Short of Retirement Savings — Don't Blame the Government or Me!

Here is a summary of a recent AARP (formerely American Association of Retired People) survey:

Retirement income for many low-income recently retired baby boomers or the soon-to-be retired is likely not enough and makes their retirement dreams scary.

Sixty percent of the newly retired with low retirement incomes are not confident they can pay for basic needs such as food, shelther, and water when they retire, particularly while Obama ignores reality on Social Security.

The 2010 survey by AARP paints a dejecting picture of baby boomers who are struggling financially to make the transition to full-time retirement and make their retirement incomes meet their basic needs. No need for a simple retirement calcultor.

The survey polled American baby boomers across all socio-economic backgrounds who are 45 years or older.

American adults who made less than $25,000 per annum are especially unprepared for retirement and should have a better retirement plan.

On the other hand, only a bit more than a third (36 percent, in fact) of adults who made more than $25,000 a year said they were not confident they could pay for basic needs such as water, food, and shelter and may have to resort to retirees credit card debt.

Across all income groups, 28 percent of older American baby boomers were forced to stop contributing to their retirement savings plans in the past six months,

At the same time, almost one in six American baby boomers had to prematurely withdraw from their retirement savings.

Sadly, many baby boomers admitted they had little or no retirement savings.

Interestingly, 48 percent (almost half) of all adults surveyed said they had less than $50,000 in retirement savings.

Worse yet, 16 percent of these baby boomers said they had no retirement savings at all.

More than a quarter of the baby boomers surveyed said they had to delay or put off health care and dental treatments in the past six months. More than a third (34+ percent) of the older adults said they had trouble paying for gas or transportation.

Truth be known, if most Americans and Canadians weren't so spoiled and so irresponsibile with their money, they wouldn't have financial problems in their retirement years.

Put another way, if you are a baby boomer, it's all your fault if you cannot retire at 55 or 60 because you have not attained your retirement number.

Don't blame the government or the economy or anyone or anything else.

Particularly don't resent people lived frugally and who have saved enough for their retirement years.

Here are some gambling quotes to put things in proper perspective so that you don't think that the casino is the answer to your retirement income woes:

If you think that going to the casino is the only interesting thing to do in your retirement, you haven't read How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free by Ernie Zelinski.
— Wise retired person

People who can afford to gamble don't need money, and those who need money can't afford to gamble.
— Anon retiree

There are two times in a man's life when he should not speculate: when he can't afford it, and when he can.
— Mark Twain

Winning a Lottery: My Retirement Plan with the Most Bugs to Be Worked Out
— Retirement Advice on The Retirement Cafe

Quotes about Growing Old Without Growing Old

Here are some quotations about age and aging that come from the website Sensational Quotes for Smart People:

#1 of Top-Ten Quotes about Age and Aging

Growing old is compulsory. Retirement from work is discretionary.
- Unknown wise person

#2 of Top-Ten Quotes about Age and Aging

Never think oldish thoughts. It’s oldish thoughts that make a person old.
- James A.Farley

#3 of Top-Ten Quotations about Age and Aging

The idea is to die young, as late as possible.
- Ashley Montagu

#4 of Top-Ten Quotes about Age and Aging

Eventually you will reach a point when you stop lying about your age and start bragging about it.
- Will Rogers

#5 of Top-Ten Quotations about Age and Aging

Forget how old you are - this get's more important the older you get!
- from the bestseller How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free

#6 of Top-Ten Quotes about Age and Aging

The trick is growing up without growing old.
- Casey Stengel

#7 of Top-Ten Quotes about Age and Aging

He who is of a calm and happy nature will hardly feel the pressure of age, but to him who is of an opposite disposition youth and age are equally a burden.
- Plato

#8 of Top-Ten Quotations about Age and Aging

Growing old is mandatory. Growing up is optional.
- Unknown wise person

#9 of Top-Ten Quotations about Age and Aging

Age only matters when one is aging. Now that I have arrived at a great age, I might just as well be twenty.
- Pablo Picasso

#10 of Top-Ten Quotes about Age and Aging

Laughter is pleasant, but the exertion [at my age] is too much for me.
- Thomas Love Peacock

