What do you do for a living?

[jfn111]

Started at 14 doing demolition work for my friends father at $1.00 per hour. I also worked as a grocery clerk, delivery driver for the local pharmacy, popcorn maker at the local drive-in, mechanics assistant and finally glass installer. Then I graduated high school.
While in College I worked as a line worker at Jeno's pizza, prep cook for a Greek restaurant and a psychiatric assistant (night bouncer) at the local psych ward.
After graduation I worked for JC Penney in commission sales (hated retail) and then got a sales job with mega-corp.
I stayed at mega-corp for 33 years with an ending savings rate of 27% of gross.
Wife worked as an electronic assembler and then as a line supervisor.
Together we made about $140,000
We were never overly thrifty but we paid off our house and never bought the big house in the suburbs. We were able to retire at 55 with a mega-corp pension, 7 figure 401K and subsidized health care.
Worked out pretty good.

 

[Speculator]

I retired from a large corporation at age 50, and after "selectively" working at several jobs such as a professional ski instructor and a reimbursed cook for a local "Meals-on Wheels" program, last May (at age 64) I graduated from a highly regarded "brick and mortar" university with a Master of Social Work degree. I now work as a clinical social worker and I am absolutely loving it. Life just keeps getting better!

 

[prose3589]

I started working at about age 12. My dad owned a number of restaurants and taverns. The first restaurant he opened when he was 19. The last business was opened 31 years ago this month. Wildly successful. I worked in food prep and as a waitress and cashier. Worked through middle school, high school, college, marriage and kids, late start and ultimate graduation from law school. Even waited tables when I started my first job as a young attorney. Learned amazing lessons from dad and many others. Helped make me a better lawyer and a better person. And when you start working at 12 and you are 44 and trying to semi retire it really makes more sense! I have a 32 work history at a young age so I am ready for a big change.


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[Options]

If you are far from retirement, you might be interested in this report coming out of the Davos World Economic Forum. It's lengthy, but represents cutting edge thinking on the transformation happening now and in the foreseeable future regarding work.

http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Future_of_Jobs.pdf

It's not pretty:

It is clear from our data that while forecasts vary by industry and
region, momentous change is underway and that, ultimately,
it is our actions today that will determine whether that
change mainly results in massive displacement of workers
or the emergence of new opportunities...

Where it is mentioned, the artificial intelligence and machine learning driver is expected to lead to negative employment outcomes in job families such as Education and Training, Legal and Business and Financial Operations. However, it appears our respondents do not believe that these technologies will have advanced significantly enough by the year 2020 to have a more widespread impact on global employment levels. [...] current trends could lead to a net employment impact of more than 5.1 million jobs lost to disruptive labour market changes over the period 2015–2020, with a total loss of 7.1 million jobs — two thirds of which are concentrated in the Office and Administrative job family — and a total gain of 2 million jobs, in several smaller job families.

Overall, our respondents seem to take a negative view
regarding the upcoming employment impact of artificial
intelligence, although not on a scale that would lead
to widespread societal upheaval—at least up until the
year 2020.

...current trends could lead to a net employment impact of more
than 5.1 million jobs lost to disruptive labour market changes over the
period 2015–2020, with a total loss of 7.1 million jobs—
two thirds of which are concentrated in the Office and
Administrative job family—and a total gain of 2 million jobs,
in several smaller job families. A number of conclusions
stand out:

• The global workforce is expected by our respondents
to experience significant churn between job families
and functions, with administrative and routine
white-collar office functions at risk of being decimated
and strong growth in Computer and Mathematical
and Architecture and Engineering related fields.
Manufacturing and Production roles are also expected
to see a further bottoming out but might have the worst
behind them and still retain relatively good potential for
upskilling, redeployment and productivity enhancement
through technology rather than pure substitution.

