Any blue collar workers here?

[FUEGO]

Not blue collar (professional engineer license; retired civil engineer) but I spent plenty of time mucking through swamps, climbing over/under fences, peeing in the woods or port a johns, hiding out in forests in the middle of the night, dodging traffic behind orange cones, maintaining balance on slippery muddy surfaces, wearing a hard hat, dirt on my knees, hands, feet, face, etc.

Toward the end of my career I wore a blue hard hat (which apparently made me a "supervisor" instead of all the white hat laborers), steel toe "dressy" shoes, and khaki or dark slacks, so it was obvious when I stepped out of my Honda Civic (another clue!) on the construction site that I wasn't a laborer.

I never broke through $70k but made a pretty average salary for a civil engineer of my age and experience.

 

[kcowan]

I never broke through $70k but made a pretty average salary for a civil engineer of my age and experience.

Looks like you were a little below average:

Engineering Salary Survey from 2012

 

[gerntz]

Aren't there several retired enlisted military that post? Definitely bc to me.

Dad had 8th grade education, worked in brew house of small old time brewery (Great side benefit: Had the best pub around - free! - and they didn't card you when with Dad.), and umpired on the side. Mom worked as a clerk when not raising kids. Left a $600K estate in 2004. I didn't know what ac was till second year of college in a new dorm.

 

[razztazz]

Aren't there several retired enlisted military that post? Definitely bc to me.

I know of one. That would be me. I think all the other Military (ret.) are commished

 

[MRG]

My uncle, born in '09 had a small family run grocery store, in a dying town, passed on by his mother. Other than WWII that's all he did for a day job. He played sax in a small jazz band that played local country clubs, maybe twenty bucks for the weekend. Couple of dive homes he bought and rented out, they were worth nothing. Daughter let them go back to the county to not pay the tax. Investments were the bank and some bonds, nothing more. Their estate was around 800k when they passed both in their 90s.

 

[Walt34]

I think saving rates are more about attitude toward money and spending, rather than a direct result of income amount.

I think you're right. I've noticed this a lot, more so recently as we've gotten older and we're more aware of the limited options some relatives have. I retired from law enforcement but I'm fortunate to have one of the old-fashioned DB COLA'd pensions, SS, and savings/investments, the old "three-legged stool". That pension plan they stopped offering in the mid 1980s.

When the pension plan changed they offered current participants the option of getting back half of their prior pension contributions (tax-free because taxes had already been paid on it) if they switched to the new lower-benefit pension plan. An astonishing (to me) number of people took that option and used the money to buy cars, motorcycles, boats, bigger houses, etc. As a result of that decision, many of those guys are still working, not because they want to, but because they have to. Or they have a significantly lower standard of living than they could have had.

At my last job, a federal government contractor armed security position, they had a glitch one weekend and instead of the Friday morning direct deposit of pay we didn't get it until the following Monday. No biggie for the folks on this forum but I was surprised at the amount of panic and gnashing of teeth about it. Two people took out payday loans! Just amazing. And everyone there had two incomes either from a law enforcement pension or (for the part-timers) their current full time LE job.

 

[FUEGO]

Looks like you were a little below average:

Engineering Salary Survey from 2012

Ouch! Yeah, guess I was an underachiever. My last job was a state job, so expectations were pretty low and lots of time off. Looks like all of my career I spent between the 25th and 50th percentiles, though I know plenty of peers in private practice (something I did at the beginning of my career) consistently worked more than 40 hours per week which I never did.

In the end, I made "enough".

 

[JOHNNIE36]

All of these posts reminds me of my folks and can't imagine going through what they did to survive the depression and the tough forties. Dad did not complete high school because he had an offer to go to work in a skilled industry. He worked for the same company for 48 years and retired on the last possible day at age 65 in 1974. I remember the war years when he worked some odd jobs to get by. Back in those days Mom was a stay-at-home mom and she worked her a** off. People these days couldn't do what they did to raise a family. No auto washing machine or dryer, no dishwasher.
Hung the clothes outside to dry even in the winter when they froze. Mom and I used to sing and whistle songs while we did the dishes. I'm talking up and down steps to hang out the laundry, shovel coal in the winter to feed the furnace (and I remember when they didn't have a furnace). They didn't own a car until 1947 when I was 11 years old.
I could go on and on but those days are gone. They were the salt of the earth. Paid cash for everything. My wife and I understand but my kids don't and the grandkids surely don't. Days gone by.

Sorry for the long post but thought it was a good time to pay homage to my folks and to thank them for a "great" upbringing. They were the typical blue collar crowd. Rest in peace.

 

[RobLJ]

Fantastic--and impressive! Congrats on your son.

I am blue collar and I was a single mother (divorced when my son was 1). I have been a UPS driver for 22 years.

Social Security shows my lifetime of earned income from when I was 16yo until now, at age 49, to be a little shy of $1,300,000. I also received $3000/yr in child support from my blue collar ex-husband for 17 years. I had no savings, no car, and a mortgage with no equity when I got divorced.