More Quotations about Age, Aging, and Getting Older

Why do people write books that say it's better to be older than to be younger? It's not better. Even if you have all your marbles, you're constantly reaching for the name of the person you met the day before yesterday.
- Nora Ephron

Except for an occasional heart attack I feel as young as I ever did.
- Robert Benchley

The older I get, the more clearly I remember things that never happened.
- Mark Twain

Favorite Quotes about Dating

These are my favorite dating quotes that come from the Sensational Quotes for Smart People Website:

#1 of Top-10 Dating Quotes

A girl phoned me and said, "Come on over. There's nobody home." I went over. Nobody was home!
- Rodney Dangerfield

#2 of Top-10 Dating Quotes

Whenever I want a really nice meal, I start dating again.
- Susan Healy

#3 of Top-10 Dating Quotes

Never date a woman you can hear ticking.
- Mark Patinkn

#4 of Top-10 Dating Quotes

I'm dating a woman now who, evidently, is unaware of it.
- Garry Shandling

#5 of Top-10 Dating Quotes

Dating means doing a lot of fun things you will never do again if you get married. The fun stops with marriage because you're trying to save money for when you split up your property.
- Dave Barry

#6 of Top-10 Dating Quotes

I was dating this girl for two years - and right away the nagging starts: "I wanna know your name."
- Mikey Binder

#7 of Top-10 Dating Quotes

Never date a woman whose father calls her "Princess." Chances are she believes it.
- Anonymous

#8 of Top-10 Dating Quotes

Sleep with a guy once and before you know it, he wants to take you to dinner!
- Mires Yori.

#9 of Top-10 Dating Quotes

My boyfriend and I broke up. He wanted to get married and I didn't want him to.
- Rita Rudner

#10 of Top-10 Dating Quotes

How many of you have ever started dating because you were too lazy to commit suicide?
- Judy Tenuta

More Quotations about Dating (To be used as serious dating tips for otherwise)

It's relaxing to go out with my ex-wife because she already knows I'm an idiot.
- Warren Thomas

No married man is genuinely happy if he has to drink worse whisky than he used to drink when he was single [and dating].
- H.L. Mencken

I have such poor vision I can date anybody.
- Garry Shandling

I tell ya, my wife was never nice. On our first date, I asked her
if I could give her a goodnight kiss on the cheek - she bent over!
- Rodney Dangerfield

Also see The Singles Cafe

For Retirement Quotes See:

Funny Retirement Quotes

Retirement Quotes and Retirement Sayings

Sensational Retirement Quotes for Smart People

Here are some retirement quotes that come from Retirement Quotes for Smart People webpage on Sensational Quotes for Smart People Website to put retirement in proper perspective:

"The new retirement reality may be a messy proposition"
— Alicia Munnell, director of the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College.

"We have a manufactured vision of what retirement is, and that doesn't necessarily correlate with reality. Unless you have a well-thought-out scenario, you're going to be in for a shock at retirement."
— Paul Allen, 64, a self-employed software developer in Dallas

"Why shouldn't retirees expect some reduction in Social Security and Medicare benefits, and soon? Before we retired, or will retire, we lived beyond our means by voting for those congressmen who would keep taxes low and borrow from the trust funds to pay government bills. Woe to the politician who would ask us to fully pay the taxes necessary for the services we expected from government.
This large accumulated debt to the funds is coming due. So we have an obligation to help pay it off by accepting less from them or paying higher taxes on our retirement income. As retirees, we have no right to just pass our debt off on our kids. We certainly helped create it and should help pay it off."
— Werner Gruhl, Columbia

"I used to have dreams that I died at my desk.
Now that I've retired, I don't have those dreams anymore."
- Unknown retiree commenting on an online article about retirment.

"If you have debt and you are going into retirement, I don't think you are ready for retirement,"
— Gary Gilgen, a certified financial advisor and director of the financial
planning department at Rehmann Financial in Troy, Mich

For more retirement quotes and retirement sayings, see Retirement Quotes at the Retirement Quotes Cafe

Retirement Planning Idiocy at Its Best

A poll in late 2007 showed that 80 percent of Americans believed their standard of living would go up after they stopped working, even if they decided to retire early.

So many Americans believed in this illusion despite the fact that some 40 percent of Americans had saved absolutely nothing for retirement.

