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

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The Joy of Not Working on Amazon.com

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Aging and Retirement Quotes

Speeches about Retirement and The Joy of Not Working

Photo of Istanbul



This started with an e-mail I received in April:

Good morning,

My client KalDer has asked about availability and fee for Ernie Zelinski to participate at their 17th Annual Congress in Istanbul, 24th - 26th November 2008.

KalDer is the Turkish National Quality Organization.

Their annual congress brings together approximately 2,500 persons from the Turkish business community, academics, students and journalists.

I would be pleased to provide you with additional information and look forward to hearing from you.

Speakers Bureau International

As I pondered whether I wanted to consider going to Istanbul and what I should charge (initially I was thinking of $1,500 plus all expenses including busines class travel) I got a call from the Speakers Bureau.

Asked what I would charge, I said $2,500 for a one-hour speech, business class travel from Edmonton to Istanbul, and all associated expenses including meals. I was told that I would be paid $3,000 plus all expenses.

I still didn't know if I wanted to go but when my friend Michael Attwood and his wife Willy who live in Vancouver said they would likely fly to Istanbul and be there the 3 days that I would be there, I decided to give this a little more consideration.

After it was confirmed that I could be put up at the Ritz-Carlton in Istanbul for three nights in a suite, I decided to take this gig seriously even posting as an important speaking event on Morgan James Publishing. and an important event at Ernie Zelinski's Book Tour.

No doubt the interest in having me make this one-hour speech came about because of my book The Joy of Not Working: A Book for the Retired, Unemployed, and Overworked which has been published in 17 languages including Turkish.

The cover of the Turkish edition is shown below:

I thought about a number of topics that I could address:

• Retirement Sayings about The Joy of Not Working Nine to Five
• Retirement Planning Made Easy Using Retirement Quotes
• Profiting from Creativity at Your Retirement Jobs
• Retire Happy in 1000 Ways
• Retirement Speeches and Retirement Letter Samples
• Career Success for People Too Smart to Work in Corporations
• Creative Downloadable Free E-books for Innovative Marketing

I sent an e-mail to the woman of the speakers bureau and she replied with this:

"Here is their translation into English of the text for the event brochure:"

The Joy of (not) Working

Questioning our point of view about work life as an individual and organization, Zelinski says that when working meets with love, it pleases and he reveals that expectations like materiality and career contributes lowly to individual and organization.

When listening to Ten Speed Press Author Ernie Zelinski, you will find the opportunity to revaluate your outlook for work life and consider your organization's human resources policies and approaches differently. Working tires, what about not working?

Zelinski introduces the features of the every activity of pleasure and improving the life quality made for working or not working. He tells to workaholics whose lives consist of only their jobs an neglects their family, friends and above all themselves that work but turn your job into pleasure and joy and by working efficiently become happy and he tells about how to make their life cheerfully despite everything to his retired readers.

Where should we put work life in our lives?

For this, first by completing our own adventures we should bring our life purposes to code which is open for change. For positioning money which is ranked one in our lives, everyone should ask this question to themselves: If we think that happiness can be bought by working too much or earning too much money, why don't we try to sell some part of our own happiness?

This is one of the most critical questions and an NLP anchor that shows us by balancing working or not working how can it be the key for pleasant and calm life. If you are thinking about how to work efficiently and pleasantly, what can be done for making physical and mental health better, how to live for physical health and inner calmness pay attention to Zelinski.

Wow! This is confusing. These people want me to talk about something I don't know anything about.

So what am I going to talk about?

How Much Money Do You Need for Retirement?

You May Not Need as Much Retirement Income as the Experts Claim

Contrary to the advice of those financial advisers who recommended you need 70-80 per cent of your pre-retirement income to retire comfortably, most retired people get by on a lot less.

Surprisingly, research by Statistics Canada found that people whose pre-retirement income was $70,000 or greater tended to retire on about 45 per cent of that – or around $31,500. Those who earned around the average national wage – between $40,000 and $50,000 – retired on 59 per cent of their pre-retirement income.

Most interestingly, only one in six people with a pre-retirement income of $40,000 or more had a replacement ratio of 75 per cent or more.

Working in Retirement Jobs in Your Retirement Years

According to Statistics about Retirement generated by Statistics Canada, more than 300,000 Canadians 65 or older worked in 2001:

• 57% were 65-69
• 26% were 70-74
• 17% were 75 or older

Even The U.S. State Dept Likes The Joy of Not Working

Importance of Money Quotes at the The Retirement Quotes Cafe

Due to Money Baby Boomers Likely to Face a Bleak Retirement - If Any Retirement at All!

According to MotleyFool.com, more than 39 percent of individuals who are presently in or near retirement have saved less than $25,000 for their golden years. Apparently this is the lowest American savings rate since the Great Depression.

