The latest retirement book I’ve read is How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free: Retirement Wisdom That You Won’t Get from Your Financial Advisor.
The author is a free spirit to say the least, similar to Vicki Robin who wrote Your Money or Your Life, which makes the book a fun and entertaining read.
I’m probably the opposite of a free spirit (is there such a thing as an uptight spirit?), but I liked both of the books above (see The Best Personal Finance Books of All Time: Your Money or Your Life for my thoughts on that book.)
Looking at an issue like retirement from various perspectives is good IMO, so I read a variety of authors on the subject, even if I am uptight and they aren’t. đ
I liked this book not only for its style but for what it had to say (of course). How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free had excellent points throughout and thus I recommend it highly to anyone considering retiring in the next 5-10 years.
BTW, at some point I’m going to rank what I consider to be the top ten retirement books, but I have about 30 more to read first. Ha!
There’s no way I can share all the key points the made, so I’ve selected a few, will quote what the book has to say, and add my comments.
And I’ll need a few posts to get them all in.
Some of the thoughts will be suggestions we’ve heard before (though likely said in a new way) and are worth repeating.
Others are new to this book and worth adding to our stockpile of retirement knowledge.
In fact, I’m accumulating so much information on what makes for a happy retirement that I’ll probably change some questions to upcoming retirement interviews (BTW, if anyone wants to do one, shoot me an email).
With that said, here are some thoughts from the book How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free…
The Importance of Non-Financial Retirement Issues
The book isn’t even started yet (still in the preface) when it addresses an issue ESI Money readers are now considering pretty basic — but it’s one that much of the rest of the world ignores.
Yes, I’m talking about how the non-financial issues associated with retirement are as important as the money-related ones.
Here’s what the book has to say:
Although stockbrokers, bank officials, and other “retirement planners” overwhelm us with advertisements, solicitations, and advise on how to plan financially for retirement, they ignore other factors that contribute to a successful retirement.
Similarly, for every twenty books written on retirement, there may be only one that has any worthwhile treatment of the important personal issues.
The result is that many people spend forty years building an impressive retirement nest egg, but no time at all thinking about how they are going to enjoy retirement.
Indeed, the biggest mistake you can make with your retirement planning is to concentrate only on the financial aspects.
Some thoughts from me:
- I would certainly agree that there are way more books on retirement financial planning than are written about non-financial retirement issues. I’m guessing that’s because people think the financial side is what they need to prepare for (and thus want to buy books about that) and figure they don’t need to do anything on the non-financial side — they “know” how to not work (since they do it every weekend). But the truth is, many people don’t know how to thrive without working, especially for long periods of time.
- This is why I’ve spent so much time recently reading and writing on retirement books that address the non-financial side of retirement. A few of my favorites are: You Can Retire Sooner Than You Think, What Color Is Your Parachute for Retirement, Purposeful Retirement, Keys to a Successful Retirement, and this book, How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free. Read one of these per year (and apply what they say) starting five years out from retirement and you should be set for a great retirement.
- Not planning for the non-financial side of retirement is a HUGE mistake. And the required solution to turn it into a big win requires very little effort — so much so that it’s a no-brainer. You Can Retire Sooner Than You Think tells us “[Happy retirees] spent at least five hours per year planning for retirement.” Five hours. Per year. That’s it. That’s all it takes to move you from unhappy to happy — and that’s all it really takes to help you consider and plan for the all-important non-financial parts of retirement. So why wouldn’t anyone do at least this much?
- This is one thing I liked about the first direct mail retirement seminar we attended. They focused almost exclusively on non-financial parts of retirement — something that made them stand out from the crowd.
If I created a “how to have a great retirement” class/product, would anyone be interested in it? What would it be worth to you?
The Benefits of Retirement
The book lists “a few of the benefits you get to enjoy once you retire”.