• Employment growth is expected to derive
disproportionately from smaller, generally high-skilled
job families that will be unable to absorb job losses
coming from other parts of the labour market. Even
if they could, significant reskilling would be needed.
This factor plus the increase in global unemployment
due to global population growth and slow job creation
over the period 2015-20199 leaves no room for
complacency.

• Once emerging markets and developing countries are
added into the equation, any discussion of the Future
of Jobs remains incomplete without recognizing that
a significant share of the global workforce remains
employed in agriculture, about which both current
technology optimists and alarmists have comparatively
little to say. Similarly, a potential field of employment
growth around which our survey yielded only limited
data points concerns the Personal Care and Service
job family, since jobs in this field are not typically found
on a large scale among large multinational employers.10
Indeed, there is cause for optimism about growth in
these roles as demand for such services grows due to
demographic and social factors.

• There is a strong gender dimension to expected
employment changes whereby, notably, gender gaps
appear to be more pronounced within both high
growth and declining job families. For example, women
make up low numbers in the fast-growing STEM job
families, pointing, on current trends, to a deteriorating
gender gap over time; but also low numbers within
job families such as Manufacturing and Production
or Construction and Extraction, where expected job
losses will disproportionately affect men. However,
female employment is also concentrated in low-growth
or declining job families such as Sales, Business and
Financial Operations and Office and Administrative,
indicating, if our respondents’ expectations come to
pass, a possible reversal of some of the gains made in
workplace gender parity over the past decade.

Emphasis added

 

[Scarecrow]

I work in IT at a Megacorp, an all around unpleasant existence. Been there 30+ years. Getting close to taking that "final ride down the elevator". It will be a glorious day.

In high school I worked at a grocery store, bagging, stocking,etc.

I prefer the grocery store work to IT, but, $$ sucked me into IT.

During one summer in college, I worked at a Megacorp factory. Great pay. Some of my fellow summer coworkers dropped out of college and continued on at the factory for that paycheck. I was tempted to stay on at the factory too, but, did not see how that job would last 30 years. This was 1980'ish, and factories were closing down right and left. And indeed, that factory did wither away and eventually closed down.

 

[Hardatit]

Started at age 15
Delivered for a rent-to-own store
Golf course maintenance
Auto repair shop minor tune ups
Warehouse and delivery for Sears
Air force 2001-current with 6 years to go until I am done working for someone else. Came in to avoid school, I completed my Associates last year and am 1 class from the Bachelors.
My wife is a personal trainer, I have a website and sell atv parts on ebay. We save around 70% of our income, no kids helps. I'm looking to live off my pension and work side jobs that I enjoy once I retire from the military.

 

[ugeauxgirl]

I'm 44. My first job was cleaning my dad's office, after that I was a camp counselor- I taught horseback riding, then during college I did assorted work-study jobs that came with my scholarship, and for the last 4 summers (I got a liberal arts degree and then an MBA so 6 years total) I sold books door to door to help pay for college. I graduated debt free and took a sales job with an advertising company and I hated it. I asked for a transfer and was promptly fired. Then I got a job with a brokerage company as a financial advisor and have been there 19 years. The retirement package is not available until your years of service plus age=70, which means I have plenty of years but I'm not old enough. I will be old enough in 4 years. I'll be FI in a year or two depending on how the market does.

My husband is 52 and is a forester. He does contracting work so his income is variable- so is mine. He can accept jobs or not, so he plans on working less over time but is not as excited as I am about completely retiring. As long as he takes off enough time so we can vacation frequently, he can keep working if he wants to- We saved 47% of our income in 2014, but I haven't calculated it yet for 2015. Probably a little less but not less than 40% I think- we bought a car. We have 2 boys ages 8 and 11

 

[braumeister]

he plans on working less over time but is not as excited as I am about completely retiring. As long as he takes off enough time so we can vacation frequently, he can keep working if he wants to

Sounds familiar, and it can work surprisingly well. DW kept w*rking for another 12 years after I went ER. She didn't have to, but she was happy in her low stress job and loved the people she w*rked with. The social aspects of employment were such a strong attraction.

