Saving for Retirement May Be Easier than Being Interviewed about It

Writing three true bestselling books (each with well over 100,000 copies sold) including The Joy of Not Working and How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free has some great benefits including having saved more for retirement than the majority of baby boomers.


But it has some darker sides, too. Indeed saving for retirement may be easier than being interviewed about it.


Not so long ago I agreed to be interviewed when contacted by Larry MacDonald of the Globe and Mail, who puts together the Me and My Money column in the Saturday edition. This is a column about how people invest their money while saving money for retirement.


I already knew from previous editions of Me and My Money that some readers are mean and vicious with their comments on the online edition of the articles.(A clear sign of the higher level of consciousness, love, light, and non-dualism prevailing on our planet?)

I decided to do be interviewed anyway.

So, here is the link to the online edition of the article that appeared in Saturday's paper.


Early Retiree Prefers Peace of  Mind When Investing

Press the comments button to read the comments. Also read the replies to the comments.

One of the more interesting elements of this story is that on the Saturday that this article appeared I received a phone call from a Scottish guy in Calgary, cursing me with,

"You f*ckhead, I just saw the article about you in The Globe and Mail. You pri*kface asshole . . "

For the record, this Scottish guy had called me two or three times before about three years ago. The first time he called, he chastised me for quoting a Globe and Mail columnist in my book Career Success Without a Real Job where I said, "As columnist Leah McLaren recently wrote in The Globe and Mail: 'No one wants to talk about debt, but it comes home and roosts on your doorstep like a big, fat, clucking hen from hell.' ”

He had some issue about the fact that Leah McLaren was a feminist and I shouldn't be quoting her. Of course, he had a number of other issues, just like the millions of crackpots of this world have.

Anyway, on Saturday afternoon this Scottish guy from Calgary hung up before I could cheerfully say, "Guess what? If I don't accept your poison, which I won't, you are the one who is stuck with it!"

Weirdly, I experienced a feeling of intense satisfaction — and even enlightenment — after the guy hung up, knowing that I had done the right thing by agreeing to be interviewed for the Globe and Mail article.


I do have to thank the people who commented positively and gave me support in the comments and replies to comments.
 
As for the critics, As the great motivational speaker Zig Ziglar once said, "I have yet to see a statue made in honor of a critic." In fact, people like me get inspired by the pathological critics of this world. We accomplish a lot more while they accomplish little or nothing.

Here are three inspirational quotations that apply:


"Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain ... and most fools do."
— Dale Carnegie


"Many non-doers and under-achievers act as if they somehow deserve to sit in judgment of the most accomplished individuals on planet Earth. They don't. Pathological critics seldom, if ever, have anything good to say about anyone. Lethargy and mediocrity are harsh critics of the superb and the remarkable. It's not fair and it can be demoralizing for some. Fortunately for highly spirited souls, the Universe assigns the greatest rewards of prosperity and freedom to those who produce the most helpful things for humanity and endure the most criticism from the under-achievers and the non-doers of this world."
— from Look Ma, Life's Easy by Ernie Zelinski


"Avoiding criticism is an unattainable task — even to the most renowned individuals of this world — because the most degenerate of misfits can easily belittle the greatest of accomplishments. There is no reason to despair, however. Receiving a lot of criticism from the misfits of this world is a good sign that you are well on your way to success — or that you have already arrived."
— from Career Success Without a Real Job


Speaking about saving for retirement, In the New York Times article at the link below, it says "Dying Early Is Not the Basis of a Retirement Plan."

Ridiculous Approach to Retirement


Why not? Dying early as a retirement plan has worked for many people!

This part of the article is almost unbelievable, but likely true, however.
"Seventy-five percent of Americans nearing retirement age in 2010 had less than $30,000 in their retirement accounts. The specter of downward mobility in retirement is a looming reality for both middle- and higher-income workers. Almost half of middle-class workers, 49 percent, will be poor or near poor in retirement, living on a food budget of about $5 a day."



Here are some retirement quotes and retirements sayings that indicate why I have saved a lot more for retirement than tens of millions of baby boomers. There are also some quotations about money that will help you if you are saving for retirement and want to have a decent retirement income like I expect to have. See my retirement plan.

"The ideal perspective on saving for retirement would come from someone who:
1. Doesn’t sell investment products;
2. Has seen decades’ worth of trends, fads and economic cycles;
3. Combines common sense, plain language and sharp analysis that often challenges the conventional wisdom.
Actuary Malcolm Hamilton is exactly the person."
— Rob Carrick, writing in The Globe and Mail


"No organization — government or otherwise — can take great care of you. Organizations aren't capable of this — only you are!"
— from Look Ma, Life's Easy


"If your daily life seems poor, do not blame it; blame yourself, tell yourself that you are not poet enough to call forth its riches." 
— Rainer Maria Rilke


"Empty pockets never held anyone back. Only empty heads and empty hearts can do that."
— Norman Vincent Peale


"I will do today what others won't, so I will have tomorrow what others don't."
— John Addison


"It’s a kind of spiritual snobbery that makes people think they can be happy without money."
— Albert Camus

Health in Retirement

People should plan now for an unexpected early retirement even if they plan to work until 80.

Unfortunately, many people are wrestling with this very problem. Specifically, they plan to work until a certain age — but they leave the work force earlier due to poor health in retirement.

No doubt many people will think, "Oh, this won't happen to me." That is silly thinking. Fact is, that was exactly what the people were thinking at one time to whom it happened.

Just how big a problem is this? Consider the following statistics from the Employee Benefit Research Institute’s Retirement Confidence Survey:

• Forty-seven percent of retirees left the work force earlier than planned.
• Of that total, 42 percent did so because of health problems or disability, 34 percent left due to their employers’ downsizing or closure, and 18 percent left to care for a spouse or another family member.

So here’s the bottom line: Even if you think you’re going to work until, say, you may be forced to quit at 68, 65 — or even younger.

Here are a few quotations about retirement and quotes about health in general:"Do not try to live forever. You will not succeed."
— George Bernard Shaw.

"If you don't take care of your body, where do you expect to live?"
— from the International Bestseller The Joy of Not Working (Over 250,000 copies sold and published in 17 langauges)

"To lengthen thy life, lessen thy meals."
— Benjamin Franklin

"When money is lost, little is lost. When time is lost, much more is lost. When health is lost, practically everything is gone. And when creative spirit is lost, there is nothing left."
— from How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free (Over 150,000 copies sold and published in 9 langauges)

"I know a man who gave up smoking, drinking, sex, and rich food. He was healthy right up to the time he killed himself."
— Johnny Carson

"Health is a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity."
— Constitution. The World Health Organization

"People who don't know how to keep themselves healthy ought to have the decency to get themselves buried, and not waste time about it."
— Henrik Ibsen

The things that are most precious to the human soul are those that are beyond price — integrity, true friendship, health, achievement, reputation, true courage, great character, gratitude, greatness, emotional stability, common sense, self-esteem, creativity, wisdom, spiritual fulfillment, and peace of mind. These can’t be rented, bought, or sold — regardless of how much money you acquire.
— from Life’s Secret Handbook

"Did you ever see the customers in health-food stores? They are pale, skinny people who look half-dead. In a steak house, you see robust, ruddy people. They’re dying, of course, but they look terrific."
— Bill Cosby

"Eat only when you are hungry. Drink only when you're thirsty. Sleep only when you're tired. Screw only when you're horny."
— Al Neuharth

"I'm not unwell. I'm f*cking dying."
— Jeffrey Bernard (to Dominic Lawson of The Spectator)