Here are some of those that I want to comment on:
- You can get up when you want to
- You have no daily rush hour traffic to contend with
- You donât have to deal with the jerks at the office anymore
- You can spend winter in Florida, Arizona, or Hawaii
- You get to set your own agenda
- You have fewer headaches because life is simpler
- You donât have to report to a boss about your actions
- You can go on a vacation when you want to go and not when your employer says you can
- By doing things when everyone else is at work, you can be much more efficient and less hurried at the same time
- You can take a carefree vacation without having to take some work with you
- You can feel morally superior to working people because you have earned your retirement and they havenât
Here are my thoughts on these:
- I love, love, love getting up when I want to. In the almost four years since I’ve been retired I have set my alarm fewer than ten times, and many of those have been to get up to catch a flight to somewhere awesome. Ha! When I first retired I was up at 5:30 am almost every day and hit the ground running. These days we go to bed later and get up later as well. But we have complete freedom and it is AWESOME!
- The commute. Ugh. Who likes a long commute? Thankfully I never had a bad one (I had a friend in New York who used to commute two hours each way), but the time still adds up. 20 minutes each way is 40 minutes a day round trip, 200 minutes a week, and 10,000 minutes (literally 167 hours or almost 7 full 24-hour days) PER YEAR. That means over my 28-year career I spent at least 194 complete days (24 hours) commuting. That’s over half a year! And if you took it as the percentage of awake time it would look even worse. I tried to make the best of it (I listened to books on tape to redeem the time), but still I am very glad to be rid of a daily commute (and especially so when there’s bad weather).
- Anyone ever work with people they didn’t like? Hahahaha! A better question is probably, “Have you ever worked anywhere where you liked everyone?” I actually have (one time, for nine years) but even then people get on your nerves from time to time. It’s much easier to distance from jerks in retirement.
- We are really grappling with the snowbird thing. Colorado had a very long, cold winter this year (it snowed a lot starting in October — thankfully we were in Florida). The snow, cold, and overcast conditions held on for months — way longer than normal. I think the rough conditions have finally convinced my wife to move to Florida for 2-3 months each winter, but now we have to work out when and where.
- Freedom is what makes retirement most awesome IMO and freedom to do what you want when you want is amazing.
- Life is way simpler in retirement. It’s also way less hectic, both of which are very nice.
- Anyone ever work for a boss they didn’t like? Hahahaha! I don’t think I need to comment further on this one…
- We give ZERO consideration to work issues when we plan vacations these days (at least our work issues — if we go with someone else, they have issues to deal with). In the past, I always had to consider what was going on at work when I was determining vacation dates. In retail, we had a policy of no vacation time in November and December. That alone is enough to put a major crimp in your scheduling.
- One of the biggest advantages of retirement is that you can go places when others are at work — the grocery store, the gym, the coffee shop, walk the neighborhood, the theater, vacation, and on and on. And since these are usually “off peak” times, you can often get discounts. đ
- Have you ever taken work home on vacation? I have, many times. Even if it was only checking my email and forwarding on important messages, doing anything work-related while on vacation is a huge pain. (I can still remember checking my email every day on our first cruise. Ugh!)
- Hahaha! I must admit that when someone my age starts spouting financial advice, I ask myself “if he’s so great with money, why isn’t he retired yet?” Obviously it might simply be because he loves working. But I still get a wee bit of moral superiority in there. LOL!
The book summarizes the above with this awesome quote:
The best part about retirement is that it allows you to stop doing what someone tells you to do; instead, you can start doing what you want to do.
As I said earlier, it’s all about the freedom. đ
For more thoughts on the advantages of retirement, see Ten Things I Didnât Expect in Early Retirement and Top Retirement Donâts.
Few Commitments
Here’s a quote I really identified with:
âBut once you retireâand thatâs one of the things, if not the thing, I enjoy moreâthereâs a minimum of binding commitments that I canât rearrange or circumvent or get around. I enjoy that after so many years of being very rigidly involved and committed to a timetable that I canât control.â
Most of my work life was built around a calendar and that calendar was chock full of meetings.
Especially at the end of my career where I was high up in the organization, I had many days where it was one meeting after another all day.
The best job I ever had (also the one where I liked everyone) had few meetings or even appointments (we were a small company), but the vast majority of my 28-year career was committed to one thing or another.
That’s why I loathe putting even one thing on my calendar in retirement.
Seriously, if I have an appointment in a day it really puts a damper on my retirement style.
