Over 50 And Out Of Work

[Zebo]

For many years about 3/4 of a doctors income goes to their college loans.

That sounds like bullshit to me maybe 1/4 for a internist.

Anyway I like Indy's point about college but would add one caveat and that is grades, school choice, and major can have a marketable effect on realizing profit from the endeavor. For example I've never heard of a MBA top of his class from Wharton having any problems or a unemployed MD. Otherwise, you're much better off with some of the unionized blue collar work, prison guard, Fire Fighter, Cop etc.

 

[Exterous]

You don't have a clue obviously.

As I said before:
From a late baby boomer to all the whiners ( you know who you are ) Fuck Off and enjoy your shitty life.

Ah yes - the 'we got ours we're gonna keep it and screw over all the next generations with our SS and Medicare schemes even after we voted people in that ran our country into the ground debt wise and fucked up the education system'

But by all means - please clue me in as to how the older generations did not screw up the country

 

[Zebo]

Ah yes - the 'we got ours we're gonna keep it and screw over all the next generations with our SS and Medicare schemes even after we voted people in that ran our country into the ground debt wise and fucked up the education system'

But by all means - please clue me in as to how the older generations did not screw up the country

They didn't, the elite did. Which 99% of old people are not part of but are victims of the corp shill economists who told America to sell out it's industry offshore. Victims of capital low tax paradise as a reward for offshoring. Victims of taking their SS deposits and spending them to shore up tax breaks to tippy top.Victims of 20% of their taxes going to pay rich bond holders, tax free of course. etc

I am right in the middle 30's so can see things unbiased

 

[IndyColtsFan]

Anyway I like Indy's point about college but would add one caveat and that is grades, school choice, and major can have a marketable effect on realizing profit from the endeavor. For example I've never heard of a MBA top of his class from Wharton having any problems or a unemployed MD. Otherwise, you're much better off with some of the unionized blue collar work, prison guard, Fire Fighter, Cop etc.

You're right, but unfortunately for people like me, an MBA from Harvard or Northwestern isn't an option at this point in my life.

 

[Zebo]

You're right, but unfortunately for people like me, an MBA from Harvard or Northwestern isn't an option at this point in my life.

I never went anywhere in corp world had to do my own thing. But credit and some capital from job made it possible.. Built houses in the boom and now sell booze. YMMV.

Told my kids only way I'll pay for college is maintaining a 3.8+ and accounting to MBA or other marketable skill. Not philosophy or AA studies.

 

[PingSpike]

I admit that people over 50 are going to have a very tough time and I feel bad about it and am concerned because 50 isn't that far off for me, but I had to laugh at a couple of the comments:



What does this person expect exactly? A $100K/yr job? Is this kind of comment supposed to elicit sympathy?



Seriously? This article has some ridiculous examples.

I know a guy who is nearly 60 and is losing his contract position in July. He has not been able to find a replacement job yet. He is a great guy, but if you look at his career history, he has been through layoff after layoff after layoff. At the company where we worked at together, they consolidated our department and of the 5 of us, they gave new jobs to 4 of us and he was the one laid off. Do you see the pattern here? If you talk to him or his wife, he was "always the one that got the job done and then they let him go when it was done." If you talk to his coworkers (like me), you'd get a different story -- he was a great guy to talk to and was smart and knew his stuff, but he was generally lazy and avoided work.

My point is that there are 2 sides of every story and these guys portraying themselves as victims might be leaving out some important details.

I won't beat up on them to much because its rough out there. I'm sure there is some bullshit when you're older...but at least things were a little better for them starting out. I did have to laugh at the 39 year old claiming age discrimination though. That is a pretty hard sell. As bad as it is I don't think employers are saying "39 years?! LOL, to old grandma!" when her resume passes their desk.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

I never went anywhere in corp world had to do my own thing. But credit and some capital from job made it possible.. Built houses in the boom and now sell booze. YMMV.