Actually it's worse than that. Check out the numbers from the RCS. They reflect the total savings and investments (not including the value of the primary residence) of today's workers, by age group:

Retirement Savings

-------Less than $25K - $25K-$49.9K - $50K-$99.9K - $100K-$249.9K - - 250K +

All Ages - - - 53% - - - - - - - 12% - - - - - - - 12% - - - - - - - 11% - - - - - - 12%
25-34 - - - - - -73% - - - - - - - 11% - - - - - - - 7% - - - - - - - - - 4% - - - - - - - 5%
35-44 - - - - -49%- - - - - - - 14% - - - - - - - 16%- - - - - - - - - 12% - - - - -- - 9%
45-54 - - - - 44%- - - - - - - 14% - - - - - - - 12% - - - - - - - - - 15% - - - - - - 16%
- 55+ - - - - -42% - - - - - - - 8% - - - - - - - - 2% - - - - - - - - 12% - - - - - - - 26%

Source: Retirement Confidence Survey, April 2006.

Note that according to the above figures, half of the people 55 and over have saved less than $50,000 for retirement.


Ernie Zelinski's Speech at the Ritz-Carlton in Istanbul

Retirement Dinner Speeches on The Retirement Speeches Café

Retirement Planning Secrets

Preparation for retirement living requires mental and spiritual planning more than most people realize. A long-term plan to achieve retirement goals has to be set if the retiree wants a meaningful and productive retirement. The degree to which the retiree plans beforehand how she is going to spend the bulk of her free time will determine how much fulfillment she experiences in retirement.

Gerontologist Ken Dychtwald, author of Age Power and arguably the foremost expert on aging and retirement in the United States, had this to say about the impact of poor planning: "The good news is that people are experiencing retirements that are long, fulfilling and exciting. The bad news is that many retirees will never experience their full potential during this life phase because of inadequate planning."

I received the following letter from Dick Phillips of Portsmouth, Hampshire, England, after he read The Joy of Not Working. You will notice that Mr. Philips hasn't left having a happy retirement to chance.

Dear Mr. Zelinski:

My wife Sandy and I were on an Air Canada flight to Vancouver this summer to commence a "Life of Riley" retirement holiday in your lovely country when a fellow female passenger introduced me to your book The Joy of Not Working.

I later obtained a copy at Duthie's Bookstore and read it when I returned home. (Riley did not allow time for reading on holidays.) I am fifty-four years of age and have worked since I was fifteen years old: first, as a fitter and turner apprentice, then as a seagoing-ships engineer before joining the County Police for a thirty-year career. Your book gives much sound advice, some I have been following for years. I have enjoyed developing interests outside work while still working. When I retired last November, I enjoyed the freedom to parcel up my time and develop interests which include hiking, cycling, old car restoration, model engineering, painting and D. I. Y. projects. You are right that a positive attitude to life in retirement is essential.

In your book, you write about a fellow officer named Rich who, like me, retired in an enviable position but found life difficult. I hope he has now read your book, and he is developing that inner self that makes all things possible. Meanwhile, I am looking forward to next year, when I join a team building a large, wooden sailing ship for disabled people, and later finding time to revisit Canada.

Regards to Riley,

Dick Phillips

Above all, Mr. Philips emphasizes the importance of having to develop many interests outside of work when we are still working. He shows us that retirement can be highly rewarding if we plan ahead. Of course, developing new interests and setting new goals can still enhance our retirement years if we haven't developed many interests in our working years. It may just be more difficult doing it this way. Some psychologists say that it's hard to develop new interests at 65 after being interested in nothing but work and material things for over 40 years.

Strong interests in such things as music, travel, people, languages, music, and books are important. Ideally, these interests should be shaped and developed long before your retirement date so that you know which activities you truly enjoy. Generally speaking, leisure activities that fulfill you during your working years are likely to fulfill you in retirement.

Real success at handling leisure will result in a happy retirement and truly enjoying the advantages of retirement. Indeed, retirement planning secrets aren't all that secret.

Note: The above letter along with many other retirement letters from retired people about how they are enjoying retirement have been included in the 21st Century Edition of Author Ernie Zelinski,'s international bestseller The Joy of Not Working: A Book for the Retired, Unemployed and Overworked (over 225,000 copies sold and published in 17 languages).

Ernie Zelinski's Books under the Vipbooks and Ten Speed Press Author imprints have now sold over 500,000 copies worldwide.

Purchase The Joy of Not Working by Vipbooks Author Ernie Zelinski with these direct links:

The Joy of Not Working on BarnesandNoble.com

and

The Joy of Not Working on Amazon.com

Check out:

Ernie Zelinski's Redroom Blog

and his

Ernie Zelinski's Blog on Morgan James Publishing