Dying Early as a Retirement Plan

In the New York Times article at the link below, it says "Dying Early Is Not the Basis of a Retirement Plan."

I say, "Why not? Dying early as a retirement plan has worked for many people!"

This article about retirement is unbelievable and bizarre, however. Bizarre, given that is written by an academic. More on that later.

This part of the article is almost unbelievable, but likely true.

"Seventy-five percent of Americans nearing retirement age in 2010 had less than $30,000 in their retirement accounts. The specter of downward mobility in retirement is a looming reality for both middle- and higher-income workers. Almost half of middle-class workers, 49 percent, will be poor or near poor in retirement, living on a food budget of about $5 a day."

Hmm, a food budget of about $5 a day doesn't seem like a great way to retire happy, wild, and free.

Here is the link to the New York Times retirement article Our Ridiculous Approach to Retirement.

My thoughts about the article: This woman says, "My plan calls for a way out that would create guaranteed retirement accounts on top of Social Security. These accounts would be required, professionally managed, come with a guaranteed rate of return and pay out annuities."

In my opinion, this woman is delusional when she says "professionally managed" and "come with a guaranteed rate of return".

What the heck does "professionally managed" mean? Managed by greedy bankers or dubious financial advisors? Sure, most Americans (me too) would have a lot of trust in these people!

Worse yet, would be to have a new retirement plan, just like the U.S. Social Security System, managed by politicians and government workers.

And "come with a guaranteed rate of return". Plain and simple, there is no such thing as a "guaranteed rate of return" when we factor in inflation and so many other uncertain factors prevalent in the world economic order. Even George W. Bush admitted that the U.S. Social Security system cannot provide a guaranteed rate of return simply because there is no trust fund set aside for Social Security. The funds for Social Security were raided by the U.S. Government many years ago to pay for general expenditures. (See these Social Security Quotes.)

Now this woman (an academic, at that) is talking about another government program that would "create guaranteed retirement accounts".

Get real! Now I know why this prominent French writer and philosopher so many years ago stated:

"I prefer the company of peasants because they have not been educated sufficiently to reason incorrectly."
— Michel de Montaigne

Here are some new retirement quotes and retirement sayings to place your retirement planning in proper perspective so you don't have to adopt dying early as your retirement plan:

"Let's spend all our money to buy cool stuff. Later we can sell it all on eBay to pay for our retirement."
— from Glasbergen cartoon

"What a wonderful title: The Joy of Not Working. Ernie Zelinski's basic message, no matter your career stage, is get a well-balanced life and quit relying on your job to define who you are. It's hard to quibble with Zelinski's live-life-to-the-fullest message. Those who have drafted a resignation letter in their heads a thousand times may be motivated to finally quit an unfilling job."
— Michelle Archer, USA TODAY

“Get this book [How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free] if you look forward to a retirement with 'zing!' ”
— Nancy Paradis, St. Petersburg Times, Florida

"I'm regularly asked what my [retirement] plan is, and I deliberately don't have much of a plan. I've had lots of plans in my life and it might be nice to have a period that is less planned."
— Malcolm Hamilton, Canada's Expert on Pensions and Retirement Planning

"People may live as much retired from the world as they like, but sooner or later they find themselves debtor or creditor to some one. More money won’t bring you more happiness — It works the other way around."
— from the book Career Success WITHOUT a Real Job

"Everyone needs a reason to put their shoes on in the morning [when they retire]. If you put on the slippers, you'll end up dragging your feet all day."
— Norma Fagan, Dir. of the Retired & Senior Volunteer Program of Monroe County

"Whatever the challenge of a new age, in the end what really counts is not the years in our lives but the life in our years. It is not about longevity, but the depth of life. Long ago I learned that age does not wither the mind if people remain positive. No one is too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream. It is a mind game. As Churchill suggested, "The empires of the future are the empires of the mind."
— Singapore Retiree Jennie Chau

"Yes, I am thoroughly enjoying retirement! The best part is observing my neighbors drive off to work in the morning knowing that that their day will be filled with jerks, brainless and endless meetings, jerks, vendor lunches where you hold your breath just waiting for the sales pitch until you regurgitate your pasta, more jerks and the eventual company reorganization of the section that was just reorganized last month!
— Bill Kalmar

Here is a little item in the Globe and Mail about how I invest my money: Early Retiree Prefers Peace of Mind Investing His Retirement Money. Note how mean and vicious the comments and replies to comments can become.

