The one manner in which I depart from average is my refusal to join the ranks of my fellow Americans in what seems to me a mad dash toward oblivion. I am not a religious man but there seems to me an absolute destruction of the soul in life as it is led today in our country by the overwhelming majority of our citizens. Frankly, I am not particularly interested in driving a Cadillac nor a Lincoln. I feel no particular need to live in a house bigger than that of my neighbor and containing more electrical gadgets. I have no desire to keep up with the Joneses. And I absolutely re­fuse to acquire an ulcer while attempting to do so. If, while living life as I see it, I do manage to acquire a maximum income, I certainly wouldn't refuse the larger cars, the ultra-comfortable homes-but I refuse to kill myself, physically and spiritually, in the attempt. It's as simple as that.

When the army released me I found myself with a burning re­pulsion against getting on the treadmill I saw my fellow man plodding. I had a little more than two thousand dollars and de­termined not to seek employment until I had spent that amount seeing the world and spending my time living in the manner that seemed most desirable to me.

I saw the world, or at least a great deal of it, in the next few years and somewhat to my surprise I found that I had considerably more capital on hand than that with which I had started. What had happened was that as I stopped a few months in this country, half a year in that, a few weeks in another one, I found ample opportunity to pick up a well paying job of an interesting and not too arduous nature in one spot, or a small investment opportunity in another, or to swing a deal of one type or another somewhere else. Many of the case histories of Americans who have found a better way of life which you will find in the body of this book, I have actually utilized myself. Once in awhile I made a mistake, but since my primary concern was not in getting rich by risking all but only in leading a pleasant life, rich in all respects except possibly large amounts of money, I was never really hurt financi­ally or otherwise.

The acquiring of a lovely wife, and of children, brought home to me the necessity of a more settled existence than the one I had enjoyed so many years abroad. But I found no need of a return to a humdrum life and what amounts to slavery. Right at present I am writing and selling books by mail and make sufficient to enjoy life here in our own country with a minimum of effort. We plan soon a retirement in, or near, McAllen, Texas-a paradise in many respects. When the children are grown and on their own, who knows? Perhaps again the Belmonts will find themselves in Mexi­co, Europe or the Far East. One thing is certain, they will never come out of retirement.

Bob Belmont Wyckoff, New Jersey July, 1958
(Updated with the latest facts and figures for 2005.)