Ernie J. Zelinski is an international best-selling author, prosperity life coach, innovator, speaker, and unconventional career expert. Ernie’s twenty creative works — published in twenty-two languages in twenty-nine countries — have sold over 1,125,000 copies worldwide. Ernie has not used AI to write any of his books and doesn't intend to do so in the future.
Ernie is the author of the international bestsellers How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free (over 475,000 copies sold and published in 11 languages), and The Joy of Not Working (over 320,000 copies sold and published in 17 foreign languages), two life-changing books that have helped hundreds of thousands of individuals around the world live happier and more satisfying lives.
In October 2025 the review site Goodreads rated How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free Number 1 out of over 1,450 retirement books. The Joy of Not Working was rated Number 10.
Ernie's most recent book is Great Friends Rock: How to Find Them — And Keep Them!, a giftbook done in color that entertains as well as advises readers about the importance of friendship. He is presently writing another retirement book after Andrews McMeel Publishing requested that he submit a manuscript for their consideration.
Ernie has been a ditch digger, a wheel barrow pilot, an equipment operator, a laborer, a flag man, an electrical engineer, and a college instructor. He semi-retired at 41 when he was broke and had a net worth of MINUS $30,000 (due to student loans). Practically everyone said it was impossible — but Ernie proved them wrong.
Nowadays Ernie is prosperous and doesn’t like sitting in the cheap seats on airplanes, the symphony, live theater, or at Rolling Stones concerts. He spends most of his vacation time in Vancouver, BC; London, England; and Honolulu, Hawaii. You may see him on his daily morning runs near Stanley Park in Vancouver, in Battersea Park in London, or in Ala Moana Park in Honolulu.
Ernie lives in Edmonton, Alberta where, besides hanging around cosmopolitan coffee shops and restaurants with his laptop and meeting new friends, he enjoys running, cycling, reading, telling twisted jokes to his best friends, and traveling.
