-Briggs professional personality assessment test given by your employer indicated that you were best suited for retirement, you can now put your skills and talent to good use.


5. You can wake up in the morning with nothing to do and by bedtime be in a position of only having done only half of it — with no consequences.


6. When you take early retirement from a stressful job you immediately look about seventeen years younger — simply because you feel about seventeen years younger.


7. Working long hours can sometimes be rewarding, without doubt, but so can goofing off and enjoying life. As they say in Spain, “How nice it is to do nothing all day and then rest afterward.”


8. You get to spend a lot more time with your spouse and learn how to compromise, how to pick the right battles, and how not to kill each other.


9. You have all the time in the world to prove The Law of Napping — A Body at Rest Remains at Rest.


10. You can now preach the shortcomings of the work ethic and proclaim to the world —as the great philosopher Bertrand Russell once did — that “the morality of work is the morality of slaves and the world has no need for more slavery.”

Note: See and "Like" The How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free Facebook Page:

Retirement - The End of Corporate Life

I received this e-mail the other day from a guy named Jay who had contacted me before about his retirement plan which was quite different from my retirement plan.

The end of my corporate life

Hey Ernie,

Just an update.

My company went public with my retirement last week and we have named my successor. I have decided not to call it retirement but rather the death of "corporate Jay" my friends are holding a wake instead of a retirement party. April fools day is the last day of my corporate life! Btw I could use a couple of snappy responses to "you are too young to retire" and "what are you going to do all day?"

Jay:

This was my response:

Congratulations on your retirement: I am sure you don't neeed any retirement planning resources.

From my book The Joy of Being Retired: 365 Reasons Why You Will Love Retirement here are 10 of the reasons why you should love retirement.



1. Retirement allows you to pursue your first love — which is living life to the fullest!

2. You get to appreciate one of life’s great pleasures — lots of time on your hands.

3. By having retired early, you don’t have to wind up like so many people who retire too late — they have given so much of themselves to their companies that they don’t have anything left in the tank for their retirement years.

4. If a Meyer-Briggs professional personality assessment test given by your employer indicated that you were best suited for retirement, you can now put your skills and talent to good use.

5. You can wake up in the morning with nothing to do and by bedtime be in a position of only having done only half of it — with no consequences.

6. When you take early retirement from a stressful job you immediately look about seventeen years younger — simply because you feel about seventeen years younger.

7. Working long hours can sometimes be rewarding, without doubt, but so can goofing off and enjoying life. As they say in Spain, “How nice it is to do nothing all day and then rest afterward.”

8. You get to spend a lot more time with your spouse and learn how to compromise, how to pick the right battles, and how not to kill each other.

9. You have all the time in the world to prove The Law of Napping — A Body at Rest Remains at Rest.

10. You can now preach the shortcomings of the work ethic and proclaim to the world — as the great philosopher Bertrand Russell once did — that “the morality of work is the morality of slaves and the world has no need for more slavery.”

Don't Gamble on Your Retirement Wishing for a Lottery Win

Get real!

A recent study reported in Vancouver Sun in an article called Don't Gamble on Your Retirement found that one-third of Canadian female Baby Boomers are hoping for a lottery win to fund their retirement.

Now I could be wrong, but my guess is most of them don't even buy lottery tickets.

In the same vein, I could say that my retirement plan is to run away from it all, just like I tried to do when I was a kid, to no avail.

Both retirement plans, of course, have little chance of success.

Check out gambling quotes and Winning the Lottery - the Retirement Plan with the Most Bugs to Be Worked Out on my websites.

Here are some money quotes, retirement quotes, and gambling quotes to put the topic in proper perspective:

[S]he that lives upon hope will die fasting.
— Benjamin Franklin, The Way to Wealth

Most women would rather be out of money than out of fashion.
— Unknown wise person

Money can't buy happiness but it can buy marshmellows, which are kinda the same thing.
— Unknown wise person

People who are foolish with money are foolish in many other ways too.
— Unknown wise person

Getting money is like digging with a needle. Spending it is like water soaking into the sand.
— Japanese proverb

How to Upset Your Readers and Make Money at the Same Time

My retirement plan has many elements to it including writing and publishing several more books that will add to my prosperity.