Talk about a stupid retirement plan.

Contrast this to 2008, when the recession and market downturn hit. Then 63 percent of Americans said they had given up on the idea of retirement altogether.

While that finding was interesting, in April 2010 the Employee Benefits Research Institute's (EBRI) Retirement Confidence Survey last found that this percentage had jumped to 70 percent.

Interesting. It appears that more Americans are starting to face reality and realize that it takes at least a bit of money to be retired.

On another note, this was an unusual letter titled Retirees owe it to their kids to ease U.S. debt to the editor of the Washington Post regarding the Social Security System in the U.S.:

Why shouldn't retirees expect some reduction in Social Security and Medicare benefits, and soon? Before we retired, or will retire, we lived beyond our means by voting for those congressmen who would keep taxes low and borrow from the trust funds to pay government bills. Woe to the politician who would ask us to fully pay the taxes necessary for the services we expected from government.

This large accumulated debt to the funds is coming due. So we have an obligation to help pay it off by accepting less from them or paying higher taxes on our retirement income. As retirees, we have no right to just pass our debt off on our kids. We certainly helped create it and should help pay it off.

Werner Gruhl, Columbia

For an interesting on article on Social Security by Ernie Zelinski see:

“Social Security Is a Secure Way to Find Great Pleasue in Being Terribly Deceived”

Here are some Sensational Quotes about retirement:

Money is what you make it. Depending upon who you are — and your frame of mind — money can be anything you want it to be. Money can be: the root of all evil; or that which answers all things; or something that burns a hole in your pocket; or a means to freedom; or an interesting concept; or even a stupid concept. Whatever value you place on money, you must take responsibility for it. If money is evil to you, you created it being evil. If money is a problem to you, you created it being a problem. If money is joy to you, you created this concept. Take responsibility for your concepts. And be clear that these are just concepts. Nothing more and nothing less.
— from The Lazy Person's Guide to Success

"It [retirement] was absolutely boring. You can't go and say, 'I'm retired now.
That's it!' It won't take long and you're really gone for good and someone
throws the last shovel of dirt on a coffin with your name on it.
That's the moment you're really retiring — when you die."
— Ozzy Osbourne

"I personally am taking my retirement savings seriously and have by living very frugally been able to increase my savings to 60 percent of my gross earnings. I’m targeting a very early retirement. Achieving this high rate has been partly achieved by watching my Lifestyle Creep as you identify in Point 5. As I achieve pay increases I have actively decided not to change my standard of living."
— Comment on an article about retirement planning

Webster’s Dictionary defines retirement as “withdrawal from active engagement in one’s occupation or profession.” It is in fact much more.
— LYNN ANDERSON, Kansas Senior Press Service

Saving Only 10 Percent of Your Income Is for Losers

Here is an excerpt from a retirement planning article about how hard retirees are finding to make it in this day and age:

"The man who runs Palm Beach Share-n-Care Centre, where retirees and the aged to gather for events and activities, said pensioners hit hard by superannuation funds had to pull back on their favourite pleasures.

"You can tell in the bingo, they're not spending as much as they normally would," said Mr McRae.

"That's normally a pretty good indicator of how well people are doing.

"There's a lot of pensioners doing it tough at the moment. There's probably a lot who have done money in the stock exchange."

Plans for overseas holidays have been cut indefinitely, largely because nest eggs have evaporated, and the number of those on the borderline to poverty has increased, he said.

Financial advisors advocate that you use a simple retirement calculator to determine how much retirement income you will need before you submit your retirement letter. The exercise in determining how much money you will need for retirement will not result in perfect information, however.

Even if people could come up with perfect information, most people won't make use of this information because they aren't about to increase their savings much, if at all.

There are two problems conditions that most North Americans suffer from:

1. A need is any luxury that their neighbor happens to have.

2. Instant gratification takes too long.

Ernie Zelinski has just started writing a book called How NOT to Retire BROKE in which he is going to make the point that saving 10 percent of your income is for losers and people should save at least 40 percent of their income so that they end up with an adequate retirement income.

I was delighted to hear that someone is doing even better with their saving rate than Zelinski proposes.

