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.

01. Consider Retirement - A youngster gets out of school and finds himself a job in a field of work that appeals to him. He has to start pretty well at the bottom but since Samuel Lucky is a hard working, intelligent, honest lad, he slowly works his way up the ladder of success. Early in the game he finds Lois, the girl of his dreams and they marry and start up a household.

02. Where to Retire - This book is going to show you how you can attain the good life. It's going to give scores of examples of others, in­cluding this writer, who have done it. I don't care what your educational background is or how much money you have in the bank, or if you have any at all. I don't care how old you are, or whether or not you have any skills.

03. When to Retire - Do you know what the word vicarious means? My dictionary puts it this way:

Vicarious, adjective. 1. performed, exercised, received or suffered in place of another. 2. taking the place of an­other person or thing; acting or serving as a substitute. 3. pertaining to or involving the substitution of one for another.

For instance, if you go to a movie and watch two or three cow­boys kill a hundred or so Indians, you are having a vicarious ad­venture

04. Small Income - This book is not devoted solely to persons who have established incomes, either pensions or investments. I plan to reveal how any adult American, with or without income, with or without savings, can retire and lead a more full life. However, before deal­ing with general details on how to accomplish this I should like to devote a short chapter to those persons who do have a small in­come already on hand

05. Bargain Paradises - As we've already said, the United States is the most expensive country in the world.

However, there is a big IF to this.

Because in many respects it is the cheapest country in the world.

It is the most expensive country if you attempt to keep up with the Joneses, if you insist on big houses in expensive areas, new cars and a yearly rash of new TV sets, refrigerators, deep freezes, vacuum cleaners and what not.

06. Art Colonies - The art colony is an interesting institution peculiar not only to the United States. In fact, you find them even more often in Mexico and Europe, and for all I know all over the world where there are artists. Since retiring from the grind, I have personally lived in such art colonies in America, Mexico, Spain, Italy and Morocco. And always I've found stimulating qualities in both the towns and their populations.

07. Home Town - 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.

08. Mexico - In a nutshell. The Federal Republic of Mexico with its area of 760,373 square miles and its population pushing 30 millions is the third largest nation of North America (following Canada and the United States) but the second largest in population.

Considering the fact that she is an immediate neighbor of ours, it is astonishing how many misconceptions Americans who have never been to Mexico have acquired.

09. Spain - In a nutshell. For some reason most of we Ameri­cans who have never visited Spain think of this country as a small one and it comes as a shock to find that of all of our States only Texas is larger than she. And her population is pushing thirty million which makes her one of the more populous countries of Europe.

Possibly our ignorance of Spain is due to the fact that few members of this generation have visited Spain.

10. France - In a nutshell. France is one of the largest nations in Europe both in area and in population. She has 213,009 square miles and some 45 million citizens, and that makes her second only to the Soviet Union in size, and to Great Britain in population, this side of the Iron Curtain.

For probably the majority of Americans, France is the country that first comes to mind when retiring abroad is mentioned.

11. Italy - In a nutshell. The Republic of Italy is approx­imately the size of Arizona and if her population continues to grow at its present rate, will soon have the largest number of citizens of any European country save only the Soviet Union.

To give a quick rundown on Italy is a task beyond the meager abilities of this writer for there is probably no land in the world about which so very much can be said.

12. Austria - In a nutshell. Once proud Austria, largest of European Empires, now has a land area of but 32,375 square miles and a population of about seven million. She compares with Maine or Indiana in size and her total population is less than that of New York City.

But although the Austro-Hungarian Empire is no longer the gigantic hodge-podge of nations it once was, Austria herself still lives and there is a unique feeling, in this little land, of glories of the past that never leaves you.

13. Great Britain - In a Nutshell. Great Britain, including Northern Ireland, has a land area of but 94,212 square miles but a popula­tion of over 50 million. This means she is about the size of our Wyoming or Oregon but runs neck and neck with Western Ger­many in having the largest population in Europe save the Soviet Union.

It's been said over and over that the reason the British are the greatest colonizers the world has ever seen is because they have such a terrible climate that they flee abroad.

14. Greece - In a Nutshell. Today Greece is one of the smaller and less important nations of Europe. Her size is approximately that of Alabama even counting all of her islands and her population less than New York's. In a way it is hard to believe that this is the land from which sprang Western Civilization.

Mainland Greece is not, largely, one of the more attractive countries of the continent. The greater part of her land area is mountainous, rocky and colorless. There are exceptions, of course, many of them.

15. Morocco - In a nutshell. Morocco is both old-old and still one of the most recent additions to the family of nations. A bit larger than California in size and with roughly ten million persons, until 1956 Morocco was a French protectorate. This protectorate had been imposed on the Moroccans in 1912 at which time the inter­national powers were gleefully splitting up what little remained of the world not already assimilated.

16. Japan - In a nutshell. Morocco is both old-old and still one of the most recent additions to the family of nations. A bit larger than California in size and with roughly ten million persons, until 1956 Morocco was a French protectorate. This protectorate had been imposed on the Moroccans in 1912 at which time the inter­national powers were gleefully splitting up what little remained of the world not already assimilated.

17. Other Place - The previous chapters have been devoted to defi­nite portions of the United States or to various countries where re­tirement abroad is particularly suitable. Most of our case histories however are just about as applicable in one country as another, or in one section of the United States as well as another, although there are some exceptions.

But there are those of us who have no particular desire to settle down in one town or even one country.

18. Get Started - As I pointed out in the chapter entitled WHEN TO RETIRE, the reader who is seriously determined to get out of the rat-race and build a new and satisfactory life in retirement, must decide to do it now.

If you lack this determination to do it now, you will probably never do it at all and retirement will come to you, if it ever comes, at the age of 65 or more when most of life has passed you by.

19. Wealth Acquisition - You cannot retire successfully unless you have an assured income or great confidence in securing an adequate income. I want to give you a little lesson in economics—not the kind of economics you might learn in schools or in colleges. In fact, I don't know of any schools and colleges that will teach you this kind of economics. But this is the kind of economics I live by, the kind of economics I have succeeded with.

20. Retirement Ideas - A person or group who deals in labor is known by the genteel name of "employer." Employers are a cutthroat lot, on the whole. Besides their niggardly treatment of their employees on the whole they will not hesitate for one minute to reduce their com­petitors to the status of paupers if they could—and they often can and do. They continually wage economic war with each other. This is called competition.

21. Odds & Ends - How to Use Your Imagination. Imagination is a dream searching for fulfillment. You will find it wise to dream. Dream magnificent dreams—the wildest dreams. Incorporate your ambitions and wants into these dreams. What would make you happiest in the whole world? Well dream about it. Picture this dream. Fix it in your mind. Now just how impossible is it? What would you have to do to make it come true? What can you do?

22. Last Word - All right, that's it. You can do this thing. You can retire, starting right now, as of this minute. Before you is the road to real life.

The treadmill, the rat-race, the carrot-on-the-stick chasing existence, the workaday world; all these you can forget. It's up to you.

THE END