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A 60-year-old man with 35 years in management should be debt-free with significant investments in his 401(k), Roth IRA and several rental properties that were paid with cash.

It's nice when all planning goes smoothly. But sometimes, there are bumps in the road, such as the way I had to start over after getting divorced from a man who had run up huge debts without saying anything to me. (I saw they were paid before I left.)

Well, that was 10 years lost. I went on, worked, got laid off a few times, saved as much as I could whenever I could, lived frugally even when everybody else was acquiring cars and McMansions.

So here I am at 60, house paid off, no debts, --and no job. Nobody wants 60 year olds. It doesn't matter how good your recommendations are. It doesn't matter how stainless your past is (one parking ticket). Employers don't want you, and I have searched my brain for something legal I could do on my own. My knees are shot, which limits what I can do physically. Oh, and I have no health insurance.

Be careful about being smug and confident that YOU will never be in a bad place, because one day, you, too, will be 60.

Which is the truth.

Another is that the only way an employer will be willing to hire older folks is if the health care is paid for by someone else. That is why so many companies want the public option.

Other wise the costs are just to great.

You are the first voice of reason on this site. I’m 58 and in the same boat as you are. The unemployment puts food on table of my family while I search desperately for work. No one wants on old bald guy with so many aches and pains that physical labor is difficult.

Suicide? Believe me when I think that my life insurance maybe the only way to provide for my family.

It is very easy for posters to be holier than thou. There is a whole new viewpoint when it is yourself that is in this situation.

Investments? A forty year old family owned business crumbles and then tell me about investments. Lawyers got really fat before it was over. I got a good job after the business failed, but due to mismanagement at the new job, eight out of thirteen employees were layed off.

Don’t bother to respond to this message. I use to post here many years ago and have lurked her for years, but this is my limit of insanity. I have better things to do, like skipping my morning dose of FR and getting on with the job search.

“Be careful about being smug and confident that YOU will never be in a bad place, because one day, you, too, will be 60.”

Actually I am 63 and retired last year.