Retirement Quotes for Retirement Planning

I received the following email from my friend Todd about retirement plannig and used some new retirement quotes to respond to his concerns:

Ernie,

There seems to be a rel shift going on in terms of retirement planning, according to the CIBC poll about Consumer Debt in Canada:

"Two years ago, 24 per cent of respondents aged 45-64 named retirement planning as their top financial priority, which fell to just 12 per cent among that age group in this year's survey."
This is interesting because people have always had debt. So I wonder if this apparent attitudinal shift to saving and managing day-to-day bills, instead of planning for retirement, indicates that people are getting concerned about the economy and don't see their current debts as sustainable as they did previously, or if retirement planning "was selected by only seven per cent of respondents overall, down from 11 per cent last year and 13 per cent in 2011" because this generation doesn't really plan to retire in the same way that previous generations could.
In fact, I wonder if the idea of retirement was only a short term social myth that was really only relevant to the middle and upper class of the last 60 years or so, and that the "experiment" of retirement has proven a falsehood for most of the masses. For my grandfather, and generations before him, there was never really a concept of "retirement". He simply worked until he couldn't physically work any more, or died.

Keeping in mind that the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) was only started in 1966 (the plan is younger than me and is only 47 years old), it still seems to be in its "experimental phase". A very interesting fact is that I am one of the first Canadians to pay into the plan my entire life but will also be the first recipient who will see some of these benefits start to be clawed back (I will not receive Old Age Security until 67, causing an even heavier reliance on CPP for several years).

Anyway, I would venture to guess that this drop in retirement contributions most likely reflects a straightforward shortage of household income. As a person's household income and purchasing power erodes, I have always assumed that the first thing one would naturally cut back on is the retirement investments because they are such a long term futuristic concept and having food on the table or gas in your car is an immediate functional need. I am always surprised that these great "thinkers" in the CIBC analyst pool (or any other financial think tank) release these numbers without juxtaposing them with mean and median income figures to show correlation income down, retirement savings down; income up, retirement savings up. They make it sound as though Canadians have somehow started to belief that saving for retirement is no longer an important value to them.

Todd

This was my reply:

Todd:

I believe that there are a number of factors at work here.
One of the factors that caused the shift in saving for retirement is the low interest rates for years that encouraged people to purchase cars, houses, and all sorts of other crap they don't need with easy credit. Now there is a restructuring happening to pay for this bad behavior, including raising the level for CPP and Old Age Security. There will be a lot more restructuring — such as many government worker pension plans and corporate pension plans will see the level of benefits paid out to retirees lowered dramatically.

It's a case of the whole nation being invovled in a fraud against itself and then being penalized for it — with everyone being in denial that they contributed to the problem.

There was a time when savers were rewarded with interest rates of 10 percent or higher on GIC's. In 1990, if you had $500,000 in the bank in GIC's, you could retire comfortably off the interest of $50,000 a year. There was a real incentive to save at that time. But for years now, savers have been penalized and the debtors were rewarded. This is really stupid and most people in society are in denial that this is stupid.
Now stupid governments (in response to the stupid people that elected them) are trying to solve the problem with what created the problem — low interest rates to stimulate the economy and get people into even more debt. How insane is this? Sooner or later the pain of paying off the debts has to be felt. The longer it is put off, the greater the pain will be.
Having said this, there will still be people who retire early — those not willing to buy into the silly consumerism and the insanity that characterizes most people in society.

Here is a blog that I just listed for the ebook edition of How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free:

Retire by 40: Forget about Freedom 55. That’s for amateurs. It’s really possible to retire by 40. Joe Udo explores why it is possible to leave your day job much earlier than 65. This can be accomplished by aggressively saving and investing as soon as you start working. Many financial advisers will tell you to save 10 percent of your income for retirement. This is an OK model for some, but not for people who don’t love their jobs. For this reason you should be like Joe and his wife who have been saving and investing over 50 percent of their take-home income for many years now.

