How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free Book Review

How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free by Ernie J. Zelinski was one of the books that chose for my 2026 personal finance resolutions. I see Ernie’s comments in Joe’s Retire By 40 blog frequently, and then I saw his book mentioned in another book I was reading, so I thought I should add it to my book read list.

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Who is Ernie zelinski?

Ernie Zelinski is an international best selling author. He wrote The Joy of Not Working and Career Success Without a Real Job. He semi-retired from his corporate job as an engineer at the age of 31 with a net worth of negative $30,000. He ended up pivoting careers and worked 4-5 hours a day on his own time and is now a a best selling author.

Here’s an interview from Joe’s Retire by 40 blog with Ernie Zelinksi. Joe did that interview when his son was 4 (!) so that was a number of years ago since his son is in high school now.

How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free Book Review

How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free: Retirement wisdom that you won’t get from your financial advisor is a great book to read if you are contemplating retirement or if you are planning on retiring soon. It doesn’t really talk about the financial side of things, but more the spiritual side of things and how to live your retirement to the fullest. It is an inspiring read and will definitely get you excited and hopeful about the idea of retirement.

Chapter 1: Thank Heaven for Retirement

Ernie talks about how retirement isn’t for everyone but there are signs to know when you are ready for retirement. Retirement comes with a lot of flexibility, and some people can’t handle that amount of flexibility (e.g. end up watching television all day). Personal fulfillment can be attained during reitrement but it involves finding out who you are, figuring out what your creative pursuits are, optimizing your liesure time, and maintaining physical and spiritual well-being.

Chapter 2: Retirement: A Time to Become Much More than You Have Ever Been

In this chapter, Ernie talks about how finding your true calling can make retirement the best years of your life. He even gives very detailed examples of things you could do in retirement, such as writing science fiction, recording the history of your hometown, or go back to university to get a degree for the sake of learning (and not to just get a job). The possibilities are endless, but it is up to you to decide if you want to make it happen.

Chapter 3: So Many Worlds, So Much to Do!

The author encourages the reader to make a “Get a Life Tree” where you can brainstorm things that make you happy now, things that made you happy before, and things you could do. There are so many things to do in life but many people still choose to watch television. In fact, he says the average North American retiree watches about five hours of television a day.

Ernie also talks about how retirees tend to like gambling and how this is not an ideal activity either. I remember my grandfather liked to go to the casino to pass time, he didn’t lose money but I guess the slot machines gave that dopamine hit even with small amounts of money.

These passive activities are not ideal for retirement.

Chapter 4: Take Special Care of Yourself: Being No One Else Will

This is important for both your physical (vigorous activity) and mental health. Your lifestyle and physical activity is so important. I have a great aunt who turned 95 and still plays badminton regularly. Meanwhile, my 80 year old uncle who was sedentary most of his life and who ate out at restaurants mostly is now in a long term care home and has difficulty walking.

If there’s nothing to do in retirement, taking care of your physical health is something to do.

He also talks about how being an active learner is important. Even brushing your teeth with your non-dominant hand can help you keep your mind sharp.

Chapter 5: Learning is For Life

The Internet has opened up lots of possibilities to learn for retirees. There are no excuses (unless you don’t know how to use the Internet). In addition, he talks about Road Scholar, which is a non-profit travel and education organization for adults 55 years old and up. I had not heard of it but it looks great and the prices look very reasonable for a tour. The focus is on education.

Chapter 6: Your Wealth is Where Your Friends Are:

Friendships are one of the most important aspects of a happy life. In this chapter, Ernie talks about how to spot a good friend, how to nurture friendship, and how to make new friends.

Chapter 7: Travel for Fun, Adventure, and More

Working vacation, senior home exchanges, eco-tourism, adventure travel tours for those 50 years and up are just some of the options for travel. The world is vast and there’s so much to see and experience, travel is one of my top priorities when I retire.

Even planning your travel is exciting and half of the enjoyment of the actual travel (I know that I really enjoy planning our travel and it’s one of the most exciting parts of travel).

Chapter 8: Relocate to Where Retirement Living is Best

Moving to a college town (lively, lots of activities to do), to paradise (somewhere warm throughout the year) or a place with a better climate may help your retirement lifestyle improve by leaps and bounds. The rainy winter season has started to bother me slightly as I am getting older. I can see myself getting out of dodge for a few months to escape when I retire. Moving to a warm location might be nice too except for the health care situation.

Chapter 9: Happiness Doesn’t Care How You Get There

Happiness is something that you can’t see and it is free. Money can’t buy health, creativity, good character, humility, courage, respect of others, gratitude, self-esteem.

“You will overlook the silver lining if you are always expecting gold”. Envy is not a good feeling to have, especially in the western world when we have so much more than those living in poverty or developing countries.

“Don’t leave this world with songs unsung that you would like to sing”

You can be wealthy with $6 million net worth and still be unhappy (I know someone who is!).

What I Liked About How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free

This book was an upbeat book that will get you thinking about the non-financial aspect of retirement. I enjoyed the anecdotes and letters written from his readers, I enjoyed the quotes and the cartoons.

It was an easy read and it read like a Boomer wrote it (Ernie Zelinski is in the Boomer generation).

What I Didn’t Like About How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free

There wasn’t anything I didn’t like about the book, it was inspiring and there are some great tips in there. For example, I didn’t know about Road Scholar. I’ll be old enough to partake in a few years, haha!

The world is your oyster but only you can choose whether you want to take part in what the world has to offer.

Genymoney.ca’s Verdict

If you’re scared of the idea of too much leisure, you should pick up this book and get some ideas on how to fill your time in retirement. Right now, I am quite busy on my 2-3 days off (while the kids are in school) exercising, food prepping, cleaning, writing and working on this blog, and planning trips.

I don’t think I’ll have trouble in retirement, but that’s probably 7-13 years away- not sure what the future might bring. Nonetheless, this book was a great reminder of the important things in life. When you are retired, you have eliminated the money aspect of life (there should be enough of it since you have retired), you just have to focus on ‘life’ now. Which is relationships, health, purpose, and meaning.

In some cases, that might be more difficult for some than the 9-5 grind!

What are your thoughts on How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free?