The Future

pigfarmer

tall, thin, irritable
I thought this might be a better place for this topic than the other threads it came up in. We have enough of us old farts here .....
 

pigfarmer

tall, thin, irritable
@Standingstones
I’ve always wondered about those people who are forced to work well into their 70s and beyond. I have known many people who worked at the phone company and never put a nickel aside for retirement. They finally got to 65 and had to continue working because Social Security money alone wouldn’t cut it.

@nivek
I don't know if 'forced' is the right word to cover it, perhaps in some cases, but I think for many its due to poor choices in life and mainly not living within their means...I would rather not get that new car I've always wanted and keep my debt low or have none at all so I have my own money to live on when I'm 65 years old give or take...Some people cannot save money to save their lives, I know someone like that, give him 100 dollars it's gone the next day, give him 500 dollars it's gone the next day...He's 42 years old now, where do you think he might be financially when he reaches 65?...I'm not condemning anyone, just an observation...

Not a simple or one size fits all answer.

A good friend of mine died suddenly at 56 and his wife has zero clue about anything - money, insurance, bills, nothing. This is one of those cases where being in a labor union for decades paid off - she received some benefits that helped a lot. How people live like that is beyond me.

My aunt has built a decent consulting business that's still cooking despite the virus. She's 84 and has a lunatic drive to keep going despite health issues, etc. She's staving off the inevitable by throwing herself into her job - and it seems to be working despite the fact she drives us to distraction in the process. Technology issues. Oooooof. But she's in the game.

A friend just retired at 73 with a small business and I was kind of shocked to find out how he was going to wrap things up. His plan is a little shaky and he knows it - surprising considering that he's ordinarily pretty saavy. He's one who just sort of wound up a bit past retirement age and doesn't quite know what to do with himself. I sort of expected him to have things all laid out. I guess not. You never know.

I work with a lovely guy who already retired once and has now put in another 20+. Highly intelligent, well spoken with a memory for detail that Spock would be impressed by. But a train wreck with money and little if any life outside his job. He has an opportunity move away with a woman he knows and "be happy" but he can't quite do it. He has a situation. As his friend I've offered to torch his f*****g house for him more than once - take the insurance and split. He'll never do it and I seriously doubt if he'll ever stop working. He'll just stop one day. Hopefully not in the middle of my shift.

I agree totally with @nivek and take exactly the same approach. Live within your means, keep debt nonexistent and know exactly what the hell you've got. My Mom was a black hole for money and I guess she instilled the correct values in me, just not as she might've expected. I can pull the plug in 2029 and that isn't really all that far away.

We get a whole lot from our jobs. Plug ins, extensions, what have you. Sometimes you wrap your whole identity up in it. Not everyone does that, but certainly enough do and at some point it affects your thinking about retirement. My bubble popped about three years ago and I've had a real mental hajj in the process of trying to reorient myself. A very good friend joined the party with me two years ago and unlike me he was blindsided. Fell from a greater height and hit harder with no advance preparation. With this damned virus he's not having a particularly successful time of it reorienting himself. Me neither but my situation's much different than his. he never saw it coming because he was too wrapped up in his own nonsense and found out the image he had of himself as indispensable was inaccurate.

If between now and 2029 I get involved in something that I truly have a passion for I would have no problem working as long as I could at it. Failing that I'll be perfectly happy to just yank that ejection handle. I doubt anybody's last words were ever 'please let me work another day'
 

pigfarmer

tall, thin, irritable
The whole COVID topic is more than just millions of people getting sick. What will happen to those people losing their livelihood. I am betting they won’t find employment in their particular field. Instead of working in a technical or professional position they will be working at multiple part time jobs to make ends meet. That certainly won’t help the economy get back on its feet.

This is part of it too unfortunately. You find yourself disenfranchised for whatever reason. Especially in your 50s. Now what, in the novel coronavirus world ?

I really don't expect to be professionally employed ever again. My industry dried up and trying to sell your 'crossover skills' at 56 is ridiculous. But, I have no dire need so it's a matter of my own ego, sense of self worth and all that. As I said above, we get a lot of soft stuff from our jobs, especially long term ones, and might not even be aware of it. Cleaning all those snakes out of my head has been a challenge. You have to be able to examine the blue mud in your navel, be capable of honest self analysis. You get caught up in your own bullshit and actually start to believe your own press then there's a problem. There's a fine line between self-confidence and arrogance.

For me, I just want to up the game and be out of where I am - but it's not intolerable. Not fun but I can deal with it. Like having to eat bugs and icky stuff when you're lost in the wilderness. You can survive on it but might not like it. I had been hoping that in all this chaos I might find an opportunity. Yeah, welll, we'll see about that.
 

The shadow

The shadow knows!
3 years ago I was robbed. This taught me the value of a emergency fund.
I started with $1000 then moved to 3 to 6 months expenses. Building the fund hurt. But in 2018 when I lost my job it paid off in keeping the wolf of want from my door. Today I am working on a years of expenses..
Hard medicine for hard times.
 

