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This is one of my favorite books ever: Living the 80/20 Way by Richard Koch.
My review of this book is featured quite prominently on the Amazon page.
Although the book is about living a great balanced life, I also liked the chapter about money.
Here are quotes about money from Koch's book that I am using in The 777 Best Things Ever Said about Money. (soon to be released as an ebook)
"Money dislikes being equally distributed."
— Richard Koch
"Money clones money."
— Richard Koch
"Can money buy happiness? Yes, if you are poor."
— Richard Koch
"We sacrifice our independence and time to make money, believing that more money will make us happier. It doesn't. All we do is squander our life energy at ever-higher levels of affluence."
— Richard Koch
"More wealth also requires more management. Looking after my money irritates me. (Don't offer to relieve me of it; it irritates me less than giving it away would!)"
— Richard Koch
"Shun anything — shares, property, or the latest hot trend — with recent sharp appreciation. Bubbles burst. Wait until prices fall and then stabilize. Never buy in a market that is rising or falling fast. In the short term, stick to safe investments, even if you can only get 5 percent."
— Richard Koch
"Money is a force, like the wind, the waves, and the weather."
— Richard Koch
"Money is for freedom, not slavery; for security, not worry. Unless money is used to give you greater freedom and happiness, accumulating money is a burden."
— Richard Koch
No doubt, "Money is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one." If you end up living in poverty like
tens of millions of North Americans will in their retirement, well, good luck with your writing money off as an illusion. I will take an adequate amount of money to escape this poverty, even if the money is an illusion.
For more great quotations about money and about money tips for the retired, check out:
Importance of Money in Retirement
Sensational Quotes about Money for Smart People
How Much Money Do I Need to Retire
I received this e-mail from a woman obviously looking for a way to work in retirement at a retirement job.
From: Marlene S
Subject: Recommendation
To: success101coach
Received: Thursday, September 27, 2012
Ernie,
If I may be so informal.
On Monday I am being transferred to another department in our company. I’ve spent the last year enjoying my role as Project Manager and have received numerous accolades on my success. Although it’s probably the best job I’ve ever had in all honesty I know it’s just another detour.
Overnight, the new head cheese, has decided he only needs a few project managers and suddenly I’m only qualified to write documents. It’s business and not personal and most likely a preliminary to fewer document writers. Oddly enough, my new manager encouraged us to remember that we are a family and need to work together during this change. I’m curious if he’s ever had to fire or layoff his sister or his cute, but unproductive and smelly grandmother recently.
But I digress . . .
I am grateful to have a job still as many are losing theirs. As I enter my sixth decade, however, I am more interested in expressing my gifts, exploring my creative nature and stopping on occasion to smell the roses or contemplate the lint in my navel. This would be easily done but I feel my current total lack of financial sustenance a bit prohibitive.
Your books appear to be just what I need if only for a fun pick me up and creative kick in the right side of my brain. So with the few extra dollars I have at the moment I would like to ask . . . . of all your books . . . and considering I feel like a butterfly with cement boots on . . . which of your many charming books would you recommend if I could only buy one?
No pressure.
Thank you for expressing yourself and be well
Marlene S.
This was my responese to Marlene:
Marlene:
If you are looking to semi-retirement and working in retirement at some sort of retirement job to earn some income, I would suggest my book Career Success Without a Real Job: The Career Book for People Too Smart to Work in Corporations
I would also suggest Making a Living Without a Job by Barbara Winter.
Many thanks and so long for now.
Ernie J. Zelinski
Best-Selling Author, Innovator, and Prosperity Life Coach
Author of the Bestseller How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free
(Over 165,000 copies sold and published in 9 languages)
and the International Bestseller The Joy of Not Working
(Over 250,000 copies sold and published in 17 languages)
P.S. Here are some retirement planning resources for getting a retirement job or working during retirement.
Retirement Jobs at UnrealJob.com
Retirement Jobs on Real Success Website
Retirement Jobs on Squidoo
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 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)
Below is the latest e-mail that I received from a reader of several of my books, including The Joy of Not Working:
----- Original Message -----
From: Shane P.
To: vip-books
Sent: Thursday, August 16, 2012 4:33 AM
Subject: A Fan from Japan
Dear Mr. Zelinski,
Hello, my name is Shane. About 18 years ago while I was a university student I was lucky enough to chat with you in a cafe just outside the Princess Threatre, where you kindly gave an autographed copy of The Joy of Not Working. I was very motivated and impressed with your work that I bought my younger brother a copy for his birthday, as well as a copy of your other book, Seeing Double or Better in Business.
Unfortunately a year later, I gave away the book along with most of my possessions as I took a teaching position in Japan, got married, and spent the next 18 there. My brother got so inspired that a few years later he followed me over the pond and has been living 15 years in Kobe, Japan, as well. I was visiting his apartment one day when I happened across your book Career Success Without a Real Job.
I was quite surprised that a writer I recommended to him ended up having such a big impact on him as well. I quickly snatched the book off of his shelf and started reading it. It was great timing in my life as I had become more and more disfastified with my Japanese corporate life and marriage. (I see on your homepage yoou have written a book about marriage as well. I plan to make it my next read.)
[Incidentally], Career Success without a Real Job was a great book.
Thanks for taking the time for reading my letter and I hope you found my comments to be useful. As for myself, I just turned 40 and I am working up the courage to try and tell my wife and child I want more out of life than the corporate existence I presently find myself in.
I better read your book on marriage [The Joy of Not Being Married] first. Thanks for all the great advice and inspiration you have given me over the years.
All the Best,
Shane P.
Hiroshima, Japan
Here are some quotations about work and quotations about marriage to place the two in proper perspective:
There are seven sins in the world: Wealth without work,
Pleasure without conscience, Knowledge without character,
Commerce without morality, Science without humanity,
Worship without sacrifice, and politics without principle.
— Mahatma Gandhi
Every prosperous person who does not work has a creative scheme that does.
— John Otway
If a man has important work, and enough leisure and income to enable him to do it properly, he is in possession of as much happiness as is good for any of the children of Adam.
— Richard Henry Tawney
In careers — as in marriage — we are astonished at what others choose.
— Dave Erhard
Old people at weddings always poke me and say, "You're next." So, I started doing the same thing to them at funerals.
— Unknown wise person
Marriage is a great institution, but I'm not ready for an institution.
— Mae West
Bigamy is having one wife too many. Monogamy is the same.
— Oscar Wilde
There are two kinds of marriages — where the husband quotes the wife, or where the wife quotes the husband.
— Clifford Odets
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