Posted on 04/23/2006 7:49:45 AM PDT by SmithL
One of my readers is an underemployed 59-year-old man from among us here in the South Suburbs. Call him Harry. He works in information technology. Slowly and wearily, he says: "Once you get past 50, I swear, it gets tough, it gets really tough."
For instance, Harry applied for a job with a city of Chicago department that operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week. He got an offer for some contract work. There were no benefits, but it was a paying job.
A woman from the city called him one Monday morning and wanted to know if he could start at midnight. Harry said he'd like to give his current employer a week's notice. That wasn't good enough. The job was gone. The caller told him: "This is a brave new world. Learn to live with it."
(Excerpt) Read more at starnewspapers.com ...
Great job of taking responsibility for yourself. I'm being called arrogant, and getting ripped to shreds, because I worked two jobs to be sure to save enough to be able to retire - or at least work whatever job I want (similar line of work as yours - EE with embedded systems design and coding - DSP processing for NASA, etc.)
You just have to keep going at it...
Try reading Matthew, 6:25-34 (King James Version).
From verse 34, "Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself."
Read the entire passages. They hardly speak of planning for the future.
I don't think that scripture means to spend like there is no tomorrow though.
Well mr perfection, one day I hope you find yourself with no money and not a single asset. And when you die, I hope somebody will piss on your grave. The man making now 8 an hour is not taking from others; you on the other hand are taking up oxygen.
Maybe times have changes where they no longer allow white kids to get any assistance (loans or grants) to go to state schools?
That was a "nice" thing to do for an employer booting you out the door. You could have given your customers your cell phone number and offered to contract them at a more favorable rate than your soon to be ex-employer. It's not like you were in danger of losing a big severance.
There was a time I would have been able to answer that question but now I'm not so sure. BTW, Social Security does not figure into my plans. If it happens great but I'm not counting n it.
Suffice it to say that putting money into a savings account is not a wise investment. But for those who are unable to purchase real estate, the prospects for a comforatable retirement after taxes and children and medical problems does not look good.
The embedded systems work I do today is leveraging material that I taught to college students from 1980 to 1983. I'm finally integrating that skill-set into my regular job. The teaching job was done to augment my income as a newly hired Central Office Toll Equipment Engineer at Pacific Telephone in 1980. Between engineering all day and teaching all night, I was able to pull down $44,000 annually in 1980.
Regarding JJ, Jr. and the Illinois third airport. If it ever get's a go-ahead you can bet that there will be a demand for at least 50% minority employment on the job sites. Already Cook County, IL requires 40% minority contracts. So, again the white man will get the short end as long as Jackson and his gang have a say in who gets hired.
1) Put everything that I can into my 401K - pre-tax dollars means 30-50% gain right off the bat.
2) Bought real estate financed by the owner and kept my previous residences, renting them out. Let the bank take the risk, leveraging your money. For example, if you put $10,000 down to buy a $100,000 house and that house goes up 5%/year you are making 50% on your money **annually**. HUGE returns. But, it takes work dealing with repairs, the tenants, etc.
3) I built my recent houses rather than buy already built. In the D.C. area you can make upwards of $250,000 on each house by building it yourself. If you don't know how to build do modular - it's already built and is delivered in sections.
Again, it's two jobs - my full time job and the real estate, but I wanted to save for retirement.
But, you need to realize it is more than a few people who are in trouble with retirement, through no fault of their own. Those examples I gave constitute a pretty large number of people.
We are one of those groups. We went through three layoffs in seven years, all while my husband wa in his late 40's and early 50's. He has a good job now, but in the process we exhausted our savings paying for living expenses and our daughter's education. We never claimed unemployment.
So, here we are, trying frantically to save the amount we lost. We have one unreliable pension, from the first company that laid him off. We have no savings, because we lived on them while he was looking for work.
I don't expect any help from the government other than whatever pittance Social Security gives us, but you might spare a thought to those who have had hard times.
And I think another dynamic here is that many people do not realize that treating human beings as commodities is immoral, inhumane, and self-destructive in the long term.
Huh. Saving my change and cutting down on eating out sound insignificant compared to that:')
Just wondering your age. You do not seem to realize that everyone's life experiences are not the same.
You will do ok.
Well, thank you! I hope that you prosper in all aspects of life. I even hope that you have far greater riches than me - financially, emotionally, and relationship-wise. It will be great to hear about it when you do!
It's sad to see so many Freepers angry when people work two jobs to try and save for retirement. Did I mistakenly end up on DU or something?
People are faulting you for having no compassion for others who couldn't do that.
Perhaps you have heard this saying, "There but for the grace of God go I."
It all started with $7000 and has been about 15 years. This is why I know that anyone can do it. I didn't start with much and wasn't given any special breaks. But, yes, I also save by not going too overboard on expenses. My diesel VW Rabbit pickup gets 44 mpg and cost me $2000. It saves me about $1500-$2000/year in fuel costs.
Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.
(Proverbs 16:18 KJV)
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