On January 17, 2010, in reply to a blog post "5 Reasons Why You Will Retire Broke and Unhappy," an individual who writes his or her own blog post called Retirement Investing today stated:

"I personally am taking my retirement savings seriously and have by living very frugally been able to increase my savings to 60 percent of my gross earnings. I’m targeting a very early retirement. Achieving this high rate has been partly achieved by watching my Lifestyle Creep as you identify in Point 5. As I achieve pay increases I have actively decided not to change my standard of living."

In short, knowing how much money people need to retire comfortably will do them absolutely no good if they can't handle money.

It was J.P. Getty who said, "People who don't respect money don't have any."

Check out David Letterman's Retirement Plan of David Letterman

Here are a few new retirement sayings

I have retired, un retired, and retired again all in the past 10 years.
— Unknown retiree

“We’ll rock till we drop. We have all agreed this won’t be the last time. Everyone’s rocking."
— Ronnie Wood, (in July 2010 at age 63, in response to rumors that the Rolling Stores were going to retire. At the time, lead singer Mick Jagger was 67, guitarist Keith Richards was 66, and drummer Charlie Watts was 69.)


"It [retirement] was absolutely boring. You can't go and say, 'I'm retired now. That's it!' It won't take long and you're really gone for good and someone throws the last shovel of dirt on a coffin with your name on it. That's the moment you're really retiring — whenyou die."
— Ozzy Osbourne

Working, Traveling, and Being Broke in Retirement

WORKING IN RETIREMENT

According to a recent study by the Pew Research Center, 77 percent of today's American employees include working for pay in their retirement planning as one of their retirement wishes.

Most of those surveyed say they will have a retirement job because they want to, and not because they will have to.

Pew, however, finds those statements out of step with the experiences of people who are actually retired.

Just 12 percent of the retirees Pew surveyed say they are currently working either full or part time for pay at any type of retirement job.

TRAVELING IN RETIRMENT

92 percent Baby Boomers plan to travel around Australia after they retire, but half of those surveyed don’t feel confident in having the money to do it when they retire.

New research released by ANZ reveals that 92 percent of ‘Baby Boomers’ want to travel around Australia on retirement, with 83 percent planning to engage more in hobbies sports.

However, ANZ’s “New Retirement” survey found almost half of Australians aged between 45 and 64 do not feel confident they have adequate funds to do what they want in retirement (49 percent). With only 24 percent extremely or very confident about their finances.

RETIREES AND BABY BOOMERS FEAR BEING BROKE IN RETIRENT MORE THAN DEATH!

A report has found only one in four Australian baby boomers are confident they have saved enough money for their retirement.

The ANZ survey shows nearly 50 per cent of people aged between 45 and 64
do not think they have enough saved to maintain the kind of lifestyle they want in retirement.

In contrast, only one-quarter of people in that age group are confident they have enough money to retire comfortably.

At the same time, according to a survey by Allianz Life, 61 percent of the 3,200 American baby boomers and retirees surveyed (ages 44 to 75) said they feared outliving their retirement income and retirement savings more than they dreaded dying.

Perhaps this is the new retirement where people will have to continue working at retirement jobs such as writing and self-publishing books such as

Even so, it is best to retire rich but to die broke.

NEW RETIREMENT RESOURCES

Here are a few new retirement resources:

Include Your Spouse in Your Retirement Plan and Not in Ernie Zelinski's Retirement Plan

Retirement T-Shirts to Show That You Are Happily Retired

Retirement Speeches at The Retirement Cafe

Reasons Why You Will Love Retirement

Here are some entries from 365 Reasons Why You Will Love Retirement

You get to fill your days with healthy retirement activities — such as swimming, bicycling, excerciing, and yoga — instead of unhealthy, stress-filled work activities such as meetings, boring tasks, and commuting.

If you don't feel like doing anything at all except lounging around your apartment — that's exactly what you get to do.

You no longer have to be nice to all those ex-coworkers who you didn't like all that much. Better still, you can send them anonymous nasty e-mails every day.

