The Business of Writing Retirement Books

Here is the closing paragraph from an article that appeared in the Oakland Tribune:

The closing chapter of How To Retire Happy, Wild, and Free by Ernie J. Zelinski (VIP Books, 2010, $16.95) is "Don't Leave This World with Songs Unsung That You Would Like to Sing." The author doesn't stop at new and different experiences but also encourages gratitude for our here and now gifts. He sums it nicely when he points out, "The more gratitude you express for the things you already have, the less you will need or want."

And here is an excerpt from an article in last weeks National Post:

"Boomer retirement won’t be happy, wild and free: For those who insist on clinging to the delusion that retirement will be a time of unsurpassed freedom and fulfillment, he [Jim Bacon, who now edits a newsletter entitled The Generational Advisor and author of Boomergeddon] suggests buying instead any of the “happy” retirement titles that abound in bookstores, including one by Canada’s own Ernie Zelinski: How to Retire Happy, Wild and Free . . . In the introduction to Boomergeddon, Johnson warns aging baby boomers that his is a “different type of retirement book.” He suggests that for the “vast majority” of America’s 78 million baby boomers, “retirement will be a bitter pill.”

These excerpts may help you attain your retirement number so that you can retire happy, wild, and free:

Here are some quotes about business in case you intend to operate a business in retirement so that you can make your retirement number work out properly:

Business has only two basic functions — marketing and innovation.
— Peter Drucker

Don't go to business school.
— Paul Hawkin to aspiring entrepreneurs

Business without profit is not business any more than a pickle is a candy.
— Charles F. Abbott

To be a success in business, be daring, be first, be different.
— Marchant

My first six years in the business were hopeless. There are a lot of times when you sit and you say "Why am I doing this? I'll never make it. It's just not going to happen. I should go out and get a real job, and try to survive.
- George Lucas

Age Is Not a Problem If You Forget How Old You Are

Here are some quotes about age and getting older that come from the websites Sensational Quotes:

#1 of Top-Ten Quotes about Age and Aging

Few people know how to be old.
- La Rochefoucauld

#2 of Top-Ten Quotes about Age and Aging

Why do people write books that say it's better to be older than to be younger? It's not better. Even if you have all your marbles, you're constantly reaching for the name of the person you met the day before yersterday . . . . If you work, you're surrounded by young people who are plugged into the marketplace, the demographic, the zeitgeist; they want your job and someday they're going to get it.
- Nora Ephron

#3 of Top-Ten Quotes about Age and Aging

The idea is to die young, as late as possible.
- Ashley Montagu

#4 of Top-Ten Quotes about Age and Aging

It is not how old you are, but how you are old.
- Marie Dressler

#5 of Top-Ten Quotes about Age and Aging

Wish not so much to live long, as to live well.
- Ben Franklin

#6 of Top-Ten Quotes about Age and Aging

The trick is growing up without growing old.
- Casey Stengel

#7 of Top-Ten Quotes about Age and Aging

I'm old enough to know my limitations and young enough to exceed them.
- Marv Levy (Unretiring at 80 to manage the Buffalo Bills)

#8 of Top-Ten Quotes about Age and Aging

Growing old is mandatory. Growing up is optional.
- Unknown wise person

#9 of Top-Ten Quotes about Age and Aging

Age only matters when one is aging. Now that I have arrived at a great age, I might just as well be twenty.
- Pablo Picasso

#10 of Top-Ten Quotes about Age and Aging

Laughter is pleasant, but the exertion [at my age] is too much for me.
- Thomas Love Peacock

More Quotes about Age, Aging, and Getting Older as Well as Retirement Quotes

Fear not death; for the sooner we die, the longer we shall be immortal.
- Benjamin Franklin

Some people think the proper age for a man to start thinking of marriage is when he's old enough to realize he shouldn't.
— Anon

Retirement is the beginning of life - not the end.
- from the international bestseller How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free

The New Retirement Ain't Going to Be Better than the Old Retirement

There has been a lot of talk about "the new retirement" that the baby boomers were going to experience. It appears, however, that the new retirement ain't going to be any better than the old retirement. In fact, it could be a lot worse.

The question that arises is How Much do I need to retire?

Here are some recent tidbits of news reports to show what the new retirement will be like as it relates to retirement income and how it is spent.

From Retirement USA:

The gap between what retirement savings Americans need for retirement and the amount they have actually saved is a staggering $6.6 trillion, Retirement USA, a coalition of orkers’ groups, said in a study published Wednesday.

“The retirement income deficit is the gap between the pensions and retirement savings that American households have today and what they should have today to be on track to maintain their living standard in retirement,” said Karen Friedman, executive vice president and policy director of the Pension Rights Center, in a conference call with reporters.

From Allstate Financial Retirement Reality Check Survey:

The first-ever Cost of Leisure Index revealed that surveyed Boomers anticipate spending approximately $10,900 a year on having fun during retirement. When Baby Boomers are ready to retire, more than half of the survey respondents (55 percent) cited travel most frequently as their top- rated retirement pursuit. On average, Baby Boomers said they would take four trips per year, and spend about $7,700 on travel annually. Estimates from various associations and trade groups representing these top-rated activities were identified to determine how they compare with the survey results.

"While Baby Boomers know what they want to do in retirement, and in most cases have a realistic estimate as to the cost, the Retirement Reality Check survey found that there is a fundamental disconnect between what middle-income Americans expect out of retirement and what they'll get if they don't get help," said Wilson. "Baby Boomers have terrific enthusiasm and vision when it comes to making their retirement the best it can be, and part of that vision should be a program to accelerate their savings, make a commitment to their future, and realize the rewards of their work."

In short, there is a problem. Knowing how much something costs does not mean it is affordable. Survey respondents said they would need $40,900 per year in retirement, to cover the cost of their top-rated activities and basic living expenses. To have that, the average Boomer will need to have more than $1.2 million at the beginning of a 20-year retirement, factoring in a return on savings and inflation.

The problem is that surveyed Baby Boomers, on average, have less than $120,000 in assets - not even a tenth of the amount they say they will need when they retire in the next 10 to 20 years. And Social Security isn't going to help much.

Here are some quotes about retirement to put the new retirement in perspective:

The new retirement reality may be a messy proposition.
— Alicia Munnell, director of the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College.

We have a manufactured vision of what [the new] retirement is, and that doesn't necessarily correlate with reality. Unless you have a well-thought-out scenario, you're going to be in for a shock at retirement.
— Paul Allen

Retirement Quotes to Inspire You to Greater Heights

Drive a Free Car

Michel de Montaigne once said, "I quote others only the better to express myself."

