What do you do for a living?

DW and I both worked in IT for 27 years. Not retired yet. I am a software developer by trade; DW is a project manager.
 
Started out my career as a Metrologist (USAF), then taught it for the military, then ran a corporate metrology laboratory overseas supporting IT/Communications: did that for 23 years (1988 to 2011).
Have been performing duties involving Safety and IT/Communications management for the last 3 years which will continue until retirement in 2017 (2011 to 2017).
Currently make around $230K per year and save/invest about 70% per year.
 
Various IT marketing, consulting, and tech support jobs for the same MegaCorp (with both internal and external clients) for 35+ years. My current base salary is 11x of my base salary when hired. Currently saving/investing about 30% of income this year (normally we are in the 35-40% range but decided to "splurge" on some home/lifestyle improvements this year).
 
Admin Asst/$79K Sal/Bay Area/Saves 17.5K in 401(k) + 5.5K in Roth. Not an easy feat here, but I treat retirement savings like debt to the mafia. I pay now for my future survival.


Sent from my iPhone using Early Retirement Forum
 
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This is a great thread. I enjoy reading how others got to their retirement goals. It would be nice to hear from some average working stiffs, if there are any who got to their retirement number without a high tech, high paying job at a "mega corp" with all kinds of stock options, pensions, bonuses and so forth. I remember a story about a pizza delivery guy on here a while back that was inspiring.

As I read through some of the job titles listed by other posters I was reminded of something funny that happened to me a while back. My high school sent out a survey a number of years after graduation to find out what, where and how everyone was doing. One of the questions was what you were currently doing for employment. Two of my friends had the same job working for the same company. One of them wrote down sanitation transfer engineer, the other simply put "garbage hauler". Apparently the first guy was trying to impress someone!

To answer the OP. My wife and I are both self employed in our small contracting business. Our income varies greatly along with our savings percentage. We save as much as possible and we put a lot of thought into what we spend so we get the best bang for our money. We don't necessarily buy the cheapest of everything. We plan to retire In 2019 we will be 47 years old. All of the calculators say that we are good to go now but I still somewhat enjoy certain aspects of our business.
 
Quite a few different things over the years from high school to FIRE...

Mother's helper for a family
Babysitter
Leaf raker and garden weed puller for neighbors
Housecleaner
Taco girl at Jack-in-the-Box
Food service worker for NYS
Small engine and automotive mechanic (summer jobs)
Physics department laboratory assistant (college work-study grant)
Substitute math/science teacher
Hardware department clerk for Montgomery Ward
Housecleaner
Computer programmer
Computer system manager
Engineer - final j*b before FIRE

The real money started when I got j*bs in the techie field. Final salary was $78K.

I saved all I could over the years and started investing in 1988 via the TSP and private sector mutual funds in 1997. I FIREd in 2007 on a survivor pension (CSRS) and converted my TSP plan into an immediate fixed annuity. I just applied for and received my own FERS MRA+10 govt pension at age 56.

Today ? Any damn thing I want to do, minus the paycheck.
VA Volunteer
Home gardener
Small scale benefactor to worthy causes
 
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deadshort52 said:
It would be nice to hear from some average working stiffs, if there are any who got to their retirement number without a high tech, high paying job at a "mega corp" with all kinds of stock options, pensions, bonuses and so forth.
Click to expand...

Summer part-time jobs; farm help baling hay, gas station, pickle factory.

Started vo-tech school, got bored with my choice, quit, wandered aimlessly for a few months.

Went to work full time in a sausage factory. Fast forward a few years, a romantic interest of the day made a strong impression on me regarding the virtues of education and I went back to school, still working full time. While still working on first degree in mechanical design, bid for and granted promotion to related work (equipment maintenance mechanic) at the sausage factory. Money good.

New romantic interest. Got married, bought stuff, house cars, etc. Got unmarried.

Figured more money would be better, started on second degree in electronics while still working full time. New romantic interest, this one is a keeper, she's now DW.

Found a new job as maintenance supervisor in a cheese factory (yes, there seems to be a common thread here), sold house and moved for that new job. Money better. Incredible interest rates of the day being earned on proceeds from sale of home in a money market fund had me salivating over investing more money. Poof - blew a bunch of that money on a fast motorcycle. But it was also an experience I bought, lots of travel which my soul needed at that time.