The Joy of Not Working - Latest Email

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

Dear Ernie,

I came across your book TJONW [The Joy of Not Working ] in the mid 90’s it was purchased from a discount drugstore and I want to tell you how it has affected my life.

When I read your book it was like a duck going into water I could relate to your way of thinking and appreciated how organized you were as to sharing how to live frugally and happily…The main thing is “ I will find a way or make one “ a quote from Robert E. Peary

And if a person stays focused on that standard and lives within their means they can find a very fulfilling and rich life…There isn’t enough hours in the day to do all I would like such as: …gardening…sewing…cooking…wood crafting… recycling…and upcycling (making things from recycled items) …walking…kayaking…visiting…internet surfing…playing with the grandchildren…bartering…massaging (that’s my profession)…thrift shopping and yard sales (which saves lots of $)…and being a DIY person… also I am lucky to have the time to hang out the laundry and shop for things that are on sale and make homemade applesauce because it tastes better and be a vegan because it’s healthier…I always wanted to write to you and when I found all your web sites I wanted to join in and let others know that a more natural approach to living life and saving money [for retirment] affords you of enjoying your day to day activities and keeps you doing those types of things instead of punching a clock for someone else.

Keep up the good work!

Thanks for all the ideas,

Barbara H.
From Northern California

Here are some funny retirement quotes to help you in your retirement plan so that you Retire Happy, Wild, and Free:

"Anyone who thinks that they are going to be able to ease into retirement and everything is going to be just the way they figured it would be has obviously never been retired."
— Unknown Reader in response to Globe and Mail retirement article

"One wonders if the fallback retirement plan is what I call "Freedom Six Feet Under"."
— Jonathan Chevreau

"Money will be your friend — like all friends — only if you treat it with great respect. Treat it with disrespect and you will always have financial difficulties. Haven't you noticed? People who don't respect money don't have any."
— from The Lazy Person's Guide to Success

A Prosperous Retirement Plan Cannot Be Based on Laziness

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Best Places Where to Retire for Your Retirement Plan

I received this e-mail the other day in regards to my international best-selling retirement book:

----- Original Message -----
From: Abe Colture
To: success101coach [ at ] yahoo.com
Sent: Tue, May 31, 2011 12:57:17 PM
Subject: Retirement Book How to Retire Happy, Wild and Free

Ernie,

I have just read your retirement book How to Retire Happy, Wild and Free and thoroughly enjoyed it. So many good though provoking points. Many I've discovered or learned over the years but forgot. I have just retired a bit on the younger side for corporate America, 57. There are many opportunities out there and I needed a way to sort through them. I'm looking forward to completely the "Get a Life Tree" exercise. I've also asked my wife to develop her own tree so we can look for common activities. As I read the book, I was thinking this would be a great read for my kids in their mid-20's. I received your book The Joy of not Working. I hope there are some new stuff in there!

We have one major dilemma. We really want to relocate domestically. I have yet to find a good source of material to help with the effort. I saw where your book referenced two other books; Choose a College Town for Retirement and Retirement Places Rated. I plan to look at these. Do you have any other good recommendations besides the annual ratings by various magazines?

I certainly appreciate your material and would appreciate any further advise you may have.

Thanks,

Abe Colture

This was my resonse to Abe:

Hi Abe:

First, thank you for your kind remarks about How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free.