My prosperity up until now has been achieved in many ways including — would you believe — upsetting some of my readers and making money at it.

For instance, I recently received a handwritten letter (always a treat in this day and age when most people send e-mails) from a female reader of one of my books who calls herself a "Healer, Visionary & Artist" and lives in California.

The envelope was red and really different with an image of Cat Woman on it. Even the U.S. stamps on the envelope had cats on them.

"Here we go again," I thought, "another unhinged female reader sending me whacky stuff." (It's female readers who send me flaky stuff that can make my head spin in several directions all at the same time. One or two of them even have exhibited signs of slight, barely worth mentioning, craziness — but don't tell anyone that I said so. Americans are known to sue for anything and everything.)

I was wrong, however, in this case. It was just a woman upset at me — this happens to me often enough with women — so no problem here.

The image above is the inside of the letter, the content of which I have placed below.

Ernie,

I just finished reading Real Success Without a Real Job [re-issued as Career Success Without a Real Job].

I had to borrow the book from my local library because I'm broke from taking a vacation from my very boring and unchallenging job as a massage therapist.

Before I even finished reading your book completely, I found myself busy writing a book all of my own.

Thank you.

Anyways . . . that's not why I'm writing you. I'm writing you because you pissed me off. I got really mad when you said I was a cheapskate for borrowing the book from the library.

That is very rude.

It pissed me off so much that I called Ten Speed Press and ordered a copy of The Joy of Not Working.

The book is on its way as I write this letter and I'm looking forward to reading it.

Thank you.

Cyrstal Lynn Stevens
Healer, Visionary & Artist

Incidentally, Crystal was referring to the part in Career Success Without a Real Job on Page 174 where I wrote:

The key is not to cheap out when buying information that can help you market your products, learn the latest trade secrets, and be a better person. If you borrowed this book from the library — particularly if you are a well-paid professional — then you are not really committed to career success without a real job. Being cheap will not help you feel prosperous and successful.

You may protest that borrowing a book from the library is a form of economizing. True, it can be if you can’t afford the book. But economizing can create a “poor me” attitude toward money as well as all other areas of your life. You are likely feeding your subconscious mind poverty messages that will prevent you from ever becoming truly prosperous and successful.

So, the question is: Where are you cheaping out in your life that is adding to your poverty consciousness?

For example if you are an author, do you always expect everyone to buy copies of your books.

I don't. I have given away over 13,000 copies of my books (cost of around $50,000) over the years.

This along with upsetting some of my readers (both male and female) have been two keys to my success as an international best-selling author.

One more result that I have achieved is put myself in a position of prosperity and respectable wealth that enhances my retirement plan and allows me to work at projects that I truly enjoy at any pace that I desire.

Here are some retirement quotes and money quotes to inspire you to greater wealth and prosperity:

"He that lives upon hope will die fasting."
— Benjamin Franklin, The Way to Wealth

"Real wealth equals ideas plus energy."
— Buckminster Fuller

"The best thing a man can do for his culture when he is rich is to endeavor to carry out those schemes which he entertained when he was poor."
— Henry David Thoreau

My Retirement Plan Is NOT Based on the Canada Pension Plan

Unlike the retirement plans of many Canadians, my retirement plan is not based on the proceeds from the Canada Pension Plan.

There are many reasons — but the main one is that this is just plain dumb.

Sure, the Canada Pension Plan is better than the American Social Security system in that it is a true trust fund where the American Social Security system is not (See Social Security Is a Secure Way )

Lately there has been a lot of debate in Canada about coming up with more retirement pension programs so people are better prepared for retirement.

Sociologists, bankers, and government officials are worried that the majority of Canadians won't have enough in their retirement plan portfolios to retire comfortably in the new retirement.

Some people have suggested expanding the mandatory Canada Pension Plan and others are suggesting a new voluntary retirement plan for the self-employed and for workers without a company pension plan.

This was one of my comments to an article regarding the Canada Pension Plan (CPP):

This was one of my comments to an article about the Canada Pension Plan in the Edmonton Sun:

"No doubt Ted Morton will get a great pension and that is a disgrace.