And I admire you for that -- I wish I could do something similar but I am too risk averse.

 

[Exterous]

They didn't, the elite did.

Ah - but the 'elite' are, generally, of the older generations. So the older generations screwed up the country

Not that mine is doing much to fix it - but we can always blame our parents for not preparing us for the mess they left us with :awe:

 

[Red Dawn]

Ah - but the 'elite' are, generally, of the older generations. So the older generations screwed up the country

Not that mine is doing much to fix it - but we can always blame our parents for not preparing us for the mess they left us with :awe:

They send you to school to get an education? Did they feed you and keep you healthy? If the answer is yes then they prepared you.

 

[Zebo]

Ah - but the 'elite' are, generally, of the older generations. So the older generations screwed up the country

Not that mine is doing much to fix it - but we can always blame our parents for not preparing us for the mess they left us with :awe:

Define screwed it up first of all? This country has plenty of opportunity if you're willing to hustle and take advantage of them. You're lucky being young and still can do anything as opposed to a union steelworker who's 40 with mortgage kids and gets off-shored.

 

[Exterous]

They send you to school to get an education? Did they feed you and keep you healthy? If the answer is yes then they prepared you.

So...did they follow the minimum laws regarding child care? That's a pretty low bar. I would hope that parents would do more than the bare minimum for their children.

I don't know - maybe it's where I live that casts a poor light on parents but I see and hear parents complaining about how they are forced to keep their kids in school for so long. They tell their children and teachers they don't think education is important. They don't discipline their kids and are more concerned about being their friend than their parent

And who are the kids supposed to look to for financial advice? I don't see many people out there with decent financial sense. I am not talking about being a financial planner - I am talking about managing a viable long term debt to income ratio or how to handle a simple credit card

 

[Zebo]

Try millionaire next door, only book you need for basic finance. (it's written by an worthless old guy, hope you don't mind)

 

[Exterous]

Define screwed it up first of all? This country has plenty of opportunity if you're willing to hustle and take advantage of them. You're lucky being young and still can do anything as opposed to a union steelworker who's 40 with mortgage kids and gets off-shored.

I don't disagree with you but I see the middle class being squeezzed out. There are fewer and fewer opportunuties to make it to that place between the low incomes and the sky high incomes. They are still there but not nearly as many.

As for screwed up you listed one example right there: Offshoring - although I believe this is a symptom of a greater issue with Americans: The willing to sacrifice long term plans for short term gains. This creates a large number of issues when tied into financial areas. We see it everywhere - Healthcare, Social Security, the government debt, the Average American having a rather high amount of debt. It now seems to be a cultural thing to kick the can down the road

The other is the ungodly foothold that policital corectness has on our society.

 

[Exterous]

Try millionaire next door, only book you need for basic finance. (it's written by an worthless old guy, hope you don't mind)

Ha - I don't hate all old guys you know. I am very thankful that my father took the time (and continues to take the time) to explain/help me with financial decisions - even if that meant I didn't always get that new toy when I was younger. He gave me that book to read.

But - I suspect that this is a rare case among the average american family and that saddens me

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

Here's a pretty good article by (eek!) Robert Reich at (eek!) HuffPo looking at changes in our economy and government over the past 60 years:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-reich/the-truth-about-the-ameri_b_869033.html

And here's another pretty good article specifically looking at Reaganomics over the past 30 years:
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/rip-reaganomics-revolution-1981-2011-2011-05-31?link=home_carousel

 

[WhipperSnapper]

I don't disagree with you but I see the middle class being squeezzed out. There are fewer and fewer opportunuties to make it to that place between the low incomes and the sky high incomes. They are still there but not nearly as many.

Supposedly our nation has lost about 10% of its middle class jobs since 2000 if you believe what this guy says.