Regarding books on the best places where to retire, here are three more retirement books that I have listed on one of my websites:

1. Where to Retire, 7th: America's Best Places to Retire and Cheapest Places to Retire by John Howells
2 America's 100 Best Places to Retire Fourth Edition: The Only Guide You Need to Today's Top Retirement Towns by Elizabeth Armstrong
3. Retire in Style: 60 Outstanding Places to Retire Across the USA and Canada by Warren R. Bland

Can you do me a favor and I will send you one of my other books as a thank-you gift?

If you have a spare moment, it would be a great help to me if you could post a 5-star review of it on Amazon.com and let other potential readers know why you liked it.

It's not necessary to write a lengthy, formal review — a summary of the comments that you sent me would be fine.

Here's a direct link to the Amazon page for How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free.

Also, if possible, can you place the review on the BarnesandNoble.com Webpage for How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free.

If you place this review, I will send you an autographed copy of my latest book: Career Success Without a Real Job: The Career Book for People Too Smart to Work in Corporations. This is not strictly a retirement book but it is a great book for retirees who want to continue working, but not in a corporation.

Career Success Without a Real Job may also be a book that your kids would like to read.

Once you place the review, send me your address so that I can send you one of my other books.

Many thanks and so long for now,

Ernie Zelinski
Best-Selling Author, Innovator, and Unconventional Career Expert
Author of the Bestseller How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free
(Over 140,000 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)

Check out Half of Retirees Have Nothing in Retirement Plan to Pass On:

Here are two new retirement quotations:

Planning not to retire is simply not a viable retirement strategy.
— Catherine Collinson, president of the Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies

If we wait until retirement to enjoy ourselves, there may not be enough of ourselves to enjoy it.
— Mike Hammar

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:

Social Security as a Retirement Plan Is Less Secure than Winning the Lottery

I regularly read articles related to Social Security, retirement, and pensions so that I can keep my retirement plan tuned up for any changes that may affect it and so I don't have to go looking for a retirement job.

This is my comment to a USA TODAY story relating to retirement planning titled Assume you won't collect anything from Social Security.

You are right to say "Assume you won't collect anything from Social Security."
I have always said don't rely on any government-run pensions fund as part of your retirement plan.

But this applies to baby boomers as well.

I recently wrote an article on my Redroom author blog called "SOCIAL SECURITY IS A SECURE WAY TO FIND GREAT PLEASURE IN BEING TERRIBLY DECEIVED"

As I indicated, even winning the lottery as a retirement plan (as stupid as it is) is a safer bet than counting on Social Security.

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.


Referring to the American Social Security System in a project called Retiring With Dignity, William Shipman, a CATO Institute researcher, noted :

“Any surplus [in Social Security] 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 [ in Social Security] are not invested for the benefit of present or future retirees.”

What a brilliant idea, having the American 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 U.S. 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?
If the figures in the article called The Scary Actual US Government Debt in last Wednesday's Globe and Mail are true, the U.S is even further in debt than 98 percent of Americans are willing to admit and the Social Security system is even in greater and imminent danger.


If the U.S. government is actually about $200 trillion in debt instead of under $20 trillion, it may not be able to pay Social Security within 5 years or so.

Of course, most Americans are in denial about how much debt their government has incurred and can't accept that the Social Security system is in fact bankrupt.

Again, Social Security as a retirement plan is less secure than winning the lottery.

Unfortunately, many North Americans now suffer from a sense of entitlement and are not willing to take responsibility for their lives. This has in part contributed to the serious economic conditions today. If people learned how to save and pay cash for anything they purchased, we would have few people in serious debt and relying totally on Social Security as their retirement plan.


I worked less than half of my adult life and I have no debt problems simply because I learned a long time ago how to live way below my means. Incidentally, I drive a 1995 Camry even though I can purchase a brand new car for cash. What's more, I have about 10 credit cards but have never paid one cent of credit-card interest in the last 20 years. This is a result of taking responsibility for my retirement plan.


As an aside, I thought my net worth was about $13.5-trillion more than that of the U.S. government, given that I have no debt.