"I shall never be ashamed to quote a bad author," claimed Seneca the Younger, "if what he says is good."

Not to be outdone, Samuel Johnson said, "Quotation is the highest compliment you can pay to an author."

Indeed, sensational retirement quotations add spice to your conversations, are easy to remember, represent brilliant wisdom, remind you humorously of your somewhat questionable existence, motivate you to greater accomplishments, or just plainly lighten your day.

Here are a few retirment quotes from the Sensational Quotes Website that can be used as retirement resources or in your retirement letters :

#6 of Top-10 Retirement Quotes

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

#7 of Top-10 Retirement Quotations

Retirement is the beginning of life - not the end.
- from the international bestseller How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free

#8 of Top-10 Retirement Quotes

Preparation for old age should begin not later than one's teens. A life which is empty of purpose until 65 will not suddenly become filled on retirement.
- Arthur E. Morgan

#9 of Top-10 Retirement Quotations

Teacher's Retirement Motto: I Used to Teach. Now I Have No Class.
- Unknown wise retiree

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

Retirement Quotes at The Joy of Not Working

I Was Fired By The Airlines, So This Is My Revenge! This Angry Ex-travel
Agent Will Reveal The Deepest, Darkest Secrets Of The Airline Industry
To Show How You Can Obtain Tickets At Ridiculously Low Costs!

Privatization of Social Security for Dummies

This was my post as a comment to an article called Obama Ignores Reality of Social Security where the writer was advocating the privatiztion of the American Social Security System.

I agree that the American Social Security problem is in deep trouble and the biggest problem is that there is no actual “Trust Fund” set aside but an I.O.U. from the Federal Government which has borrowed the funds for its daily operations. This would be okay if the Government wasn’t bankrupt big-time.

In my opinion, the answer is not privatization, however. The reasons is that corporations are not to be trusted any more than governments when it comes to your retirement income.

The answer is to follow the model of the Canadian Pension Plan (CPP), which is actually run by the Canadian Federal Government but which has actual monies set aside in a separate fund. This fund is UNTOUCHABLE in that it can’t be used for daily government operations. The CPP fund is run by professional advisors and has invested in stocks, bonds, and even in water utilities both in Britain and New Zealand. The CPP board also raised the contributions that Canadians must make dramatically in the last few years so that the fund will be able to pay Canadian retirees for many decades.

Ernie J. Zelinski
Author of How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free
(Over 125,000 copies sold and published in 9 languages)
and The Joy of Not Working
(Over 250,000 copies sold and published in 17 languages)

As an aside here is another tidbit I posted in an article called Social Security Is a Secure Way to Find Great Pleasure from Being Terribly Deceived.

In February 2005 then President George W. Bush attempted to explain Social Security to Americans. This is what Bush said:

"Some in our country think Social Security is a trust fund - in other words, there's a pile of money being accumulated. That's simply not true. The money - payroll taxes going into Social Security are spent. They're spent on benefits and they're spent on government programs. There is no trust We're on the ultimate pay-as-you-go system - what goes in comes out. And so, starting in 2018, what's going in - what's coming out is greater than what's going in."

Here are some Retirement Quotations for Smart People to place Retirement in Perspective:

I used to have dreams that I died at my desk. Now that I've retired, I don't have those dreams anymore.
- Anon

One week into retirement, you'll be so damned bored that you'll want to stick bicycle
spokes into your eyes. You'll probably opt to look for another job or start another company. Kinda defeats the purpose of waiting [for retirement], doesn't it.
- Timothy Ferris in The 4-Hour Workweek

Why shouldn't retirees expect some reduction in Social Security and Medicare benefits, and soon? Before we retired, or will retire, we lived beyond our means by voting for those congressmen who would keep taxes low and borrow from the trust funds to pay government bills. Woe to the politician who would ask us to fully pay the taxes necessary for the services we expected from government. This large accumulated debt to the funds is coming due. So we have an obligation to help pay it off by accepting less from them or paying higher taxes on our retirement income. As retirees, we have no right to just pass our debt off on our kids. We certainly helped create it and should help pay it off.
— Werner Gruhl, Columbia

The Ideal Retirement Plan: "Marry an old rich broad and wait for her to die."
- Ivan Wilson (commenting on an online article about retirment.)

We have a manufactured vision of what retirement is, and that doesn't necessarily correlate with reality. Unless you have a well-thought-out scenario, you're going to be in for a shock at retirement.
- Paul Allen, 64, a self-employed software developer in Dallas

Investing in the Stock Market for Early Retirement Is for Dummies

This item was recently posted on an article called How to Retire Early in 5 Easy Steps:

4. INVEST: The next step is to invest it; the return is worth it. You can double your money in as little as 20 years with a mere 5% return. Considering that the average return of a stock portfolio is around 9% over a ten-year period, it is reasonable to assume that you could net more than double your money in ten years, allowing you to retire that much sooner. As such, not investing your savings, even if it is just invested in a high-yield savings account, is tantamount to throwing away money.

This was the comment that I placed after the article:

I believe your comment "Considering that the average return of a stock portfolio is around 9% over a ten-year period," is misleading and simply not true. Investing in the stock market will not help people retire early. It will leave them begging for a retirement job.

I have seen figures like this used a lot by financial advisors, who have nothing but their own self-interests in mind.

This comes from a recent article called You Wasted the Last 10 Years of Your Life:

"If you think the stock market is the road to a comfortable early retirement, you're wrong. You may have thought about cashing in on the long-term average annual returns of 7% (postinflation) you heard you could get from investing in stocks, but I'm here to tell you to think again.

In the past decade, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (NYSE: SPY), an exchange-traded fund (ETF) designed to track the broad U.S. stock market, returned an amazing -1.4% per year. That's right, negative, as in less than zero. Including dividends. That's a long way from 7%."

So, based on these figures, one would have been better off to place money in a savings account or even in one's mattress than investing in the stock market."

I am all for early retirement and believe that one can retire comfortably by the age of 60 but relying on the stock market - as on Social Security - is for dummies.

Ernie J. Zelinski
Author of How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free
(Over 125,000 copies sold and published in 9 languages)
http://www.retirement-quotes.com
and The Joy of Not Working
(Over 250,000 copies sold and published in 17 languages)

In response to another article called Debt Is the Number One Killer of Early Retirement Dreams, I posted this comment:

You state, "Debt is the number one killer of early retirement dreams."

I disagree with you.

You should have said, "Death is the number one killer of early retirement dreams."

Many people end up dying on the job before they are able to take early or late retirement.

On the other hand, I agree with you that debt is detrimental to retirement. If you are retiring with any debt, you aren't ready for retirement.