Here are some retirement quotes for retirees that will help them retire happy, wild, and free:

The secret of life is to appreciate the pleasure of being terribly, terribly deceived.
— Oscar Wilde

Webster’s Dictionary defines retirement as “withdrawal from active engagement in one’s occupation or profession.” It is in fact much more.
— Lynn Anderson

Retirement is a process, not an event.
— Unknown wise person

If I wanted to become a tramp, I would seek information and advice from the most successful tramp I could find. If I wanted to become a failure, I would seek advice from men who have never succeeded. If I wanted to succeed in all things, I would look around me for those who are succeeding, and do as they have done.
— Joseph Marshall Wade

Retirement Quotes to Help You Retire Happy

Researchers at the University of Greenwich suggest best friends not family are the key to a happy retirement.

This is because so many grandparents have the freedom of their twilight days interrupted by childcare, they say, and are not able to do fun things in retirement.

Those with children or grandchildren were no more happy than those without, the study of 279 retirees presented to the British Psychological Society said.

But those with strong social networks interviewed for the study were 30 percent more satisfied with their lives than those without, according to the researchers>

Here are a few of the latest retirement quotes and retirement sayings that I have accumulated to help you retire happy:

#1 Retirement Quote of Second Top-Ten List of Retirement Quotes
Thank Heaven for Retirement!
— from How to Retire Happy, Wild and Free

#2 Retirement Quote of Second Top-Ten List of Retirement Quotes
Retirement is like a long vacation in Las Vegas. The goal is to enjoy it the fullest, but not so fully that you run out of money.
— Jonathan Clements

#3 Retirement Quote of Second Top-Ten List of Retirement Quotes
Retire? I'm going to stay in show business until I'm the only one left.
— George F. Burns

#4 Retirement Quote of Second Top-Ten List of Retirement Quotes
Life is a game. Happy people are the players. Unhappy people are the spectators. Which would you like to be?
— from Life's Secret Handbook by Ernie J. Zelinski

#5 Retirement Quote of Second Top-Ten List of Retirement Quotes
Retirement is the time when you never do all the things you intended to do when you were still working.
— Unknown wise person

#6 Retirement Quote of Second Top-Ten List of Retirement Quotes
If my dreams could all come true paradise/retirement would be — in a little bungalow — somewhere by the sea.
— Unknown wise person

#7 Retirement Quote of Second Top-Ten List of Retirement Quotes
If you don't learn to laugh at trouble, you won't have anything to laugh at when you are old.
— Will Rogers

#8 Retirement Quote of Second Top-Ten List of Retirement Quotes
I really stay busy [in retirement]. I often have to cancel my golf games on the weekends to go play in tennis tournaments.
— Richard Davies

#9 Retirement Quote of Second Top-Ten List of Retirement Quotes
Retirement: A Time to Become Much More than You Have Ever Been
— from How to Retire Happy, Wild and Free

#10 Retirement Quote of Second Top-Ten List of Retirement Quotes
Retirement is waking up in the morning with nothing to do and by bedtime having done only half of it.
— Unknown wise person

For more retirement quotes and retirement sayings see:

Funny Retirement Quotes on The Joy of Being Retired Website

Retirement Cake Sayings

Retirement Plans of Many Baby Boomers Are at Least $250,000 Short

If you are worried about retirement you are not alone. A recent survey out shows that Americans are increasingly ill-prepared for retirement. Workers are delaying their planned career end dates to instead focus on building a nest egg of some type.

Even using Simple Retirement Calculators will show that most people need a retirement job to create more retirement income.

According to CNNMoney.com:

“The percentage of workers who said they have less than $10,000 in savings grew to 43% in 2010, from 39% in 2009, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute’s annual Retirement Confidence Survey.

That excludes the value of primary houses and defined-benefit pension plans."

Workers who said they had less than $1,000 jumped to 27%, from 20% in 2009."

The survey found that 54 percent of American workers with some form of retirement savings have less than $25,000 stowed away and need to spend more time retirement
planning.

Low Balances In Retirement Funds

Only about half the U.S. workforce is covered by some type of employer-sponsored retirement plan. And most of those are 401(k) plans, which usually require employees to contribute and make investment decisions.

Even before the financial crisis, the average balance in 401(k)s for workers nearing retirement was just $78,000. After the market plunged, that average was reduced to about $56,000. That's just not enough for a comfortable retirement, says Roger W. Ferguson Jr., president and chief executive officer of TIAA-CREF, the financial services company that offers retirement plans for employees in the academic, medical and nonprofit fields.

