Hard Truth on Retirement Planning

[Big_Hitter]

I don't think there is a big correlation between commute tolerance and age.


I worked 25 years in downtown Houston and never had more than a 20 minute commute.

[Texas Proud]

Quote:

Originally Posted by martyp As a supervisor I could observe myself and my other older employees and conclude that one of the problems with older employees is they have seen "too much" throughout their careers. They have capped out in their classification level and they are tired of watching younger employees and managers repeat the same mistakes they have seen many times throughout their careers. They can become cynical, unimaginative, and basically have an "attitude problem". Similar to comments above, I had to let go of an older employee who finally got tired of his 2 hr (each way) commute. He was a classical case of an employee who called in sick on too many Mondays and Fridays. When we confronted him he admitted what his problem was. He was gone from my group in a couple of months. Older employees have their issues as do younger employees.

I was not cynical, unimaginative nor did I have an attitude problem....

I will give an example... my dept wanted to scan all documents so others could 'see' them... I asked many questions about indexing, how things would get scanned etc. etc.... I told them their plan would not work... (BTW, this was 1999 so computers were pretty slow then)...

So, one day the lady who sat in the office next to me came in and asked why I had such a problem with the scanning (she was on the team).... I used 3 examples of what I would need to look at any scanned document... I told her if you cannot get the doc in front of me faster than 'this' (I showed her how long it took me), then scanning is no help to me... the avg time for me to get info was less than 1 minute... it took an avg of 10 minutes to get to a scanned doc...


Now, they did implement scanning.... and guess who was the ONLY person who scanned all their docs and all their work papers? After 6 months the dept was so behind in scanning that they hired 10 to 15 people to just scan things in.... nobody used the scanned docs because the more that was scanned in meant it was harder to find anything..... remember, there was no stated method of what to call things and no order to put them in.... you had to keep looking for something until you ran across it...

They abandoned the system after two years and millions of dollars (I think upward of $50 mill)....



Yes, I was seen as not a team player.... I refused to work more than 60 hours in a week... but I also had 4X more accounts than the second highest employee... my required payments were 10X more than the second highest... so they put up with me...

[Texas Proud]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Big_Hitter I don't think there is a big correlation between commute tolerance and age. I worked 25 years in downtown Houston and never had more than a 20 minute commute.

You must live in the loop.... not where I want to live...

[Andre1969]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Big_Hitter I don't think there is a big correlation between commute tolerance and age. I worked 25 years in downtown Houston and never had more than a 20 minute commute.

I think I could tolerate a long commute, as long as traffic is actually moving. But I hate being stuck in gridlocked traffic. I'm also a bit spoiled, though. My job is about 2.5 miles from home. The furthest I ever had to commute was around 21 miles, but that was only for about 5 or 6 months. I had an evening job at a department store, which I had started when I was still in college. I held onto it after I started working full time, and initially the commute was only about 10 miles. But then I moved further out. I'd go straight from the full time job to the part time, so that part wasn't bad. And even the 21 mile drive back home wasn't too bad, because it was usually at 10 pm or later, so there was no traffic. Eventually though, I transferred to a different location closer to home. The drive from the main job to the part time job was longer, but the drive home at night was shorter.

Still, I've noticed the older I get, the less tolerant I am of heavy traffic and long drives. Sometimes if I have to run an errand and get caught in rush hour traffic, it makes me grateful that I don't have to put up with it on a regular basis.

Eventually, I want to move, but I've decided that's not going to happen until I'm close to retirement. Or at least to the point that I can go down to maybe 3 days per week. And I could see even 3 days per week wearing thin, fast.

[Big_Hitter]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Texas Proud You must live in the loop.... not where I want to live...

used to live in 77009 in late 80s - heights, a little sketchy but fun since we were young


ended up moving to 77018 in 1995 - garden oaks area - nice neighborhood


got out of there in 2011, never looked back


I liked living close in - how much time does one waste on the road living out in katy, Conroe, richmond or farfield? I worked with a guy that lived in farfield - when it rained it took him two hours to get home. not for me


I live about 4 miles from the office now, on a golf course and 30 minutes from a good (well, this year it wasn't so good) ski hill. Still, some ppl here commute from 30 miles away. smh

[Sarah in SC]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Andre1969 Still, I've noticed the older I get, the less tolerant I am of heavy traffic and long drives. Sometimes if I have to run an errand and get caught in rush hour traffic, it makes me grateful that I don't have to put up with it on a regular basis.

Yes, me too. I have about a 35 mile commute, and traffic has gotten progressively worse over the past 10 years. I now come into work later and (try to) leave a bit earlier so to avoid the worst of the heavy traffic. I've definitely noticed that the commute leaves me far more drained, especially in the evening, than in the past.

