Posted on 02/04/2018 8:54:17 AM PST by qaz123
The “workamper” jobs range from helping harvest sugar beets to flipping burgers at baseball spring training games to Amazon’s AMZN, +2.87% “CamperForce,” seasonal employees who can walk the equivalent of 15 miles a day during Christmas season pulling items off warehouse shelves and then returning to frigid campgrounds at night. Living on less than $1,000 a month, in certain cases, some have no hot showers. As Bruder writes, these are “people who never imagined being nomads.” Many saw their savings wiped out during the Great Recession or were foreclosure victims and, writes Bruder, “felt they’d spent too long losing a rigged game.” Some were laid off from high-paying professional jobs. Few have chosen this life. Few think they can find a way out of it. They’re downwardly mobile older Americans in mobile homes
(Excerpt) Read more at marketwatch.com ...
I sympathize for those who wound up in such circumstances through no fault of their own. As you suggest, severe RA or COPD are debilitating and are horrible diseases.
But lots of people are able-bodied but didn’t prepare for the future.
It’s not “smug” — it’s just reality.
Lol
U pretty tuff
I’m sorry I just chuckle when I see a sharp retort
Medicaid claw back regulations make that a very stupid thing to try.
I expect such rules to only get stricter as people try to pass on assets to heirs and then ask everyone else to pay for their assisted living.
I agree with your observations re people not adequately preparing for retirement.
But I sympathize in particular with those who have been set back financially because of serious health problems—disease or accidents.
I have a hard time sympathizing with anyone who used their home as an ATM and took out second and third mortgages to pay for vacations, a swimming pool, a fancy truck etc. I know A LOT of people at work in their 50’s and early 60’s who did this and they’re wringing their hands now because they can’t retire until they’re 67 or older.
Seven years is the cut off right now. So for my parents, they divested of the farm corporation and put the land into a trust the minute Dad stopped working.
There are other ways also.
There are One Million open jobs in Logistics, Warehousing, Transportation. Lot of them pay between $12 and $15 an hour. Many out of work people will not work for $12 an hour. We ask them if $12 is better than nothing - some say they will keep looking for something better than take the job for $12.
Nice!
“Lots of retiree full time RVers out there that have plenty of money and simply workcamp on the side.”
The wife and I are considering this. We have friends that do it and love it (they’re not broke, neither are we, LOL). The RV will not be such a huge purchase that if we decide we hate the life...we won’t lose much if we dump it.
Scolds
Scolding is number one freeper emotive diatribe
At least it’s not virtue signaling
“You’re poor cause you’re stupid or lazy or didn’t squirrel away enough starting at 12 like I did”
That’s not always true....no question we have a lazy disability check Percocet script segment of our nation but we also have folks that just had bad things happen to them and couldn’t recover
I’m 60
I’ll never quit working unless I’m unable
Traveling with my family will have to suffice for now...
Kinda hard to go nomad or Jimmy Buffett if you don’t have the energy to get out of bed or your wheelchair
I lived the pirate life once Buffett was a piker I assure you
One observation I do see is there are real campgrounds
And there are campgrounds that are like hovels frankly populated by folks living in cars and stuff
Sad...
How many had bad luck and how many are bums or drunks
They are not all bums and drunks
Even a hospital financial person would not suggest you use your home as a cash pump.
I will admit to pulling money out of my 401 that was not making but 2-4% a year to pay off some credit cards that were sucking 12-19% a year. It was a thought out proposition. And the money spent (including the penalty) paid off our debt (except for the mortgage) and we are living like paupers and stashing away thousands a month.
Its all about being able to maintain a life style. You can have a large retirement fund, but if you are paying for that big screen TV at 15% or higher per month...you are not going to be living like that for long.
People need to do some basic math. And they don’t. They think someone will come rescue them. And they are wrong.
Ummmmmm...yeah
As for Amazon being a nice clean place to work...
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/amazons-dirty-secret-a-sweat-shop-in-pennsylvania/
many many, stories, just take a gander.
