More from Leslie about Her Retirement Blues

This is the response I received from Leslie after I responded to her first e-mail about her retirement blues. (See the previous blog for her e-mail and my response.)

Hi Ernie,

Thanks so much my dear for replying back to me. I appreciate your time, I know you are busy too.

And yes! kindly email me this book you mentioned 101 Really Important Things You Already Know, But Keep Forgetting, I think that's the only one I have not read of your stuff. All the other books you mentioned and the travel books I have and read also. As I enjoy travel and i travel to many places in the world thats on my bucket list besides my annual otra casa in Mexico.

I can't wait for your new book [The Joy of Being Retired: 365 Reasons Why Retirement Rocks (and Work Sucks!), kindly add me to your list when it is ready!

You are right that I need to create more stuff on my list that is more challenging to keep the blues away.

My bucket list had over 2,000 listed of what i want to do before I die, 75% are highly challenging( i love risks, sometimes even death wish risks :-) and have accomplished and dated but mas or menos 200 of them, only because i find them lame and boring that is why i still procrastinate in doing them. Eventually i might have to resort to doing them since there's nothing else left to do.

Most important thing i admire and love of you is your zest and purpose in your life.

That is why i feel un inspired, due to lack of my sense of purpose. i have gone tru all religions also yet still lost in the fog lol!

What keeps you going Ernie?

I really admire that about you and thank you for being an inspirations to so many people including me. I will listen to you anytime more than i would the preachers, ministers or priests i know lol!

I too will not accept a billion dollars just to go back to work. i have working for corporate america with their old inside the box rules and regulations-they are all slaves. there is more in life than money.

I will follow your advise and dig deep in my soul for more challenging stuff to do to keep me from being bored.

altho i sometimes have to watch what challenging means to me as i tend to do things that might be controverial or border criminalistic lol!!

Only thing, I wish I could write like you, i always wanted to be a travel writer and make money from all those places i travelled too but hesitated since english is not my 1st language so grammar is struggling for me.

The only reason i have resorted to just my otra casa every year is cuz i dont know where else to go.

Part of my bucket list is to travel for a whole year and wake up to whatever country and whatever situation.

I found those times very fullfilling, now am back here in lousy BC and bored as can be waking up to the same thing.

It would be nice to scope more countried and take another year off just travelling but I dont have the funds to do so , just living on my savings for emergency monthly living. I never had a regular gov job so dont have no pensions or support like regular blow joes.

My ultimate challenge to add on my list might be how to be happy homeless and free ;-)

anyways, sorry , am rambling on ....
better sign off
thanks ernie once again for being there for me.

Keep up the wonderful job you are doing - maybe come up with a book about yourself and how you also deal with your retirement life, so maybe i can use it as my other bible too for inspirations.

love ya,
Leslie

See my comment in regards to the article Retirement: 70 is the new 65:

Also Check out the Premiur or Gift Book Edition of How to Retire Happy Wild, and Free:

See Best Places to Retire in the World

Retirement - It's Even Better Than Imagined

I recently received this e-mail about how he is enjoying a happy retirement from Mickey White who lives somewhere in the United Kingdom:

----- Original Message -----
From: Mickey White
To: vip-books (at) telus.net
Sent: Wednesday, November 12, 2008 8:45 AM
Subject: it's even better !!


Hi Ernie,

I took early volountary retirement from the Mail Service after thirty plus years when I was fifty seven.

My kids bought me your book, The Joy of Not Working as a gift on the day I finished.

Mind you I was happy to take E.V.R. and I agree with everything you say !!

In fact if I'd known that retirement was going to be this good I'd have done it the day after I left school !!!

Good Luck.....

Mike .....

If you taking early retirement, but are not ready for full retirement and want to work at fun retirement jobs, then you should be reading this book that will benefit a lot of retirees:

Career Success Without a Real Job: The Career Book for People Too Smart to Work in Corporations

Retirement Activities - Spend More Time Doing the Things You Enjoyed Doing Before Retirement

Retire Happy by Spending More Time Doing

the Things You Enjoyed Doing Before Retirement

Not so long ago Gunther Schoeps, a former Lutheran Minister at St. Paul's Chapel in Edmonton, called me to let me know what he is doing in retirement. When he retired at 70, he decided to indulge in several activities that he had pursued before retirement, but not as much as he would have liked.

For one, he started reading more. One of the first two books that he read after his retirement day was The Joy of Not Working. He claimed that the chapter on handling boredom was very helpful to him. Schoeps also intended to visit his homeland of Germany more often and to devote more time to cross-country skiing, hiking, and cycling.