Standingstones

Celestial
My wife and I sat down and did a financial assessment a few days ago. We find it is a good idea to take stock every so often. We feel we are in a pretty position right now. However, it only takes something like a health concern to find yourself in a deep financial hole.
 

nivek

As Above So Below
Not a simple or one size fits all answer.

That's one of the most intelligent statements I've heard in days and fits so many Arenas right now, honestly, and its something people seem to have a hard time understanding these days...

...
 

nivek

As Above So Below
We get a whole lot from our jobs. Plug ins, extensions, what have you. Sometimes you wrap your whole identity up in it. Not everyone does that, but certainly enough do and at some point it affects your thinking about retirement. My bubble popped about three years ago and I've had a real mental hajj in the process of trying to reorient myself. A very good friend joined the party with me two years ago and unlike me he was blindsided. Fell from a greater height and hit harder with no advance preparation. With this damned virus he's not having a particularly successful time of it reorienting himself. Me neither but my situation's much different than his. he never saw it coming because he was too wrapped up in his own nonsense and found out the image he had of himself as indispensable was inaccurate.

I tend to create a whole persona around my job, however when that job does come to a halt or there is a change in employment I dropped that persona and create a new one and look at it as a new refreshing opportunity...Change is one thing but a refreshing total change is something much much more, one thing I never do is drag baggage from one job to another when I do change jobs...

I'm in that process now of reorientation and restructuring of my financial income, I turned 56 last week and have a long way to go yet in my future, unless something unforeseen takes place that takes me out of the picture...With this virus pandemic and all the other challenges that we are facing in our lives in this country, now is the perfect time to make the necessary changes in my life moving forward...

...
 

Standingstones

Celestial
As I approached age 65 I had to start thinking about the dreaded Medicare. I sat down with a counselor so I could decide which health package to choose. Well, to be honest, I never heard of such a convoluted system in my whole life. Back when I had Blue Cross/Blue Shield everything was simple and fairly cheap. Now, certain prescriptions are expensive with no rhyme nor reason to the price.

As I have advanced arthritis I use certain products for the pain. A cream that I use was around $11. My new Medicare plan was asking around $135!! That wasn’t the only product with outrageous prices. I asked my counselor how this could be. He just shrugged and said this is how things are under Medicare. I’ve gotten a handle on the situation over the past 2 years. It’s not a pleasant experience in my view to getting old.
 
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nivek

As Above So Below
A good friend of mine died suddenly at 56 and his wife has zero clue about anything - money, insurance, bills, nothing. This is one of those cases where being in a labor union for decades paid off - she received some benefits that helped a lot. How people live like that is beyond me.

I know a guy who's 68 years old and an alcoholic, his wife passed away about 6 years ago and apparently she did everything for him...He does not know how to cook, does not know how to do his laundry, he doesn't clean his house because he doesn't know how or what to use, so he spends half his social security check each month paying somebody to do these essential chores for him... I don't understand how somebody could live like that, so dependent upon somebody else, but I'm a very independent person so it's hard for me to understand that...

...
 

Standingstones

Celestial
My sister-in-law is much the same. She is clueless in the ways of the world. My brother-in-law takes care of the financials plus much of the day to day affairs. When he had to have heart surgery my wife and I had to go over to their house to take care of things. And this is a woman with a Masters degree. Yikes!!
 

pigfarmer

tall, thin, irritable
That's one of the most intelligent statements I've heard in days and fits so many Arenas right now, honestly, and its something people seem to have a hard time understanding these days...

...

We have instant communication and have come to expect instant gratification.
This is why lately visceral insanity is in and patient examination is out
 

pigfarmer

tall, thin, irritable
I tend to create a whole persona around my job, however when that job does come to a halt or there is a change in employment I dropped that persona and create a new one and look at it as a new refreshing opportunity...Change is one thing but a refreshing total change is something much much more, one thing I never do is drag baggage from one job to another when I do change jobs...

I'm in that process now of reorientation and restructuring of my financial income, I turned 56 last week and have a long way to go yet in my future, unless something unforeseen takes place that takes me out of the picture...With this virus pandemic and all the other challenges that we are facing in our lives in this country, now is the perfect time to make the necessary changes in my life moving forward...

...

Yeah, in the long run there are less problems if you change jobs once in a while. I had the gift and the curse of having one job for a very long time that sort of changed and morphed around me until it all went away. Maybe that's how penguins feel these days.

My buddy got 34 years on the clock and was a remote engineer - never left his house. He got really nutty thinking he had some sort of Shining that let him see 'the whole country'. Well, not really. I bet his room is the same now that he got laid off but the view has changed dramatically. This is one of the reasons I caution against believing your own nonsense.
 

pigfarmer

tall, thin, irritable
I know a guy who's 68 years old and an alcoholic, his wife passed away about 6 years ago and apparently she did everything for him...He does not know how to cook, does not know how to do his laundry, he doesn't clean his house because he doesn't know how or what to use, so he spends half his social security check each month paying somebody to do these essential chores for him... I don't understand how somebody could live like that, so dependent upon somebody else, but I'm a very independent person so it's hard for me to understand that...

