How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free

by Ernie J. Zelinski
Hennepin County Library - paperback and audiobook
229 pages, 8 discs
read by J. Charles
genre: non-fiction, self-help

Random notes (as I was at stoplights, etc.):

Brainstormed list of things I'd like to "do" in retirement:
prayer and Bible study
ministry
travel
walks
quilting
volunteer (Meals on Wheels, DARTS, Habitat for Humanity, Respite / Foster care, tutoring)
grandchildren?
swimming

This was in response to his stressing having a "purpose" in retirement. This part is easy for me! I love to help others and serve. I have lots of interests and little time to pursue them. The word BLESSING kept coming to mind.

The first part of the book energized me! I'd heard somewhere that you should plan to live until 90. He says plan to live to 120 and live each day as though it's your last (or something along those lines). Financially, I don't know what that "should" look like. I really appreciate the fact that his focus isn't on money; it's on life choices. He does point out that you can earn more or spend less. He also talks about working part-time to help finance retirement. He ends the book by saying "spend it all!" Hard to do when you don't know how long your life will last . . . and it's kind of cool to leave money to others who can be blessed by it.

Be a "connoisseur" of life. I like that! It got really, really old when he was warning about boredom in retirement. I cannot fathom getting bored. Life has so much to offer!

The section on not spending retirement watching TV was beaten to death . . . seriously? Do people do that? Sit and watch television for hours and hours each day? Not worried about that. Yet he brought it up in almost every chapter! Ad nauseum . . .

Ironically, he talks about having structure to your days AND being spontaneous. Whatever. Some of his life philosophy stuff was too trite to even reference with specifics.

Every time he talked about using the internet for doing research and read out the entire address "double-you, double-you, double-you dot trivago dot com" . . . made me wish I was reading the print version so I could just jump down to the next chunk of text.

Another problem with the audio version (and the print, for that matter) was the author's extensive use of lists. I fast-forwarded over ten-plus minutes of him listing activities you can do in retirement. Really. I think every chapter had lists in it. You could rename the book "Retirement for people who can't think for themselves."

Okay, enough slamming. I kept with the book for the entire experience for a reason!
1. I loved the positive "you can do this" message. I told Louie about some of the things I got from this book. He's still focused on the financial aspects of retiring and I'm really bad about that. We're going to crunch numbers this summer.
2. I liked the chapter on travel! One of the things I'm definitely looking forward to even before we retire.
3. I really liked people's personal testimonies about what a difference retirement made in their lives. A lot of these folks retired before "traditional" ages of 62, 65, etc. Very encouraging!

Besides the ability to skip over sections (like lists, or being single), the other thing I liked about the print version is the inclusion of comics! I listened to the audiobook in my car, then checked the book for the comics I'd missed after I got home. I'm not sure how much of my irritation with this title was the writing and how much was the reader's voice. In any case, it was worth experiencing this title. It's definitely different from anything else I've read and got me thinking even more about my future.

I also made a note to talk to Betsy Lasch and Judy Shallow about retirement . . . I really want to follow through on this!