Posted on 06/03/2023 3:21:14 PM PDT by Libloather
When Sam Dogen retired at age 34 with a net worth of $3million he vowed never to return to his grueling job in investment banking.
As a pioneer of the FIRE - financial independence, retire early - movement, he had meticulously planned for 13 years to ensure he had a passive income of $80,000 a year in retirement.
But a decade later, Dogen, now 45, is being forced to join the ranks of the unretired.
Amid soaring inflation and rising costs, he needs to go back to work to be able to afford his kids' college tuition, which he has calculated could cost a whopping $1.5 million.
And he is not alone. Dogen is among millions of retirees who are heading back to the workplace - whether out of boredom, necessity or both.
An estimated 1.5 million retirees re-entered the labor market in the year up to May 2022, according to an analysis of Labor Department data by Indeed economist Nick Bunker for The Washington Post.
This is a reversal of the trend which saw millions of people fleeing the workforce during and following the Covid-19 pandemic.
And according to a study by payroll services company Paychex this year, one in six retired Americans are now considering going back to work.
Of those surveyed, who had been out of work for an average of four years, 53 percent said it was due to financial pressure.
The study also showed that of those who have already gone back, 55 percent said it was because they needed more money, 43 percent said it was because of inflation, and 32 percent said the main reason was because they feared outliving their savings.
Meanwhile 52 percent of those surveyed went back into the labor force because they were getting bored.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Retired at THIRTY FOUR??? I would have gone stark raving mad. They couldn’t have chose a worse poster child for this article — some spoiled brat who thinks he can work a decade and then lead the life of Riley. Cry me a river.
What about all the people who planned to retire between 65 and 70 now finding themselves having to work a decade longer?
I see elderly men working as bag boys. Some of them look like they’re in pain, yet they’re working a regular job that I had as my first job in high school. I doubt they’re working because they want to. They’re working because they need to. At Publix you aren’t even allowed to tip them. Life sucks and then the government increases the money supply to make some politician look like he’s not destroying the economy. I lost count of the number of times Obama increased the money supply in a desperate attempt to look like his takeover of GM hadn’t sunk the economy. That one move caused so much damage that even tripling the amount of money in circulation couldn’t make up for it. Then, along came Covid. I’d say the government spends money like a drunken sailor. But a drunken sailor is spending his own money and he stops when it runs out.
I was working 3 days per week (12 hour days) then got Covid on March 1. I resigned 2 weeks later because I was still extremely tired and did not want to return to work. I miss the second income and am now sorely reliant on my SS check and savings. It’s doable because I have everything paid off. My monthly bills enable me to pay them and still deposit the remainder to savings. I also use CareCredit, if needed, for large purchases (vet bills, dental) that I can pay off monthly with no interest, usually within 18 months. Tip: pay EVERYTHING off before you retire.
Mr Dogan did not take into account our government forcing interest rates to 1% since 2013.
In the good old days when it was easy to invest $3 million in bonds yielding 7%, he would have earned $210,000 per year.
And he could have easily paid for his kids to get a useless college degree.
You noticed that too, eh?
I love work. I’ll never retire. They’ll find me dead on the office floor.
I planned to retire at age 55 from age 17.
I presumed Democrats would Fuk things up so I planned for that also.
My plan was very simple, debt free, humble lifestyle
(although I owned a 45 foot sailboat for 8 years or so), rural land with a humble home.
I know own 5 acres in Hawaii, two houses and a large shop with an ocean view.
Secret? There is none.
I married the girl next door, worked my ass off, and lived a very humble life.
I’d add religion into the mix but most guys would tune that out.
I'm 73, and have been retired since 2015. I work to keep from becoming bored or "losing my edge".
I even taught Embedded Computing in high school for three years. I stopped that because I don't want to spend the money or time to get a certificate. The teaching was a blast. The school was unbelievably supportive of me.
That is certainly far from typical as well as a total waste of money.
You are one sick puppy.
Unless your work is a hobby you love.
$1.5 million? It sounds like he wants to send his kids to ivy league schools. So he spends the money and after four years they hate him and his wife, the family, patriarchy, capitalism and any type of fiscal discipline whatsoever. A fool and his money are soon parted.
Hubby just turned 70 and still works as a server in a high-end steak house. He’s done that as a second job for most of our married life and he’s really good at it. He makes $400-500 a night and gets medical benefits, so between that and our SS, plus his part-time job as a realtor, we’re doing okay. But I’m still planning on rejoining the workforce soon to pay off a few more bills. I figure we’ll be working for at least another 5 yrs.
You are so lucky to be doing something you love. I envy you.
I did all the stuff you claimed, but not taught.
I could not stand dealing with the liberals that administer those that “teach” these days.
They even offered to pay for my accreditation.
I make more money sitting on my a$$ in one day drinking beer than any 4 days teaching young “special” Hawaiians how to program an FPGA to emulate an old 68340 or 8051.
I fully understand why kids don’t want to work.
This political Woke stuff is BS.
Even BEFORE bideniflation this guy thought his eighty thou would survive his kids (plural) college costs?
Inflation has ruined my retirement and I am six years into it now so way too late to be anything but a walymart greeter.
At a certain age-in my case 82-the notion of “running out of money” becomes less of an impetus for going back to work or taking a part-time gig. Physically I still could but practically speaking, my chances of running out of money get slimmer each day.
"Welcome to Wal-Mart.....get your s___ and get out!"
The political climate is dreadful. I lucked out, and never experienced any of it. The little companies I do work for are not woke. We can waste a lot of time preaching to the choir. ;-D
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