"Many families, at this stage, are short $250,000 from what they're going to need," Ferguson says.

Check out Why My Retirement Plan Is Better than David Letterman's Retirement Plan.

The Retirement Job or Retirement Career That Can Make You a Fortune

It's better to be out of money than out of new creative ideas on how to make money.
- Spiritual Rule of Money

If you are 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.

This probably means that your retirement fantasy life and your retirement portfolio to support such a life are diametrically opposed.

How about creating your ideal retirement career?

Check out: RETIREMENT CARRERS at THE CAREER SUCCESS RESOURCE CENTER

Perhaps you are looking for a fun retirement job or a unreal retirement business because you didn't do sufficient retirement planning while you were working.

Check out: JOBS FOR RETIREMENT JOBS at THE RETIREMENT CAFE

Here is great information about how you can increase your retirement income.

RETIREMENT JOBS AND RETIREMENT CAREERS ON SQUIDOO

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?

This valuable retirement job information is available at:

DREAM JOBS FOR RETIREMENT at UNREALJOB.COM

Check out: Sponsorship Resources,

Also Check Out Active Retirement Career Resources:

Free-Spirited View of Retirement

Seven Million Canadians Set to Retire

A new report suggests the Canadian Government and Canadian businesses must start making appropriate adjustments to handle the demographic crunch facing Canada.

Indeed, seven million baby boomers are set to retire over the next two decades, according to a TD Bank Retirement Study.

Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page said last month the Federal Government will face a structural deficit of about $20 billion in five years as Canadians transition from taxpaying workers to services-using retirees.





Americans Planning to Delay Retirement



A survey in March 2010 by the Employee Benefit Research Institute found that a growing number of American workers are planning to delay retirement. That has negative implications for the U.S. job market, where unemployment is high and layoffs continue to grow.
Almost one in four workers (24 percent) postponed plans to retire in the last year.

Here is a review of How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free Review at Retirement Recommendations by RetirementWorks2.com that may inspire you to read it so that you retire early, choose the Best Places to Retire Happy and totally enjoy your Retirement:

This book takes a free-spirited view of retirement, and it can be infectious.
Zelinski not only encourages you to adopt a fresh outlook, but helps you do so in specific, concrete ways. His approach is informative, fun, and sometimes astonishing.

Check Out:

Lotteries: The Retirement Plan for Stupid People

Midlife Happiness

Retirement Quotes at Goodreads.com

The image below is a scan of an article in a December 1983 article in the Edmonton Journal about Brian Tracy when he was just getting on a roll. No doubt Brian does not have to worry about the financial aspects of retirement as many Canadians and Americans hav to

Saving for Retirement: How Much Do I Need to Retire?

In Canada Between the CPP and OAS the government will pay out a maximum of $17,400 a year to the average 65-year-old.

Some people will say, "That is only $1,450 a month to cover basic expenses including rent or mortgage (if you have one during retirement), condo fees, taxes, insurance, food, clothing, transportation, entertainment, and long-term care expenses if necessary.

But my friend George in Edmonton is 66 and collects this amount. He has no other income and still saves $450 to $500 a month.

If this is not enough retirement income for you to live on, then it's your responsibility to create more.

Do not rely on The Retirement Plan for Stupid People

One of the best retirement gifts that you can give yourself is an adequate income in retirement so that you can have fun in retirement and enjoy a lot of leisure like the Greeks enjoy.

Retirement Principles

These are some of the most important principles for having a happy retirement:

* Retirement should put a perpetual smile on your face.
* To not plan for an active retirement is to set yourself up for a difficult one.
* You don’t have to watch one minute of TV when you retire — and perhaps you shouldn’t.
* You are never too young to retire.
* Retiring too late means you don’t get another chance to do it right.
* Early to bed and early to rise makes a person dull, boring, and despised.
* Commit yourself to being a lifelong learner and your life will never be without purpose.
* Your wealth is where your friends are.
* Be happy while you are alive because you are a long time dead.
* It’s better to live rich than to die rich.

Check out these resources:

Active retirement - happy, wild and free

1oo1 Ways to Enjoy Your Retirement

How to Retire Happier and Richer

A recent Wells Fargo survey about the retirement preparedness of Americans age 50 to 59 showed that they are not that well-prepared.

