Poll: What was your (former) profession?

[ScaredtoQuit]

I'm curious. With such a high level of financial acumen on this Board, how many people are actually in a financial field. Just what do you do? (or what did you used to do?)

 

[Sarah in SC]

Hey Scared, thanks for the snake oil salesman choice! Makes all those nights I'm studying Estate Planning right now seem more worthwhile.

BTW, my older CFP boss just left the office to sit in on an apptment his wife has with an annuity guy that wants to sell her some junk (her Pharma job had a automatic rollover to an annuity for some portion of her retirement) and the salesman doesn't know he's a CFP. He will get a lot of entertainment from it, I'm sure! Boy, to get him on a roll about how bad annuities suck....

Sarah

 

[ScaredtoQuit]

Actually, I have great respect for fee-only planners. It's those insurance people who masquerade as financial planners that get under my skin. My DW is a Customer Service person for a large insurer and she comes home daily with stories about people in their eighties and nineties who have been hoodwinked into buying annuities. And you know, it's not like I'm against annuities either. But people living off social security and a nest egg of just a couple of hundred dollars don't really have any reason to avoid taxes!

Believe it or not, I've got a personal friend who is trying to convince me to join his organization after i retire. He wants me to sell annuities of all things!!

 

[youbet]

Gosh, what a sign of the times! There is no category for blue collar folks other that the one category for building trades.

I worked in a factory, so I checked other.

 

[FinanceDude]

Hey Scared, thanks for the snake oil salesman choice! Makes all those nights I'm studying Estate Planning right now seem more worthwhile.

BTW, my older CFP boss just left the office to sit in on an apptment his wife has with an annuity guy that wants to sell her some junk (her Pharma job had a automatic rollover to an annuity for some portion of her retirement) and the salesman doesn't know he's a CFP. He will get a lot of entertainment from it, I'm sure! Boy, to get him on a roll about how bad annuities suck....

Sarah

Your partner in snake oil.............

 

[kaudrey]

I do financial risk assessment for the gov't, and I have my CFA, so I chose Accountant/Financial Analyst, but I'm definitely not an Accountant!

 

[milmoose]

and I have my CFA

Shame on you kaudrey. You know why...

- M

 

[Beststash]

I join the ranks of other former engineers....at least I was an engineer for about 16 years of my career. I retired at 52 (actually 5 days before my 53rd birthday!!) and am now 56. I retired as a regional manager for a major telecom company. My best years were as a working engineer (technical support) and then I opted to go into management - which was probably the reason that I retired.

But regardless of the reason - I love retirement....lessons learned...you can;t predict your or your spouses health, you can't predict the markets but so far everything is beautiful.

Peace

 

[REWahoo]

The way this poll is shaping up, we might need to redefine FIRE:

Financially
Independent,
Retired
Early Engineer

 

[wabmester]

The way this poll is shaping up, we might need to redefine FIRE:

Financially
Independent,
Retired
Early Engineer

Frugal Introverted Risk-taking Engineers

 

[REWahoo]

Frugal Introverted Risk-taking Engineers

Change one word and I think you're there.

 

[wabmester]

Change one word and I think you're there.

Are you suggesting that I'm not frugal?

Actually, I wasn't an engineer either. I was a Software Artiste.

 

[MasterBlaster]

I didn't see an entry for the professional adult film star career

Would that fall under the "other" group ?

 

[Zathras]

I was both the IT department and owner. I checked IT as that was where my day to day responsibilities were.

 

[Spanky]

I consider myself frugal, but others call me stingy.

 

[heyyou]

I second the post about the lack of blue collar jobs. Early retirement is especially attractive to those that work physically.

Was that list written in the late 1990's? It is not well-diversified and does not cover the whole market. It's too concentrated in tech and health. Is that where the growth in REs is expected? So service industries don't have early retirees?

 

[FinanceDude]

Change one word and I think you're there.

Which word??

 

[Bikerdude]

Introverted geeks rule!

 

[MooreBonds]

Currently an estimator/project manager at a family-run construction company...but finance has always been my true interest, despite being fairly competent at my current profession. Hoping to change to something investment-related in the next year or so, and continue in that for about 5 years before hanging it up for good.

 

[sgeeeee]

I consider myself frugal, but others call me stingy.

It's frugal if people agree with your values.

It's cheap or stingy if they don't.

 

[audreyh1]

I knew there were a bunch of engineer/software/IT types hanging around here, but 43% of our little community? Holy Cow!

Audrey

 

[kaudrey]

and I have my CFA

Shame on you kaudrey. You know why...

- M

Sorry milmoose... I have earned the CFA designation, so I am a CFA charterholder. Is that better?

 

[Moemg]

[. Early retirement is especially attractive to those that work physically.

]


That sounds like nursing so count me in !!

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

I have to object to lumping sales people with marketing. We were so good, we didnt know when we were lying. That deserves its own category

 

[HFWR]

Engineering tech, at least for a few more months...

A rather thankless job, wherein you do all the work, and, if you're lucky, get an honorable mention on the last page of a paper... :