I live in an old 1700sq ft house in an older neighborhood in the Midwest that cost $40,000 and has been paid off since I was 32. I do have a new car but I drove the old one for 18yrs. I have traveled quite a bit with my child and I sent him to parochial schools at full tuition and paid for half of his college tuition at a state college (without a scholarship unfortunately).

Thanks to compounding and the fabulous info and encouragement on this site and others I have $860,000 saved for retirement. We do not have a matching 401k but I will have a pension.


Sent from my iPad using Early Retirement Forum

 

[Dreaming of Freedom]

My boyfriend is a Caterpillar mechanic, and started working as a mechanic before getting an A.A. or vo-tech degree was the norm. He can retire now at 57 if he decides he wants to. I am white collar and only 40, so I will probably be working for a few more years to reduce my risk. He does make decent money though, and we live in an older, blue collar neighborhood.

 

[healthyandfun]

Catching up on this thread and enjoying it immensely. My parents grew up poor and lived a frugal yet resourceful lifestyle out of necessity. Dad's earnings as a laborer were very meager and Mom did most work on our small farm to provide milk, meat, eggs, etc. and canned lots of vegetables and fruit. They were great examples and very unusual in their spend, spend, spend families. I chose to be an educator which is a career I loved and provided a stable, but not lucrative income. I was always curious and picked up a book at the public library about personal finance. I continued to read and those books put me on the right path. I did many things right and didn't make many costly mistakes. I am very grateful that my parents were extremely good role models. When I joined this site, I didn't know what a megacorp was. LOL. Severance pay and exit packages are practically unheard of in public education. Count my blessings for my pension and the savings I accumulated. I did read lots of recent threads and some archived ones as well trying to soak up the collective wisdom. Thankful for all those who responded when I asked for advice. Great site!

 

[tps7742]

Catching up on this thread and enjoying it immensely. My parents grew up poor and lived a frugal yet resourceful lifestyle out of necessity. Dad's earnings as a laborer were very meager and Mom did most work on our small farm to provide milk, meat, eggs, etc. and canned lots of vegetables and fruit. They were great examples and very unusual in their spend, spend, spend families. I chose to be an educator which is a career I loved and provided a stable, but not lucrative income. I was always curious and picked up a book at the public library about personal finance. I continued to read and those books put me on the right path. I did many things right and didn't make many costly mistakes. I am very grateful that my parents were extremely good role models. When I joined this site, I didn't know what a megacorp was. LOL. Severance pay and exit packages are practically unheard of in public education. Count my blessings for my pension and the savings I accumulated. I did read lots of recent threads and some archived ones as well trying to soak up the collective wisdom. Thankful for all those who responded when I asked for advice. Great site!

Very good post and I share a great deal of your learnings from very similar circumstances. I discovered this site after I retired but I agree it is a great site!!

 

[king smoothie]

Aren't there several retired enlisted military that post? Definitely bc to me.
.

Yes, I am a retired E7, Navy Chief Petty Officer. I was semi-retired for a few years, as I like to call it, now working full time and part time due to changing financial goals. In high school and 6 months after I was a busboy/dishwasher (I loved that job!) and helped my father with his small engine repair business (side gig for him although really full time). Joined the Navy to become a nuclear trained electronics technician. Did plenty of time with needle guns, grinders, and paint. Plus all that cleaning! That wasn't in the brochure. Saved right from the start and started seriously investing after finishing my military schools. But I did college most of my career as well. Left with an AS, BS, BA, and an MBA (I didn't have a good education plan).
My parents had no college education, but 4 of their 5 children do - two with a masters, and one with a doctorate. The one with the doctorate earns less than at least 3 of his siblings. Two my siblings borrowed some money from me for some college expenses and repaid it. Other than that we all worked our way to an education (although I'm not sure about the doctorate, didn't ask). Oh, and not to forget, my DW was prior enlisted, now a Navy nurse, and she has 3 Bachelor degrees. I guess we both had a problem with the education planning.
Interestingly, most of the people I enjoy being around don't have any or much college education. On my 3rd boat (submarines), I became close friends with another E7, who at first seemed to be the stereotype of the dumb southern redneck. I quickly learned he was actually quite smart, but with no college education. One day I was talking about going to school on shore duty. He said I was wasting my time, that I should buy broken houses, fix them up and rent them. He did that on two shore duties. He had 40 houses! Really retired after 24 years of service with the pension and the rental income. Not sure if he managed them all or if he hired someone. Which one of us was smarter? Please don't answer.

 

[surf n turf]

Blue collar guy here. I spent 22 years of my life in the grocery business and am now a route salesman. I've never made over 55k/yr but I've been smart with my money. SO is in transportation brokerage and makes quite a bit more than me but she wasn't always making good money and has only been into the "good" money for around 5 years.