Note: The article mentioned on the top is available at How to Retire Early

Retirees Not the Solution But May Be Part of the Problem

The following is my comment on a story called Retirees Replacing Teen Workers in Low-Wage Jobs :

First, I agree with iridium53's comments why he/she hires older workers.

Second, I don't believe a government program is going to solve the problem of hundreds of thousands of young Americans being unemployed. There is no way that a government program is going to instill a sense of having to take full responsibility for one's life in young adults. Many of these young adults have been spoiled by their parents, or even grandparents, who are now looking for jobs for retirement.

The economic mess that America is in was largely created by the government including low interest rates and big time debt, but the government was playing up to the general population, a lot of whom wanted something for nothing.

Too many Americans - young and older - have lost the sense of taking 100% responsibility for their lives and instead have a sense of entitlement from the government and taxpayers about their retirement planning and retirement income.

There is also the more serious problem of a lot of jobs being outsourced to places like India and the Phillipines simply because the people there - including young workers - are more willing to earn their pay by doing the work that has to be done and not having a sense of entitlement.

I am about to ourtsource some of my writing and webdesign and I intend to use workers from the Phillipines simply because they provide a lot more value than North American workers - young or old.

Ernie Zelinski
Author of How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free

Here is a retirement quote to help you contemplate retirement.

"It [retirement] was absolutely boring. You can't go and say, 'I'm
retired now. That's it!' It won't take long and you're really gone
for good and someone throws the last shovel of dirt on a coffin with
your name on it. That's the moment you're really retiring — when
you die."
— Ozzy Osbourne

Perhaps You Won't Need a Retirement Job

So what is the new retirement with so many people expecting to have some sort of retirement job?

According to a recent study by the Pew Research Center, 77 percent of American employees include working for pay at a retirement career as part of their retirement plan.

Most of these American soon-to-be retired surveyed say they'll be working because they want to, not because they have to.

Don't count mentioning a retirement job in your retirement speech, however, or braggin about your great retirement job on your retirement T-shirts.

Pew, however, finds those statements out of step with the experiences of people who have already retired. Just 12 percent of the American retirees Pew surveyed say they are currently working either full or part time in a retirement job for pay. And according to the results of another survey cited by Pew, only 27 percent of current retirees have had any sort of retirement job doing anything for pay during their retirement.

What this means is that retirees or the soon-to-be retired who plan to have a retirement job should think again. Of course they create any one of many unreal retirement jobs. For instance, they can take up writing and self-publishing as I have done.

Perhap not as many people will need to work in retirement as think they will have to.

Currently, most American retirees don't have a lot of retirement income.

Here, according to the 2007 American Census, is the total retiree income for households age 65 and older in the U.S.:

• Under $5,000 (2.4 percent)
• $5,000 to $9,999 (7.7 percent)
• $10,000 to $14,999 (13.3 percent)
• $15,000 to $19,999 (11.4 percent)
• $20,000 to $24,999 (9.3 percent)
• $25,000 to $34,999 (15 percent)
• $35,000 to $49,999 (13.7 percent)
• $50,000 to $74,999 (11.9 percent)
• $75,000 to $99,999 (6 percent)
• $100,000 and over (9.3 percent)

Note: Don't forget to include your spouse in your retirement plan.

Here are a few quotes relating to retirement:

"It [retirement] was absolutely boring. You can't go and say, 'I'm retired now.
That's it!' It won't take long and you're really gone for good and someone throws the last shovel of dirt on a coffin with your name on it. That's the moment you're really retiring — when you die."
— Ozzy Osbourne

The Ideal Retirement Plan: "Marry an old rich broad and wait for her to die."
- Ivan Wilson (commenting on an online article about retirment.)

"I used to have dreams that I died at my desk.
Now that I've retired, I don't have those dreams anymore."
- Haselback (commenting on an online article about retirement.)

Ernie J. Zelinski
Best-Selling Author, Innovator, and Creativity Consultant
Author of How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free
(Over 125,000 copies sold and published in 9 languages)
and The Joy of Not Working
(Over 250,000 copies sold and published in 17 languages)

It Is a Lot of Work Writing about Not Working

Tim Ferris, author of The 4-Hour Work Week, stole a line from me before I was about to think of it and use it in one of my books.

Tim writes, "The truth be told, it is a hell of a lot of work writing about not working."

The nerve of the guy!

As the author of The Joy of Not Working, I should have exlusive right to this line.

Perhaps I will have to sue him.

As Mark Twain once said, "I can’t do any more writing because I’m contemplating a gigantic lawsuit and looking around for a defendant."

Here are a few more quotes about writing by writers.

I you want to be a writer - stop talking about it and sit down and write!
- Jackie Collings

Write drunk; edit sober.
- Ernest Hemingway

I'm a lousy writer; a helluva lot of people have got lousy taste.
- Grace Metalious

When I had got my notes all written out I thought I'd polish it off in two summers, but it took me twenty-seven years.
- Arnold Toynbee

The three great essentials to achieving anything worthwhile are; first, hard work, second, stick-to-it-iveness, and third, common sense.
- Thomas Edison

Ernie Zelinski

Author of How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free

(Over 125,000 copies sold and published in 9 languages.

No Retirement Income Is Not as Appealing as Dying

Would you rather run out of retirement income or die?

According to a recent survey by Allianz Life 61 percent of the 3,200 baby boomers and retirees (ages 44 to 75) said they feared outliving their retirement income more than they dreaded dying.

More than 90 percent of baby boomers feel the United States is facing a retirement crisis. Respondents indicated that they were aware that they may be contributing to that crisis by not saving enough so that they have an adequate retirement income:

It appears that few retirees have asked that important question: How Much Do I Need to Retire?

Most of the soon-to-be-retired said they don’t know how much retirement income they will require once they retire and they fear that they will outlive their retirement income.

The study, titled “Reclaiming the Future: Challenging Retirement Income Perceptions,” was conducted in May 2010 for Golden Valley-based Allianz.

Respondents also said they expect a lot from retirement — 79 percent said their retirement lifestyle must surpass their parents’. (In my opinion, these people are nuts - delusional, in fact.)

Survey results showed that the median annual retirement income retirees and the soon-to-be retired targeted is $59,000, but baby boomers’ savings are on track to provide only about $20,000 (one third of that retirement income that they would like).

Perhaps some of these retirees can take up writing and self-publishing books as one of many retirement jobs to pursue as I have done to provide me with a residual retirement income for many years.

This is an e-mail that I sent to one of my friends about how he can retire with a little more retirement income:

Hey Frank:

If you lose your job, you can move to B.C. to live with Jennifer, and sue your kids for support.

