Thursday, March 25, 2010

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:


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Sunday, March 21, 2010

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.

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.

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:

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:

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:
Ernie J. Zelinski

Also check out:

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Tuesday, March 16, 2010

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:





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Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Your Retirement Income May Be Based on Funny Money

The above image is related to My Retirement Plan

A recent study indicates that a majority of Americans rely on Social Security for most of their retirement income.

This may not be the best way to retire happy.

The best retirement gift that you can give yourself is not to rely on Social Security.

Some people are worried that the U.S. Social Security will start paying out more than it takes in, at the same time not paying attention to this important point:

The surplus in the Social Security account has always been loaned to the government (to fund budget deficits).

On the U.S. Government books it says the total accumulated surpluses from previous years is $2.5 trillion.

That just kills me. Problem is, they are talking about accumlated surpluses that have been lent to an entity that's bankrupt.

A professor who has studied the Social Security problem says:

"The 2037 date is when the trust fund would become empty if the $2.5 trillion were really in the trust fund. But, since it has all been spent, the Social Security crisis will begin in about six years."
Read the first comment after this article and the last comment. Also the two from the Professor.
Here is more of the funny stuff and trickery going on with money.
If nothing else, two great quotes from the two articles:
    "When the people find they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic."
    - Benjamin Franklin.

    "If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of currency... the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of their prosperity until their children wake up homeless on the continent their Fathers conquered."
    - Thomas Jefferson
Here are some retirement resources to help you with your retirement planning:
And here are two retirement quotes and Retirement Recommendations to help you enjoy retirement:
    People have often asked me, "What do you do now that you are retired?" My answer is "I am fortunate to have a chemical engineering background, and one of the things I enjoy most is turning beer, wine, Scotch, and margaritas into urine."
    — Author Unknown

    If you don't learn to laugh at trouble, you won't have anything to laugh at when you are old.
    — Will Rogers
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Thursday, March 4, 2010

The Joy of Not Working Can Have a Great Impact on Your Life

I received the following e-mail today:
    From: Roslyn H.
    To: "success101coach [ at ] yahoo [ dot] com
    Sent: Thu, March 4, 2010 3:39:51 PM
    Subject: Your Books Made a Great Impact on My Life!!

    Hello Ernie,

    I have read your books and am compelled to say that they have made such a huge impact on my life. I am an engineer--chemical and environmental--and worked at corporations that made exempt employees work 60+ hours a week.
    And that was actually a good week. I was also on-call for a manufacturing fab 24/7 for 3 months straight! It exhausted me, so I quit. I returned to school for a masters because I didn't know what else to do. I found another engineering job in Colorado and after 1 week I knew that it wasn't going to work out for me either. So I went to the local bookstore to find books on improving my resume, and that's when I found your book The Joy of Not Working.

    An angel must have placed it there just for me! The title caught my eye and I bought it immediately...never bought the book on improving my resume.

    I was very excited to read your book because I couldn't believe someone else in the world felt the same way I did about a 40-hr workweek.

    Reading your book was similar to listening to my thoughts but in an organized format without the curse words!

    I quit that job and moved, and haven't had a real job since.

    I even spent 3 months in Palm Beach, FL, laying around on the beach--my goal was to sit down by the beach and not get up until I Felt Like Getting Up.

    I have spent some savings and tapped into other money, but I am ok about it because I am feeling emotionally and physically better than ever. I even look better.

    My feelings of depression I was experiencing have gone away and replaced with a sense of well-being and confidence. I have reconnected with family and friends, and I spend more time with them and change my schedule to fit their's so I can see them.

    In other words, I have re-developed my personal life!

    Some of us don't belong in the corporate structure, but are creative and intelligent and require a venue.

    You definitely found yours!

    My creative venue is right at my fingertips...I can taste it.

    Your books are wonderful and have made a great impact on me.

    Keep up the great work!

    Respectfully,

    Roslyn H
    Albuquerque, NM
When I get an e-mail like this, I feel a great deal of satisfaction from having written the book.

But I also think about the people who run down my books and post a negative review on Amazon.com or BarnesandNoble.com where they totally thrash the book as if they knew what was good for everyone else. Of course, these reviews about The Joy of Not Working can sway people from reading the book and consequently deny them Happiness after Midlife

Because the last two Amazon.com reviewers of The Joy of Not Working were not that complimentary, this was my response to Rosalyn hoping to get a great review as I did on this Review of How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free:


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

    Note: This is a one-time notification about The Joy of Not Working. Please do not consider it as SPAM.

    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 How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free help retirees and the soon-to-be retired earn their retirement karma points so that they retire happy, wild, and free.

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

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


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