In fact, the generous pensions that all government workers get is a disgrace.

Plain and simple, the Canadian Pension Plan does not have to be expanded.

The worst part of the Canada Pension Plan is that it is a form of taxation.

If a single person pays $100,000 into the plan and dies at 59, the person's estate only gets a death benefit of $2,500.

Why expand the Canada Pension Plan when it rips people off?

Ultimately, a person should take full responsibility for their retirement and not rely on the government in any way, shape or form. That is what I have done. Any money that comes in is a bonus, coffee money, in other words.

Ernie J. Zelinski
Author of How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free
(over 125,000 copies sold and published in 9 languages)

Someone took issue to my comment and made these comment under the name "Don't Listen to Ernie":

Just where did "Ernie" find someone stupid enough to publish his book?

YMPE (the maximum amount of income one has to pay into CPP) for 2011 is going to be 48,300. The current contribution rate is 9.9% split between the employer and employee.

The ONLY that someone can contribute $100,000 is if they worked 42 years. But, oops, CPP only counts 35.

This person is obviously very ignorant.

So I posted this additional comment"

To: "Don't Listen to Ernie"

As a self-employed, I pay both the employers' and the employess' portion into the Canadian Pension Plan.

At 9.8 percent of maximum earnings this is $4,781 per year.

Multiply $4,781 by 35 years and the total is $119,542.

So who is the stupid person?

Regarding my book How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free, it is the best-selling retirement book on Amazon.com in a saturated market, beating out name brand retirement books like the AARP Retirement Survival Guide and the Wall Street Journal Complete Retirement Guidebook.

How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free has sold over 130,000 copies for a reason.

Word-of-mouth advertising for this book from satisfied customers is what sells the book and will keep selling it for years to come while most retirement books are lucky to sell 5,000 copies in their lifetime. Many sell only 100 copies in their lifetime - and that is to family and friends.

In other words, results don't lie!

My retirement book rocks — not because I say so — but because the people who buy retirement books say so.

I have earned $550,000 in pre-tax profits from How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free and will earn hundreds of thousands more over the next few years.

Not too bad of a source of retirement income for my retirement plan — wouldn't you say?

I don't know about you, but I sure think that there are sure a lot of ignorant people out there.

Ever wonder about how these people get through life? They sure aren't sensationally creative, are they?

No wonder there are so many government programs and why certain factions feel more retirement planning programs are needed including expansion to the Canada Pension Plan.

Here are a few quotations about retirement and money saving tips to help you achieve your retirement number and prepare for a prosperous retirement:

Make money your devoted servant; otherwise, it will be an overbearing master.
— Italian proverb

"People who don't respect money don't have any."
— J. Paul Getty, Billionaire Oil Tycoon

"He who buys what he does not need steals from himself."
— Anon

"Getting money is like digging with a needle. Spending it is like water soaking into the sand."
— Japanese proverb

"Money will appear when you are doing the right things in your life."
— Michael Phillips

"When it comes to making more money, most people look at the world and see the same opportunity they’ve seen before: typically, a job. Because they don’t awaken their mind and expand their vision, they don’t see other opportunities. Yet opportunities do exist. So how do you change your thinking so you can see them? One way to jolt the brain out of its preconceived category thinking is to bombard it with new experiences."
— Joe Vitale

"He that lives upon hope will die fasting."
— Benjamin Franklin, The Way to Wealth

"We have 14 children, our primary backup for our retirement. The best investment ever."
— Anon, in response to article "Four ways 60-year-olds can save their retirement"

"With money you're a dragon; without it you're a worm."
— Chinese proverb

Ernie Z.

An Unreasonable Retirement Plan Combined with Creative Action Will Beat Any Reasonable Retirement Plan

The new retirement keeps changing and likely will keep changing for quite some time.