[timo2]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sarah in SC Yes, me too. I have about a 35 mile commute, and traffic has gotten progressively worse over the past 10 years. I now come into work later and (try to) leave a bit earlier so to avoid the worst of the heavy traffic. I've definitely noticed that the commute leaves me far more drained, especially in the evening, than in the past.

I was telling primary care physician I don't have the energy for that or this anymore, and the doctor said 'maybe you are just getting old' (I'm 62).

[wmackey]

I commute 120 miles a day. It's all highway and typcially ~ 70Miles/Hour. Been doing that for over seven years. Isn't to bad. But just a little congestion makes it a pain and I grumpy.

P.S. Changed to this job to shorten my commute. Old gig was closer to 200 miles a day and always jammed.

[Options]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chuckanut I can only speak for myself, but as my financial assets grew my BS bucket shrank. During those many days when FI was far off, I found ways to finesse or avoid the BS in as gentle a way as possible. Reality is a strong motivator.

+1
Strangely enough, w*rk actually became enjoyale after informing the boss I was leaving. My relationships have deepend, I've become impervious to any BS as I know it's not my problem, and am actually free to care about the people. So much so that yesterday I offered to stay on as a resource employee to help train my replacement. Doing it for the boss, who I like and care about.

It is true that perspective is everything.

Also agree with above posters and Slate author that the current financial porn of work as a retirement plan is dangerous. Scott Burns refers to one's 50s as something akin to being filled with retirement landmines. During this time, research has shown that a high proportion suffer from a either a serious health condition or job loss from which they never financially recover. Plan accordingly.

[marko]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Greencheese But thank goodness everyone can agree to tax the wealthy more to increase their own SS payments!

Quote:

Originally Posted by haha " A poll conducted last year agreed Social Security benefits should be increased, with the bill paid by the wealthy." That means us, ER denizens, not Bill Gates or Warren Buffett or even Courtney Love.

You're right, Ha! Before we start "agreeing" on taxing the wealthy, let's agree on who the wealthy are. Most often it's many of the folks right here.

[Al in Ohio]

I hardly think so. I consider the wealthy worthy of paying a greater percentage share as one with at least ten million in net wealth. Most will have over 25 million. How many here qualify in that regard? I don't think too many. But alas those folks do hold over 90% of this nations total wealth.


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[RAE]

Quote:

Originally Posted by martyp As a supervisor I could observe myself and my other older employees and conclude that one of the problems with older employees is they have seen "too much" throughout their careers. They have capped out in their classification level and they are tired of watching younger employees and managers repeat the same mistakes they have seen many times throughout their careers. They can become cynical, unimaginative, and basically have an "attitude problem".

Yes, I had the same experience where I worked. I'm sure I was guilty of some of this myself (toward the end of my career). After you've been around for a while and seen a whole lot, it becomes difficult to watch new people come in and suggest (with great enthusiasm) the same things that have failed in the past (sometimes repeatedly). You want to be open to new ideas, but when you know the idea is not going to work, it's tough to just smile, keep your mouth shut, and try to implement it. I came to the conclusion that when you reach that point, it's time to move on, even if you feel you are still productive. Fortunately, I was FI by that point, and planning to retire very soon anyway, so I wasn't going to hang around much longer under any circumstances. I saw some other co-workers hang on much longer than they should have, and it's not pretty.

[ERD50]

Quote:

Originally Posted by marko You're right, Ha! Before we start "agreeing" on taxing the wealthy, let's agree on who the wealthy are. Most often it's many of the folks right here.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Al in Ohio I hardly think so. I consider the wealthy worthy of paying a greater percentage share as one with at least ten million in net wealth. Most will have over 25 million. How many here qualify in that regard? I don't think too many. ...

See how easy it is to define 'wealthy'? Anyone who makes 2x more than the person you ask to define it!

Works every time!


-ERD50

[Mulligan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by RAE Yes, I had the same experience where I worked. I'm sure I was guilty of some of this myself (toward the end of my career). After you've been around for a while and seen a whole lot, it becomes difficult to watch new people come in and suggest (with great enthusiasm) the same things that have failed in the past (sometimes repeatedly). You want to be open to new ideas, but when you know the idea is not going to work, it's tough to just smile, keep your mouth shut, and try to implement it. I came to the conclusion that when you reach that point, it's time to move on, even if you feel you are still productive. Fortunately, I was FI by that point, and planning to retire very soon anyway, so I wasn't going to hang around much longer under any circumstances. I saw some other co-workers hang on much longer than they should have, and it's not pretty.

My opinion supervising older workers for 10 plus years were both. Generally they were either my best workers or my worst. The newer hirers were generally in between. My older workers were either my "go to's" I could count on to finish the task, or minimalists looking only to do enough to avoid being fired.


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