Although I've survived with this company for 33 1/2 years so far, I get the feeling it's only a matter of time until I'm out the door. At that point, I don't have a clue what I'll do. There are laws against age discrimination, but no one follows them, and no one enforces them.
I've thought of starting my own business. I don't have capital to invest in starting a business unless I empty my retirement accounts - and I won't do that. That means that, at the age of 56 (or 57 or whenever I get laid off), I'd be trying to get a loan for a risky enterprise.
Makes me tired just thinking about it.
Maybe I'll just "retire" and supplement my income with a job as a WalMart greeter or something.
Start the business RIGHT NOW on the side, and have it growing by Axe Time. ("Castle Early in the Game.") I did that before Going Away at 62- Department closing.
Self-financed, no long term debt. It has ups and downs, but I'm doing OK. Working for a real @sshole, though-as always, long hours, and crummy benefits.
My wife told me she had never seen me this happy. Tired, look like crap, but smiling every time I look at the traffic report at commute time.
To start a business without a loan. If you create an S Corp for yourself. You then “sell” the corp stock to yourself in your IRA retirement account. This lets you self-fund your company without paying any taxes on a withdrawal from your retirement acct. As your business succeeds, the business then pays dividends to your IRA, (the business deducts it as an expense) and it is not taxed as income until you take it out of the IRA as a distribution.