Retirement: Not Working Provides Untold Wealth, Health, and Happiness



Here is the latest e-mail that I received about my retirement books from a couple in the U.S who took early retirement. They certainly are not short of fun things to do in retirement.

From the thousands of letters and e-mails that I have received from readers of both retirement books, this one has to be one of my favorites. It will definitely go into a book called 1001 Ways to Enjoy Your Retirement: Advice from Readers of How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free and The Joy of Not Working.

Dear Ernie:

I am writing to you because my wife said I must. You see, we both read your books (The Joy of Not Working, and How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free). In fact, we put much of your wisdom into practice. We both retired early.

While we walked the dog one morning, Karen said that with all the new things we have done since retiring that you might like to hear about some of them. Here they are, in no particular order.

In the first year or so of our freedom:

• I filed a provisional patent, taking the invention to prototype, and began marketing it.
• She started a part time job.
• I started a blog, and built a website.
• She learned belly dancing.
• We hiked, bird watched, and photographed eagles, owls, and wildlife too numerous to list, even an albino fawn with her mother.
• I fly fished Apalachicola Bay and the Gulf of Mexico.
• She joined a book-reading club.
• We travelled with our dog Jedi throughout the southern USA.
• She learned to use power tools.
• I began leather working, and developed two new designs.
• She began gardening, putting in both vegetables and herbs.
• We stay up later, sleep in, and take regular naps.
• I study and play the classical guitar.
• She started word puzzles to keep her mind sharp.
• I started a small business delivering health and wellness classes to the public through hospitals, senior living, and community centers.
• We dropped fifteen pounds (each) of weight attributed to job-related stress eating.
• We spent a winter in the Florida panhandle.
• She does yoga.
• We made new friends in several states.
• I resumed fly tying because of much more time on the water.
• We attended classes and seminars, including the Creative Retirement [Exploration Weekend] Workshop (CREW) at the University of North Carolina in Asheville. By the way, they cite your work at the workshop and recommend your book (How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free) .
• I wrote one novel, and ten short stories, which I will submit for publishing after final editing.
• We attended plays.
• She hosted parties, and re-decorated the house.
• I tried and let go of part time work. You see, I am simply too busy.

There are probably many more things but I cannot recall them at present.

Karen and I are thrilled at having time each day for nature walks, bicycle riding, bird watching, and cruising in our classic sports car (we are from Detroit, after all). The time together has strengthened our marriage, too.

We worried about money initially, but now find we do just fine, even spending less than we did while working. In fact, we noticed work requires a significant outlay, even part-time! I believe working consumes more money than most people understand. Not working, on the other hand, provides untold wealth, health, and happiness.

Thank you for writing the books you did. They have helped us along our path. Best wishes for health and happiness,

Jack and Karen C.

I like the mention by Jack about how working in retirement did not work for him. From the letter, you should be inspired to generate your own list of 100 things to do when you retire.

Some retirement quotes and retirement sayings to help you with your list of fun  things to do in retirement:

"Art is one of the few careers without a mandatory retirement age." — Julia Cameron

"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

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

"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

"Elevating your wants to your need list is another way to trick yourself into being broke in retirement." — from "Zen I Got Rich" by E.Z.

"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

Check out this article Dying to Retire: Early Retirement Can Be a Killer in which one of my retirement books is mentioned.

Retirement Jobs — Working Smart and Sleeping Smart Too

If you would like to make money in retirement (or semi-retirement), I would suggest that you develop some intellectual property so that you make money while you sleep. That way you won't have to get yourself a boring retirement job.

The other day I talked to my friend Dan in Vancouver late at night and then went to sleep. When I woke up in the late morning, there was an offer from a Japanese publisher for a $2,000 advance to publish The Joy of Not Working, (even though this book has been published in Japanese on two previous occassions).

This was the third time this year that I made money unexpectedly just by going to sleep. In January I went to sleep and awoke to an offer of an advance of $1,500 from a Russian publisher to publish a book of mine (The Joy of Not Being Married: The Essential Guide for Singles and Those Who Wish They Were) that I wrote and self-published in 1995 and went out of print in 1998. The Russian publisher hadn't even seen the book and I had to end up sending the manuscript in electronic form because I had no print copies left from the 10,000 copies I printed and sold.