Of this group , a third (67 percent) said their expectations for retirement had changed from those held a year ago, and over half (56 percent) expected to work longer by an average of three more years.

These baby boomers said that they require $800,000 in retirement savings, but have saved only $300,000 (median amounts).

This group also had not assessed how long their savings would last in retirement.

They expected to live nearly 21 years in retirement, but planned on spending nearly 10 percent of their savings every year in retirement.

The retirement industry recommendation is to withdraw no more than 4 percent annually.

Here is some retirement advice to help you retire richer:

People who don't respect money don't have any.
— J. Paul Getty,

You are only as rich as the enrichment you bring to the world around you.
— Rajesh Setty

How easy it is for a man to die rich, if he will be contented to live miserable.
— Henry Fielding

Money is what you make it. Depending upon who you are — and your frame of mind — money can be anything you want it to be. Money can be: the root of all evil; or that which answers all things; or something that burns a hole in your pocket; or a means to freedom; or an interesting concept; or even a stupid concept. Whatever value you place on money, you must take responsibility for it. If money is evil to you, you created it being evil. If money is a problem to you, you created it being a problem. If money is joy to you, you created this concept. Take responsibility for your concepts. And be clear that these are just concepts. Nothing more and nothing less.
— from The Lazy Person's Guide to Success by

We have a balance of $0.32 in the bank … Which made us four-and-a-half trillion dollars richer than the federal government.
— Jim Borgman

And here are some retirement planning resources to help you retire happier and richer:

Retirement Income for Unconventional Retirees

How Not to Retire Rich - It's Easy

How to Make Friends in Retirement

Best Retirement Jobs

Retirement News for Today

Here are some interesting facts relating to retirement planning:

1. A third of Canadians have no RRSPs but even among those that do, 80 percent are not confident the investments in them will provide enough for Retirement, according to a BMO survey.

2. One in four Canadians don't know how much retirement income and retirement savings they will need to retire. In other words, 25 percent do not even know how much retirement income is required to achieve a comfortable retirement. Interestingly, 54 percent estimate they'll need at least $550,000 in retirement savings.

3. Most Canadians and Americans want to retire early, or at least by the age of 65. Incidentally, this retirement age has been the official one since the welfare state was founded by Otto von Bismarck in 19th century Germany. There are trends happening, however, that are creating a changing picture of retirement. Many people who were looking forward to packing it in are having to postpone retirement because of the economic downturn has forced them to reconsider their plans.

4. The RBC survey showed that 90 percent of Canadians believe they will have enough money to cover retirement. But an RBC spokeswoman also said many Canadians underestimate the amount they will need once they stop work.

Here are some new retirement resources by Ernie Zelinski:

Best Retirement Jobs

Best Places to Retire Happy

Simple Retirement Calculators

Retirment Planning for Retirees and the Soon-to-Be Retired Who Do Not Know How to Spell Retirement

Also see:

Be Love Now

Duplicate Content on Websites

Top -10 Reasons to Never Have a Job

Here are the ten topics that Steve Pavlina uses in Top-10 Reasons to Never Have a Job

1. Income for dummies
2. Limited experience
3. Lifelong domestication
4. Too many mouths to feed
5. Way too risky
6. Having an evil bovine master
7. Begging for money
8. An inbred social life
9. Loss of freedom
10. Becoming a coward

Also see 10 Reasons to Never Work at a Real Job:

Then see How to Get Sponsorships Even If You Don't Have a Job.

Quotes about Work and Real Jobs:

Trust not what inspires other members of society to choose a career. Trust what inspires you. From this decision alone will come over a third of your satisfaction or misery in your life.
- from The Lazy Person's Guide to Success

Find a calling you love and you will never work a day in your life.
- Confucius

To be successful, the first thing to do is fall in love with your work.
- Sister Mary Lauretta

Quotes about Work and Retirement

As a matter of course, the most important elements of a successful retirement are good physical and mental health, spiritual fulfillment, great relationships with family and friends, and many interesting things to do. Committing yourself to being a lifelong learner will go a long way towards having many interesting things to do.