An article entitled 11 Signs You Won't Be Retiring in 2011 (on InvestorPlace.com) gave the following signs why your retirement plan will not allow you to retire next year:

1. You Have Set a Date With Death.
2. You Never Worry About Scams.
3. You Have Credit Card Debt.
4. You’re Still Supporting Your Family.
5. You Don’t Know What Your Social Security Benefits Will Be — Or Won’t Be.
6. You Have a Significant Mortgage Balance.
7. You Don’t Have a Budget.
8. Your Budget Depends on Investments Appreciating or Paying Dividends.
9. Your Budget Doesn’t Cover Medical Expenses.
10. Your Retirement Plan is Just a Plan.
11. You Love Your Job.

This was the comment that I posted (but rejected, likely because the author of the article is too hard-headed or too much in denial that unorthodox retirement plans may just work a lot better than conventional ones):

You are being too reasonalble.

For the record, I have never had a budget and I don't ever intend to have one.

I am pretty good at saving money and have been able to avoid debt, however.

I certainly won't be retiring completely in 2011 but I did semi-retire in my early 40s when my net worth was MINUS $30,000.

Based on my financial position today, I am in much better position to retire in 2011 than most Canadians and Americans my age.

I decided to work only 4 hours a day when I semi-retired 20 years ago and forget about any company pension plan or government pension plan as part of my retirement plan.

I am now 61 and I don't anticipate many financial problems in retirement.

Of course, most "reasonable" people will say this it is impossible to semi-retire when one is in debt — and it is for reasonable people!

My retirement plan is unreasonable but it works.

As Jack Canfield says, "Results don't lie."

These creativity quotes give an indication of the philosophy on which my retirement plan is based on:

"The wrong way always seems more reasonable."
— George Moore

"The more you reason the less you create."
— Raymond Chandler

"Reason is a harmonising, controlling force rather than a creative one."
— Bertrand Russell

"I must create a system or be enslaved by another man's; I will not reason and compare: my business is to
create."
— William Blake

"The radical invents the views. When he has worn them out the conservative adopts them."
— Mark Twain

In short, an unreasonable retirement plan — one that defies convention — combined with creative action will kick butt over any reasonable retirement plan espoused by traditional financial and retirement planners.

Retirement planning should be left up to the individual and not to financial planners, many of whom themselves likely have not saved enough to ensure an adequate retirement income and are ones who just a few years ago were telling people how great of an investment a house was and how accumulating debt was a great way to live.

Ernie J. Zelinski
Author of How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free
(Over 125,000 copies sold and published in 9 languages)
and The Joy of Not Working
(Over 250,000 copies sold and published in 17 languages)

My Retirement Plan Is Being Hindered by Too Much Choice

I have been wondering why I haven't been getting much done lately so that I can work toward my retirement plan.


I just found out the reason: I have too much choice — too many great projects to work on including a new book called How NOT to Retire BROKE: Create $250,000 or More for Your Retirement in Seven Years or Less.  (Also because I have been fighting people stealing my website and blog content so that I am not penalized for exact duplicate content).


If you haven't seen this video, it's worth watching.


Psychologist Barry Schwartz takes aim at a central tenet of western societies: freedom of choice. In Schwartz's estimation, choice has made us not freer but more paralyzed, not happier but more dissatisfied.


The Paradox of Choice


Here is an e-mail that I received from a friend of mine who retired with virtually no assets except for an Airstream trailer and a car worth about $3,000.


George has been happily retired with his main income from the age of 60 to 65 being $450 a month from the Canadian Pension Plan. Yes, that what Jim lived on.


But Jim just turned 65 and will receive almost $1,500 a month with the Old Age Security and the Alberta Government supplement. (similar to what Social Security pays in the U.S.)