Here again are two reasons that I cite for most people having the debt levels that they have:

1. Instant gratification takes too long.

2. A necessity is any luxury that the neighbor happens to have.

In other words, elevating all your present "wants" to your "need list" is another way to trick yourself into being broke in retirement. This is what many people are doing. Spending $50 or $75 a month on a cell phone plan is not a need. It is an expensive luxury. Forrest B. has a land line and a cell phone. He needs a cell phone in addition to a land line almost as much as a giraffe needs strep throat. Forrest has made a lot of money over the years, and unless he wins a lottery or inherits some money, he will be broke in retirement. Who is to blame? Larry Wingett covers a lot of this in his book, You're Broke Because You Want to Be. As Larry Wingett says, "For anyone who gives me a bunch of excuses for why they weren't able to save, I will give you examples of people who had it a lot worse in a lower income, more living expenses, and other circumstances, and still managed to save a bundle."

I just heard this the other day: This applies to a lot of people I know, and the probems they have, including debt problems:

"I'm in love with the system that keeps me down."
— Words of a Song Heard on CKUA Radio

Regarding putting off retirement by working later, I always chuckle at studies showing that a large number of people have decided that they will work forever, instead of retiring at 60 or 65. Frankly, the majority of these people are delusional. As retirement expert Joseph F Coughlin stated, "Planning to keep working is NOT a retirement plan." This is the reality for a lot of people:

"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

Plain and simple: Studies show that most people who had wanted or planned to work in their retirement years (60 and higher) aren't able to do so. There are about 5 important reasons why they aren't able to do so but I won't get into that.

I could go on and on about this but it would end up being a whole book.
Here are a few more great retirement quotes that I came across in articles and comments to articles, which place retirement planning in perspective.

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

"You say you want to work past retirement? How's your health?"
— 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

"If you own your house and have SS, you will have a comfortable retirement. You don't "need" much else. That 401k and IRA are pure discretionary money."
— locke

"Save 15% of your money starting at age 30 and you'll be fine !! Live below your means.........or don't blow all your money !!! No fancy cars, big houses. Save your Rubles. That's what I did and just retired at 57."
— Carumba

"Babyboomers spent themselves into oblivion and now they are trying to take healthcare and food from the poor. Christianity sure failed, big time."
— kellamd. Alias for a person posting a comment on a USA TODAY article

"Those who didn't save for retirement should not be able to steal from those who did."
— Happily Retired Guy

"Homes are NOT investment vehicles, you morons."
— "Marine20" , Alias for a person posting a comment on a USA TODAY article about

"Treat your house as a home and not as an ATM — then you'll be fine."
— DeanG72, Alias for a person posting a comment on a USA TODAY article

"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, (This is serious — see article Half of Americans Will Die With No Money)

"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."
— Dr. Joanne Earl, UNSW psychologist and careers expert

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

“I didn’t want to die at work. I decided to start spending the money I’ve saved and enjoy it, because who knows how long I’ll live.”
— Lynda Thompson, 65, retired from being an artist for the Kansas City Area Transportation Authority who was diagnosed with cancer

To sum up, as Talbot Boggs stated, "Like life, retirement can be full of surprises. Take when you retire, for example."

One more: I can't forget the wisdom of Richard Parker:

“Retiring is easy. Staying retired — now that’s the trick!”

Actually, I wish I would have said that.

Ernie J. Zelinski
International Best-Selling Author
Helping Adventurous Souls Live Prosperous and Free
Author of the Bestseller How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free
(Over 175,000 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)

Writing Retirement Books Is a Business

My international bestseller How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free (over 175,000 copies sold and published in 9 languages) has been in the top 1,000 books sold on Amazon for the last week or so, which means that it is selling really well, particularly it being Christmas season.

A lot of people think that it is really easy to accomplish what I have done with this book, which could end up being my $1 million book in profits (more about this some other time). 

Note: as of August 15, 2016 How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free has now sold over 300,000 copies and has earned me over $1 million in pretax profits.

Here are some great quotations to put the business or writing retirement books (and it is a business) in proper perspective:

“What people really want . . . is to be broke. At least, that’s one likely interpretation of a new YouGov poll that shows more people [in Britain] would rather be a writer than anything else. Now, it’s possible they’ve all got their eyes on the J. K. Rowling squillions, but the financial reality is rather more depressing. Most book manuscripts end up unwanted and unread on publishers’ and agents’ slush piles, and the majority of those that do make it into print sell fewer than 1,000 copies … It’s not even as if writing is that glamorous. You sit alone for hours on end honing your deathless prose, go days without really talking to anyone and, if you’re lucky, within a year or so you will have a manuscript that almost no one will want to read. Your friends and family will come to dread requests for constructive feedback . . .”
— John Crace writing in The Guardian

