Visions International Publishing How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free: Retirement Wisdom That You Won't Get from Your Financial Advisor

Interesting

Worth a read

Ernie Zelinski's best-seller book on retirement, How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free, is one of the best written resources on the subject. Since I retired from teaching music in the public schools in 2013, I have been preaching his gospel about finding meaning and work/life balance in retirement. I even promote it in my blog-posts [...] for soon-to-retire music teachers. His informal curriculum of setting goals, creating a "get-a-life" tree, and satisfying the three basic needs of retirees to find "purpose, community, and structure," is absolutely amazing. I call it "re-channeling your juices," focusing on your "new" mission - why you are excited to get up in the morning - avoiding too many passive (boring) activities, and seeking out ways to "make a difference." His text, illustrations, and quotations are hilarious! Especially for many music educators, the transition to our "golden years" can be "bumpy!" We are too "Type-A" for our own good and personally identify (our self-worth) too much with our school music programs. It is difficult to walk away and not look back. When we take that first leap and leave full-time employment, sometimes we carry excess emotional baggage. Ernie Zelinski helps us to learn how to take it slow, plan and "intern" retirement, and get rid of everything else. My favorite sections in his book are Chapter 2 "Retirement: A Time to Become Much More than You Have Ever Been," Chapter 3 "So Many Worlds, So Much to Do!", and Chapter 5 "Learning is for Life." This is the book I purchase and give to every colleague who I know is planning to retire... the art teacher who lives on my street, the foreign language curriculum leader who is leaving the profession after serving 43 years at the school I also taught, etc. My only complaint is that I can never find my own copy of the book... I keep lending it out to "needy" newly retirees who probably "forget" to return it. That's another good reason he has sold more than 275,000 copies of How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free... we keep snatching them up and passing them on!

The premise of the book is good but author likes to repeat his points. Also not everyone hates their job or has a boring job but he seems intent on painting all jobs and careers as boring and meaningless and that people should aspire to retire as soon as possible and do what they really want, ie retirees need to find themselves. I think he should understand that some people have had meaningful careers, not everyone is dying to be rid of their jobs and not everyone needs to find themselves. I will be happy with a few simple hobbies, pottering around my house and having a cup of tea when I retire. That probably would not sit well with the author though lol

With eight weeks to go before retirement, I needed some help! My financial plans were in place (sort of. as much as they can be these days), but I had no idea about how would I cope with colleagues no longer around, missing the workplace water-cooler moments and no longer having a very busy 24/7 work schedule. I felt pretty foolish that I'd had 40 years to prepare for this, but had no plans about how to spend the next phase of my life. This inspirational, funny and very readable book by Ernie Zelinski has given me a template for how to get the most out of my retirement. The premise is that not to plan for an active retirement is to set yourself up for a difficult one. To be bored is to retire from life, so the book takes you through practical planning to establish a lifestyle that is adventurous, rewarding and exciting. One minor downside is that it is written for the North American market, but the basic wisdom is pretty much global. Anybody about to retire should read this book.