So…I try to limit appointments.
Of course I can’t eliminate everything (trips to the doctor/dentist, car maintenance, etc.) but I can take out many of the non-essential get-togethers in life (like coffee invites from “friends” (aka casual acquaintances), activities at church, financial seminars (ha!), and the like.) Only stuff I really want to do makes the calendar these days.
Leave Nights Wide Open
Here’s a quote that goes well with the one above:
For the happiest life, days should be rigorously planned, nights left open to chance. â Mignon McLaughlin
Now for me, “rigorously planned” does not mean a scheduled event or appointment, but a general idea of what will happen in the early part of the day.
Most of our days currently either look like this:
- Get up
- Feed cat
- Drink a glass of water
- Check the web (my sites, a bit of news, sports, etc.)
- Play/love the cat (depending on what mood he’s in)
- Go for a long walk with wife
- Eat and do Sudoku puzzle
- Write a bit
- Exercise
- Write some more
- Walk again
- Eat dinner
Or this:
- Get up
- Feed cat
- Drink a glass of water
- Check the web (my sites, a bit of news, sports, etc.)
- Play/love the cat (depending on what mood he’s in)
- Walk to the pickleball courts and play for 2-4 hours
- Eat when I get home
- Write a bit
- Exercise
- Walk with my wife
- Eat dinner
The day ends at dinner and is wide open for whatever — watching a movie, sitting and talking, reading, or whatever. Once I “knock off for the day”, which is usually about 4 pm, it’s all over. Nothing productive is planned or done.
BTW, those are my recent schedules. I used to exercise earlier but during the stay-at-home orders I altered much of life, liked the changes, and haven’t gone back.
That’s it for this time. If you want to read more about this book, check out part 2 of this series.
Diogenes says
Good post. Thanks ESI!
Ted says
I recall someone telling me that to the world at large often success is built upon doing the things you don’t want to do when you don’t want to do it.
In a secure retirement, that is over.
Early retiree #19 says
I loved this book and still own it. I use it as a reference on occasion as you suggest. As far as escaping the winters, we winter in Scottsdale and are now up to 7 weeks a year. It is the best antidepressant. Each morning we have coffee and plan which hike we will tackle. Then off to the hike followed by happy hour and meeting with friends. You get exercise, socializing with friends or just ourselves and an inexpensive meal and drinks. A full and productive day that generally ends by 5. This keeps the evening open as you have found to be a wonderful luxury. The moral of our story is: Get out of the cold as soon as you can. It will save your life!
Thanks for your continued book reviews. I like the synopses.
M-124 says
This was a great share and I plan to read the book.
As I read through the list of what a great retirement looks like , it reminds me that this is the life I now have because of choosing to be self employed in owning 2 businesses that spin off renewal income – insurance agency and rental properties.
I guess I retired at 47 from the grind. (53 now and do what I want – when I want )
I have no reason to âquitâ.
Thanks this shot of gratitude this morning!
ESI says
I wish I had known all this when I was younger. I would have created businesses like you did and “retired” at 35 (letting the businesses pay the bills).
Hopefully those behind us can learn faster (at least faster than I did). đ
R-9/M-45 says
Very good summary and assessment! I bought the book about three years ago and found it to be interesting and uplifting. As you may recall from my interviews, financial considerations in my retirement were critical, but there were many other critical aspects of retirement for me to consider.
In response to your question; “If I created a âhow to have a great retirementâ class/product, would anyone be interested in it? What would it be worth to you?” I would say yes, definitely. Doing so would continue to set you apart from other retirement experts in a very positive way. I wish I could offer some relevant or meaningful suggestions regarding potential pricing, but I lack the expertise (however, a class/product could prove to be invaluable to many people).
ESI says
Thanks! Appreciate this feedback!
Mike says
For those of you that âwinterâ someplace how do you do it? VRBO or AirBNB, RV, etc? I ask because lately weâve been thinking about âsummeringâ someplace like Colorado or Utah since we live in very hot and humid Texas (Houston). VRBO for a month or two seems pretty pricey and an RV is too small for us. We donât have an interest in buying a second place.