No doubt Jennifer would be proud of you having your own income in retirement.

Check out this article about parents suing their children for support.

http://lifestyle.ca.msn.com/family-parenting/moms-dads/rogers-article.aspx?cp-documentid=24682220

See, you are richer than me because I have no kids to sue.

And you know what that means if you sue your kids successfully.

More money for beer ! ! ! ! ! !

Ernie Z.

BP Should Have to Pay Big Time Regardless of the Consequences

This was part of a story on the Sripps News Service:

The $20 billion compensation fund for victims of the Gulf oil spill is not going over well in BP's homeland.

Britain's Daily Mail accused President Barack Obama of bullying BP into coughing up the money and said flatly it would come out of the pockets of the nation's retirees: "British pensioners will pick up the bill."

What could hurt is the company's decision, at Obama's behest, to cancel a previously declared dividend and suspend the remainder for the rest of the year. BP dividends account for about one-sixth of British pension funds' income.

That's unfortunate, but the spill is doing immediate economic harm to the people of four states who can't wait for the damages to be litigated in U.S. courts.

The British press has been hyper-vigilant for any American impugning of Britain in connection with the spill. Obama was accused of such when he referred to BP by its former name, changed in 1998, of British Petroleum.

This was reply to this story not including the retirement sayings that I added:

I am a Canadian.

The Canadian Pension Fund has money invested in BP, so my pension payouts may be affeded in some way if BP has to pay for large lawsuits.

But as far as I am concerned, it doesn't matter to me whether BP is sued for so much money that it has to go into bankruptcy and disappear as a company completely.

I believe that there are hundreds of millions of people in the U.S, Canada, and many other countries who feel the same way.

This comes down to a matter of responsibility.

BP is run by a bunch of arrogant and selfish executives who have screwed up big time.

Plain and simple, the company should have to pay big time, even if the company has to go into bankruptcy.

It doesn't matter whether British or Canadian retirees are affected. There pension funds took the risk in investing in this irresponsible company so that makes the people who run these pension funds just as irresponsible.

When British retirees say they will have to pick up the bill, this is just some more selfish thinking on their part and does not reflect any critical thinking on there part. That is why the world is so screwed up and we wind up with environmental disasters like the one that is happening in the Gulf of Mexico.

Again, the British retirees' pension funds took a risk in investing in BP and should have to suffer the consequences, regardless of how dire.

Ernie J. Zelinski, Creator of Retirement Quotes Website
Author of How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free
(Over 125,000 copies sold and published in 9 languages)
and The Joy of Not Working
(Over 250,000 copies sold and published in 17 languages)

Unemployed and Spinning My Wheels

I received this e-mail today after updating my Retirement Quotes Website:

Subject: Spinning My Wheels

Dear Ernie,

Hello from Florida!

I discovered your great book - The Joy of Not Working - just a few weeks ago. What you have written has been encouragement to my heart.

I am unemployed. After 18 years with a company, I resigned after enduring a mandated 24x7 on call (no rotation or compensation time provided) during the past two years; I felt like I was being leased out to my family - exploited. I stressed and simply "burned out". I am 51. My father-in-law took my aside and let me know what a "dumb ass" thing I had done - leaving a job without having another one to go to. I let him know - with tears in my eyes - that if I could have hung in there any longer - I would have. I had been looking for other work, but nothing opened up. This was in the corporate IT infrastructure department. Surprisingly, the unemployment office accepted my reason; they did not receive any feedback from my ex-employer. TODAY I received a letter than my employer is appealing - so I have to participate in a telephone hearing on June 16th to try to continue receiving benefits. If not in my favor, they would attempt to recover the benefits received thus far (about $1000). What a mess. I just feel like crying. I am married and two of my sons Paul (16) and Joseph (19) are here with us at home.

I've been applying for work every day (and night); seriously considering self employment rather than continuing to wait in hopes someone will hire me. Rather make something happen, than wait for someone to maybe, maybe, please, please consider hiring me. I do not want to return to the corporate cube farm. I don't want to react/panic to my present situation and return to the same personal hell I had to leave.

I have a blog:

Nothing fancy. I've tried to monetize. No big hits. I love to write (some people have expressed enjoying my writings) and also to be of service to others. (I'm even taking a two week Certified Nursing Assistant prep course to see if something will open up!)

Please pardon my rambling ... I know you have been there and have received many messages from people just like me. I guess I really needed to reach out to someone who understands.

I enjoy visiting your site and always learn something there or on your facebook post.

I really DO want to follow in your footsteps and experience the Joy of NOT Working. I just feel stuck, spinning my wheels.

God Bless and all the best!

W. B.

This was my reply:

Hello W.B.:

First, I sympathize with your situation as being unemployed can be distressing.

I realize that there are many Americans and Canadians in your situation today.

I can't offer any work to you as I work by myself and usually outsource specific projects such as webdesign on Elance.com.

Regarding self-employment, this is not easy but it can be a great way to make a living for the right people.

But this takes committment and a willingness to live a simple lifestyle for a year to 5 or 10 years - although some people can start making money fairly quickly, particularly on the Internet.

You mention that you started a blog on Facebook and tried to monetize it.

In my opinion, a Facebook blog is not the way to make money.

According to the experts, Wordpress is the best way to start a blog.

There is still as much opportunity - probably more - today as there has ever been to make money on the Internet.

In fact, I am just starting and my goal is to make over one million dollars in the next few years.

But as John Reese, an Internet millionaire, says, "Your goal should first be to make one dollar, then $100, then $500 and so on." The problem with 98 percent of the people is they want to make a lot of money instantly and are not prepared to put in the required effort.

I will send you some e-books on Internet Marketing and writing.

Below is an e-mail that I recently got from a woman and my response to her.

Some of my advice may be helpful to you if you are considering being a writer and self-publishing.



Hello Helen:




First regarding self-publishing, I don't care about the stigma. Most of the people who run down self-publishing are unsuccessful writers who think of themselves as being so cool. But most of them are losers who are broke. I would rather be nerdy and rich than cool and broke.

Remember that my retirement book How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free is self-published. This book has already sold over 120,000 copies and has been published in 8 foreign languages since it was released. The book has made over $400,000 in pretax profits for me.

Conduct a search for "retirement" or "retire" on www.Amazon.com and How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free appears in the number 1 position. Better still, search for "retirement book" in Google and the Amazon page for How to Retire Happy appears in the number 1 spot — out of over 29 million webpages!