Here are some resources to help you have a happier retirement:

Retirement Activities - Learn to Enjoy All 15 Things That Agatha Christie Enjoyed


Why Hard Work Can Kill You


SMART AND RICH


RETIREMENT FRIENDS THAT HEAVEN SENT

Here are some new articles that will soon appear on The Retirement Cafe:

More Ways to Kill Retirement Boredom Without a Gun - from Chapter 8 - 1001 Ways to Enjoy Your Retirement
Make the Creation and Maintenance of Friends Your Overriding Purpose
Green Thumb Yourself Out of Depression
When Comfort Doesn't Feel Comfortable, Do Something Uncomfortable
Stay Active Doing the Things That You Find Interesting

Retirement Quote:

Whatever the challenge of a new age, in the end what really counts is not the years in our lives but the life in our years. It is not about longevity, but the depth of life. Long ago I learned that age does not wither the mind if people remain positive. No one is too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream. It is a mind game. As Churchill suggested, "The empires of the future are the empires of the mind."
— Singapore Retiree JENNIE CHAU

Millions Review Retirement Plans as House Prices Fall

Many Britons Not on Track for a Great Retirement Due to House Prices Falling

More than two million Britons have reviewed their retirement plans in the past year due to tumbling property prices but a third of the working age population have no retirement plans at all, according to Baring Asset Management. The research also found only 7.5 million people in Britain are now planning on using property to fund all or part of their retirement, compared with 13.2 million last year.

Just 878,000 Britons now anticipate using property as the sole way of funding their retirement contrasting with 3.2 million in April last year. "It’s great to see that less people are relying on property to fund their retirement, but it’s still remarkable that so many people are failing to plan for their retirement at all," says Marino Valensise, CIO at Barings.

Many American Not on Track for a Great Retirement Either Due to Poor Financial Retirement Planning

Four out of five workers aren't saving enough to maintain their lifestyle after retirement, with women being at a disadvantage because of their longer life spans and lower pay, according to a recent study.

On average, employees are projected to replace just 85 percent of their income in retirement, compared with the 126 percent they would need when factoring in inflation, longer life spans and medical costs, the study by Hewitt Associates found.

The study looked at the projected retirement levels of nearly 2 million current workers of varying ages at 72 large U.S. companies and used actual employee balances.

People would need to save from 10 percent to 12 percent of their income throughout their career to keep up the same lifestyle after retirement, said Alison Borland, one of the study's authors.

The study found just 19 percent of workers were on track to do so. These workers typically started saving early in their career – sometime in their 20s – and didn't cash out the savings when they switched jobs, Borland said.

WARNING! WARNING! WARNING!

Retirement is a double-edged sword. You either make it work for you - or it will cut your happiness in half. The more you know about the secrets to a successful retirement, the happier you will be once you retire.

That's why you need The World's Best Retirement Book by Vipbooks Author Ernie J. Zelinski.



Over 95,000 Copies Sold
Published in 7 Foreign Languages

How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free: Retirement Wisdom That You Won't Get from Your Financial Advisor is a provocative, entertaining, down-to-earth, and tremendously inspiring book that will help you get more joy and satisfaction out of all your retirement activities.

Although turned down by over 35 publishers, How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free has already sold over 95,000 copies and has been published in 7 foreign languages since it was released by Ten Speed Press in Berkeley, California.

What's more, go to www.Amazon.com and type "retirement" into the search feature. You will see that How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free appears in the number 1 position - out of over 175,000 listings for retirement books!

Purchase How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free on Amazon.com with this direct link:

How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free on Amazon.com

Retirement Planning Based on House Equity Is a Fool's Retirement Plan

Financial planner Robert Doyle (CPA with Spoor, Doyle & Associates in St. Petersburg, FL) once said, "When you retire, your house is your home. Don’t look at it as an investment. You can convert it if you need to, but if you’re retiring because of the equity in your house, you better get back to work."

A little over a year and a half ago, when I was forced to purchase the half-duplex that I had rented happily for over 25 years, some of my friends warned me that I could be purchasing at the height of the house boom in Edmonton. I told my friends that I was aware of this but I was not purchasing the place as an investment or as part of my retirement plan. Indeed, houses should never be considered as an investment — for retirement or otherwise!

"A house should be viewed only as any other consumer item," was how I put it. "Then if the price goes down, it is no different than when the price of your car or your running shoes go down in price. Unfortunately, most people don't understand this. Some do, however. (Robert T. Kiyosaki, the author of Rich Dad, Poor Dad , stated that your house is not an asset but a liability.)

