The Retirement Plan with the Most Bugs to Be Worked Out

Winning the Lottery Retirement Plan Image

(Better Known as the Retirement Plan for Dumb People)

A recent study indicated that a whopping 21 percent of Americans see winning the lottery as an important wealth-building strategy. A similar study of Canadians showed that about 12 percent were counting on winning a big lottery so they could have enough retirement income to retire in style.

Winning the lottery is, in fact, the retirement plan designed for dumb people. According to lottery statistics, the odds of winning the Mega Millions Jackpot are said to be one in 175 million.

Of course people would rather deceive themselves. As Robert J. Ringer so wisely stated, "Remember, human beings by and large don't want to hear the truth. Who needs truth if it's going to put you out of business? We would much rather delude ourselves simply by ignoring the facts, even if we only succeed in prolonging the evitable. Unfortunately, by doing so we also guarantee disastrous long-term results."

Recently Gallup identified the top 10 sources of retirement income available to Americans.

1. Retirement savings accounts
2. Home equity
3. Pension plans
4. Social security
5. Certificates of deposit
6. Stocks and mutual funds
7. Retirement jobs
8. Annuities or insurance plans
9. Inheritance
10. Rent and royalties

Note that lottery winnings were not on the top-10 list and would likely not appear on the top-100 list of sources of retirement income. Even so, people actually visit websites and read books on lottery tips to help them win.

Incidentally my retirement income is based primarily on the sales of my book How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free which falls into "Rent and Royalties", the item that provides the least in retirement income for the vast number of retirees.

But The World's Best Retirement Book is a much safer bet for a comfortable retirement than buying lottery tickets. That is why I haven't purchased lottery tickets for years.

Retirement Cafe Book

My lottery tip to you is that if you want an adequate income in retirement, don't count on the lottery.

Simply put, people who are counting on winning the lottery as part of their retirement plan are delusional. Not only are people whose retirement plan is to win the lottery out of touch with reality, their condition seems to get much worse with time.

As already stated, people's chances of winning the lottery are extremely remote. Indeed, their dying in their car is ten to a hundred times more likely given that over 50,000 people in America die in car accidents each year.

An actuary actually calculated that anyone driving to buy a lottery ticket has twice as much chance of dying in a car accident during the trip than he or she has of winning anything from the ticket.

By the way, this is not being negative. It is simply recognizing life the way it is so that you don't pursue an illusion for the rest of your life. If it isn't an illusion, it is something not likely to be attained by 99.99 percent of people who buy lottery tickets.

As hard as it is, wouldn't it still be a lot easier to discover what work really turns you on and to take the necessary steps to pursue it instead of engaging yourself in self-delusion how you can turn your life around by buying lottery tickets?

Even winning a lottery won't save many people from financial despair in their lives. Nothing is more tragic than the person who wants to desperately win a multi-million dollar lottery, actually wins one, and finds out that his or her life is worse than it was before.

In this world there are only two tragedies. One is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it . . . . the last is a real tragedy!
— Oscar Wilde

This is more common than you may think. There are many reasons why this happens but I won't spend time on this; it would take up too much valuable virtual real estate on this website.

I can tell you one important thing, however. If I had won a multi-million dollar lottery while writing my best-selling books, I would have had to stop writing them.

I could no longer have written the books from my heart if I had a million dollars in the bank. Having to stop writing my books would have taken away a lot of purpose and satisfaction from my life.

Keep in mind that if this website or one of my books ends up making me a cool million, I will get a million times more satisfaction than I would from winning an equivalent amount in a lottery. In fact, being a creator is what my retirement plan is based on. It is a sort of a retirement job, but a fun one which I would do for free and which brings me joy in retirement.

There is one more important thing I can tell you about people who win lotteries. They have not done anything remarkable or truly satisfying to earn the money. I am sure that their friends won't respect them even one tenth as much as my friends respect me for using my creativity and initiative to make a decent living without a real job.

In short, after great health, one of the best retirement gifts that you can give yourself is a retirement plan based on your creative efforts instead of on the chances of winning a lottery. This way you won't have to be as concerned about when and where to retire.

Truth be told, winning the lottery is the retirement plan with the most bugs to be worked out.

Retirement Plan - Winning a Lottery Image

Quotes Relating to Winning the Lottery and Other Forms of Gambling as Sources of Retirement Income

Gambling promises the poor what property performs for the rich — something for nothing..
— George Bernard Shaw

There is a very easy way to return from a casino with a small fortune: go there with a large one.
— Jack Yelton

Look around the table. If you don't see a sucker, get up, because you are the sucker.
— Amarillo Slim

The secret of life is to appreciate the pleasure of being terribly deceived.
— Oscar Wilde

The probability of winning is inversely proportional to the amount of the wager.
— Las Vegas proverb