In April, I went to sleep one night and awoke to an offer of a respectable advance from a publisher in Vietnam to publish my 101 Really Important Things You Already Know, But Keep Forgetting in Vietnamese.

When I called Dan to let him know about the latest offer, he proclaimed, "Ernie, you should sleep more." Not really, since I make a good income from my books, partly when I am sleeping, giving me an income that is higher than 95 percent of Canadians.

I just wanted to point out with these book offers the power of intellectual property for generating prosperity and freedom in one's life.

Just a note that this isn't about laziness.

It isn't about working hard either.

This is about working smart — and sleeping smart too!

If intelllectuall property doesn't work for you in retirement, you need one of many other unreal jobs for retirement. Check out these out these retirement job websites so that you can avoid working in retirement.

Retirement Jobs at the Real Success Resource Center

Retirement Jobs on Squidoo

Check out this article Dying to Retire about how Early Retirement can be a killer.

 

The Charge for Prosperity and Success

Just received my free copy of Brendon Burchard's The Charge today."

About three weeks ago Brendon in an email campaign offered the new hardcopy edition (Price $26 in US and $29.00 in Canada) for free to anyone who was willing to pay for the shipping.

I am honored to have received this book given that I also received an email from Brendon today saying that The Charge will premiere at #1 spot in this Sunday's "Wall Street Journal" Bestseller list and the #2 on the "New York Times Bestseller" list (both nonfiction hardcover). The Charge also hit the #1 spot on both Amazon and BarnesandNoble.com in the last two weeks.

Brendon stated that in his email this was an early father's day gift for his father, who passed away a few years ago and to whom he had this dedication in the book.

" . . to Dad—we lost you too soon, Pops, but we carry your charge forever."

I am surprised at the thousands of people (including people I know) who were given the opportunity to receive The Charge for free but were too lazy to act on the offer or unwilling to pay for the shipping charges of $6.97.

These inspirational quotations apply:
"People that pay for
things never complain.
It's the guy you give
something to that
you can't please.
— Will Rogers

"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

"In the realm of prosperity,
luck only favors those adventurous
souls who don't expect
or rely on luck."
— from Life's Secret Handbook

I am looking forward to reading Brendon's new book. No doubt it will help me attain more success and prosperity in my life.
Check this retirement article in which How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free is mentioned:

Dying to Retire Early

Write That Book Badly — But at Least Do It!

For those looking for retirement quotes, go to The Retirement Quotes Cafe and Funny Retirement Quotes on The Joy of Being Retired website.

In my internationally best-selling How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free I advocate that retirees write a book (not necessarily a retirement book). There is no better way for anyone to leave a legacy than to write a book and have it published as a print book (not an ebook).

And this comes from my latest book:

"Writing a book is an incredible, satisfying experience.
It is a way to connect with the world.
It tells the world who you are.
It makes you an authority on what you write about.
It’s a swell way to eventually make money from your own creative efforts and feel much better for it.
A good book excites readers to self-discovery and making a difference in this world while you yourself make a difference.
You should write at least one."
— from Life's Secret Handbook (Reminders for Adventurous Souls Who Want to Make a Big Difference in This World)

Do you have to hire a professional editor and make it perfect? Near as I can tell, no.

If you have a great book with great content, it won't matter all that much, if at all.

One of my mottos is: “Write That Book Badly — But at Least Do It!”

In my pursuit of success in the publishing industry, I have always remembered this great advice by a self-published author Robert Ringer who has sold millions of his books including Restoring the American Dream, Winning Through Intimidation, and Looking Out for Number 1:

“It’s better to do a sub-par job working on the right project than a great job working on the wrong project.
— Robert J. Ringer

One of my “right projects” was my second self-published book The Joy of Not Working which was released in 1991. Instead of getting it perfect — or even remotely close to perfect — I kept to my schedule and followed my motto “Do It Badly — But at Least Do It!”

At the time that I first published The Joy of Not Working, I used a desktop publishing program that had no spell check. I did not hire any professional editor and just used some of my friends to help me edit the book. Three years later. I purchased an update of the desktop publishing program that had a spell check. When I ran the spell check on the book, I found out it had 150 spelling errors. Did it affect sales? I don’t think so. It had sold 30,000 copies in its first three years — and that was in Canada with one-tenth of the population of the U.S. Incidentally, I received only one complaint about the book. It was from some school teacher. She complained about the spelling errors and how good she was at spotting these spelling errors. But she only spotted about ten of the 150.