If the figures in the Globe and Mail article are true, my net worth is actually about $200-trillion more than that of the U.S. Government.

I bet most people didn't know that I was that rich.

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

Here are a few retirement quotes to keep things in perspective:

Waiting until your retirement party is too late to start planning your portfolio.
— Richard Wastcoat


You are only as rich as the enrichment you bring to the world around you..

— Unknown wise retiree



If you retire right the only thing you will worry about is when to eat and when to sleep.
— Author Unknown

The shortest and best way to make your fortune is to let people see clearly that it is in their interests to promote yours.
— Jean de La Bruyére

Career Success as Part of Your Retirement Plan

If you are looking for a retirement job to help you with your retirement plan, here are some tell-tale signs that you should read my latest book Career Success Without a Real Job: The Career Book for People Too Smart to Work in Corporations:

• You just may have to read Career Success Without a Real Job if your retirement plan is a shopping cart with good winter tires.


• You just may have to read Career Success Without a Real Job if in your present job you have to know how many bales of hay your car holds.


• You don't need Career Success Without a Real Job if you have on a résumé stated, "I can adapt to just about any environment from cubicles to fancy IKEA desks."


• You just may have to read Career Success Without a Real Job if your biggest life achievement was: "Won a contest for building toothpick bridges in junior high school."

For More Tell-Tell Signs that you need Career Success Without a Real Job to find the right retirement job and make it part of your retirement plan see:

Ernie Zelinski on Twitter

Latest News about Retirement Planning

Believe all that you read and your retirement plan looks bleak at best due to a lack of retirement money.

Here are some of the latest news reports about retirement:

1. Crisis crushes Americans’ retirement dreams
NDTV.com - New Delhi,India
A recent Bank of America Retirement Savings Survey showed that about 43 per cent of people in the US are planning to work for more years than they expected ...

2. Financial planning gets tougher
Times Herald-Record - Middletown,NY,USA
"People may know, intellectually, that it is vital to have stock-market exposure for at least some portion of their retirement portfolio in order to keep ...
See all stories on this topic

3, Hopeful in hard times
Myrtle Beach Sun News - Myrtle Beach, SC, USA
The 60-year-old, who would have been planning his retirement about now, doesn't even think about it these days. He'll have to keep at it as a rental ...

4. How You Can Rebuild Your Wealth (for retirement)
Wall Street Journal - USA
It won't be an easy recovery for most of us, but financial planners say that a little flexibility about your saving, spending and retirement plans will go a ...

If you want to participate in these news stories, fine.

On the other hand, if you refuse to participate, then How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free is the book for you.

Also Check out The Money Cafe Where Money Talks with a Conscience: How to Make Money, How to Save Money, and and How to Spend Money Wisely

Retirement Living Standards Do Not Have to Keep Improving

A recent OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) study recommends that member countries raise the average age at which people retire from the labor market so that people remain in the workforce longer.

Because the average age at which people retire from the labor market has declined markedly in the majority of OECD countries, the organization claims that the increase in the number of retirees relative to persons active in the labor force will reduce growth in material living standards and put public budgets under mounting pressure.

My question is, why do we have to have our retirement living standards continually keep improving. When will enough be enough? Isn't our standard of living pretty damn good compared to other nations and to what it was 100 or 200 years ago?

I a related vein, this ever-increasing desire for improved living standards and the greed with it has contributed to the economic crisis we have today. Common sense says that this caused by people not wanting to live according to their means.

For the record, I semi-retired when I was 39 and my net worth was actually minus $30,000. The reason that I have been successful in remaining semi-retired for over 20 years is that I don't live beyond my means.

So quite frankly, I don't have any sympathy for baby boomers who at 55 or 60 are broke today and are blaming the government or the economy. Come on, you big babies, grow up. Take responsibility for your lives.

You must force yourself to set retirement goals if you want to have an interesting retirement life. Regardless of how long you have to live, you want to make your life as interesting as possible. In other words, GET A LIFE or life will get the best of you.

