One of the questions that troubles many people that are about to retire is: 'How will I survive after retirement?
When income from full salary does not guarantee a life without financial worries, what can you and I possibly do without new sources of income after retirement?
A few months ago, I met Sivaraman who had created prosperity in his life after retirement. "People think that active life comes to an end after retirement. This thought sucks all energy away and makes them lead a boring, meaningless, unproductive life even if they are mentally strong and physically active," said Sivaraman.
"You are right. In developed countries many people 'retire' at the age of 40! By retirement they mean they are going to do actively something they love to do. As most people in this country don't like their jobs, they must take the attitude that when they retire they will give up something that they don't like and it is an opportunity to do something they love to do," I said.
"Oh my God! That's exactly what I thought the moment I retired," said Sivaraman. "Can you please tell me about yourself?" I asked him.
"I have been working as a stenographer in a big steel manufacturing company. Even though I had earned good salary, and had managed to save a decent amount of money, I had to spend all my savings on my daughter's wedding. When I retired, I was left with a single bed room flat, a bicycle and Rs.6,000/- in my bank account. I did not have any source income and no one was willing to give an old retired fellow a job. After a few days and nights of worries, I decided to take up self-employment,' said Sivaraman.
"I believe that's the best decision you have ever made in your life," I said.
Sivaraman replied with a smile, "Yes. However I did not know what to do. I am good in Kannada and English. So, I thought of using my language skills to generate income. I am not a writer. But I am an avid reader of variety of books. I have read all the books in the local library. Even though I would never buy books as that would leave a hole in my pocket, I would spend hours in bookshops and book fairs. One day a friend of mine that did not know English, brought an American self-improvement book and requested me to tell him the key points in that book in Kannada."
"Did that produce a spark in your heart?" I asked him. "Yes. I thought there would be hundreds of best selling books in English in the market and I could translate them into Kannada. This idea made me energetic. I met the local booksellers and got a list of bestsellers. I sent emails to overseas publishers of those books. All of them sent replies promptly with many questions relating to my career as an author of books, past experience as a translator and present assignments. I gave them truthful answers to their questions and after that none of them bothered to contact me."
"In developed countries, you have to go through good agents to get such assignments. Even Rowling, the author of Harry Potter series, works through agents," I said.
"But I did not give up. I took a list of best-selling books that were written in English by Indian authors and contacted them. A few authors sent favorable replies. Some of them were so excited and so generous that they gave me rights to publish the translated work on my own for just a token fees payable after I start making profits! I worked day and night and translated three books in Kannda, borrowed some money and published the books through my own new publishing company. I printed just 500 copies of each book and with them participated in a book fair. Guess what, I was able to sell a total of 850 books and recovered all the costs. In the following month, I participated in another book fair and made decent profit. After this initial success, I printed thousands of copies, and begin to participate in many book fairs."
"How much do you earn a month?" I asked him. "Well, now I am in a position to provide full time employment to three people. I have a decent bank balance. I earn more than what I used to earn at the peak of my career as a stenographer," he said.
"Can we say that retirement is an opportunity to create prosperity in life?" I asked him. "You bet," he said happily and looked at his expensive wristwatch.