Joan Signorille says
And whoever replies, can you explain how you take care of your primary residence, especially if it is a single family home, when you are gone for weeks? Neighbors? Other family? Would welcome some ideas and experiences. Thanks
ESI says
My daughter and son-in-law will be living here by the time we travel, so they’ll watch our home.
Golfnut92 says
We have a small RV and have gone for 3-4 weeks sometimes. My suggestion is inform your neighbor and use technology to your advantage (nest, garage doors, alarm, lights, cameras, Irrigation system, etc. ) all controlled from your phone. There are even apps like âeye on waterâ to monitor your water usage and inform you of possible leaks. Make sure you have your mail held and we arranged for a friend to walk the property and maintain the pool. Just a few ideas.
ESI says
I would add to sign up for paperless delivery for your bills.
We get all our bills (credit cards, utilities, internet, etc.) via email and pay online. This way you don’t have to worry about missing a bill in the mail.
golfnut92 says
Doesn’t everyone do that in the 21st Century?? LOL ……also I am assuming you have someone for mowing your lawn or shoveling your snow……
ESI says
I just set it up…so I’m assuming not everyone does it…and he mentioned “mail held”. (I know there’s non-bills mail, but not that’s worth much IMO).
Whoever watches the house handles the shoveling/mowing (which is shoveling, not mowing, since we leave in the winter — it’s too nice here in the summer to leave).
Golfnut92 says
We put a hold with the USPS so that nothing is lingering in our mailbox. If you have a lock box or cluster mailbox it isnât as obvious to criminals your not home. As far as the credit card bills that are set up electronically, you can set up alerts and reminders.
Mike says
Ha, we’re still not on paperless billing. I just don’t like it. I’d probably like it a lot better if they’d actually email me the bill rather than me having to login to a website to retrieve the bill.
But, as we get more mobile I’ll probably have to suck it up and start doing it.
ESI says
We are planning on going to Florida next Jan/Feb and planning to use VRBO/Airbnb places.
I look at it a couple of ways:
1. Yes, it can be expensive but we’ll try to get the best rates by bidding out multiple places and staying 3 weeks or so at a couple spots.
2. The 60 days in Florida will be about the same cost as 10 days in Grand Cayman and way less than the Hawaii trip/cruise we just took. So it’s a good deal! đ
Frank S says
Thanks for reminding me of this book, checked Kindle and I purchased and read June 2014 after leaving full-time work (Clinical software Devlp) March 2014; it was a great recommendation by a friend at the right time for me; no financial worries but a âwhole lot of free timeâ; did not really think of it as a retirement book as much as a âgood common sense bookâ for a change of life seasons; I concur that it is a fun read; read several of his books after this, but this by far was the best; thanks for a great reminder of a good read at the right time.
Gmail calendar is now best used for scheduling dinner with friends and daily pickleball games. Life is Good!.
Love ESI content
JayCeezy says
Big fan of author Ernie J. Zelinski. Appreciate the “J.”, so we don’t get it twisted. He seems like a hilarious and fun-loving guy, from his initial job-abandonment to his return six months after he said he would be back from vacation. And his “surprise” that they didn’t have his untouched desk and a cup of coffee waiting for him.
My favorite story is him throwing himself a “retirement party” about the time he would have officially retired from that soul-killing functionary position (15 years after he left), inviting his former co-workers and manager, and his “surprise” that nobody responded. This guy is a total Boss. He has two homes, one in Edmonton and one in Vancouver. He’s really only responsible for himself, and he has a good time living the life he wants.
A big part of Personal Finance, retirement blogs/calculators/books, etc. is the “wish fulfillment.” It brings a smile to my face when I think about all the jealous haters Ernie J. Zelinski left behind, and how they squandered years while he fulfilled his wish. I love it when somebody gets what they want, and have earned.
Steph says
I just found your site, and I love it! This was a great synopsis of the book (that I’m putting on my reading list), and I’m going to read Part 2 next. I have a feeling I’ll be spending a lot of today reading through the rest of your content :)!
Michael CPO, From The far side of the planet says
Your daily routine didn’t mention daily chores like cooking, cleaning and taking out the garbage. …. etc…. still gotta do that in retirement đ