So during all that time we had normal vacations together but I also frequently went off on my own for a week or two or three. Typically, that would be hiking, camping, fishing, etc., which are activities that she has no real interest in.

OTOH, she always made time for a couple of weeks each year for a solo trip of her own to attend craft classes that I had no real interest in.

Bottom line, we had no conflict at all between our lifestyles. Now that we're both fully retired, very little has changed, although we do more travel together, which is great. Sounds like you're heading in the same direction.

 

[danweed]

I'm 31 and an E5 in the USAF. Started a little late after a few attempts at college and racked up over 50k in debt...Enlisted just before 23. Now I'm saving about 40% of my income, have 2 investment properties and a net worth over 165K. My goal is early retirement through rental properties and military pension. I have about 60k saved up for real estate when I get back to the states and still contribute 20% into my TSP for later in retirement. According to my calculations, I should be able to comfortably retire in my mid to late 40s. Oh, and we still are planning trips to Thailand, Bali, and even Ireland in the next year or two. I'm not giving up traveling and experiences! We're gonna do it all! Enjoy our youth and retire early!
It helps when you're willing to drive beaters and do your own repairs.

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[ugeauxgirl]

Sounds familiar, and it can work surprisingly well. DW kept w*rking for another 12 years after I went ER. She didn't have to, but she was happy in her low stress job and loved the people she w*rked with. The social aspects of employment were such a strong attraction.

So during all that time we had normal vacations together but I also frequently went off on my own for a week or two or three. Typically, that would be hiking, camping, fishing, etc., which are activities that she has no real interest in.

OTOH, she always made time for a couple of weeks each year for a solo trip of her own to attend craft classes that I had no real interest in.

Bottom line, we had no conflict at all between our lifestyles. Now that we're both fully retired, very little has changed, although we do more travel together, which is great. Sounds like you're heading in the same direction.

Thanks, braumeister. I think it will work too. DH and I came from VERY different backgrounds- he grew up fairly poor and never went on vacation as a child- so he doesn't like to travel as much as I do. He thinks vacationing more than once a year is what rich folks do- but its what I really love. He didn't have much experience with people retiring before they simply couldn't work anymore so I think this is more of a mental thing for him. He likes working and his job has a much lower stress level than mine. It also has the advantage of keeping him fit.

I am perfectly happy to travel alone- I regularly snag an extra day or two to see the city whenever I travel for business, and I have friends who would also happily tag along when I retire as well. I might even try that Road Scholar program. I plan on teaching basic finance at one of the local universities- mostly for fun. I have been a guest lecturer for friends who taught and I loved it. There is certainly a need for teaching that sort of thing in schools!

 

[flyingaway]

A professor here. I don't know if I am retired or semi-retired in the eyes of the personal finance bloggers. Three month unpaid and one month paid breaks each year. During the work months, the average teaching time is 4.5 hours per week. I do need to do research and publish papers. But in the eyes of bloggers, those are similar to analyzing personal finance or travel data and writing blogs, and should not be counted as work. LOL.

 

[Accidental Retiree]

A professor here. I don't know if I am retired or semi-retired in the eyes of the personal finance bloggers. Three month unpaid and one month paid breaks each year. During the work months, the average teaching time is 4.5 hours per week. I do need to do research and publish papers. But in the eyes of bloggers, those are similar to analyzing personal finance or travel data and writing blogs, and should not be counted as work. LOL.

One of my former teaching colleagues called being a university professor "the best part-time job in the world."


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[ugeauxgirl]

A professor here. I don't know if I am retired or semi-retired in the eyes of the personal finance bloggers. Three month unpaid and one month paid breaks each year. During the work months, the average teaching time is 4.5 hours per week. I do need to do research and publish papers. But in the eyes of bloggers, those are similar to analyzing personal finance or travel data and writing blogs, and should not be counted as work. LOL.

