How many years did you work

[ArmchairMillionaire]

34 years full time. My goal is to have 34 years of retirement which would take me to 91 years old.

I like that!
Since I'll have 35 years of wages, it'd be nice to have 35 years of retirement. That would take me to 89-90 years old. Seems like a good goal.

 

[MarieIG]

I voted 31 - 40 - I didn't count babysitting type or intermittent jobs while a teenager, although I started by first regulars job (but tips only) at 15. There were also part time positions and gaps due to school and babies.

 

[FLSUnFIRE]

23 years in my "career" About 38 years and counting if considering my lawn mowing/newspaper delivery/fast food/convenience clerk during school and my post retirement tour gig. Voted based off the 23 years as I believe that is the intent of the question.

 

[Eucerin]

Worked 26 years over 5 jobs

 

[old medic]

According to my final statement, I had 45 years of social security earnings

Same as I, but the 1st several years was small part time jobs thru high school. Worked a full time of some sort for 38 years.

 

[stepford]

23 years in my "career" About 38 years and counting if considering my lawn mowing/newspaper delivery/fast food/convenience clerk during school and my post retirement tour gig. Voted based off the 23 years as I believe that is the intent of the question.

While I was initially trying to get at how many of us retired with few enough work years to take a significant hit in Social Security, I was also just hoping to read people's stories - always a favorite aspect of these polls on ER for me. So there are no wrong answers here.

 

[TheWizard]

Basically 40 years after got my my masters degree in 1973 until retirement in 2013.
I could count really low income years prior to 1973 but I'm not...

 

[PatrickA5]

Started working full time at 17. Continued full-time through college. Retired at 50, so I guess 33 years full time. Worked a handful of years very part time seasonal work after retiring, but not enough to count.

 

[Original Wally]

First job newspaper route @ 11. Worked until 55 1/2. Shrug.

 

[brett]

37 years. 6 employers.

The last one 25 years.

When I worked for a railway in the mid/late 70's I saw several locomotive engineers and conductors, etc doing their 'last run'. Retirement age was 65. A few came off the engine in tears.

Not unusual to see 45, even as much as 52 or more. years of seniority. Some started at age 13 when they were either telegraph boys, or train crew wake up, both on bicycles. Or 'wipers'....kids employed to clean the exterior of passenger rail cars.

They kept their seniority/serice when they enlisted during WW2.

 

[MRG]

Spend a decade logging and sawmilling. After that I worked for Megacorp developing software for 29 years. For twenty of those years I maxed my social security.

 

[Stormy Kromer]

I started farming full time in 1982. Lost money and didn't pay into SS til I earned income in 1985. And that wasn't much. I liked farming but almost starved to death trying.....I actually lost weight between the stress and financial hardship.

Got an of the farm job in 1986 and paid the max into SS for the next 35 years, Plus.

I consider myself fortunate to have been able to pay the max to SS for 35 years, It was an honor. I'd do it again tomorrow.

 

[Gumby]

Since the OP seemed to make a difference in 'real work' vs student or other low income type I do not think that is the way to go...

I know I have a few years with less than $1,000... heck, 3 or 4 with less than $100...

Then again, I was working as young as 5 in my dad's various businesses without pay... so do not know if I should include them..

I thought I was pretty clear about what I was measuring, and I think it is a good measure. But, if we must, my first two years of paying social security were working minimum wage jobs after school and in the summer. After that, I joined the Navy when I was 18 and worked every year until I retired at 60. That's 43 calendar years of "real" work (albeit only 1/2 year in 1977 and in 2019). And, just like you, I worked before I was 16 -- caddying at the country club, bagging at the grocery store, delivering newspapers, mowing lawns, raking leaves and shoveling snow.

I guess an alternative measure would be: how many years did you file an income tax return on your own (i.e. - you were not a dependent) that had W2 income? For me, that was 43 years - for tax years 1977 to 2019, inclusive. I still have a copy of every one.

 

[camfused]

27 years with the 3 letter computer company, then 10 years with one that had only 2 letters.

 

[FREE866]

I assume we are talking after college?

January 1989-January 2017

28 years

 

[tmm99]

I didn't vote since i'm not sure how to. I only had 13 years of what might be considered "real jobs". The rest were part time lower wage jobs including some self employment. The most I ever earned in a year was $49,XXX. I'm 45 and not sure if I will work any more or not. If I do it will be part time and/or seasonal so wouldn't count by OPs definition.

I met the WEP requirement (although I quit working early) because of my part-time jobs (waitressing while going back to school, making something like $5K a year for several years), so I think what matters is you have some kind of taxable income (even if it's small) for more years than not IMHO.

 

[Mark1]

One job for 25 years and 10.5 months. If I would have stayed another 1.5 months my medical insurance would be $40 less per month next year. Nope not worth it, as it would have been half my summer.

 

[rembrandt]

Since the dawn of time.

 

[zangbao]

28 years including 8 years military service. Not including part time job in college.

 

[2017ish]

Like others have said, it is tough to say. Summer jobs and some work study from 8th grade through graduating law school. 8 years of full time work exceeding social security limits. 15 years of "half-time" at best, adjunct faculty work while raising kids. Then, once the eldest hit college and the youngest had his driver's license, 9 years of full time work in excess of social security limits. So either 17, or 36 years?

DW was, with a few exceptions, always our primary wage earner. She had a lot of part time and student jobs until after her second year of med school, then started working in earnest by moonlighting beginning the second year of her residency... True full time work after residency for 27 years, 26 of which were in excess of Social security limits.

 

[marinauser]

38 years after college plus 4 years of full time and part time work in steel mills during high school (after turning 18) and college - all paid social security for those. Part time and summer work before and during high school before turning 18.

 

[CyclingInvestor]

27.4 years in 4 programming jobs, not that I was counting

 

[rk911]

We always had private life insurance as our jobs offered only basic burial/funeral expenses We dropped our life insurance a few years ago when our NW negated the need for it.

 

[PERSonalTime]

30 years + 2 years of part time (40 hours a week) job while in college.

 

[Koolau]

I started w*rk at age 7 and began being paid for the w*rk at age 9. My j*b at Megacorp was 36 years so that that's the figure I used for the survey, but in reality, I w*rked for 51 years!