Hello Ernie,

I just finished listening to the Barry Schwartz and I couldn't agree more with what he was saying. I feel the same kind of paralysis he talks about when I go into a restaurant that has a six page menu and an even longer wine list. Invariably, after having had a reasonably good meal, I still leave wondering if there was something else I might have enjoyed more and, as he says, that feeling consequently diminishes the dining experience. I also have to admit that my happiness is tied directly to my lack of affluence, and therefore, to my distinct lack of choices in life generally (which others would call a near state of impoverishment and subsequently to a substantially lower set of expectations). It all makes perfect sense, this lifestyle of mine, thanks to Barry Schwartz. And thanks to you, Ernie, for passing this on. George

Here are some retirement resources for enhancing your retirement:

Gambling Quotes to Remind You Why Winning a Lottery Is the Retirement Plan for Stupid People

End:


And here are some of the quotes from the Sensational Quotes for Smart People Website

Life is full of uncertainties. Future investment earnings and interest and inflation rates are not known to anybody. However, I can guarantee you one thing . . . those who put an investment program in place[as a retirement plan] will have a lot more money when they come to retire than those who never get around to it.- Australian Finance Expert and Best-Selling Author Noel Whittaker

After you marry, every asset either of you acquires is jointly held. That's why you both need to be in sync on your long-term financial goals, from paying off the mortgage to putting away for retirement. Ideally, you should talk about all this before you wed. If you don't, you can end up deeply frustrated and financially spent. - Suze Orman

The Secret to Social Security Is to Appreciate the Pleasure of Being Terribly Deceived

In a an article called 7 Ways to Protect Your Retirement Savings, Emily Brandon of USA News states, "Social Security is one guaranteed income stream that most retirees receive."

This was my comment along with some retirement quotes that I posted after the article:

Your comment "Social Security is one guaranteed income stream that most retirees receive" is totally absurd!

This reminds me of an Oscar Wilde quote: "The secret of life is to appreciate the pleasure of being terribly, terribly deceived."

How can you say that the American Social Security System is a guaranteed retirement income stream?

Even winning the lottery may seem like a safer bet.

The Social Security Administration, contrary to popular belief, doesn’t have any funds in trust or investment accounts, such as stocks, bonds or savings accounts.

The Canadian Government Pension Plan (CPP), on the other hand, does and I still don't consider the CPP a guaranteed source of retirement income.

The entire American Social Security System is actually a giant Ponzi-type pay-as-you-go scheme that takes the payroll taxes of Americans who are still working and distributes it to American retirees.

Individuals who promote similar "retirement plans" are charged and sent to jail once convicted.

Interestingly, it’s OK for the American government to run such a Ponzi scheme.

CATO Institute researcher William Shipman noted in a project, “Retiring With Dignity”:

“Any surplus is not saved or invested for pensioners. Those funds are borrowed by the federal government to pay current operating expenses and replaced with government bonds. The federal government lends itself the excess in return for an interest-paying bond, an IOU that it issues to itself .... The funds are not invested for the benefit of present or future retirees.”

What a brilliant idea, having the government borrow money from itself and issue IOUs to itself, promising to pay it back sometime in the future as retirement income to its citizens!

This would be okay if the American government in itself wasn't so largely in debt that it can be considered bankrupt big time.

So, would you trust an IOU from someone or an entity that is bankrupt big time?

I still find it amazing that Americans are in denial that there is a problem with their Social Security System.

Fact is, sooner or later there is going to be a massive restructuring of the system and Americans are going to find out that they have no Social Security, or very little, to rely on for a retirement income.

The safest retirement income may be to have a retirement job, if they are still healthy enough to work.

I semi-retired when I was 35 and had a net worth of minus $30,000.

Even though I have worked less than half of my adult life, I can retire comfortably.

The reason is that once I started earning even a modest income, I started saving over 40 percent, because I have never ever placed any confidence in government pension plans to guarantee a retirement income for me. My retirement plan, by the way, still involves some work.

It was J.P. Getty who said, "People who don't respect money don't have any."

This, along with relying on the government for a retirement income, precisely explains why so many Americans and Canadians will be broke in retirement.

Ernie J. Zelinski
Author of How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free
(Over 125,000 copies sold and published in 9 languages)
and The Joy of Not Working
(Over 250,000 copies sold and published in 17 languages)

Retirement Planning - Wakeup Call On Retirement Needs?

My retirement plan has to be different from the what some experts say should be the required plan so that you retire happy, wild, and free.

In a typical retirement plan, American retirees will require resources equal to more than 15 times their final pay to maintain their standard of living after they retire, according to analysts at Hewitt Associates Inc.

About 80% of workers may fall short of meeting all their financial needs in retirement, says Hewitt Associates.