“No amount of money or marketing can overcome a book that doesn’t deliver. So your first challenge is to write a book that your networks assure you is as good as you want it to be. The content of your books will determine how you sell them to publishers and promote them to book buyers. Content precedes commerce.”
— Rick Frishman

“People think that just because they’ve written something, there’s a market for it. It’s not true.”
— Cathy Langer, Tattered Cover Bookstore in Denver

“Are you publishing this book to make a living? Good luck with that. Less than 3% of newly published authors make enough in royalties and advances to be happy to live on.”
— Seth Godin

And I am going add a quotation by Joe Konrath. For the record, I am not a big fan of Konrath, mainly because of his constant criticism of traditional publishers (My opinion is that Konrath hasn’t applied critical thinking skills in his analysis of traditional publishers.) Nevertheless, I do admire and acknowledge the success that Konrath has achieved. What’s more, I particularly agree with Konrath’s statement:

“Write a damn good book. This should be your main priority. It’s also one of the hardest things to do, and the hardest things to judge for yourself if you’ve done it. The problem is, most writers believe their books are good. Even at our most insecure, we believe complete strangers will enjoy our scribblings enough to pay for the privilege.”
— Joe Konrath

Note: I don't want to discourage anyone from writing books. In fact, I encourage all my friends to do so. The point is: If you want to make real money at this game and have a true bestseller (one that has sold 100,000 copies or more) you have to be a 1 percenter. A 1 percenter is a person who is willing to be more creative and more industrious than 99 percent of the population is willing to be.

Check out the blog post Creativity Trumps Following the Rules


Also, check out the number 2 listing of "Top 55 Retirement Planning Websites awards."

Impostor Syndrome - Leave It to "Best-Selling Authors" Who Aren't

Rachelle Gardner, a literary agent representing Christian writers, asked these questions on her blog post yesterday: 

1. "What about you? Do you ever feel like an impostor?  
2. What makes you feel that way?
3. What reminds you of the truth about yourself?"

 This was my reply:

Regarding, “impostor syndrome”, I would imagine anyone who started from nothing and attained any measure of success may suffer from it.

Me too, occassionally, but then I remember these words,

“If you done it, it ain’t bragging.”
— Walt Whitman

If anyone should be suffering from “impostor syndrome”, it’s the many self-proclaimed “best-selling authors” whose books have sold only fifty, a hundred, or fewer than 1,000 copies. Even having a book sell 5,000 copies does not make it a best-seller in the U.S. As self-publishing guru Dan Poynter says, a true best-seller is one that has sold at least 40,000 copies.

I have checked out many authors calling themselves “best-selling authors” and have found that their books have only sold 100 or 200 copies or 500 copies through normal book channels. These are the true impostors. If they are suffering from severe “impostor syndome” — they likely should be!

Having said that, I wanted to give a great quote about impostors. There aren’t many — but here is one that will offers food for thought to all of us.

“While the impostor draws his identity from past achievements and the adulation of others, the true self claims identity in its belovedness. We encounter God in the ordinariness of life: not in the search for spiritual highs and extraordinary, mystical experiences but in our simple presence in life.”
— Brennan Manning, in “Abba’s Child"

Some Alarming (and Questionable) Retirement Statistics from Economic Secrets Website

"I want you to take a look at these alarming facts:

• 96 percent of Americans never achieve financial independence! (According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, they end up dependent on charity, welfare, or family … or are forced to work past their ‘retirement age’.)  
• 85 percent of the people reaching age 65 years don’t have even $200 in their bank accounts! (That figure comes straight from the IRS!)
• 97 percent of all Americans, according to the US Census Bureau, will be forced to scratch out their retirement existence on a paltry $10,000 – or less! – a year.
• Americans aged 85 and older are now the fastest-growing segment of our population! (In fact, Hallmark sells TENS of THOUSANDS of birthday cards for 100-year olds every year!)
• Within 20 years, there will be 70 million Americans aged 65 and older (That’s more than DOUBLE the number in that age group in 2000!) "

Question: Are these retirement statistics right? If they are, many retirees and soon-to-be retirees must be experiencing impostor syndrome.

Note: Check out Cliff's Moen Family website.

More Money Quotes - Money Dislikes Being Equally Distributed

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

Best Retirement Job Book

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