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Retirement

Written by: Zig Ziglar

Article Overview: Are you prepared for retirement? As a nation, our citizenry is getting older and older. At the turn of the century the average person lived less than three years after he retired. Now the average is more than five times that, and the typical 50-year-old of today will probably have twenty-plus years in retirement.

Retirement

Are you prepared for retirement? As a nation, our citizenry is getting older and older. At the turn of the century the average person lived less than three years after he retired. Now the average is more than five times that, and the typical 50-year-old of today will probably have twenty-plus years in retirement.

We are living longer, but, unfortunately, too many people are not preparing for longer life. There are several things we need to do. We need to be preparing more rigorously for a financially secure retirement. We also need to prepare ourselves from a health standpoint, and if we expect to maintain both physical and emotional health, mental preparation is essential to the enjoyment of our latter years.

To begin preparing I suggest that you learn the definition of two words: idleness and leisure.

My trusty 1828 Noah Webster Dictionary says that idleness is “abstinence from labor or employment; the state of doing nothing; aversion to labor; reluctance to be employed or to exertion, either of body or mind; sloth; sluggishness.” Idleness is often the effect of laziness and sometimes this word may be used for it.

Leisure is “freedom from occupation or business; vacant time; time free from employment or convenience of time.” There are few people today who would disagree with the fact that all of us need some leisure or time for ourselves to relax, enjoy life and literally do nothing. However, we need to explore carefully what the implications of too much leisure or idleness itself might bring.

An anonymous writer makes this observation: No one has a right to live in idleness and expect to live long and be happy. The ship anchored in the harbor rots faster than the ship crossing the ocean. A still pool of water stagnates more rapidly than a running stream. Our unused muscles atrophy much more rapidly than those in use. The unused cells in our brains deteriorate much faster than those which are continually exercised. Hence, to remain in good enough condition to enjoy our longer life we must remain active.

Insurance statistics clearly reveal that when people retire, unless they have new activities which will keep them busy doing something of value, their life span is substantially shortened, so enjoy some leisure time but be careful about idleness. Make sure you know the difference.

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Article Tags: abstinence, anonymous writer, atrophy, average person, aversion, brains, citizenry, emotional health, exertion, laziness, less than three years, noah webster dictionary, reluctance, running stream, sluggishness, standpoint, time time, trusty, turn of the century, unused cells



Related Forum Posts
The Double Close/Escrow - Hello, I was in business for many years and have decided to buy another. Retirement isn't what it was cracked up to be. BITD if I needed a piece of equipment or bought another business I just put up 20 percent and the bank did the rest. I have been reading about another way however and hope some of you can fill in some blanks for me. What I am reading about is the double closing which uses a swing loan and an asset lender to purchase the assets of a business to use as the down payment. As below: 1.You arrange a swing loan for the down payment amount from the bank and give this to the seller. Supposedly after the paperwork this transfers title of the business and its assets to you. 2. In another room you have a second closing set up with a asset lender who loans you the amount of the swing loan which you use to pay off the swing loan. Now the asset based lender owns the assets as collateral for his loan and the seller is owner -financing the remaining balance. Now , I get a double escrow close in real estate circles but there are a couple of things about this business purchase situation that I don't understand. If the seller of the business is owner financing it and has the first lien what is his motivation to allow his assets to be used for collateral to the asset lender? Does the asset lender take a second lien on the asset loan he has just made( the down payment)? Or does it truly mean that during the first closing where the seller received the down payment that the right to do whatever I wanted with the assets was truly transferred to me and I can now give the asset lender a first lien position? This seems very strange to me but I continue to read about it in numerous places and the methodology never varies. Again, its been awhile since I did all this and we were much simpler back then. However, even then it took an act of God and Congress for any first lien holder to give up that position. Even for a very large down payment. Any help you guys and gals could give me would be greatly appreciated. All the Best!


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