We have a paid off house, zero debt, 250k in tax advantaged investments, and another 30k in cash. Life is pretty easy right now. I'm 43 years old and she is 40. We don't have kids. Live a pretty simple and inexpensive LBYM life style besides some travel once a year, a few addictive hobbies, and a love for good food and red wine. Our goal is to retire within 10 years. So far the investment calculators are looking positive for us. We're now able to invest around 60k/yr. and save 15-20k/yr for cars, toys, repairs, and travel. We're looking to start some taxable investments soon to balance everything out in preparation for our early retirement.

Right now everything is in Vanguard Total Stock and Bond, Wellington, and LS Growth, Roth and Trad. Had a 7 year stint with Ameriprise(oops), and my first few years with Janus. Both of us are in new jobs so we're still waiting on 401k. Both companies will be matching 25 and 35% up to 5 and 8 percent respectively. Partial pension for me when I turn 62 so we plan on living off taxable and/or 72t until the pension and SS kick in. There is a good possibility that we will sell our home and relocate for a majority of the time to a state with lower COL and with no state income tax and traveling quite a bit when we do finally ER.

It's been nearly impossible to find other like-minded people our age. Most of the friends I talk finance with are much older and retired. Most of our peers are busy raising children and are probably planning on working until full retirement age. This and the BH board have been nice for me to lurk and learn. I was in my early twenties when I first read David Bach's Young Couples Finish Rich. That really set things in motion once I really understood compound interest over time. Now this last decade is all about keeping up the momentum and keep learning as much as I can about investments, taxes, SS, and how to most efficiently put it all together to maximize our capital and reach our goals.

We both love to travel and I have lots of hobbies, so the earlier I can get out of the grind, the better.

 

[windyblonde]

I was happy to see this thread as well. This is my very first post but I have been reading and learning for some time and have been looking for others like us, trying to get enough accumulated to retire early...if 55 is still considered early. Regular jobs(blue collar & office work) with no pensions and none of the mega corp buy outs that seem to happen. We do have a 401K where we work but it came with no instructions. We have been plugging along by contributing to what we hope are good choices and above all LBYM.

 

[tps7742]

Welcome to the site WB!

 

[jhbstp]

Great topic...
I have worked in manufacturing for 42 years, and 21 of those with my own machine shop. Blue collar as it gets.....$6.2 mil later retiring at 60 and not looking back. I have tremendous respect for the skilled guys and gals out there that make it happen!!!


Sent from my iPhone using Early Retirement Forum

 

[Danmar]

My family was 100% blue collar. Truck drivers, warehousemen, mostly. I have the utmost respect for these generally hardworking people. Likewise for me when I started out. My father actively discouraged any higher education for me but for some reason I rebelled and became the first in our extended family to go to university. All courses taken at night as I continued my warehouse job during the day. One of my first courses was Accounting 101. I was attending in my blue jeans and jean jacket and I couldn't figure out why many of the students were dressed up in suits. Turns out they were CPA students. I had never even heard of CPA's. When I finally got the nerve to speak to one of these guys, I asked them how much a new CPA made. Response was $11,000 per year (it was 1973) and this seemed like a fortune to me. Developed a plan based on that, but never lost the respect for "blue collar" workers. I was one for quite a while.

 

[hesperus]

Family roots also 100% blue collar. Mostly around construction trades in chicago. Dad was an insulator with the trade union, who later founded a company with a couple of fellow workers that ended up doing very well. They had a piece of virtually every power generating station (nuclear, coal, natural gas) built in the US, including many around the world. That company was sold to Waste Management corp in the nineties. I was the first one to get a college degree, then later a masters degree. Those roots still run strong in me.

 

[ugeauxgirl]

Husband is definitely blue collar- he is a forester and frequently comes home in stained and torn clothing thanks to his treks in the woods appraising timber. In the Alabama summer heat, this is not a glamorous or comfortable job. He has also owned his own company and has frequently out-earned me during our marriage. He has also out saved me on occasion. We would not be in a position to retire without him. DH grew up in much different circumstances than I did and his perspective has been invaluable.

Once DH dropped by my office while I was meeting with a business-suit wearing colleague- the colleague had never met him and was clearly surprised when I introduced him as my husband. What that colleague doesn't know is that we don't appear to match 8-5 but the rest of the time we do, because I'm usually barefoot with my hair in a ponytail after work and on weekends!

 

[MRG]

Husband is definitely blue collar- he is a forester and frequently comes home in stained and torn clothing thanks to his treks in the woods appraising timber. In the Alabama summer heat, this is not a glamorous or comfortable job. He has also owned his own company and has frequently out-earned me during our marriage. He has also out saved me on occasion. We would not be in a position to retire without him. DH grew up in much different circumstances than I did and his perspective has been invaluable.

Once DH dropped by my office while I was meeting with a business-suit wearing colleague- the colleague had never met him and was clearly surprised when I introduced him as my husband. What that colleague doesn't know is that we don't appear to match 8-5 but the rest of the time we do, because I'm usually barefoot with my hair in a ponytail after work and on weekends!

Thank you for your story. Walking timber in cooler places isn't fun sometimes but when I've been in Alabama it's been too hot.

Spent the first 10 years w*rking either logging or in a mill. Those were interesting days.