You working in a Union Auto Assembly plant. You mean one of those ones where guys were making over $100/hr with coffee breaks, long lunches, lots of OT and all the other union goodies, that the UAW got you? You mean the same union goodies that decimated the auto industry in Detroit and other places, so the Big 3 started making their cars in foreign countries? Do you mean the auto industry that moved the operations, that didn’t go out of the country, to NonUnion-Right To Work states in the South, to they didn’t have to be held hostage by the UAW? Or do you mean that you WEREN’T one of the Delphi Employees who entire retirement went down the toilet when obama made a dope deal with GM and the UAW? Oh you’re one of those guys. I get it..
You got lucky. I’m sure you were a hard worker, never called in sick, didn’t take vacation and took the check instead. Happy for you and the family. but now, lots of the jobs that your unions pushed for are now being down by robots and if you were in the job market today, it would probably be a little tougher, that it was when you started.
There is something to be said about earning a six figure salary and paying a 3 figure rent utilities included. My contract job is for a year. I figure to sock enough away to have enough to retire (again) this time gracefully. No investments ... I’d lost my investments, money, house, and job due to the 2008 crash. My college education didn’t help while I was training my H1B replacementS.
Some just do it seasonally too and park their RV at home in the winter months. It can be a good way to supplement your RV travel costs.
I understand that completely. The jobs are what they are. I get it. But, when you’re talking about a 40, 50, 60yr old and they’re looking at an entry level job like that, meant for a high school grad, living with their folks, they have a decision to make.
$15/hr at 40hrs is $600, before taxes. Not sure there’s anywhere in the country you can live off that, unless you’re living in a trailer. But, what do you say, when HR wants your address? I live in a van down by the river. What do you say when they want your account information for your direct deposit, which pretty much everyone does, now. At least the bigger companies, because it’s cheaper. I don’t have an account because I dont’ have a home, so the bank won’t give me an account.
Again, for the folks out there that did it right and are doing well, I’m happy for you. For the folks out there that have chosen that lifestyle and are doing well, I’m happy for you. For the folks that ended up there because of stupid life choices, I don’t know what to tell you. For the folks that ended up there, through no fault of their own, it sucks for them. And again, again, bringing in more and more of the 3rd world, refugess, H1B & H2B visa holders isn’t helping the situation. That is all.
No money for citizens, particularly the elderly.
“Refugees” and illegals get the bucks and free stuff.
In-laws elderly and no jobs (laid off in one case and other case the Company shut down its California plant and moved to Ohio where cheaper to do business).
So applied for Section 8 (subsidized housing) for them...their waiting list # was over 4,000. Massive “Mexican” influxes (so legal, much not) suck up the limited Section 8 housing.
Know how the “Whites” took the “USA” away from the Indians? Simple, more “Whites” than Indians.
Same happening in Calif. More “Mexicans” than “Whites” so soon enough, Calif is theirs due to population dominance. Dems happy as “Mexicans” vote for “free sh*t”...illegals & legals. Now Calif Dems are going to register illegals to vote in mass...so expect more voter fraud from Calif.
Great book. recommended!
I think a lot of folks believe all you need is good hard determination and hard work to do stay doing well. The health for that hard work is important too. Of course, throw in some dependents and you have a few more challenges there too.
Unfortunately, a lot of people weren’t taught good economics. Whether from school, family, or self-taught. Which made situations even worse. And the way our government regulations and taxes, coupled with self-serving management techniques being pushed, is a recipe for disaster to the populace and economy.
Yes, people have themselves to blame for personal decisions. Throw on top of that any family health bills and bad financial decisions, helping any family members, things can get far tighter than they need be. Of course, we could be like Scrooge and keep every penny we ever made to ourselves. But that doesn’t give us the promised land either.
My husband is still working at the age of not quite 65. He has no firm plans to retire. I’m not sure why anyone thinks that there is some kind of right to retire at a certain age. Anything can happen at any time.
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