Sausage factory wanted to know if I'd come back to a supervisory position in maintenance. Money better? Yes. And we moved back to my hometown. And that was 25 years ago, with no real savings built up yet. Fast forward through several lateral job changes, with the most recent managing the maintenance departments responsible for the ammonia refrigeration, steam production, fresh water treatment & distribution, and wastewater utility systems in a large industrial food plant. Along the way I completed two more degrees in business and engineering. Money better, but never really great - topped out way less than $100k, and DW less than me. Having done the moving for career thing, we weren't keen on doing that again. Probably would have no problem getting 50% raise by doing so, but financially pointless if DW couldn't replace her salary in the new location.

About 15 years of getting serious about maxing out my 401k, piling money into DW's 403/457 plans, and a couple of meager but helpful non-COLA pensions - my calcs, backed up by several online retirement planners says things look good to go. On my sister's advice (she and BIL retired the year prior) I went and talked to local affiliated branch of FP she had used. Talked with a pair of them, and it hit me when the younger of the two, kind of deer in the headlights look and with my highly detailed, yet succinctly summarized retirement plan in hand says; "so you have this amount in savings, and each of you these pensions, and you want to know if you can retire?"

Might still consider going back to work in a winery. :cool:
 
Lucantes said:
Started out my career as a Metrologist (USAF), then taught it for the military, then ran a corporate metrology laboratory overseas supporting IT/Communications: did that for 23 years (1988 to 2011).
Click to expand...
Interesting stuff - my dad once tried to get me interested in metrology before I was out of hs, but I didn't bite. He took me to a regional airport, and we went somewhere into the bowels of the operation - and I recall a very concerned looking gentleman sternly telling me I could not be there! Next thing I know he and I were chatting about a career in metrology. I know my dad had been involved with Wx Corps in his Army Air days during WWII, hence his interest in steering me in that direction. It was many years later when he told us of his involvement with what was at the time, a very clandestine operation to decipher coded weather related radio communications to Russian pilots departing from Elmendorf as part of the lend-lease program.
 
Love hearing everyone's story. Started out as a paperboy at 11, did that until HS, then played weddings'teen clubs as a drummer in a band until becoming a junior newspaper ad salesperson after HS. got lucky, got a job at WSJ, worked up to management until age 34 when I left to start a business.......grew that and now in process of turning it over to next generation.....really lucky financially......spend 100k a year, totally out of interest and dividends.....have great kids, grandkids, yappy puppy and DW.....love them both dearly..... now I coach next generation at work part time.......starting to travel......interested in children's charities.......exercise and eat healthy to live a few more years
 
Former code slinger, extrordinaire. I'm surprised MichaelB actually counted his megacorp jobs! I don't think I had 18, but maybe somewhere in that range. On my most recent resume, I left off some of the first long gig (19 years at that outfit), so I wouldn't look so old, hehe! After that, I bounced around for 15 years in 4 outfits. Maxed-out every retirement option offered by the IRS. What was the question again? ;)
 
I have spent my professional career in Human Resources. No fancy title, currently earning a little over 100k in the oil and gas.industry I am bored to tears and have become disillusioned with the job (very underutilized). I am really tired of being a cog in the wheel. I estimate that I am currently saving approx. 30% of my salary. I have 6 rentals that will provide an additional income stream in retirement. At this point in life I've survived a divorcee, 2 layoffs, a broken back and 2 broken elbows. I am a survivor. Hoping to FIRE in the next 2-5 years...or at least transition into part-time work or a different career. DH has a job, pension, 401(k) etc. but we manage our finances separately.
 
12-16, babysitting, saved most the $, enough to buy a new car when i turned 16 and still have several thou left
16-21, waitress, pizza delivery, note taker, other misc kid jobs
21-23 systems analyst
23-28, graduate assistant, instructor
29-now, professor, save around 30-60% of gross
1-2 years from now: FIRE!
 
Project Manager for a major wireless infrastructure manufacturer. Make decent money and save/invest ~70% of after tax income. No debt, empty nesters with our pedal to the metal on the savings throttle.
 
For deadshort52, from an "average working stiff"

Well, time to check in as a token humanities major.

Not sure that my work was "average," as in "what most folks wouldn't mind taking on." I spent 34 years teaching literature and writing, including 5 years part-time at the college level. Occasional semesters included mentoring new teachers and supervising student teachers for a local university.

What was definitely "average" was the pay!!