In 2000, there were 72 million middle-class jobs: manufacturing, construction, FIRE, transportation, etc; today, there are 65 million jobs, we have lost 10% of our middle class supporting jobs. We have replaced these with part-time jobs. (Link to Source)

However, during that time our nation's population increased by about 27 million people. Using the U.S. populations stats posted at Wikipedia, 281,421,906 for 2000 and 308,745,538 for 2010, we can roughly calculate the amount of middle class jobs per capita:

2000: About 1 middle class job for every 3.9 Americans.

2010: About 1 middle class job for every 4.75 Americans.

 

[pcgeek11]

They didn't, the elite did. Which 99% of old people are not part of but are victims of the corp shill economists who told America to sell out it's industry offshore. Victims of capital low tax paradise as a reward for offshoring. Victims of taking their SS deposits and spending them to shore up tax breaks to tippy top.Victims of 20% of their taxes going to pay rich bond holders, tax free of course. etc

I am right in the middle 30's so can see things unbiased

Thank you for clearing that up for him. I didn't want to waste my time.

 

[Exterous]

Thank you for clearing that up for him. I didn't want to waste my time.

So, by and large, these members of the elite were not members of the older generation then? The government leadership that is floundering is not comprised of and mostly elected by the older generations?

 

[Red Dawn]

So, by and large, these members of the elite were not members of the older generation then? The government leadership that is floundering is not comprised of and mostly elected by the older generations?

Actually they are but that's because your generation can't be bothered to vote. Too busy being angst ridden I guess.

 

[coloumb]

What I've noticed is a lot of people who get laid off are in management roles. I've purposely planned out my entire career to ensure that I'm in a unique and needed role rather than one which can easily be replaced by some college grad or absorbed by another manager.

It happened to my dad - 66 years old and the company let him [and others in his age bracket] go. Luckily he had contacts from other companies so he found a new job relatively quick.

My ultimate goal is to be self employed by the time I hit my 50's - I won't be making a facebook bank, but I will make enough to live comfortably into retirement.

 

[werepossum]

What I've noticed is a lot of people who get laid off are in management roles. I've purposely planned out my entire career to ensure that I'm in a unique and needed role rather than one which can easily be replaced by some college grad or absorbed by another manager.

It happened to my dad - 66 years old and the company let him [and others in his age bracket] go. Luckily he had contacts from other companies so he found a new job relatively quick.

My ultimate goal is to be self employed by the time I hit my 50's - I won't be making a facebook bank, but I will make enough to live comfortably into retirement.

I think that's the American dream - not necessarily to get rich, but to earn a reasonably good income, enough to afford most of what you want and everything you need.

 

[Zebo]

I don't know about that. Shits rough. Employees depending you... bank account goes up to 70K, you're doing good right? then bills come in and it wipes it all out you have to borrow and made nothing that month while working 12 hour days mind you...IRS, franchise tax board etc etc etc 90% chance to fail..not glorious at all. There is a reason most people work a 9-5

 

[werepossum]

I don't know about that. Shits rough. Employees depending you... bank account goes up to 70K, you're doing good right? then bills come in and it wipes it all out you have to borrow and made nothing that month while working 12 hour days mind you...IRS, franchise tax board etc etc etc 90% chance to fail..not glorious at all. There is a reason most people work a 9-5

I'm well familiar with that. My father owned an auto parts store, and lots of months he took no income. Someone said that the secret to being successful in a small business is to only work half days, and the beauty is that it doesn't even matter which twelve hours you work. Still, there's a certain satisfaction in being your own boss.

 

[PingSpike]

Actually they are but that's because your generation can't be bothered to vote. Too busy being angst ridden I guess.

Well, our voting demographic is completely dwarfed by the massive "Who cares about tomorrow? I'm getting old and I want all my free shit now." demographic. And its a little hard to blame Gen Y since they've only been even able to vote for like 2 years. If we truly are a representative democracy it is a little hard to not place the majority of the blame on boomers.

 

[piasabird]

What the hell is middle class anyway? It is baloney.