"The problem," I told my friends, "is that millions of people have been conned by shady bankers and real estate agents into believing that their home is the biggest investment that they will ever make in their lives. What a ridiculous statement! I know that the biggest investment that I will ever make in my life is in myself, in my self-education about how to live within my means so that I don't have money problems. My self-education also is enhanced by tapes, books, and seminars on how to create money in innovative ways so that I don't have to live in poverty — even if haven't had a real job in over 25 years."

Alas, the con job of having people believe that their houses are investments has come home to roost. The 2008 Retirement Confidence Survey just showed the biggest one-year drop in its 18-year history.

One of the major reasons was that that home ownership was a substantial component of most respondents' net financial worth: one-third on average, according to a study of baby boomer retirement security by Dartmouth College economist Annamaria Lusardi and her colleagues.

They further calculated that an average national housing price drop of 13.5 percent — less than we've already experienced — would decrease the net worth of the boomers they surveyed an average of 10 percent.

A loss of 10 percent of net worth for people on the verge of retirement — which doesn't include stock market losses or the losses people will incur if the housing market continues to fall, as many analysts think it will — can have a big impact on a retiree's ability to live the life he or she imagined.

Yet many Americans are relying on their homes as a source of income in retirement, either through downsizing to a smaller property or through dubious transactions like reverse mortgages. Between 1997 and 2006, housing prices increased an average of 83 percent, leading more people to assume their equity would see them through their retirement years.

In the last year, however, house prices in the U.S. are down on average 14.1 percent. Worse yet, some people say that the house price declines have just started. A few analysts are predicting that house prices will go down for 5 to 7 years straight. Think this can't happen? You are fooling yourself. Remember how financial analysts claimed that real estate prices could never go down in Japan, particularly Tokyo. When Japan had their recession hit in the 1990s, real estate prices in Tokyo declined for 10 years straight.

So much for houses as investments for retirement. Again, houses are consumer products and not investments. If you are buying a house on the hope that it will go up, you are speculating. If you are speculating, you should be prepared for the price to go down instead of up. Don't blame anyone else when your house price goes down. You caused this situation to happen by believing what the shady real estate agents and mortgage lenders have told you.

If you want to be financially well-prepared for retirement, invest in yourself by spending as much money as you can on books, seminars, and motivational tapes on how to run your own business or how to make money on the Internet. Fact is, the most valuable asset is actually your ability to earn an income.

I know that if I was to lose all my financial net worth that I have today, I can still survive financially. I can earn a living without having to get a job and still have a great retirement. The same applies to you. Your marketable job skills and knowledge represent your personal earning power. Although the banks and other financial institutions don't count intangibles such as creativity, innovative character, risk-taking ability, and specialized knowledge in tallying your net worth, you should. These items are much more important to a retirement portfolio than a house.

WHAT YOU DON'T KNOW ABOUT WHAT MAKES PEOPLE HAPPY IN RETIREMENT CAN GREATLY HURT YOU!

Retirement is a double-edged sword. You either make it work for you - or it will cut your happiness in half. The more you know about the secrets to a successful retirement, the
happier you will be once you retire.

That's why you need The World's Best Retirement Book by Ernie Zelinski .


Purchase How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free on Amazon.com with this direct link:

How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free on Amazon.com

• Retirement Gift Ideas at The Retirement Gifts Café
• 1001 Ways to How to Retire Happy
• Retirement Quotations at The Joy of Not Working

Download the Creative Free E-book Editions of Ernie Zelinski's The Joy of Not Working and How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free at:

Free E-Books

The Best Retirement Book in the World



Over 100,000 Copies Sold
Published in 7 Foreign Languages

Purchase How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free on Amazon.com with this direct link:


How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free on Amazon.com

Another E-Mail about The Joy of Not Working

I received this e-mail from Zain Fazal:

Dear Mr. Zelinski,

I had just completed reading your book The Joy of Not Working and I must say, I am very relieved to know they're people out there who think like you do. The work ethic is modern day North America has always bothered me. I have seen what workaholics has done to family, friends I came to the conclusion a long time ago that this can't be as good as it gets there has to be more to life then work.

Every job I had has made me miserable (factory worker, donut fryer, warehouse worker, etc.) once I found out I didn't like a job. I quit right away. Because of this I face ridicule from my family and friends who believe they are some sort of martyrs by working 10-12 hours a day or working on weekends it drives me crazy when people think like this.

After reading The Joy of Not Working I am happy that I'm not the only one who thinks way! Your book is insightful, clever and witty, I. am going to be graduating from college with a diploma in Tourism and travel from Mohawk College. However in between looking for a job, I plan to do a bit of creative loafing of my own. I plan to learn to drive; learn to swim, among other things. Thank you for letting me know it's OK to not work hard and it's OK not to conform.