Sounds lovely. I could probably do that forever.

 

[Hermit]

I'm 31 and an E5 in the USAF. Started a little late after a few attempts at college and racked up over 50k in debt...Enlisted just before 23. Now I'm saving about 40% of my income, have 2 investment properties and a net worth over 165K. My goal is early retirement through rental properties and military pension. I have about 60k saved up for real estate when I get back to the states and still contribute 20% into my TSP for later in retirement. According to my calculations, I should be able to comfortably retire in my mid to late 40s. Oh, and we still are planning trips to Thailand, Bali, and even Ireland in the next year or two. I'm not giving up traveling and experiences! We're gonna do it all! Enjoy our youth and retire early!
It helps when you're willing to drive beaters and do your own repairs.

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Hi Danweed,

Welcome to the forum! To help everyone here get to know you, start a thread in the "Hi, I am..." forum. You could just paste what you wrote here over there. You might also be interested in http://www.early-retirement.org/for...-answer-before-asking-can-i-retire-69999.html in the FAQ forum. There are quite a few military retirees here with a lot of experience in the FIRE area. They will be happy to answer any questions you have in that area too. Hope to hear from you soon.

Hermit

 

[ERdream]

36 yo Radiologist, with a S***Load of debt!

But 3 amazing little boys and DW that is on board with ER at 50

Currently make just shy of 450k this year, hopefully when I make partner 500-550k with working far less. Goal for saving rate is 50-60% a year not counting 401k contributions.

Glad to have found this site, MMM was a bit to much for DW.

 

[2017ish]

...

Glad to have found this site, MMM was a bit to much for DW.

hah! I never showed my DW (an OBG) that site. She is actually frugal, but taking it to MMM level: Not.gonna.happen.ever.

Once again, welcome aboard.

 

[Markola]

+2. God Bless MMM and family and their pioneering example to a lot of us in living well on $25K/yr. It's a good reference point and nice to know it's possible because he spells it out so clearly. However, we like spending about 4 times that so we are consciously choosing to w*rk a while longer to endow our chosen lifestyle. On the other hand, should various life matters hit the fan, we could FIRE immediately and live on 2xMMM/yr, and maybe even live luxuriously abroad like Go Curry Cracker, which I take great comfort, sanity and freedom in knowing.

 

[beanctr88]

48 y/old. CFO of a private company. One of two non-family members in management. Hoping to retire by 60. That will give us a few years to top off the taxable investments after the kids graduate from college.


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[ThisIsMe]

28 y/o engineer making $95k/yr, DW engineer makes $73k. I started at fast food making $5.50/hr.

 

[nokkieny]

28, own multiple online businesses. don't share my income with anyone but my accountant, but the great thing about owning businesses is knowing my dollar is best invested back into my business, and the more they make the more I can sell for one day. So the only "investments" I have are in retirement accounts at this point. I am actually scared to actually invest a substantial amount of money one day because I would feel like I have no control over that money.

 

[ShokWaveRider]

Fully retired. Only downside is no days off.

 

[pb4uski]

Fully retired. Only downside is no days off.

but every day is a holiday!

 

[zerogravity]

We are working now to support two kids in college. We could be retired right Now on passive income from rentals but the long term risk of increasing health care expenses keeps one or both of our feet tied to corporate health insurance benefits.
Once kids are done with higher education we plan to use the empty nester years as a turbo charge to the retirement accounts. Depending on how much money we can stash, and how good the stock market performs will help us determine how quickly we can cut the cord one of us has always worked for the man while the other pursued self employment in stages.
We are conservative that way.


--ZG

 

[Mr._Graybeard]

but every day is a holiday!

 

[Sunset]

but every day is a holiday!

I got a watch that shows the day, month and year because otherwise I couldn't remember what day it was.

I like to avoid the grocery stores on weekends due to the crowds.