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How To Retire Without Money
By Bob Belmont
INTRODUCTION
WHEN I first considered writing this book I chose as
a title "How to Retire at Age 21" but on consideration realized that this might
drive away anyone above this age when actually the book is meant to be of value
to a reader of fifty as well as one just reaching his majority.
Had I used my first title I am sure there would have
been some who would have gone no further than the title itself. "Retire at the
age of 21?" they would have said. "Nonsense! The average American is lucky to
retire at 65—if ever." But while I could agree with them that the average
American is lucky if he ever retires at all, I still contend, in fact, I insist,
that it is quite possible to retire at just about any age given no more than the
usual basic education and an average American intelligence.
Why am I so sure of this? Partly because I have met
hundreds, possibly thousands, of Americans who have done so both in our own
country and abroad. But mostly because I myself called it quits with the
rat-race when in my early twenties and have led the good life ever since.
Possibly the word retirement means different things
to different individuals. If you mean by retirement a life of complete
withdrawal from the world and no activity beyond a 24 hour day loafing, then you
need read no further because I can't help you. The only manner in which to
achieve this, so far as I know, is to inherit a sizable fortune and I doubt that
the average reader of this book has done so. I might mention that such persons,
who have retired in this manner, are seldom happy. I have met them all over the
world, and they are seldom happy.
Retirement, to me, means escape from the rut in
which most find themselves today not only in our own country but in the
civilized world as a whole. It means a comfortable life and one in which a
maximum of leisure can be enjoyed. I also require pleasantness of surroundings
both scenic and climatic not to speak of desirable companionship.
This book is directed at readers who are
dissatisfied with their lot as robots in a factory, toilers in the fields,
clerks in offices or super-markets. It is directed at those who want to enjoy
life while they are still young enough to enjoy it fully.
You can retire, whatever your age, if you wish. I
did and I am not more than an average American. I had an average education
(possibly a bit less than average) and have no more than average intelligence. I
don't particularly have the "gift of gab" and am certainly not a slick article.
The one manner in which I depart from average is my
refusal to join the ranks of my fellow Americans in what seems to me a mad dash
toward oblivion. I am not a religious man but there seems to me an absolute
destruction of the soul in life as it is led today in our country by the
overwhelming majority of our citizens. Frankly, I am not particularly interested
in driving a Cadillac nor a Lincoln. I feel no particular need to live in a
house bigger than that of my neighbor and containing more electrical gadgets. I
have no desire to keep up with the Joneses. And I absolutely refuse to acquire
an ulcer while attempting to do so. If, while living life as I see it, I do
manage to acquire a maximum income, I certainly wouldn't refuse the larger cars,
the ultra-comfortable homes—but I refuse to kill myself, physically and
spiritually, in the attempt. It's as simple as that.
When the army released me I found myself with a
burning repulsion against getting on the treadmill I saw my fellow man plodding.
I had a little more than two thousand dollars and determined not to seek
employment until I had spent that amount seeing the world and spending my time
living in the manner that seemed most desirable to me.
I saw the world, or at least a great deal of it, in
the next few years and somewhat to my surprise I found that I had considerably
more capital on hand than that with which I had started. What had happened was
that as I stopped a few months in this country, half a year in that, a few weeks
in another one, I found ample opportunity to pick up a well paying job of an
interesting and not too arduous nature in one spot, or a small investment
opportunity in another, or to swing a deal of one type or another somewhere
else. Many of the case histories of Americans who have found a better way of
life which you will find in the body of this book, I have actually utilized
myself. Once in awhile I made a mistake, but since my primary concern was not in
getting rich by risking all but only in leading a pleasant life, rich in all
respects except possibly large amounts of money, I was never really hurt
financially or otherwise.
The acquiring of a lovely wife, and of children, brought home to me the
necessity of a more settled existence than the one I had enjoyed so many years
abroad. But I found no need of a return to a humdrum life and what amounts to
slavery. Right at present I am writing and selling books by mail and make
sufficient to enjoy life here in our own country with a minimum of effort. We
plan soon a retirement in, or near, McAllen, Texas—a paradise in many respects.
When the children are grown and on their own, who knows? Perhaps again the
Belmonts will find themselves in Mexico, Europe or the Far East. One thing is
certain, they will never come out of retirement.
BOB BELMONT Wyckoff, New Jersey July, 1958
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