(I especially love the chapter regarding GNP) I only wish you had included the reply to the one negative letter that was sent to you about The Joy of Not Working .

Best regards,

Zain Fazal
Kitchener, Ontario

Purchase The Joy of Not Working on Amazon.com with this direct link:

The Joy of Not Working on Amazon.com

Associated Links to The Retirement Quotes Cafe

teacher retirement jokes at The Retirement Jokes Café

Free Retirement Speech on the The Retirement Speeches Café

retirement poem for school principal at The Retirement Poems Café

sample retirement letter at The Retirement Letters Café

retirement gifts at The Retirement Gifts Café

Aging and Retirement Quotes

Letter about How to Retire Happy

I received this email the other day:

Dear Mr. Zelinski,

At our financial organization, you are regarded as somewhat of a celebrity. All of our Representativeshave read your book, How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free. We now make it a practice to give this book out to ourclients on every financial planning appointment.

We would love the opportunity to speak with you about a speaking engagement at our fall conferencein Dallas, TX. The dates for this conference are September 17 & 18, 2008.

We would like to discuss what it would take to getyou to our conference, what type of presentation you would like to do and the logistics involved.

Our President of Field Operations would like the opportunity to contact you directly to discuss this possibility. Please let me know how we may contact you.

After I e-mailed my contact information, there has been no answer. I wonder why . . . hmm.

Anyway, I did receive confirmation about this gig:




Ernie Zelinski
vipbooks

The money you enjoy spending frivolously to enhance your retirement is money well spent.
— from How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free: Retirement Wisdom That You Won't Get from Your Financial Advisor by Ernie J. Zelinski

See retirement sayings and quotes and Importance of Money Quotes at the The Retirement Quotes Cafe

How to Retire Happy for Canadians and Australians

According to a new retirement lifestyle survey, the ongoing volatility within financial markets has prompted a massive increased awareness toward retirement savings by Australian baby boomers.
More than three out of four Aussie baby boomers are beefing up their savings strategy as a result of the turmoil, according to a Commonwealth Bank survey.

The majority of changes included making bigger or additional contributions to their retirement savings plan, while about a third said they were investing more in other investments outside retirement plans such as shares or property.

Interestingly, the Retirement Lifestyle survey found almost 40 per cent of those surveyed considered retirement an opportunity to pursue a new career or learn new skills.

"This trend suggests that many people see retirement as a series of transitions where some form of work or community service can continue into the retirement years,'' Commonwealth Financial Planning general manager Tim Gunnin said.

According to TD Waterhouse's first Canadians and Retirement survey of already-retired Canadians, retirement is different from what many Canadians imagined it would be.

Twenty percent of women found retirement quite different from what they imagined, versus 15 percent of the men.

A quarter of Canadian retirees aged 55 to 70 found it hard to adjust to a life no longer defined by their work. Financial constraints meant they could not do all the things they used to do for 22 percent of those surveyed.

Retirement advice was offered by retirees to those contemplating retirement.

• Workers should develop a full life outside of work instead of waiting to do so at retirement
• Workers should take care of their physical and mental health
• Workers should save for retirement as early as possible.
• People should pay off all debt before retiring.
  Above all, individuals should take time to prepare for and understand what they want from retirement.

According to the TD Waterhouse only 15 percent of indiviudals are “completely living out their retirement dreams.” Lack of planning appears to be one reason for this.

Surprisingly, the best part of retirement is simple pleasures, say the retirees. Spending time with family and engaging in hobbies also are satisfying as is volunteering.

Perhaps It's Time to Tell Your Boss, "I'm Outta Here," and Retire Happy

Learn to live well, or fairly make your will;
You've played, and loved, and ate, and drunk your fill:
Walk sober off; before a sprightlier age
Comes tittering on, and shoves you from the stage:
— Alexander Pope

Soon there may come a time when you won't want to work at your career anymore. You will have had enough of the pretending that happens in the typical workplace. Working at nebulous activities just for the money can go on only so long before you realize that you are in a state of mental inertia. You will start wondering why so many workers blindly accept confinement to rigid work hours, waiting until they are in their sixties or seventies to be put out to pasture — either by layoff or poor health.

After focusing on the negatives of the typical workplace long enough, you will start looking at alternatives. As is to be expected, the thought of early retirement will appear highly promising. It will be easy to fantasize about the wonderful things that you can do once you retire — go on three cruises a year, spend a lot of time with your grandchildren, spend a year in a monastery, or live in Costa Rica for a year. If you have recently been having similar fantasies, perhaps it's time to tell your boss, "I'm outta here."

Note: The above is excerpted from the book How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free.