Of the 34 years, I only taught full-time for 11. The challenge was managing the paper load, especially to meet the demands of honors/AP curricula when teaching in CA, where average class sizes were 38. So how did most of us honors teachers manage the load? by requesting a part-time contract each year, even though we had tenure for full-time jobs. As DH put it, my 3/5 contracts "allowed" me work 40 hour weeks for part-time pay.

When we moved from high COL San Francisco Bay Area to Ohio, we cut our COL in half. During last 12 years of career, I taught in private school here: a pure delight. Class sizes averaged 18-22, kids wanted to learn, and parents were absolutely supportive. Though I ended my career earning in the low 50Ks, it had been twelve years of fulfilling some dreams as a teacher. I could have been earning another 30K back in the old Bay Area job, if I had stayed in it full-time. But it was worth sacrificing those paychecks for the quality of life here in Ohio.

(Plus, I probably would've never returned to full-time in CA.....again, because of the burnout from essay and research-paper grading.)

DH and I always LBYMd, and saved as much as possible during our 20 yrs. before the move to OH. Paying off our mortgage here in '98, plus the lower COL, allowed us both to max out our 401K's and Roth IRA's during the 12 years before we retired.

Fortunately, most of my interests are free and/or inexpensive. (Except the travel addiction.) Thoreau and Emerson grabbed my heart, back in my teens. So, I'm pretty happy as long as there is a woods nearby.

Life has been good.

:)


PS-- FIRE was possible because of my STRS, DH's megacorp pension and SS-disability, and our savings. We would not be FIRED if I had been the primary breadwinner. (I would still be slogging through reams of paper 6 days a week.)
 
BS in Physics, 5 years with Big Oil, a few years getting a graduate degree in the history of science, then 15 years teaching high school physics, earth science, and other things. 5 years contracting with the US gov't in some teacher education programs and then 3 years with a non-profit doing teacher professional development. A nominal pension is awaiting from the teaching years, not enough to live on, by any means, but enough to put groceries on the table and pay some bills. Savings rate hit the ceiling when DW got a job as a Fed. This and my contracting job more than doubled our income from when I was teaching and she was doing human services work. By not increasing our standard of living (except for the increase in housing costs associated with moving from the Midwest to Northern VA), our savings rate went from about 10-15% to about 50% for the last 7 years. So ER loomed up pretty rapidly once that happened. We went from LBYM to L WAY BYM. I have a young friend who always asked me "Why do you live like graduate students?" Now that I am retired, she has her answer.
 
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Astronomer and optical engineer.
 
Started off in Big Management Consulting, from analyst to partner. Then got a management job at an investment bank. Wrapped up the career with one more year in Big Strategy Consulting. Toward the end I was saving well over half of net pay. Pulled the plug for good at 44.
 
I've had the usual (and unusual) part time jobs through college: soliciting funds for an environmental cause, working in a college cafeteria, working in a dry cleaner, working as a desk clerk at a motel, internship at a tech company. Got my engineering degree and starting pulling in a whopping mid-20k salary in the mid-80's. Only had 4-5 engineering jobs... the 4-5 is because I worked for one employer twice (left and came back). Ended my career making $90k - but that was for a 4 day/80% part time deal.

Also had a hobby job or two for extra cash along the way. My favorite was the two years I worked for Talk Cinema. Didn't pay well - but I got paid to watch movies, rather than paying. (I'd been a customer and they talked me into working for them. ) That gig wasn't for the money - it was for the free movies...
 
Started as a land surveyor / civil engineering tech in 1974. Became part owner of a firm in 1992. Sold out in 2013. Retired in 2014, except 1 project that I'm consulting on. Compensation fluctuated significantly depending on sales and profitability of the company and the overall economy. Started at around $8k. Highest payroll earnings were around $100k before I started tapering off work hours.
 
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Been in IT, working with computers in some form, for about 30 years, and have grown to hate it.

Back in 2005, I got so sick of the IT world I quit, got my real estate license, and practiced real estate for a couple years. I really enjoyed that - no boss hanging over my head, and I could run my business the way I wanted. But 2005 was one of the worst years to get into real estate and the market where I practiced crashed. Had to get out of it a couple years later and return to Silicon Valley and IT.

Even thought I should count where I'm at right now (I was an early employee of a tech startup that has since IPO'd and is growing) as the most rewarding of my career, I still hate what I do.

I just get no satisfaction from going into an office, sitting in a cube, staring at a computer and pecking away at a keyboard all day.

Can't wait until I can quit IT for good and get on with my life.
 
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