...

Old school. My grandparents were like that. We've just forgotten. Some people prefer their comfortable world view and are content to let others do the heavy lifting for them. Weird. I'm with you - to paraphrase JoJo Krako, ain't nobody ever helped nobody but themselves. Best if you just take care of business yourself.
 

Standingstones

Celestial
I’ve seen the following scenario happen a few times. A fellow employee thinks they are indispensable. “The company needs me” syndrome. It generally comes as a complete shock when these people get their walking papers. At Verizon there was a purge of management people. Most of those types tried to keep their heads down. Needless to say, it didn’t work.

One woman I worked with decided she had to be management. I told her to stay as an hourly worker. That way she would be protected as a union employee. No, she was too important to be a worker bee. She got cut and as she was the main breadwinner, she and her husband had to sell their house. Some people can’t see the logic of the situation, I guess.
 

nivek

As Above So Below
Yeah, in the long run there are less problems if you change jobs once in a while.

I didn't have a choice because of how my life was from 17 years to mid-thirties...I traveled all over North and South America, didn't stay in one place more than a couple years except for my six years in the Navy which kept me in San Diego for four of those years and two years more after my time in the military...Sometimes I was living at safe places and areas, other times in places or situations where I didnt know if I was going to open my eyes the next day, but it comes with traveling the roads of America and places far south of the border alone, Canada honestly was the safest country I traveled...This state of North Carolina and particularly the area I'm in now I've lived the longest in my life, close to 21 years now and I have changed jobs 6 times and was self-employed 2 years of those 21...

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nivek

As Above So Below
I’ve seen the following scenario happen a few times. A fellow employee thinks they are indispensable. “The company needs me” syndrome.

Yeah I knew a woman at the company I used to work at, she worked there for over 20 years and she had no doubts of her importance to the company and its importance to her, a true lifer and devoted to her work and she let you know it...Charming, but not my cup of tea, nothing wrong with that though just something I couldn't do to...

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nivek

As Above So Below
Old school. My grandparents were like that. We've just forgotten.

Reading this reminded me of a photograph I saw recently in the family tree, a picture of my grandparents taken around 1968...Grandfather in his easy chair and grandmother sitting in her chair next to him smiling and holding a tall boy 24oz. Schlitz in a steel can...

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Standingstones

Celestial
Yeah I knew a woman at the company I used to work at, she worked there for over 20 years and she had no doubts of her importance to the company and its importance to her, a true lifer and devoted to her work and she let you know it...Charming, but not my cup of tea, nothing wrong with that though just something I couldn't do to...

...
At one point VZ published a paper news letter about events in the company. One story was about the longest serving employee of the company. She had been employed for 65 years!! It was somewhat hilarious due to the point she had worked the same position (operator) her whole time there. The operator title was practically the lowest title at the phone company. She never did try to improve herself all those years. Operators were phased out and so was she eventually.
 
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nivek

As Above So Below
True situation at another place I once worked, a forklift repair guy, the only one in the company and has 18 years with the company...He's 59 years old, gets paid 12 dollars an hour and drives 45 minutes one way to his job...He comes in to work early around 5am clocks in and sleeps until about 830am before the office people and managers get in at 9am, has an hour lunch or so around noon or before and is out the door at 2pm, five days a week...

...
 

pigfarmer

tall, thin, irritable
I’ve seen the following scenario happen a few times. A fellow employee thinks they are indispensable. “The company needs me” syndrome. It generally comes as a complete shock when these people get their walking papers. At Verizon there was a purge of management people. Most of those types tried to keep their heads down. Needless to say, it didn’t work.

One woman I worked with decided she had to be management. I told her to stay as an hourly worker. That way she would be protected as a union employee. No, she was too important to be a worker bee. She got cut and as she was the main breadwinner, she and her husband had to sell their house. Some people can’t see the logic of the situation, I guess.

I can say that in the long run I was better off with the union that without.

There are those who define their own jobs and then place themselves as the one who is staving off great disaster. Then there are those who would step over your headless corpse without noticing it to punch in.

Oddly, there's human behavior at work there that can be seen of all these weird things e are interested in. In any group it's likely you'll have a few that float to the top and be the most vocal, often defining the situation rather than reacting to it.

In any job you're either doing it or not. The man I work with made a lifetime of retail. He got pretty high up on the food chain in management for some large names, retired, and has been wearing his orange apron for another 20 something years out on the sales floor. No matter what you do for a living you can do it well.

Even in 6 figure jobs you have people who (figuratively) punch in and nap all day. In fact, I used to say that we 'never get too far from the sand box' as I've seen over the top playground behavior at midtown Manhattan lawyer's offices.
 
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