What's more, when you commit yourself to being a lifelong learner, your life will never be without purpose. Having an important purpose, to be sure, can be a savior in retirement and make you forget about work.

Here are a few quotes about work and retirement:

There are a lot of retirement books telling you how to manage when you retire. What most people want is one that'll tell them how to manage in the meantime.
- Unknown wise person

The morality of work is the morality of slaves, and the modern world has no need of slavery.
- Bertrand Russell

I have long been of the opinion that if work were such a splendid thing the rich would have kept more of it for themselves.
- Bruce Grocott

Women marry because they don't want to work.
- Marry Garden

When you see what some girls marry you realize how they must hate to work for a living.
- Helen Rowland

Check out these other work and retirement resources

Ideas for Retirement Parties

Funny Retirement Poems

Retirement Gifts on The Retirement Cafe

Retirement Cake Sayings and Party Ideas

Best Places to Retire Happy on The How to Retire Website

Basic Retirement Advice - Dont' Give Your Retirement Money to Crooks

Dont' Give Your Retirement Money to Crooks is basic retirement advice, but here is a story on how some crooks may succeed with many retirees.

Crooks After Your Retirement Money!

Also, if you live in Canada, you may want to read this article:

Canadian Fed Pensions a Time Bomb


Here are some new Retirement Planning Resources:

Funny Retirement Poems

Funny Retirement Quotes

Retirement Calculators

Retirement Humor

Less Money Going into Retirement Plans

Fewer Canadians are putting money into retirement plans, according to the Royal Bank's annual RRSP poll.

The RB annual RRSP polls says 32 per cent of Canadians have not started saving for retirement yet, compared to 24 per cent in 2008. The study also found only 36 per cent say they are planning or have planned for retirement, down from 42 per cent in 2008.

The decline is sharpest among those aged 55 and over, with 53 per cent doing any retirement planning compared to 67 per cent last year.RBC also says just 35 per cent of Canadians have contributed to or plan to contribute to an RRSP for the 2009 tax year - the lowest percentage of contributors since 1996.

Here are some retirement resources to put retirement planning in perspective:

Ernie Zelinski's Retirement Plan Is Better Than Your Retirement Plan

Retirement Humor to Help You Retire Happy, Wild, and Free

How to Live Broke and Retire Broke!

Health in Retirement

Fun Things to Do in Retirement

Create Your Unreal Retirement Job or Dream Retirement Career

Jobs for older workers are expected to increase in certain occupations in the future as employers hire seniors, baby boomers and retirees who come with experience and intellectual capital - but often without a need for expensive benefits - for temporary jobs and project work.

If this trend develops, you may be able to create your unreal retirement job or dream career for retirement.

These Stats apply to Canadians:

• An estimated 950,000 Canadians would like to start a business within the year says research done by RBC Financial Group.
  Self-employment is growing fastest among young Canadians (age 15-24) and older Canadians (age 55+), says Stats Canada.


• 'Seniorpreneurs' account for ¼ of self employed people in Canada, and 30% of the total workforce over 55.40% of Canadians think entrepreneurship is the most rewarding career option, according to a 2005 poll by Leger Marketing.


• Self-employment is growing fastest among young Canadians (age 15-24) and older Canadians (age 55+), says Stats Canada.

Keep in mind that you don't have to go halfway around the world and spend a ton of money to spot opportunities for retirement jobs and retirement businesses and take advantage of them.

Opportunities for creating new sources of income are all around us, including our backyards.
Robert G. Allen and Mark Victor Hansen, co-authors of The One Minute Millionaire (Harmony, 2002), claim that they will be able to spot at least fifteen money-making opportunities in your living room alone.

Indeed, opportunities for creating your own great retirement jobs and retirement businesses are all around you. I discuss this at length in my latest book Career Success Without a Real Job.

Approaching Retirement and not sure if you want to quit working? Check out these retirement job resources loaded with opportunities perfect for the skills and maturity you can provide.

• JOBS FOR RETIREMENT at THE CAREER SUCCESS RESOURCE CENTER


• RETIREMENT JOBS ON SQUIDOO


• UNREAL JOBS FOR RETIREMENT at UNREALJOB.COM


• RETIREMENT JOBS at THE RETIREMENT CAFE