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CHAPTER 4-RETIRING ON A 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.
I say a small income, because it is obvious that if you have a large one you have no need of my advice on how to retire, no matter what age you may be. Given sufficient money, nobody need have any difficulty retiring.
The very purpose of this book is to tell those persons who do not have sufficient money—or at least think they haven't—how they can accomplish this desirable goal.
Give a European a small income, you can almost say no matter how small, and he'll retire, no matter what his age. The average European feels that the most important thing in life is freedom to dispense his time in the way he wishes. He figures that as long as you are at the mercy of a business, even your own, or of an employer, you are not truly free. Others dictate how your time shall be spent.
So you will find throughout Europe and especially in the very economical countries such as Spain, Austria and Greece hundreds of thousands of Europeans, both single persons and families, who have retired at any age from 18 to 80. They simply cannot understand why anyone should continue working after already reaching the point where he, or she, has sufficient funds with which to lead a full life.
I know I am going to run into disbelief here, but I personally have met, in various places throughout the world, single persons, couples and even families who have retired on as little as fifty dollars a month and have no other source of income.