Aren't most jobs paying jobs?
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 ...
Are you saying that in fact the vast majority of Americans are saving for retirement rather than buying the latest gadget, etc., not saving a dime? The facts of American spending/savings do not support that.
Poorly "planned lives" are the rule, not the exception. I'm just waiting for the big government rescue team to come knocking at my door, taking away what I've saved to give it to the high rollers.
Good for you! That is just one of the things people need to be doing in this day and age. The other is, for people like me who never went to college, is to go to school and get a degree and/or obtain new skills that will be marketable if your pink slip comes before you were expecting it. I swear I do not know what some people are waiting for.
I imagine these days you can get a BS and never have to even code a binary sort.
I never said I didn't cause it. I did:') I decided to dismount off a moving horse. It still hurt though and I wanted drugs but had to get xrays first. The ER had to see me but I figured I really should still pay them.
LOL that could be me you are telling off as well.
I knew we should never of had the kids, Joking, but they do eat up the budget.
It sure is. I was laid off last September at 43 for the first time in my life. I really wasn't prepared for how much of my self esteem was tied up in my work. I had not looked for a job since 1989. It took me nearly 4 months to find a new job, one that I was barely qualified for. I also took nearly a 40% pay cut. Hopefully, they'll be keeping me, and my prospects are good. I work my heart out for them, and although I was told when I was hired that I wouldn't be elligible for a raise until I was there for a year, just two months later my boss was able to get me a 3% raise, and told me that I was working out better than they could have hoped, and that if they could find 10 other people like me, they'd hire them.
Still, I realize that if I slack off, they'll find someone else to do the job. So I continue to put in 60-70 hours a week, and do everything I can to make myself indespensible to them. I don't want to start looking again.
But keeping your job skills current for the location where you live is the most important thing in the article! I was (and still am) a Novell networking "expert." Unfortunately, outside of a few companies and schools in the KC area, there's no call for a full time Novell "expert" anymore. The software is reliable enough that companies simply call in someone like myself where there's a problem, and it's fixed within a few hours. And they only need someone to fix the problems once or twice a year, if that often. So, since I was the "Novell Expert," I made sure to keep my Novell skills high, leaving little time to improve my "Windows networking" skills. And that really hurt in my finding a new job.
Mark
If that were the case none of us would be able to save for retirement. And, of course we know that this is not the case. Yes, taxes are ridiculously high but one can save for retirement. It's a choice that many would rather buy the next cool toy or the house with the three car garage instead.
Fortunately you are not everyone. College is easily affordable if students choose to get loans, work part time, etc. Yes, speaking from experience.
But probably not enough to pay for college for a child or children from a second marriage, or just "surprises" from a first or later than usual marriage. Or for grandchildren, or children of family members being raised by this man. You haven't a clue what his real situation is.
Being laid off at almost 49 myself, (after 21+ years with the same company, a result of Clinton sizing of the military), I can tell you that it's an emotionally wrenching experience. I can also tell you that it's a financially debilitating one, even when one finds a new position, after months or years of under or unemployment. In my case, it's resulted in a second house payment, earlier apartment rent. And now a third house payment, somewhat but not totally offset by rental receipts on the second house. (I bought it after nearly 6 years of renting, and after being assured that my position was "safe" for a few years at least. Well the position was safe, but I got transferred 2.5 hours away. I had owned the house for about 9 months and it would have cost a pretty penny to sell it, and I thought wrongly that it would rent easily and stay rented most of the time, so as to preserve my down payment rather than lose it to a realtor commission.(Heck the realtor who would have been the listing agent told me it wasn't wise to sell it at that time).
My total severance package from the company that laid me off was "we'll pay you until the end of the day." I had been there continually for nearly 8 years, and had worked there previously for another 4 1/2 years.
That day was spent calling my appointments, letting them know that I wouldn't be there, and filling in the other field engineers on what I was working on.
Mark
Aren't most jobs paying jobs?
I couldn't save a lot until the kids were grown. They still tend to be needy even now. They never ask but I see stuff. Those grandbabies are so much fun to spend money on. I would hate having all my money in the bank and not doing stuff with it.
Small companies who provide health insurance for their employees will bend over backwards to hire young single people or people who have government employees (who have much better family health benefits than the private sector) as spouses.
Count the beans.
Which raises the question, did the horse have health insurance or did he expect his keeper to pay?
I think he was more worried about his life insurance:')
It's very dependant on the part of the country that you live in. For instance, in KC, the IT market is actually pretty depressed. The job that I got had over 100 applications for the one opening. And the only reason that I got the job was because a VP knew me, and knew the sort of worker I was. The fact that I was less qualified for the job than many applicants would have kept me from getting the job, if not for him.
Mark
Don't tell me its none of my business, since you have made Harry's age and savings to be a point of your ridicule.
One flat, and one old car is my expense.
Similarly the govt requires a license to touch an air conditioning system, work on plumbing, or wire a house. These are all pretty basic tasks to do safely and properly (having build my houses I know) yet the state insists that you work as an apprentice for SEVEN years before you're allowed to be paid for this type of work. It shuts me out, with an engineering degree, from doing basic types of work where I could do very well on my own - especially if I wanted to leave the engineering field and work small jobs here and there.
The first line of baby boomers have already entered their 60s. But the bulk is still out there fast approaching retirement. This type of story is a wake up call, not for those already in sight of retirement age, but those 40 and under.
When I was 20, I thought I would live forever. I was in good health and did not give any thought to how I would survive once I was no longer able to work.
Fortunately when I turned 40 my eyes were opened. I was as close to 60 as I was to 20, and my body was not as young and healthy as it once was. I had already gone through two "careers" and was a few years into my current career.
I was in debt, 30 years to go on a mortgage, and changed jobs at the first slight. I was approaching middle age with a juvenile attitude.
I was 40 and I began to understand what it would be like to live forever, but not be able to support myself. The thought scared me. I buckled down and began to get my financial life in order. Paid off all my credit cards, started a 401K, made extra payments on the home. (Having waited to purchase a home, I did not do the math at the time, but I would be close to 70 before it would be paid off, which means I had to work as long as I had a mortgage. That was a great incentive to first never use it as a ATM machine, and second to pay it off as quickly as I could).
So I am like Harry, I am approaching 59, working in a technical field that is changing every few months finding I am having a hard time keeping up with the kids (especially when I am getting paid more).
I do not worry about my job as long as I am a productive member of the company, but have no illusions about being kept on once I can no longer produce. I may find myself unemployed at anytime, and I already know it will not be easy to find another job let alone one in my current field. But in some ways I am looking forward to it.
The home is paid for. My wife and I life modestly (that is we spend less then we make). We have money in the bank as well as a 401 I can begin drawing on once I turn 59 and a half.
What I am saying, it would not be the end of the world if I lost my job. It would not be the end of the world if I had to take a less paying job. It would not be the end of the world if I decided to take a year off and do nothing.
It will not be the end of the world because 20 years ago I woke up to the fact that this day was approaching and took steps to prepare for it. For Harry, it is too late. But for those of you in your 20s, 30s and 40s read the lesson and know, your day is coming. You can prepare for it now, or face your old age as Harry is facing his.
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