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How To Retire Without Money
By Bob Belmont
CHAPTER 7 IN YOUR
OWN HOME TOWN
Page 1 of 12
We make a big
point in this book of not only the need to retire while still
young enough to enjoy it, but also of seeking out the better
places in the world in which to appreciate the very tops in
climatic and scenic offerings. However, it is obvious that
many of us are, for various reasons, in no position to leave
our present homes.
For one
thing, perhaps you are already living in one of the land's
bargain paradises. Perhaps your home is already in Florida,
Southern California, Arizona, or the Lower Rio Grande Valley.
Why leave? Why not retire where you are already?
In fact,
there are often advantages in simply retiring in your own home
town. Possibly you have a house already paid for, and
undoubtedly you have a good many connections, not to speak of
friends and relatives. Very possibly your credit is good at
the bank, to start a retirement project.
And, of
course, there may be many reasons why you cannot just get up
and go—as I did—leaving the old world behind you. Possibly you
have aged parents depending upon your presence. Perhaps you
have children in the local schools, and hesitate to take them
from their friends and classes.
But whatever the reason, this chapter is devoted to the reader
who wishes to retire but is in no position to leave the home
in which he now resides.
Books on
retirement are a dime a dozen, and you can go to the local
library and find an armload of them to study. They'll give you
a multitude of ideas on how to cut prices, to live cheaply, to
make a hobby of bringing prices down. I could give you a good
many of these too, everything from suggesting that your wife
start canning her own fruits and vegetables in season, to you
learning to repair the family shoes and cutting your own hair.
Such items can save a mint of money if you're trying to live
economically. How-ever, space limitations make it a bit of the
ridiculous side, my competing with all the library books,
Government Printing Office pamphlets and the other
publications devoted to retiring on a budget.
The purpose
of this book is more to get you in the frame of mind to take
this retirement step. To show you examples of others who have
done it successfully. To give you that little push that will
result in your getting off the treadmill and making a more
satisfactory way of life.
But there is
one thing I'd like to stress in this matter of retiring in
your own home town. If you packed your things one day,
collected whatever savings you had, and took off for Sarasota,
Florida; Grass Valley, California; or Sante Fe, New Mexico,
and once there started your new way of life, there would be
nobody to look you askance. It would seem completely natural
to them, as would any project you might develop in order to
augment your income.
Ah, but in
your own home town. What would they say if you quit your job?
Your job as foreman down at the pretzel bending department of
the biscuit company, where your father worked before you and
his father before him. Would they think you'd gone stark
raving mad when you announced that although you were only 25
years of age, you had decided to retire from the rat-race?
Would the minister of your church come around to discuss it
with you? Would relatives ranging from your parents to second
cousins attempt to argue you out of it—contending that the
natural state of man is slavery in a factory or office?
>>> CHAPTER 7 IN YOUR
OWN HOME TOWN Page 2
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