So why does my self-published book beat out all the other retirement books, including retirement books by AARP, the Wall Street Journal, and Ten Speed Press's What Color Is Your Parachute for Retirement? The answer is that my self-published book is better than all the other retirement books done by the major publishers. Results don't lie.

I intend to sell 500,000 copies of this book and I sure wouldn't be able to do this with the thinking patterns, beliefs, and behaviors of the "cool" writers who run down self-publishing.

Interestingly, I just read an article by some expert who claimed that in the near future the major publishers may be eliminated from the chain because authors will deal with the online retailers directly, particularly for e-books.

If you want to pursue self-publishing, check out these articles.

In the first article, pay particular attention to my comment in the comments section. My comment is the first one.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/zetta-elliott/breaking-down-doors-my-se_b_473336.html




http://web.redroom.com/blog/ernie-j-zelinski/foreign-rights-how-i-have-arranged-101-book-deals-without-going-frankfurt-book




How to Get a Distributor for your self-published book

http://www.selfpublishingreview.com/blog/2009/01/12/how-to-get-book-distribution-for-a-self-published-book/



Check out all the articles on self-publishing here:

http://blog.writersdigest.com/norules/CategoryView,category,SelfPublishing.aspx



Here is a recent Writers Digest article relating to Self-Publishing

http://blog.writersdigest.com/norules/2009/11/25/The3SelfPublishingPathsYouShouldUnderstand.aspx



Here is a great article about book marketing and how a professional looking website (most people don't realize that ugly websites make a lot more money than professional-looking ones) is one of the last things on which you should focus.

http://www.fonerbooks.com/2010/01/what-is-book-marketing-anyway.html



You bring up the issue of e-books. At this time, I not a big fan of e-books. If you check out the competition for my How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free, most retirement books are on Kindle and in many other e-book formats.

The only e-book format that you find for my retirement book is a PDF format of half the book that I give away for free.

I don't think that there are great profit margins in e-books right now.

I just came across an article the other day saying that the top 14 best-selling books for the Kindle on Amazon were the ones that were for free.

Having said that, if you want to put any of your books in e-book format, check out Smashwords at http://www.smashwords.com/.

Smashwords will put your books in all e-book formats including Kindle and you will even get more in Amazon royalties by going through Smashwords than going directly to Amazon.com.

I will forward an e-mail that I just sent to a woman who asked me about the opportunities for writing in this day and age.



So long for now,

Ernie J. Zelinski
The Creativity Guy Too Prosperous to Do Mornings
Best-Selling Author, Innovator, and Content Creator for Retirement Resources
Author of the Bestseller How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free
(Over 120,000 copies sold and published in 9 languages)
and the International Bestseller The Joy of Not Working
(Over 240,000 copies sold and published in 17 languages)

Canadian Edition of The World's Best Retirement Book

I received this e-mail the other day:

From: Jerry M
To: vip-books
Sent: Monday, May 17, 2010 7:17 AM
Subject: How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free

Hi there,

I was wondering if there are two versions of your retirement book - Canadian and American. I'd love to purchase a copy of the Canadian version (if there is one). If not, does VIP sell copies via email? None of the local bookstores seem to have a copy, and Amazon has a two week waiting period.

Thank you!

Jerry M.
Nova Scotia

This was my reply:

Hello Jerry:

Actually, there are a Canadian version and an American version of How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free. The two editions are the same except for the cover.

Unfortunately, retirees would have ten times the chance of finding a copy of the book in a Barnes and Noble store in the U.S. as they would in a Chapters store in Canada.

(This is typical of Canadians who won't support Canadians but will support Americans; I won't get into this, however.)

I sell copies of the book directly to people but I don't accept Visa. For example, just this last week the University of British Columbia Pension Fund ordered 25 copies of How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free but they are paying me by cheque.

The problem with you sending me a cheque is that you will still have to wait about two weeks from the time you send the cheque to me, the time I receive it, and the time it takes for me to send you the book.

If you would like to do this, the price will be $20 plus GST plus about $3 for shipping for a total of $24.00. If you would like two copies, then send a total of $40.00.

Make the cheque out to "Ernie Zelinski" and send to:

Ernie Zelinski
P.O. Box 4072
Edmonton, AB
T6E 4S8

As an aside, here is the promo about the book that I send to companies:

Just a reminder that a happy retirement is dependent on a number of factors as detailed in my book How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free (Retirement Wisdom That You Won't Get from Your Financial Advisor).

This book has already sold over 120,000 copies and has been published in 8 foreign languages since it was released.

Conduct a search for "retirement" or "retire" on www.Amazon.com and How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free appears in the number 1 position. Better still, search for "retirement book" in Google and the Amazon page for How to Retire Happy appears in the number 1 spot — out of over 29 million webpages!

What sets this retirement book apart from all the others is its holistic approach to the fears, hopes, and dreams that people have about retirement. This international bestseller goes way beyond the numbers that is often the main focus of retirement planning in most retirement books.

There are many ingredients of a happy retirement and several retirement planning tools that help retirees plan for their retirement in new and more meaningful ways. One of the most powerful tools is The Get-a-Life Tree that you won't find in any other retirement books.

I have attached the E-book (in PDF format) with over half of How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free that is available as a free download on the Creative Free E-Books Webpage at the Real Success Resource Center.

I have also attached the PowerPoint Slide that indicates the benefits that your company can attain by giving away copies of The World's Best Retirement Book.

Please feel free to forward both the E-book and Slide to any of your colleagues, friends, and clients who may be interested in using this book as a gift for retiring employees or clients.

Many thanks and so long for now,

Ernie J. Zelinski

Best-Selling Author, Innovator, and Creativity Consultant
Author of the Bestseller How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free
(Over 120,000 copies sold and published in 9 languages)
and the International Bestseller The Joy of Not Working
(Over 240,000 copies sold and published in 17 languages)






****************************************************************************************************************

Note: This is a one-time notification about How to Retire Happy, Wild & Free. Please do not consider it as SPAM.

If you have any objections, please respond and we will not send you further e-mails about our other retirement giveaway e-books that we intend to release.

Our retirement books are designed for corporations so that they can create GOODNESS, COOLNESS, and AWARENESS with clients and customers.

Even more important, our funky retirement books such as 365 Reasons Why You Will Love Retirement help retirees and the soon-to-be retired to earn their retirement karma points so that they retire happy.

*****************************************************************************************************************

The Lazy Persons Guide to Success - For Workers and Retirees

I recently received this e-mail:

hi!

im joaquin Diaz Cieri from Argentina and i just finished El exito de los perezosos (The Lazy Person's Guide to Success ) and it changed my point of view of the life, job, relationship, carrer, etc.