Here is the key to having a bestselling self-published book: Create a book that has great content, something that really stands out and is so far ahead of your competition that it owns the category (something like How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free). If you can accomplish this, readers willl overlook spelling errors (like the one I just made). The best promotion for a book is still word-of-mouth advertising from readers who love your book and tell others about it.

Recently, I purchased a copy of Brendon Burchard’s The Millionaire Messenger. Burchard had the book published within 10 weeks after he started writing it (not that's committment). The Millionaire Messenger was released in March 2011 and has now sold over 50,000 copies. I spotted a number of spelling and formatting errors in the book. Did I mind? Not at all — simply because it has great content.
Here are a few quotations about perfection to put perfection in proper perspective:

“And in fact, I think the more we start to worship perfection the more soul leaks out of art.”
— Kathy Mattea

“Artists who seek perfection in everything are those who cannot attain it in anything.”
— Gustave Flaubert

“Have no fear of perfection — you’ll never reach it.’
— Salvador Dali

“Perfection is a trifle dull. It is not the least of life’s ironies that this, which we all aim at, is better not quite achieved.’
— W. Somerset Maugham

“Striving to better, oft we mar what’s well."
— William Shakespeare

Incidentally, if there are any typos here, enjoy them.

Here are some retirement quotes since this is a retirement sayings and retirement quotes blog.

"WEIRD AND DELUSIONAL: A quarter of middle-class Americans are now so pessimistic about their savings that they are planning to delay retirement until they are at least 80 years old. This is delusional because this is two years longer than the average American is even
expected to live."
— Dave Erhard

"I'm not just retiring from the company, I'm also retiring from my stress, my commute, my alarm clock, and my iron."
— Hartman Jule

"I never stopped doing anything [when I retired], I stopped getting paid for it."
— Bill Chavanne

"Retirement is the beginning of life, not the end."
— from How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free

"The three most harmful addictions are heroin, carbohydrates, and a monthly salary."
— Fred Wilson

Being Alone in Retirement Is Better Than Being in Bad Company

If you are looking for the very best retirement quotes, then go to the Retirement Quotes Cafe:

I received the following e-mail today about The Joy of Not Working:

Mr. Zelinski:

I just finished reading your book, The Joy of Not Working. I'm definitely going to search for your book about retiring [How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free].

One chapter [in The Joy of Not Working] that really resonated with me was Chapter 10, It Is Better To Be Alone Than in Bad Company.

All my adult life I've not minded in the least being alone. Don't get me wrong, I love my friends. But at the end of the day, I love coming home where it's just me & the cat & my eleven bajillion books a comfy place to read them.

I've always been sorry for people who confuse being alone with being lonely. A couple of years ago I had a temp job where I worked the front desk for an office. My location was slightly separated from the rest of the work force. Consequently, I was often all by myself. About once a month, someone would stroll by & comment on how 'lonely' I must be. I would smile & assure them that I was NOT lonely, in fact I found my situation to be enjoyable. They would first look confused and then they would walk away making some comment that indicated they didn't believe a word I'd said. I don't think they ever knew how sorry I felt for them & their misperceptions.

I may be passing your book along to a recently retired friend. She seems to be at loose ends now that she doesn't have a boss telling her how to use her time. On the other hand, I may direct her to her closest book store to get your book on retirement  [How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free]. It couldn't hurt.

Vanessa W, Rio Rancho, NM

Here are a few quotations about loneliness and being alone to place solitude and loneliness in proper perspective:

When from our better selves we have too long Been parted by the hurrying world, and droop, Sick of its business, of its pleasures tired, How gracious, how benign, is Solitude.
— from The Prelude by William Wordsworth

A man who finds no satisfaction in himself, seeks for it in vain elsewhere.
 — Francois, Duc de La Rochefoucauld

City Life: Millions of people being lonesome together.
 — Henry David Thoreau

When all is said and done, monotony may after all be the best condition for creation.
 — Margaret Sackville

Conversation enriches the understanding, but solitude is the school of genius.
— Edward Gibbon

Knowing others is wisdom. Knowing yourself is Enlightenment.
— Lao Tzu