Americans Changing Their Retirement Plans

A severe economic downturn will make you realize that Oscar Wilde wasn't kidding when he said: "It is better to have a permanent income than to be fascinating." Indeed it is time to change your retirement plan.

A new AARP survey confirms that a lot of older Americans have changed their retirement plans and now have no intention to drop out of the workforce.

Apparently baby boomers are delaying retirement plans indefinitely. Indeed, a whopping 70 percent of workers plan to work during their retirement years.

Part-time retirement jobs are the top choice in the survey of 1,500 Americans ages 45to 74 who are working or looking for work.

Of course, as I have indicated in How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free when you retire isn't always completely in your control. A large number of workers retire because of layoffs, buyouts, health problems, or to care for relatives.

What's more, recent research from the Urban Institute suggests that part-time and flexible work arrangements for retirees may be drying up for all but highly educated workers because of the credit crunch and more people needing to work full time for financial reasons.

The New Retirement - A Gruesome Retirement?

A recent survey shows that baby boomers haven't progressed too far from that Stone Age point of view when it comes to retirement planning. Some 61 percent have less than $150,000 in savings, and an astonishing 28 percent have less than $10,000. Not a great retirement plan, wouldn't you say?

Some baby boomers claim that to compensate for their lack of savings they intent to work until they die. The "work till I die" strategy may be a fool's retirement plan because eventually our bodies or minds or both will render us incapable of full time employment.

What's more, many organizations don't want older, uncreative, stuck-in-the-mud thinking older workers (anyone over 60).

Another survey found that 35 percent of Canadians plan to carry up to $100,000 in debt into retirement. Not a great move given that Canadian retirees are already affected by higher fuel and food prices.

In the United States, things are even worse. According to reports, "Rising gas, food and utility prices are forcing many senior citizens to give up medicine, healthy food, social outings and communication. Some are looking for work.

Retirees on fixed incomes have cut back on making family visits and going to community events. This growing isolation usually leads to less physical and mental activity and threatens a senior's independence, advocates say."

Looks like the new retirement that baby boomers have been talking about is going to be a gruesome retirement for many.

The 237 Best Things Ever Said about Retirement - An Illustrated E-book with Retirement Quotes and Retirement Sayings in 40 Different Categories

Organized into over 40 categories for easy reference, “The 237 Best Things Ever Said about Retirement” by international best-selling author Ernie Zelinski is the ultimate guide about retirement for the professional speaker, journalist, author, career advisor and retirement life coach. It also makes great reading for any connoisseur of great quotations and just about everyone who is contemplating retirement.

This illlustrated E-book (in PDF format) has it all: Wisdom. Ridicule. Irony. Sarcasm. Paradox. Nonsense. Comedy. Mockery. Social commentary. Valuable insight.

You can share “The 237 Best Things Ever Said about Retirement” with all your friends, colleagues, and co-workers.

You can even place “The 237 Best Things Ever Said about Retirement” on your website as an important retirement resource for your readers and clients.

All told, this E-book contains the 237 best things anybody ever said about retirement.

Download the Free E-book The 237 Best Things Ever Said about Retirement by Ernie J. Zelinski at:

The Retirement Quotes Cafe

Retirement Planning Not the Forte of Canadians

1. According to a recently released Statistics Canada study, almost half of Canadian households spend more than their pretax income in a given year. That's up from 39 per cent in the early 1980s. From 1982 to 2001, the study found, per capita debt doubled, because of sharp increases in both mortgages and consumer debt.

2. 67 percent of Canadians say money is their most frequent worry.