I keep working on my lifestyle so i hope i can live in the way you tell us.

just wanna say to you: THANKS! THANKS ! THANKS!

This was my reply:

First just a note that I just noticed your e-mail today.

Thank you for your comments about the Spanish edition of The Lazy Person's Guide to Success.

Weird, but about 10 minutes ago I discovered that someone started a Facebook page about The Lazy Person's Guide to Success:

More important, you may want to read my Redroom Author's blog entry about the e-mails I got from Cuba from Rolando and how he read the Spanish edition of Lazy Person's Guide to Success.

See So You Think You Have It Tough and read the second e-mail where Rolando talks about being in jail for 3 years because he was trying to be an entrepreneur in Cuba.

By the way, one of my books was published in Spanish in Argentina.

See GUÍA HACIA LA FELICIDAD from Argentina Publisher San Pablo:

Ernie J. Zelinski
Author of How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free
(over 120,000 copies sold and published in 9 languages)
Featured on The Retirement Quotes Café and The Retirement Café
and The Joy of Not Working
(Over 240,000 copies Sold and Published in 17 Languages)

Retirement Needs and Wants Are Two Different Things

This comes from a recent press release by Hewitts Associates:

Four in Five Americans Not Expected to Meet all Their Financial Needs

Typical U.S. employees will need to have resources equal to more than 15 times their final pay to maintain their standard of living after they retire, according to analysts at Hewitt Associates Inc. About 80% of workers may fall short of meeting all their financial needs in retirement, says Hewitt Associates.

The figures come from a Hewitt study of projected retirement savings totals of about 2 million employees at 84 large U.S. companies.

First, are we talking about "wants" or "needs"?

Plain and simple, everyone's needs have always been provided — otherwise they would be dead.

The problem with U.S. society today is that a need is any luxury that the neighbor happens to have.

Second, actuaries such as well-known Malcolm Hamilton give good reasons why the large majority of retirees, whether they live in Canada, the U.S., or other Western nations, can live on far less than 80 percent of their pre-retirement income.

Indeed, government statistics indicate that retirees live comfortably on 45 percent to 62 percent of their pre-retirement income.

Although these studies by Hewitt and financial institutions indicate that retirees will require a relatively high retirement income to support these "needs", the writing is on the wall: Most retirees will be living on a small fraction of the income that they made working.

And my guess is that many of these retirees will be just as happy as when they were working - or even happier.

My guess is based on the number of people who have written to me over the years about their experiences with retirement and unemployment.

Ernie J. Zelinski
Author of How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free
(Over 120,000 copies sold and published in 9 languages)
and The Joy of Not Working
(Over 240,000 copies sold and published in 17 languages)

Boring Retirees Take On Boring Retirement Jobs

Apparently many Americans are taking on new jobs after their "official" retirement.

Some retirees need the extra money and other retirees are simply bored.

Whatever the reason, an increasing number of retirees are opting for semi-retirement by having some sort of retirement job.

Here are eight of the most popular post-retirement jobs.

1. Consultant


2. Caterer


3. Store Greeter


4. Floral Assistant


5. Temp


6. Tour Guide


7. Retail Worker


8. More of the Same That the Retiree Used to Work at

To me, the majority of these retirement jobs are boring, boring, boring.

Of course boring retirees will tend to take on boring retirement jobs

For more interesting retirement jobs see:

• Retirement Cafe Retirement Jobs


• Best Retirement Jobs on Squidoo

Related to the fact than many people who retire actually get a retirment job sooner or later is the trend of many just staying in their jobs.

A recent survey by the Employee Benefit Research Institute found that a growing number of American workers are also planning to delay retirement.

That has negative implications for the U.S. job market, where unemployment is high and layoffs continue to grow.

Almost one in four workers (24 percent) postponed plans to retire this year.

Of those postponing retirement 29 percent cited the poor economy, wheras 22 percent cited a change in employment status, 16 percent cited inadequate finances and 12 percent cited the need to make up stock market losses.

Advertise on My Websites - Yes If the Ad and the Money Are Right!

I receive quite a few e-mails like the following from various people wanting to advertise on my many websites.

----- Original Message -----
From: A. Marketing
To: VIP BOOKS
Sent: Wednesday, April 21, 2010 11:11 AM
Subject: Advertising on your website

Hello, I came across your Website and was wondering if I would be able to purchase some space with targeted content and a few links with anchor text on your site.

Thank you,
Niki

This was my reply to the above e-mail:

Hello Niki:

Thank you for your interest in advertising on my website.

First, I have no idea which of my websites you are referring to.

Second, I do partner with certain people who want to advertise on my websites.

For example, just today someone called and offered me $150 to advertise on my Squidoo Mother's Day webpage. All I had to do was change the link that previously went to Wikipedia to a website selling flowers. And the client only wanted the link until the day after Mothers Day. So I happily accepted.

And if you check the Inspiration to Help You Enjoy More Leisure webpage on my The Joy of Not Working website, you will see a link for "blackjack" for which I am being paid $130 for the year. And if you check my Fun Things to Do When You Retire webpage on The Retirement Cafe, you will find a link for bingo games for which I am also being paid around $130 for the year.

However, someone recently offered $150 a year each for 4 text-based ads (for a total of $600) on two homepages of my retirement websites How to Retire Happy and The Joy of Being Retired and I rejected the offer because I did not want any text-based ads for casinos or gambling on the home pages.

So if you want to make an offer for any ads, tell me which website, the particular webpage, the nature of the ad, and the maximum that you will pay.

In short, the answer is yes if the ad and the money are right!

Many thanks and so long for now,

Ernie J. Zelinski
The Creativity Guy
Best-Selling Author, Innovator, and Unconventional Career Expert
Author of the Bestseller How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free
(Over 120,000 copies sold and published in 9 languages)
and the International Bestseller The Joy of Not Working
(Over 240,000 copies sold and published in 17 languages)

*************************************************************************************

Note: This is a one-time notification about How to Retire Happy, Wild & Free. Please do not consider it as SPAM.

If you have any objections, please respond and we will not send you further e-mails about our other retirement giveaway e-books that we intend to release.

Our retirement books are designed for corporations so that they can create GOODNESS, COOLNESS, and AWARENESS with clients and customers.

Even more important, our funky retirement books such as 365 Reasons Why You Will Love Retirement help retirees and the soon-to-be retired to earn their retirement karma points so that they retire happy.

*************************************************************************************

Sponsorship Is Not about You or Me - It Is about the Sponsor

Recently I have been fascinated by the idea of creating corporate sponsorships for some of my books and projects. This will help me achieve my retirement plan a lot quicker.

