About The Joy of Not Working

The Joy of Not Working by Ernie Zelinski is all about learning to live every part of your life — employment, unemployment, retirement living, and leisure time alike — to the fullest. You too can join the thousands of converts and learn to thrive at both work and play. Illustrated by eye-opening exercises, thought-provoking diagrams, and lively cartoons and retirement quotes, The Joy of Not Working will guide you to enjoy life like never before.

The Joy of Not Working is an international bestseller that has sold over 225,000 copies and has been published in 17 languages.

Top 10 Reasons to Read The Joy of Not Working

1. You are more independent and more creative than most people.
2. You were born a lover of life and not a workaholic.
3. You don't want the cheese; you just want to get out of the trap.
4. You like books that are reader friendly with lots of cartoons, quotations, and exercises.
5. You like books that make you smile and challenge traditional ways of living and thinking and have a lot of retirement quotes and retirement sayings in them.
6. You agree with the words of Bertrand Russell: "To be able to fill leisure intelligently is the best product of civilization."
7. You are receptive to the concept that we can achieve more if we relax, enjoy life more, forget about what the majority in society thinks is important, and focus on the things that really matter.
8. Your parents and co-workers will not approve of your adopting this book as your lifestyle Bible.
9. You know a good deal when you see one — if a book has been published in 17 languages in 20 different countries and has sold over 225,000 copies, it must have great value.
10. You know something important that the hard workers of this world don't know: the secret to a happy and fulfilling life is to work smart and not hard.

One of several free retirement gifts (in PDF format) on the Downloadable Free E-Books Webpage at the Real Success Resource Center, The E-book version of of The Joy of Not Working contains the Table of Contents, the Preface, and Chapter 1.

The Joy of Not Working is mentioned on the Reader's Comments on Steve Weber's Plug Your Book.

Six Money Quotes

Although money can’t buy happiness, sooner or later you will likely want a measure of financial freedom that adds to your feeling of overall freedom and the feeling of prosperity that comes with it. What will help you acquire a great measure of financial freedom is the golden touch with money. Mastery of money is not something with which we are born. Like creativity, it is something we can learn.

Six Retirement Quotes and Retirement Sayings on How to Spend Your Money Wisely in Retirement

Better a good dinner than a fine coat.
— French proverb

The money you enjoy spending frivolously to enhance your retirement is money well spent.
— from How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free: The World's Best Retirement Book

Don't ask the barber whether you need a haircut.
— Daniel S. Greenberg

Don't buy expensive socks if you can never find them.
— Unknown wise person

It's a wise man who lives with money in the bank; it's a fool who dies that way.
— French proverb

Retirement is like a long vacation in Las Vegas. The goal is to enjoy it the fullest, but not so fully that you run out of money.
— Jonathan Clements


Note: These Money and Retirement Quotes are Adapted from The Retirement Quotes Café Website and Retirement Quotes and Retirement Sayings at The Joy of Not Working by Ernie J. Zelinski

General Retirement Planning Wisdom

Retirement Planning Wisdom — Preparation Is Key

Although retiree Pat O'Brien of East Haddam, Connecticut occasionally misses the stimulation of work, she is as active as she could be. Eighteen months after O'Brien retired from her proofreading job for a law firm in Stamford, Connecticut, she told a U.S. News Reporter, "The biggest surprise is I just don't know where the time goes."


Regardless of the bad press that retirement often gets, many people such as Pat O'Brien don't have trouble filling their days when they retire. O'Brien, 65, is joined in retirement by her husband, Jim, 70. She is active in the local historical society, a church group, a women's exercise club, and the American Legion. "It's been very enjoyable for me," stated Pat.

According to the survey conducted by AIG SunAmerica, the people most likely to enjoy retirement are those who have planned for it. This is borne out by the fact that 78 percent of people who prepare for retirement both financially and psychologically view it as "a whole new life" or a "continuation of life as it was."

If you are not presently retired, it's important to spend many preretirement days thinking about what you want to do when you walk out of your workplace for the last time. All too often, people put off things too long. As 71-year-old Florida retiree Howard Salzmann stated, "If you didn't learn how to live before you reach 65, it's very difficult to teach you how to live afterwards."

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Fun Ideas for Retirees

The item below was sent to me by George Fulmore, a San Francisco Bay resident who has reviewed many retirement books and loves my The Joy of Not Working, calling it the best retirement book ever written. (I disagree with George. I agree with the BarnesandNoble.com reviewer who called How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free the World's Best Retirement Book.)

Fun Ideas for Retirees

Working people frequently ask retired people what they do to make their days interesting.

Well, for example, the other day I went downtown and into a shop. I was only there for about 5 minutes, and when I came out there was a cop writing out a parking ticket.I said to him, "Come on, man, how about giving a retired person a break?" He ignored me and continued writing the ticket. I called him a "Nazi." He glared at me and wrote another ticket for having worn tires.

So I called him a "doughnut-eating Gestapo." He finished the second ticket and put it on the windshield with the first. Then he wrote a third ticket. This went on for about 20 minutes. The more I abused him the more tickets he wrote.

Personally, I didn't care. I came downtown on the bus, and the car that he was putting the tickets on had a bumper sticker that said "Guliani in '08."

I try to have a little fun each day now that I'm retired. It's important to my health.

The Retirement Quotes Cafe Website

The Retiring Life

The Retiring Life

• 51% of retirees say retirement is better than expected.
• 26% of retirees say it is about the same.
• 19% of retirees say it is worse than expected.

Source: Retirement Confidence Survey