How NOT to Retire Rich — It's Easy!

35 Sure-Fire Ways to Ensure That You

Live Broke, Retire Broke, and Die Broke!

I have now the gloomy prospect of retiring from office loaded with serious debts, which will materially affect the tranquility of my retirement.
— Thomas Jefferson

Research has shown that nearly half of all workers in the United States have less than $25,000 in total savings. Even more startling is the fact that slightly more than one in five workers say they have no savings of any kind.

Interestingly more than half (55 percent) of respondents to a Bank of America survey conducted in 2010 said they should have started talking to an adviser earlier as they neared retirement.

Retirees and those contemplating retirement are concerned about healthcare costs as well as making sure their assets for retirement last through their lifetimes.

But importantly, even half of affluent retirees surveyed said they wish they had spent more time thinking about how they wanted to live during retirement, and they recommend that those nearing retirement age give lifestyle and goals careful consideration if they want to retire happy.

So you have a choice: Either start handling money wisely by saving for retirement so that you can retire in comfort or forget about it and retire broke.

If you want to be like the one in five workers whe live broke, retire broke, and die broke - it's easy. Here are 25 ways to achieve this dubious achievement:

1. Spend your time hanging around people who are losers.

2. Spend a lot of your time criticizing others - particularly successful, rich people.

3. Think of yourself as a cool person - ever notice how most cool
people are broke and never discover one of the many ways to become smart and rich.

4. Hang unto the belief that you can only make a living working for
the government or a corporation.

5. Believe that winning the lottery (the retirement plan with the most bugs to be worked out) or doing something unlawful is the way to get rich quick, and that all the other more sensible ways to become rich take way too much work, effort, and time.

6. Have a "sense of entitlement" (that normally comes with the severe socialist mentality) just like the majority of North Americans now have (Canadians more so than Americans)

7. Discount the information in The Joy of Not Working and believe that working hard (instead of working smart) is the way to become rich.

8. Accept the adage that you should "fake it until you make it."

9. Be stupid enough to think (as most North American think) that
the government should be doing more for you and your financial situation.

10. Spend all your money on trinkets and other useless crap that don't add anything to your well-being, although you are easily conned into believing that they will.

11. When you have a choice between spending money on an internet marketing course or buying some expensive cloths, make sure that you buy the expensive clothes.

12. Always believe what a company president says about the company's stock price and where it is headed.

13. If you are a man, believe all that every woman tells you, even
that she is interested in you and you alone and that she will never
try to take your money if you live together and then separate. Just as bad, rely on lonely rich women to take care of you in retirement.

13. If you are a woman, believe that you are economically helpless
and you must always rely on a man for you to be well-off.

14. Master the art of appearing prosperous - but broke - and believe that your retirement plan is better than my retirement plan.

15. Become an artist, at the same time discounting everything said in the two world's best retirement books How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free and The Joy of Being Retired. At the same time discount everything in the book You're Broke Because You Want to Be: How to Stop Getting By and Start Getting Ahead.

The World's Best Retirement Book

(Over 425,000 Copies Sold) 

16. Believe that you can write a book of poetry and have it sell hundreds of thousands of copies.

17. Instead of being like rich people who focus on opportunities,
ensure that you focus on obstacles.

18. Accept the fraudulent myth propogated by crackpot financial advisors that paper losses aren't real losses. If your stock has a value less than you paid for it, plain and simple, you have a real loss! See Paper Profit or Paper Loss on Investopedia.

19. Believe that all you have to do is earn a lot of money to become
rich while forgetting that handling money is more important.

20. Disregard the words of J.P. Getty who said, "People who don't respect money don't have any."

21. Be gullible enough to believe that the more you pay for an item,
the more it is worth.

22. Feel obligated to loan money to a friend whenever one asks you for some because you believe that friendship and money go hand in hand.

23. Never base your budget on realistic assumptions.

24. Always believe the conspiracy theories such as how a group of
rich Europeans controls the wealth of the world and how they are denying you your fair share.

25. Believe that capitalism is all bad and socialism is all good. If you do believe this, keep in mind the old Polish proverb: "Under capitalism man exploits man. Under socialism the reverse is true."

26. Accept that wealth and power are much more likely to be the result of breeding than they are of creativity and self-sacrifice.

27. Always live beyond your means believing that your ship will come
in some day.

28. Ensure that you are at the bus depot even if your ship comes in.

29. Hang around casinos as much as possible.

30. Live by the adage that "Life is too short to balance a checkbook."

31. Squander your life energy working for a corporation while spending your money on the same crap that most people spend their money on.

32. Live by the principle that a need is any luxury that your neighbor
happens to possess.

33. Always be too busy earning a living to make any real money.

34. Think of welfare as a career opportunity and your only source of retirement income.

35. Always overlook the fact that even a bargain costs money.

Hardly the stuff of a great retirement, right? 

Quotes about Money Relating to Getting Rich

This may come as a shock to some, but if you really want to get rich,
the first thing you need to learn is how to spend money — or NOT spend it — as the case may be. And what with national consumer debt and bankruptcy numbers reaching ball time highs in the U.S. in 2008, it's apparent that there's more than just a little foolish spending going on.
— Rosalind Gardner

Ability is the poor man's wealth.
— Matthew Wren

The sports car and sailboat are investments for my retirement. I'm using them to attract a woman who support me in my old age.
— Glasbergen talking to financial consultant

 

True Wealth in Retirement

If you haven't got all the things you want, be grateful for the things you don't have that you don't want.
— Unknown wise person

The greatest wealth you can have is the ability to be content with nothing.

Failing this, being content with what you presently have will help you enjoy much wealth.

Ann Landers wisely stated, "When life's problems seem overwhelming, look around and see what other people are coping with. You may consider yourself fortunate."

If you look at the people around you and still don't get it, try living for a month or two with the pavement dwellers in Calcutta where they are lucky to live to thirty-five or forty.

In short, poor is the person whose pleasures depend solely on money.

(A review of The World's Best Retirement Book on Retirement2Works.com Website.) The subtitle, " Retirement wisdom that you won't get from your financial advisor," hits the nail on the head.  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 apporach is informative, fun, and sometimes astonishing. - RetirementWorks2.com

Make the most important investment that you can make for your retirement right now:

  Purchase How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free Today: 

Purchase The World's Best Retirement Book on Amazon.com

Copyright 2022 by Ernie Zelinski

Author of The World's Best Retirement Book

All Rights Reserved