Description
"To be sure, retirement books are a glutted field, but most focus on money and financial planning. They view the finish line as the last day of employment. That's where Zelinski's begins."
-- Jonathan Chevreau, Financial Post THE REMARKABLE RETIREMENT BOOK THAT TEACHES YOU:
No other retirement book covers the important nonfinancial aspects of retirement as comprehensively and with as much humor as How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free. That's why the original edition sold over 475,000 copies.
- Print Sales: 424,801
- Apple eBook Sales: 3,723
- Amazon Kindle Sales: 35,319
- Kobo Sales: 706
- Brilliance Audio Sales: 22,304
TOTAL = 486,853 Results don't lie, in other words. Indeed, on August 20, 2026, Goodreads ranked How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free as Number 1 out of 1,648 books in its retirement category. (The author's The Joy of NOT Working was ranked Number 11.) This book is the perfect gift to give to someone about to retire. In this updated edition, author Ernie J. Zelinski gives important lessons for soon-to-retire and already-retired individuals on how to have a healthy, happy, and prosperous retirement. In short, the retirement wisdom in this book will prove much more important than how much money you have saved. How to Retire Happy Wild, and Free helps readers create an active, satisfying, and happy retirement in a way such that they don't need a million dollars to retire happily and comfortably. "Get this book if you look forward to a retirement with 'zing!' "
-- Nancy Paradis, St. Petersburg Times, Florida
Author: Ernie J. Zelinski
Publisher: Visions International Publishing
Published: 10/13/2026
Pages: 240
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.87lbs
ISBN13: 9781927452257
ISBN10: 1927452252
BISAC Categories:
- Business & Economics | Personal Finance | Retirement Planning
- Self-Help | Personal Growth | Happiness
- Business & Economics | Careers | General
In October 2025 the review site Goodreads rated How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free Number 1 out of over 1,450 retirement books. The Joy of Not Working was rated Number 10. Ernie has been a ditch digger, a wheel barrow pilot, an equipment operator, a laborer, a flag man, an electrical engineer, a Simon Fraser University sessional instructor, a professional speaker, and an international best-selling author. He was fortunate enough to have been fired from his job as a professional engineer over forty years ago and to have leveraged his many years of struggle without a real job into a lifestyle of personal and financial freedom. Erne lives by the mantra he first introduced in his Life's Secret Handbook: "Be a LEARNER First; become a MASTER Second; and remain a STUDENT Forever." Ernie plans to write twenty-seven books in his lifetime. He semi-retired when he was forty-one years old and had a net worth of minus $30,000. Practically everyone said this was impossible. He proved them wrong. Today Ernie is prosperous and free. He doesn't like sitting in the cheap seats on airplanes, the symphony, live theater, or at Rolling Stones concerts. He spends most of his vacation time in Vancouver, BC; London, England; and Honolulu, Hawaii. You may see him on his daily morning runs near Stanley Park in Vancouver, in Battersea Park in London, or in Ala Moana Park in Honolulu. Ernie lives in Edmonton, Alberta where, besides hanging around cosmopolitan coffee shops and restaurants with his laptop and meeting new friends, he enjoys running, cycling, reading, telling twisted jokes to his best friends, and traveling.
-- Jonathan Chevreau, Financial Post THE REMARKABLE RETIREMENT BOOK THAT TEACHES YOU:
- The best retirement activities for maintaining your mental and physical health
- How to matter and make a big difference in your retirement
- How to have more purpose in your retirement than you had in your career
- Why you should be a LEARNER First; become a MASTER Second; and remain a STUDENT Forever
- How to abolish boredom with The EZ Rule of Life
- How to develop an important element of happiness that the vast majority of billionaires and multi-millionaires will never have
- How to always get what you want in retirement
- Why The Get-a-Life Tree is a powerful tool for creating activities worth pursuing in your retirement
- Why 3D Vision reduces your chances of having a happy retirement -- and why 3C Vision greatly increases your chances of having a happy retirement
- How to avoid loneliness which has been cited as a serious health problem by the US Government Health Department
- The most powerful ways to get satisfaction and happiness from spending your money
- Why your needs have always been provided for -- and likely will be in retirement
- The most endearing and enduring legacy that you can leave for your family, friends, and the rest of the world -- that costs the least money
No other retirement book covers the important nonfinancial aspects of retirement as comprehensively and with as much humor as How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free. That's why the original edition sold over 475,000 copies.
- Print Sales: 424,801
- Apple eBook Sales: 3,723
- Amazon Kindle Sales: 35,319
- Kobo Sales: 706
- Brilliance Audio Sales: 22,304
TOTAL = 486,853 Results don't lie, in other words. Indeed, on August 20, 2026, Goodreads ranked How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free as Number 1 out of 1,648 books in its retirement category. (The author's The Joy of NOT Working was ranked Number 11.) This book is the perfect gift to give to someone about to retire. In this updated edition, author Ernie J. Zelinski gives important lessons for soon-to-retire and already-retired individuals on how to have a healthy, happy, and prosperous retirement. In short, the retirement wisdom in this book will prove much more important than how much money you have saved. How to Retire Happy Wild, and Free helps readers create an active, satisfying, and happy retirement in a way such that they don't need a million dollars to retire happily and comfortably. "Get this book if you look forward to a retirement with 'zing!' "
-- Nancy Paradis, St. Petersburg Times, Florida
Author: Ernie J. Zelinski
Publisher: Visions International Publishing
Published: 10/13/2026
Pages: 240
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.87lbs
ISBN13: 9781927452257
ISBN10: 1927452252
BISAC Categories:
- Business & Economics | Personal Finance | Retirement Planning
- Self-Help | Personal Growth | Happiness
- Business & Economics | Careers | General
About the Author
Ernie J. Zelinski is an international best-selling author, prosperity life coach, innovator, professional speaker, and unconventional career expert. Through his remarkable life-changing books, he has helped hundreds of thousands of individuals from all walks of life with their major career transitions and retirement planning.
In October 2025 the review site Goodreads rated How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free Number 1 out of over 1,450 retirement books. The Joy of Not Working was rated Number 10. Ernie has been a ditch digger, a wheel barrow pilot, an equipment operator, a laborer, a flag man, an electrical engineer, a Simon Fraser University sessional instructor, a professional speaker, and an international best-selling author. He was fortunate enough to have been fired from his job as a professional engineer over forty years ago and to have leveraged his many years of struggle without a real job into a lifestyle of personal and financial freedom. Erne lives by the mantra he first introduced in his Life's Secret Handbook: "Be a LEARNER First; become a MASTER Second; and remain a STUDENT Forever." Ernie plans to write twenty-seven books in his lifetime. He semi-retired when he was forty-one years old and had a net worth of minus $30,000. Practically everyone said this was impossible. He proved them wrong. Today Ernie is prosperous and free. He doesn't like sitting in the cheap seats on airplanes, the symphony, live theater, or at Rolling Stones concerts. He spends most of his vacation time in Vancouver, BC; London, England; and Honolulu, Hawaii. You may see him on his daily morning runs near Stanley Park in Vancouver, in Battersea Park in London, or in Ala Moana Park in Honolulu. Ernie lives in Edmonton, Alberta where, besides hanging around cosmopolitan coffee shops and restaurants with his laptop and meeting new friends, he enjoys running, cycling, reading, telling twisted jokes to his best friends, and traveling.