That is why I attended Brendon Burchard's 3-day Sponsorship/Partnership seminar in San Francisco.

I just received this e-mail from a friend after discussing the idea of Corporate Sponsorships with her.

There is a guy in Alberta who has brain cancer and has to raise $9100 each month for a drug that is not yet available to Albertans because of some red tape. I've suggested to the person running a campaign to raise funds (in a very tedious, slow way) that she go directly to the drug company and ask for a sponsorship for her cause. I've just sent her the links to his videos. Hopefully she will use the idea!

This was my response:

Thaneah:

Quickly, about sponsorships, particularly going direct to the drug company.

This is not a good idea.

Sponsorships are about Partnerships, which means both parties have to win.

The problem with most people is when they think of sponsorships, they think of Me, Me, Me!

See my blog post SPONSORSHIP IS ALL ABOUT PROFITS - THAT IS THE WAY IT SHOULD BE! on my Redroom blog at:

Plain and simple, Sponsorships / Partnerships are about how you can create something for the Sponsor so the Sponsor wins big time and you win big time at the same time.

What you have to do is create a campaign that brings COOLNESS, AWARENESS, and GOODNESS to the Sponsor and the Sponsor gives you what you would like in return.

With this in mind, the drug company is not the place to go for sponsorship. It would not benefit from any awareness that it is giving away the drug to someone. There would be thousands of other people asking for the drug for free. This would be detrimental to the drug company. The drug company is not in the business of giving away the drug for free and this is the way it should be. I don't hear of any school teachers or nurses or auto workers willing to work for free of at a loss.

Having said this, sponsorship is definietly possible for this case.

It's a matter of being creative and putting in the work.

What is required is creating a campaign for a large company (bank, telephone company, human resources company, etc ) that would create COOLNESS, AWARENESS, and GOODNESS for the company by buying the drug for someone who needs it.

I suggest that if you don't have a LinkedIn account, that you sign up for one.

Then join the two sponsorship groups that I have joined.

Then ask other people for opinions on how to create (notice I said create and not "get") a Sponsorship/Partnership for this case.

Particularly ask Kim Skildum-Reid from Australia, who has been doing sponsorship for about twenty-four or so years.

Also review all her posts on LinkedIn because there is a lot of valuable information there.

She has written a book about it called Sponsorship Seeker's Toolkit Third Edition which I am ordering.

Note that I am buying this book even though I spent over $2,000 to attend Brendon's Sponsorship/ Partnership Seminar and already have an incredible amount of resources to work with.

Check out Kim Skildum-Reid's website called Power Sponsorship and note that she is doing two different workshops on Sponsorships in Los Angeles in May.

Also check out Kim's blog posts such as this one called How Do I Get Sponsorships for My Event.

In short, sponsorship is not about you or me - it is about the Sponsor! That is the way it should be because the sponsor is the one spending the money.

So long for now,

Ernie J. Zelinski
The Creativity Guy
Best-Selling Author, Innovator, and Unconventional Career Expert
Author of the Bestseller How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free
(Over 110,000 copies sold and published in 9 languages)
and the International Bestseller The Joy of Not Working
(Over 225,000 copies sold and published in 17 languages)

Americans and Canadians Delusional about Their Government Pension Plans

I have been saying for years that Americans and Canadians are delusional about how much they will receive from their government or corporate pension plans.

My argument has been that it defies logic that a fire fighter or police officer can work for 25 years, retire early at 55 or 60, and then collect nice government-funded pensions for another 20 or 30 years. Taxpayers simply can't afford this.

Where is the money going to come from to support these unreasonable pension plans?

In fact, my creative retirement plan based on my own financing — and no one else's — is much more solid than those of government workers. (That is why I created the webpage Ten Reasons to Never Work at a Real Job — so that you can enjoy your retirement.)

The writing has been on the wall for some time but most Americans and Canadians are in denial about how serious the situation is.

Fact is, many baby boomers, even those with pensions, are in for a big surprise: They will not collect any where what they think the will collect in pensions. Their retirement plan based on taxpayers may in the long run be no better than The Retirement Plan for Idiots

Here is more evidence:

A study released by Standford University in early April 2010 indicates that California's public retirement plans are underfunded by more than a half trillion dollars, equal to about $36,000 per household and far exceeding previous estimates.

The Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research warns that $360 billion would have to be injected into pension and health care benefit systems immediately just to have an 80 percent chance of meeting 80 percent of the obligations in 16 years.

Again, the $535 billion shortfall estimated by the Stanford report means every household in the state is on the hook for about $36,000.

"That's how much they (California taxpayers) owe to government workers for their retirement benefits," says a renowned expert.

This expert goes on to say, "It's not like they will have to send a check to pay for it. But they will see it in higher classroom sizes, roads that aren't repaired, parks that are closed, fewer policemen, far fewer firefighters and government offices that are probably going to be closed even more than we are seeing today."

My guess is that the California government workers will never collect what they expect because there will be a total collaspe of the system.

The end result will be that these government workers will collect a lot less simply because the taxpayers will not be able to afford what the government workers expect.

In short, these collective agreements with such generous pension plans should have never been made in the first place.

If you would like to retire happy, here are some resources for retirement that may help:

25 Reasons Why Retirement Rocks (and Work Sucks!)

Dream Jobs During Retirement

No Money for Retirement - You Are Totally Responsible

An article in USA TODAY titled Undervalued Homes Dampen Retirement Dreams starts out:

When Jennifer and David Wakefield bought their home at the end of 2005, they believed its value would rise. After all, the couple they'd bought it from made a $100,000 profit in just three years.

But instead, the housing market foundered, and the house in Oviedo, Fla., that the Wakefields bought for about $230,000 is now worth just $115,000. Jennifer Wakefield says she's put off hopes of moving to a larger home. She once thought she could use a home-equity loan to help cover the $30,000 cost of adopting a child, but now there's no equity to tap into.

This is a sob story about how some Americans cannot count on their houses for retirement and may not have much retirement income.

Then there are several comments by various readers blaming George Bush, Barack Obama, and the banks.

This was the comment that I posted:

I can't believe the people who are blaming Obama. The damage was done during the Bush years.

Even so, don't blame Bush or Obama. Blame yourselfs.

The problem with most people is that the don't take responsibility for their own lives. I have absolutely no sympathy for people who purchased homes that are worth less than what they paid for them. If they couldn't afford the houses, they shouldn't have bought them. Don't blame the banks either.

As Newsweek magazine said in its cover story in October 2008 shortly after the economic downturn got really bad, "The whole nation was complicit in a fraud."

