Recession Has Altered Retirement Plans of Americans

No doubt the recession has altered the retirment plans of many Americans

Some Not-So-Good News for Retirees

AT&T Retirees Rally In North Haven
WFSB - Hartford,CT,USA
Retirees from AT&T rallied in North Haven Monday amid concerns about
their benefits. The company is currently negotiating contracts with
current employees


Some retirees returning to work
KSWO - Lawton,OK,USA
Lawton_A lot of folks who had retired are back on the job, and many
working far longer than they had anticipated. It isn't because they
didn't plan for

Here is some more news relating retirement plans to the recession:

In a recent poll Americans estimated that their retirement savings have dropped an average of 25 percent and almost a quarter of those polled (22%) said they now plan to retire later than previously expected.

The expected retirement age jumped 3.6 years to older than age 65 mainly due to the loss of retirement savings.

The Baby Boomer generation—once thought to be moving into the years in which they would be spending their retirement savings—might instead be accounting for more than a third (35%) of total dollars saved by Americans post-recession.

Important Note: An economics professor advices people how to solve the problems of the economy and the recession which the economics professor has avoided by becoming an economics professor.

How to Survive a Recession in Style

My family wasn't affected by the crash of '29. They went broke in '28.
- Gerald Barzan

Here is what a Squidoo Lens Maker Says about the benefits of a recession and how it will help you survive a recession:

• A recession makes you wiser
• A recession makes you think out of the box
• A recession makes a decision maker out of you.
• A recession makes you appreciate what you have.
• A recession forces change
  

Here is one way on how to survive a recession in style:

I just received the following letter from Raúl Mellado in Spain:

Dear Mr. Zelinski,

I am writing from Spain, after reading your book The Joy of Not Working, after a recommendation by a friend. I must say it's one of the funniest — yet at the same time useful book I've ever read.

When I told my colleagues I was quitting my job as a computer engineer to move with my girlfriend to a little island (called La Palma) in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, where we had no job, no house; just a couple of friends living there and nice weather all year long, they all said I was crazy.

Now, looking back, I think it's them who are crazy for staying where they are! I clearly remember one coffee break, talking about what we would do if we won the lottery. And absolutely no one would stay where we were.

So I thought, if you don't like what you do, Why keep doing it?

Here, in order to pay the rent for our flat, my girlfriend takes somesporadic jobs as a nurse, and I use my computer skills from time totime on some projects, but most of the time, we are free. We havereduced our expenses to the minimum, and our capacity to enjoy lifeto the maximum!

We have walks in nature, read the newspaper lying on the beach, several books (one per week is our aim,) learn new recipes and cook our slow-food, learn new languages, etc.

I am 26, and she is 24. We are really happy we took this path whenwe are relatively young (no young enough to keep awake till 6 am ata party, anymore), not wasting our lives living for work.

Also, we think this lifestyle, reducing consumption to a minimumand escaping the vicious consumerism, apart from increasing our happiness, helps our planet, working in favor of its sustainability.

Currently, we are trying to find and develop some kind of businessin which we can enjoy ourselves and have a regular income, not working too hard. Do you have any suggestions?

[ Answer: Yes, read Career Success Without a Real Job.

Now we are looking forward to reading your latest book How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free, lying on a beach.

We would like to thank you for all we've learned with your book, andno need to say, we would really enjoy having your visit over hereone day. Just look for flights to "Santa Cruz de La Palma", in Spainand let us know what time we should pick you up at the airport.

Best regards from Spain,

Raúl

Here are a three retirement quotes:

Retirement is the beginning of life — not the end!

— from How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free

Don't wait for retirement to be happy and really start living. Invariably, people who try this find out that they have waited much too long.

— from How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free

To fear retirement is to fear life.