3. Only 40 percent of Canadians know how many millions are in a billion.

4. Still worse, only 25 percent of Canadians know the difference between the National debt and National deficit.

5. According to Desjardins Financial security's latest retirement study, many Canadians are not prepared for the challenges retirement can bring. They are failing to consider a variety of factors and risks that can have an impact on the yield and longevity of their savings, such as inflation, rising life expectancies and healthcare costs. Nearly 60% of those surveyed are not concerned about having a large enough nest egg to sustain their standard of living in retirement. More than 80% have not eliminated their consumer debt in retirement and even more are not concerned about paying off their mortgages (88%). And more than half are not worried that inflation will erode their savings.

Your Home as Part of Your Retirement Plan Is a Haunted House

Many Americans came to think of their homes not only as castles but also as a nest egg for retirement while real estate prices were shooting up during the first half of this century.

Now with the bursting of the home price bubble (which does not come as a surprise to an intelligent person), however, American homeowners are finding that they have accumulated little wealth in the way of home equity, leaving them almost entirely dependent upon Social Security and Medicare.

Fact is, A home that is part of your retirement plan Is a haunted house. Financial planner Robert Doyle (CPA with Spoor, Doyle & Associates in St. Petersburg, FL) once said, "When you retire, your house is your home. Don’t look at it as an investment. You can convert it if you need to, but if you’re retiring because of the equity in your house, you better get back to work."

A little over a year and a half ago, when I was forced to purchase the half-duplex that I had rented happily for over 25 years, some of my friends warned me that I could be purchasing at the height of the house boom in Edmonton. I told my friends that I was aware of this but I was not purchasing the place as an investment or as part of my retirement plan. Indeed, houses should never be considered as an investment — for retirement or otherwise!

"A house should be viewed only as any other consumer item," was how I put it. "Then if the price goes down, it is no different than when the price of your car or your running shoes go down in price. Unfortunately, most people don't understand this. Some do, however. (Robert T. Kiyosaki, the author of Rich Dad, Poor Dad, stated that your house is not an asset but a liability.)

"The problem," I told my friends, "is that millions of people have been conned by shady bankers and real estate agents into believing that their home is the biggest investment that they will ever make in their lives. What a ridiculous statement! I know that the biggest investment that I will ever make in my life is in myself, in my self-education about how to live within my means so that I don't have money problems. My self-education also is enhanced by tapes, books, and seminars on how to create money in innovative ways so that I don't have to live in poverty — even if haven't had a real job in over 25 years."

Alas, the con job of having people believe that their houses are investments has come home to roost. The 2008 Retirement Confidence Survey just showed the biggest one-year drop in its 18-year history.

One of the major reasons was that that home ownership was a substantial component of most respondents' net financial worth: one-third on average, according to a study of baby boomer retirement security by Dartmouth College economist Annamaria Lusardi and her colleagues. They further calculated that an average national housing price drop of 13.5 percent — less than we've already experienced — would decrease the net worth of the boomers they surveyed an average of 10 percent.

A loss of 10 percent of net worth for people on the verge of retirement — which doesn't include stock market losses or the losses people will incur if the housing market continues to fall, as many analysts think it will — can have a big impact on a retiree's ability to live the life he or she imagined.

Yet many Americans are relying on their homes as a source of income in retirement, either through downsizing to a smaller property or through dubious transactions like reverse mortgages. Between 1997 and 2006, housing prices increased an average of 83 percent, leading more people to assume their equity would see them through their retirement years.

In the last year, however, house prices in the U.S. are down on average 14.1 percent. Worse yet, some people say that the house price declines have just started. A few analysts are predicting that house prices will go down for 5 to 7 years straight. Think this can't happen? You are fooling yourself. Remember how financial analysts claimed that real estate prices could never go down in Japan, particularly Tokyo. When Japan had their recession hit in the 1990s, real estate prices in Tokyo declined for 10 years straight.

So much for houses as investments for retirement. Again, houses are consumer products and not investments. If you are buying a house on the hope that it will go up, you are speculating. If you are speculating, you should be prepared for the price to go down instead of up. Don't blame anyone else when your house price goes down. You caused this situation to happen by believing what the shady real estate agents and mortgage lenders have told you.