Virtually all Americans were living the big lie and now everyone wants to blame everyone else, including Bush, Obama, and the banks.

I purchased my home at the height of the market but I always looked at a house as a consumer item instead of an investment.

What's more, I always felt that I should be able to pay off a house totally in cash if I purchase one.

So the fact that my house has gone down in value is no big deal. My house is a consumer item just like a car or a pair of socks.

If everyone looked at values of houses as I do, there would be no problem.

By the way, I will have no problem in retirement either. When I started making some decent money, I made sure that I saved at least 35 percent of my earnings a year.

I would suggest that anyone who has money problems because of a house or otherwise to read "You're Broke Because You Want to Be" by Larry Winget. What I like is that Larry Winget tells it like it is by making you own up to your financial reality - or lack thereof.

In short, you created your own financial situation. Stop blaming anyone else.

Ernie J. Zelinski
Author of How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free
(Over 110,000 copies sold and published in 9 languages)
and "The Joy of Not Working"
(Over 225,000 copies sold and published in 17 languages)

Check out these Retirement Planning if you want to have a great retirement:

Simple Retirement Calculators

Lotteries: The Retirement Plan for Stupid People

Retirement Goodbye Letters

Retirement Quotes

Best Places to Retire Happy

How to Retire Rich Working Only Four Hours a Day

If you a baby boomer approaching retirement age, no doubt lately you have been thinking that you may have to change your retirement plan to one in which you work until you drop dead on the job.

I semi-retired when I was 35 years old and had a net worth of minus $30,000 (due to debts).

Many people will say that this is impossible and stupid. I say "bull" because I have done it!

Although I can't completely retire at this point, I can live comfortably and continue to be semi-retired, working a few hours a day on my creative projects.

My retirement plan is based on contining to work on fun, creative projects such as the ones that I have worked on for the last few years, including writing books, creating e-books and putting together funky websites, that can generate tidy profits while at the same time helping people to greater heights at work and play.

How about creating your ideal career so that you can retire rich?

Perhaps you are looking for a dream job or an unreal career that is both fun and lucrative.

Here is great information about how you can increase your retirement income.

A Career That Can Make You a Fortune and Allow You to Retire Rich

Have you ever thought about sharing your life’s story and strategies for success with the world?

Have you ever written down four or five how-to lessons about life or business and thought, “Man, people would pay for this hard-earned wisdom.”

If yes, then you’re a lot more like the “gurus” than you might have thought.

(And you might as well get paid like them, agreed?)

Legendary trainers like Tony Robbins, Jack Canfield, Deepak Chopra, John Gray, and Marianne Williamson all decided at some point to teach others.

Want to be the next guru in your field?

If so, you have to learn to position, promote, and get paid like one. Learn how in this complimentary video:

Secrets for Going from Bankruptcy to Earning $4.6 Million in Two Years

This amazing in-depth training video will teach you how Brendon Burchard went from being bankrupt and unknown to earning $4.6 million in 24 months with just one assistant.

You will learn:

• How Brendon used an innovative (and simple) strategy towrite a short how-to ebook and get it downloaded 117,000 times, making him an instant expert (and rich guy).


• How Brendon skipped the speaking circuit advice of startingout at a few hundred bucks per speech and LEAPED to $25,000 per speech with one secret approach to getting booked as a speaker.


• How Brendon pulls in $500,000 plus paydays (that’s net) in just one easy to create weekend seminar.


• How Brendon gets coaching clients to pay $25,000 a year without having to work with them one-on-one every month.

This valuable retirement job information is available at:

The Career That Will Allow Your to Retire Rich

Brendon is the go-to guy for authors, speakers, coaches, seminar leaders and online marketers. This insanely detailed and innovative training will show you why.

Mark Victor Hansen, John Gray, Tom Antion, and David Bach call on Brendon for his strategies.

One fascinating aspect of humanity is that some ordinary people achieve great results in their lifetimes while others with much greater talent, intelligence, and education merely eke out an existence. The core of the matter is that you don’t have to be a saint or a genius to make an impact or big difference in this world.

Fantasies and dreams don’t have to be a waste of time. Real people attain unreal success — so can you! Particularly if you have always wanted to achieve in some career field, you are selling yourself short by sitting back and talking about it.

Practically every spectacular achievement was once thought impossible. What is impossible today to most people may be tomorrow’s breakthrough success for some ordinary, but motivated individual. In many cases, one highly talented — but negative — person is saying, "I don’t have what it takes and it can’t be done," while another ordinary — but empowered — person is responding to the same situation with "This looks like a great opportunity to create something new and interesting." Guess which one will eventually experience real success in life?

Ultimately, getting much more of what we want in life is not all that difficult. It’s not so much a matter of being exceptional compared to others; it’s a matter of how effectively and efficiently we utilize what we have. This means putting our talents, skills, and available resources to the best possible use.

That is what I am doing.

I just took Brendon's Burchard's Partnership/Sponsorship Seminar in San Francisco last weekend and immediately signed up for his Expert's Academy Training in October.

This shows how much I learned from Brendon.

I’m thinking you can learn something from him too.

Check out:

Your Ideal Career for Retiring Rich and Happy

Ernie J. Zelinski

Also Check Out These Resources for an Active Retirement :

• RETIREMENT JOBS at THE CAREER SUCCESS RESOURCE CENTER


• BEST RETIREMENT CAREERS ON SQUIDOO


• UNREAL JOBS FOR RETIREMENT

Also check out:

How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free Book Review

Retirement Happiness Based on Money Will Be Elusive for Most Americans

If you get more worried about retirement the older you get, you are definitely not alone. A recent survey shows that Americans are increasingly ill-prepared for retirement.

Many workers plan to delay their career-end dates in order that they can save enough for a basic retirement portfolio.

Interestingly, the percentage of workers who said they have less than $10,000 in savings grew to 43 percent in 2010, from 39 percent in 2009, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute’s annual Retirement Confidence Survey. That excludes the value of primary homes and defined-benefit pension plans.

More bad news: Workers who said they had less than $1,000 jumped to 27 percent from 20 percent in 2009.

The survey found that 54 percent of American workers with some form of retirement savings have less than $25,000 stowed away.

It looks like retired are going to have find their retirement happiness from things that don't cost money.

Stolen from my latest book Career Success Without a Real here are seven of the 37 Elements of Happiness That Money Can’t Buy:

• Health • Longevity • Self-reliance • Personal creativity • Real Best Friends • Achievement • Satisfaction

To enhance your retirement happiness check out My Retirement Plan as well as the following Resources:

7 Symphonies of Love

Retirement Happiness after Midlife