— from How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free

Also check out these resources to help you survive a recession:

Fashion and Money

Top-10 Dumbest Retirement Moves

The Joy of Not Working Is Leisure Literature

Here is an e-mail that I just received about The Joy of Not Working:

----- Original Message -----
From:
To:
Sent: Sunday, January 04, 2009 1:52 AM
Subject: Forward To Mr. Zelinski


Dear Author of The Joy of Not Working

I, as of many, have just read your latest masterpiece. Words cannot dictate the relevance of your "leisure literature". I for one will not sit idlely by as the world turns by, or will I? I just would like to add a minor saying I thought of while absorbing your "work"; "if it is not-doing then don't do it!" Thanks for your odaciousness?, and optimism? (sorry, it just fits!)
Your friend,
Nathan O. Stevens
Victoria, Canada (well...now)
Sent on the TELUS Mobility network with BlackBerry

Here is one of my recent blogs on my Red Room Webpage: Reasons You Gotta Love a Recession ,

When the Recession Affects Your Retirement, Turn to Your Friends

I am still working on my new e-book 101 Reasons to Love a Recession.

Looks like the recession is having its effects to retirees worldwide. (If you would like to see a definition of recession go to the Love a Recession website.)

Figures obtained by The Weekend Australian show the country's 2.3 million retirees are 20 per cent poorer than they were a year ago, with the global financial crisis slashing the value of their assets.

Approximately 40,000 soon-to-be retired Australians this year will be forced into part-time retirement jobs as the economic downturn erodes the value of their homes and savings.

Research by Rice Warner Consulting shows that of the 155,000 Australians who planned to retire this year, between 38,000 and 40,000 will move into part-time employment - if their bosses don't force them out in a cost-cutting drive.

It's getting tougher for Japanese retirees as well: The Japanese slide in household spending remains unchecked. In addition, the government reported a record fall in industrial output. Japanese unemployment continues to rise.

No doubt many retirees will have to learn to adjust their spending habits as there is little free money to be had.

Of course having a happy retirement depends on many other things including having a number of best friends to share time with.

Here are five quotations about friendship to place the value of best friends in perspective:

#1 of Top Ten Friendship Sayings
It is better in times of need to have a friend rather than money.
— Greek proverb

#2 of Top Ten Friendship Sayings
When you are looking for a best friend, don't look for perfection; just look for friendship.
— Unknown Wise Person

#3 of Top Ten Friendship Sayings
A true friend wants nothing more from you than the pleasure of your company.
— Unknown wise person

#4 of Top Ten Friendship Sayings
Heaven must be an awfully dull place if your best friends end up elsewhere.
— Unknown wise person

#5 of Top Ten Friendship Sayings
A friend is someone who knows the song in your heart and can sing it back to you when you have forgotten the words.
— Unknown wise person

Causes of a Recession

As I work on my new E-book 101 Reasons to Love a Recession and my new website Love a Recession: How to Prosper During an Economic Downturn, I have been contemplating and adding my ideas for the Causes of a Recession .

Of course, explaining the recession in simple terms to the idiots of this world - namely most of the economists and financial analysts of this world who didn't think a recession was even possible - in basic understandable terms is not easy.

How could so many Yale- and Harvard-eduacted economists and financial analysts be so stupid when it comes to the predicting the recession? Most didn't think it was likely to happen - or even possible.

This excerpt from Report on Business magazine explains one of the causes of the economic recession gripping us today:

"In the classic 1972 book Groupthink, Yale psychology professor Irving Janis showed just how a panel of experts can come to a consensus that is wildly incorrect. Experts worry about their status in the community. They fear veering too far away from the others, because if they do, they risk becoming irrelevant. Even the most well-informed or cynical experts can find themselves censoring their viewpoints and even actively changing their deeply held beliefs in order to remain in line with what they perceive to be the beliefs of the group as a whole."

Little wonder that these same experts called people who were predicting this serious economic downturn - such as Peter Grandich - kooks. Well results don't lie! The recession has proven that the mainstream economists and financial analysts were the kooks. Now these same kooks will come up with some more interesting voodoo theories about what caused the recession - of course, ignoring the fact that many of their models were, in fact, the cause of the present recession.