May 10, 2012

Mr. Ernie J. Zelinski
P.O. Box 4072
Edmonton, AB
Canada T6E 4S8

 

 

Dear Ernie:

 

I am writing to you because my wife said I must. You see, we both read your books (The Joy of Not Working and How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free). In fact, we put much of your wisdom into practice. We both retired early.

 

While we walked the dog one morning, Karen said that with all the new things we have done since retiring that you might like to hear about some of them. Here they are, in no particular order.

 

In the first year or so of our freedom:

• I filed a provisional patent, taking the invention to prototype, and began marketing it.
• She started a part time job.
• I started a blog, and built a website.
• She learned belly dancing.
• We hiked, bird watched, and photographed eagles, owls, and wildlife too numerous to list, even an albino fawn with her mother.
• I fly fished Apalachicola Bay and the Gulf of Mexico.
• She joined a book-reading club.
• We travelled with our dog Jedi throughout the southern USA.
• She learned to use power tools.
• I began leather working, and developed two new designs.
• She began gardening, putting in both vegetables and herbs.
• We stay up later, sleep in, and take regular naps.
• I study and play the classical guitar.
• She started word puzzles to keep her mind sharp.
• I started a small business delivering health and wellness classes to the public through hospitals, senior living, and community centers.
• We dropped fifteen pounds (each) of weight attributed to job-related stress eating.
• We spent a winter in the Florida panhandle.
• She does yoga.
• We made new friends in several states.
• I resumed fly tying because of much more time on the water.
• We attended classes and seminars, including the " Creative Retirement Workshop" (CREW) at the University of North Carolina in Asheville. By the way, they cite your work at the workshop and recommend your book.
• I wrote one novel, and ten short stories, which I will submit for publishing after final editing.
• We attended plays.
• She hosted parties, and re-decorated the house.
• I tried and let go of part time work. You see, I am simply too busy.

There are probably many more things but I cannot recall them at present.

 

Karen and I are thrilled at having time each day for nature walks, bicycle riding, bird watching, and cruising in our classic sports car (we are from Detroit, after all). The time together has strengthened our marriage, too.

 

We worried about money initially, but now find we do just fine, even spending less than we did while working. In fact, we noticed work requires a significant outlay, even part-time!

 

I believe working consumes more money than most people understand. Not working, on the other hand, provides untold wealth, health, and happiness.

 

Thank you for writing the books you did. They have helped us along our path.

 

Best wishes for health and happiness,

 

Jack and Karen Cipriani

In How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free you'll meet a number of interesting people like Ben from Toronto, a former entertainer, who traveled across America in a Greyhound recently (a dog of a trip!), and wrote a book on the benefits of cayenne pepper, which he says is better than Viagra. Then there's Bill and Valerie, who live aboard a sailboat in Hawaii, and Tom, who, at 96, still walks four miles a day and chases women at night.

The book's section titles can be quite entertaining. "If You Don't Take Care of your Body, Where Do You Intend to Live?" is one about daily health maintenance. An even better is one "Early to Bed and Early to Rise Make a Person Dull, Boring and Despised."

The message here is to forget rigid schedules when you retire. Good point. Retirement is a time to loosen up, live it up and curl up with How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free.

- Editor
Retirement Rocket

----- Original Message ----
From: sbgarri
To: Ernie Zelinski
Sent: Mon, July 12, 2010 3:17:24 PM
Subject: Thanks

Dear Ernie Z, 

 

I bought your retirement book about 5 years ago. It is now dog-eared, highlighted, and generally a mess! It was a salvation.

 

Every ounce of advice I got about retirement before that focused on money. Your book [ How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free   ] made me focus on the life I wanted. It was all about looking for the "essence" of what enriched me. 

 

Once I got over losing a bundle in the "downturn" of the economy, I simply forged on with the plan your book helped me make. and retired anyway. (You should see my [Get-a-Life] tree. I used Inspiration software to create it and keep it up still).

 

We ended up in an old double wide on a wild river in north Florida. Nature is here all the time. I made friends and find great joy in a no-traffic fishing village. We will never be surrounded by condos or golf courses as we are in the heart of a National Forest 20 miles from a grocery store. Shopping is greatly reduced when you have to go that far to shop!

 

I sing, paint, swim, bird, garden and generally fill the days successfully. We travel in our used camper and boat in a vampy old pontoon. I avoid anything that is destructive to joy.

 

I clearly am reaching my retirement goal to become an eccentric- you said I had to have a goal and there it is. As far as a purpose, it is to engage others joyfully and provide small kindnesses. As far as big purposes go, no way--I "gave at the office" for 43 years.

 

The money is taking care of itself. We just spend less that we take in each month. Might mean resetting the heat or AC for a week, taking cool showers, eating in or going to free entertainment instead of that which costs a lot. So what. I grow food and make 2 meals out of one night out. It all works. When it's gone, it's gone. Hopefully, I'll be gone, too. If not, well we do have the camper!

 

So, keep up the good work. I recommend your book to everyone I care about - retired or not.

 

Take care--

Susan G.

 

To be sure, retirement books are a glutted field, but most focus on money and financial planning. They view the finish line as the last day of employment. That's where How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free begins.

- Jonathan Chevreau, Retirement Columnist
National Post

As this book emphasizes, "a happy, wild and free retirement is based not only on a healthy relationship with money and our financial resources, but . . . above all, a happy retirement is based on a healthy relationship with ourselves."

How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free is sprinkled with cartoon illustrations and pertinent quotations on work and retirement.

Get this book if you look forward to a retirement with "zing."

- Nancy Paradis
St. Petersburg Times