If you want to be financially well-prepared for retirement, invest in yourself by spending as much money as you can on books, seminars, and motivational tapes on how to run your own business or how to make money on the Internet. This is for certain: The most valuable asset is actually your ability to earn an income. I know that if I was to lose all my financial net worth that I have today, I can still survive financially. I can earn a living without having to get a job and still have a great retirement.

The same applies to you. Your marketable job skills and knowledge represent your personal earning power. Although the banks and other financial institutions don't count intangibles such as creativity, innovative character, risk-taking ability, and specialized knowledge in tallying your net worth, you should. These items are much more important to a retirement portfolio than a house.

Note the retirement quote by Financial planner Robert Doyle comes from the E-book:

The 237 Best Things Ever Said about Retirement by Ernie J. Zelinski

Download the Free E-book The 237 Best Things Ever Said about Retirement by Ernie J. Zelinski at:

The Retirement Gifts Cafe

Retirement Plan Assets Based on Demographics

An EBRI study describes the influence of some demographic factors on the distribution of individual account retirement plan assets in 2004:

By race:

90.5 percent of assets were held by white non-Hispanics.
9.5 percent of assets were held by nonwhites

By education:

14.2 percent of assets were held by individuals with a high school diploma or less.
10.7 percent of assets were held by individuals with some college education.
75.1 percent of assets were held by individuals with at least a college degree.

By annual family income:

11.3 percent of assets were held by individuals with incomes of less than $50,000.
25.6 percent of assets were held by individuals with incomes of $50,000 to $99,999.
63.2 percent of assets were held by individuals with incomes of $100,000 or more.

Retirement Sayings and Retirement Quotes — Definitions of Retirement

Retirement to me does not mean nothing to do but the realization of the decisions I made in the past. That I made in my life.
— Jack Bowman

Retirement: The time in your life when time is no longer money.
— Unknown wise person

Two Retirement Quotes Relating to Money

Abundance isn't a matter of acquiring how much money you desire; it's a matter of being happy with how much you presently have.
— Unknown wise person

It's better to be out of money than out of new creative ideas on how to make money.
— Unknown wise person

NOTE: For a great selection of retirement quotes and retirement sayings, go to the Retirement Quotes Webpage at The Joy of Not Working Website:

Retirement Quotes at The Joy of Not Working


Check out Ernie Zelinski's Blog on Morgan James Publishing

Retirement Planning Tip - Rethink Your Retirement Plan for a Slower Life on the Coast

New retirement research released not so long ago from Queensland's Griffith University in Australia suggests that a move to the coast may not help retirees realize their dreams or retirement plan. Research team leader Michael Davies says city dwellers, adjusting to life after work, can find it difficult to relocate to a quieter place on the coast.

Dr Davies claims that people do not understand the shock that can come from leaving a busy work schedule and a network of friends to move to the beach. "Generally when you're looking at a transition like retirement you need to think a bit about what that change will mean for you," Dr Davies said.

"I guess for those who don't think long and hard about how they want to retire to maximise their opportunities and to maximise their lifestyle and well being, then I think there can be some problems."

Retirement Quotes and Retirement Sayings on Where to Life in Retirement

Retirement Planning for Japanese Housewives Made Just a Little Easier

The last year or two heralded the start of an era that Japanese housewives were dreading due to the lack of variety in the retirement plans of Japanese men according to the Australian. "The first wave of post-war baby boomers turns 60 next year and a huge generation of salarymen will be retiring. Women who have grown used to serenity of days without their noisy, smoking, hobby-obsessed husbands are now desperate for ways to maintain tranquility."

So Yamaha designed a wooden box that will help Japanese housewives with their retirement plans insofar as how to deal with their husbands when the husbands retire. No doubt retirement planning is important for housewives who don’t want their husbands in their hair all the time. The box can sit in a corner of the average-sized lounge and contain a husband or relative. MyRoom is 27 square feet, completely soundproofed, and can hold a desk, audio system or hobbyist workbench.