The figures come from a Hewitt study of projected retirement savings totals of about 2 million employees at 84 large U.S. companies.

After factoring in inflation and post-retirement medical costs, the analysts estimate that the employees will need 15.7 times final pay in retirement resources to meet financial needs in retirement.

Of that amount, Social Security is expected to provide 4.7 times final pay, the analysts estimate.

The remaining 11 times final pay will need to come from other sources, such as company-provided plans and personal savings, the analysts write.

Other findings in the study include:

Only 18% of retirees who contribute to a defined contribution plan and work a full career are expected to achieve the 15.7 times final pay goal.

19% of retirees are expected to have a shortfall of 5 times final pay or more at retirement.

Workers who rely solely on a defined contribution plan to fund their retirement plan are projected to meet only 74% of their needs in retirement. Employees who are covered by an active or frozen defined benefit plan may be able to meet 91% of retirement needs.

First, are we talking about "wants" or "needs."

Plain and simple, everyone's needs have always been provided — otherwise they would be dead!

The problem with U.S. society today, and that includes many retirees, is that a need is any luxury that the neighbor happens to have.

Second, actuaries such as well-known Malcolm Hamilton give good reasons why the large majority of retirees, whether they live in Canada, the U.S., or other Western nations, can live on far less than 80 percent of their pre-retirement income.

Indeed, government statistics indicate that retirees live comfortably on 45 percent to 62 percent of their pre-retirement income, without needing a retirement job of any kind.

Although these studies by Hewitt and financial institutions indicate that retirees will require a relatively high income to support these "needs", the writing is on the wall: Most retirees will be living on a small fraction of the income that they made working.

And my guess is that many of these retirees will be just as happy as when they were working - or even happier.

My guess is based on the number of people who have written to me over the years about their experiences with retirement and unemployment.

Ernie J. Zelinski
Author of How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free
(Over 125,000 copies sold and published in 9 languages)

1982 Latour Is a Big Part of My Retirement Plan

I just added a bottle of 1982 Latour as part of my retirement plan.

I first learned about 1982 Latour from Kevin O'Leary when he wrote about his drinking this fine wine at Grille 23 in Boston.

Kevin in his 2008 Globe and Mail article about Hedge Fund Madness indicated that legend has it that you don't get a hangover from 1982 Latour, regardless of how much you drink.

That is not why I added it to my retirement plan, however. (Incidentally, this fine wine starts out at about $1,600 a bottle in liquor stores.)

I added the experience of drinking a bottle of 1982 Latour while having a fine meal at Grille 23 in Boston in exchange for an hour coaching session with me to my retirement plan because it is one of those "unreasonable goals" that I want to achieve before I die.

I have added a number of goals that other people would consider unreasonable to my retirement plan and you should do the same with your retirement plan.

Another of my goals is to create a Blue Porsche Boxster S from side projects with my paying cash for it. (I don't believe in financing cars because this is playing on really low level of intention.)

Here are a few more items that I have included in my retirement plan:

• Write the book Life's Secret Handbook (for Being Great Instead of Ordinary)
• Hire a V.A. (Virtual Assistant) and a G.W. (Ghost Writer)
• Live in Hawaii for 2 months during one winter.
• Independently publish my books Look Ma, Life's Easy and Life's Secret Handbook and create bestsellers out of both of them.
• Get a book published by Workman Publishing.
• Publish the book Life's Secret Handbook for Having Great Friends and sell 500,000 copies on the Friendship Cafe.
• Travel to Prague, Buenos Aires, Paris, and Boston.
• Sell over 1,000,000 copies of my books (I have sold over 650,000 copies of my books so far).
• Generate an income of over $300,000 a year for 5 years straight.
• Sell over 500,000 copies of How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free (This book has sold over 125,000 copies so far)
• Make $1 million dollars as an Internet marketing expert.
• Own a winter home in San Diego, Ensenada, or Hawaii

I hope my retirement plan helps you formulate an exciting retirement plan with many "unreasonable goals" in it as well.

Note: Have you noticed that my retirement plan does not include winning the lottery (the retirement plan for dummies)?