How many years did you work

[Livefree]

42 Years Full Time.

 

[Bikechuck]

Had my first W2 job at the age of 15 and retired at 64 so 49 years for me. When I was in HS and college I always worked two jobs as I self funded college. After grad school I had a primary job with ten years of a side gig as an adjunct professor.

I have been happily retired for 7.5 years now and I am enjoying unemployment!

 

[AudiDudi]

45 yrs of SS earnings (one yr $0) but the last 16 were a little part time and some self employed. When I was 46, I called SS and asked them what my current benefit would be if I stopped working and what it would be if I continued working until FRA. The difference was about 20%.

 

[swakyaby]

With only 21 years of career work, I have quite a few zeroes averaged into my social security estimated benefit.

 

[bada bing]

47 years of FICA with 2024 counted in. 2024 was actually the lowest adjusted wage of my whole 47 years at $38K. The 12 years paid past my top 35 for SS had a total adjusted wages of ~$500K. I hope to work on my seasonal hustle until 70, another 4-5 years. How's that for "fairness" from the Fairness Act ? LoL

 

[flyingaway]

If you I don't count graduate school years as working years, 7 years before graduate school, 22 years after graduate school, a total of 29 years.

 

[mebden]

I worked 40+ years worked in restaurants as dishwasher, bus boy & side cook and sawmills starting at 15 at 18 went in Navy till 21 and then worked 18 years with 1 company till they decided to sell out and I had to start all over with vacations thats when I learned I will never be held hostage by any company with a wage so saved my butt off to retire early. Then I made the mistake of going into management for the next 20 years, but the pay did help to boost my SS payments when I finally receive it LOL. But never counted on it either LOL

 

[kgtest]

Been working 30 years now, since I was 14.

I've had 30 different jobs, owned 3 companies and seen a lot. Collected a pension along the way, and was part of a company that was involved in a merger twice.

I've worked for Series A startups, Inc 25 companies, non-profits, the Jehovah's witnesses, the DoD twice and am a veteran of the USAF.

I see money and say yes, I can't help it.

I've learned a lot in the trenches. Of course obtaining 30 different jobs requires many, many more interviews and conversations. So I am well-networked.

 

[kgtest]

I worked more than 35 hours per week for 37 years. I paid into SS for 12 years

Interesting. So you worked cash gigs all of 12 years? Or owned the company?

 

[Rianne]

We worked for 55 years if you count part-time jobs, babysitting, delivering paper, waitressing..etc. What counted was the years we invested, meaning using work money to invest, which was 21 years.

But all the short, part-time gigs, other than cash payments were paid into SS and Medicare.

 

[CalBird]

28 years full time.

 

[kcowan]

35 years, last ten independent consultant.

 

[Marc]

Full time work 37.25 years - 14 July 1980 - 20 October 2017.

 

[street]

~40 years for me. I know a guy that just retired this fall and worked at the same place for 48 years. A great person and was happy for his long career. But honestly, I wasn't sure to be happy for him or be sad for him. With me saying that he still is only about 65 years old so hopefully he has a lot of good years left.

 

[viking111]

Does starting work at 10-11 years old count.

 

[Dash man]

35 years of working paying into SS. If I make it to 35 years of retirement I’ll be 91.

 

[bluelight]

Per SS, I worked 46 years. I took 1 1/2 years off when my daughter was born in the early 80's. I retired at 62 in 2019. Hard to believe it's almost 6 years. I much prefer the job of grandma.

 

[Murph]

2 companies. 40 years. 1974-2014.

Same here, but started in ‘78. Retired at 59 1/2.

 

[Martlet]

Worked about 21 years in my US career. Twelve years before that in the UK, Sony SS was going to be WEPed before the repeal. Total of 33 years. We’ve gone back and paid voluntary contributions to increase our UK state pension entitlement. May not have done that if I had known that WEP would be repealed. But with no private defined benefit arrangement, I have a little more insurance against outliving my savings.

 

[Retired Expat]

If it felt like a real job to you then it probably counts. I guess what I was after was how limited career length impacted our PIA. I'd only exclude these shorter gigs if they don't significantly affect your PIA. (and yes, you have to decide what 'significantly' means)

Under 20 of real work where SS earnings were high. More years of self employed or other money making ventures but not SS earnings so while my PIA could be higher my retirement is set! And isn’t that what counts?

 

[martyb]

With the (presumed) repeal of WEP and GPO and the prospect of my DW getting half my PIA in spousal benefits I've been thinking about the fact that my PIA is somewhat below maximum because of the limited number of years I worked. I retired after 27.5 years of 'real' work (and another half dozen or so years of low wage jobs I had while a student). As a result my PIA is reduced about 10% from the maximum it could be for someone my age.

This being a site dedicated to early retirement it made wonder how many others here have relatively short careers and whether this has impacted your PIA. In this poll I'm only asking about 'real' full time work - not short low paid gigs, but how you define real work is up to you.

 

[Dean56]

1 company, 40 years & 9 months. Started at MegaCorp at age 19. Retired at 60.

 

[martyb]

Worked pt jobs through & just after high school (burger flipper, delivery for a furniture store etc.) Enlisted in the Air Force at 19. Separated from active duty in '81 & took a civilian fed job with the Air Force & continued serving as an AF Reservist. Ffwd to 2008. Transferred to a different DoD fed agency Defense Contract Management Agency. Performed QA duties within DoD contractors. Continued my Reserve career & retired militarily in 2010 with 33 yrs between active & Reserve. Retired from Civil Service July 2014, total of 37 1/2 yrs federal service, age 56 1/2. Drawing 2 cola'd pensions & after the WEP & Part B, a smallish SS. I'll be 67 on January 18th this week. Medicare A&B plus Tricare for Life provides pretty good health insurance coverage. Between my TSP & wife's 401k (retired last week) & her SS (just applied at 64) we're not wealthy but comfortable with no real money concerns...as long as we don't go too crazy. Um...I did recently buy a new bass boat.

 

[KiwiFI]

Approx 30 years IT consulting. Seems like a looong time when I think about it, but have had mini breaks along the way too, so all n all it's been good to me.

 

[AudiDudi]

35 years of working paying into SS. If I make it to 35 years of retirement I’ll be 91.

That was my goal - be retired as long as I worked. My grandfather worked 36 years at Std Oil/ Chevron and was retired for 33 years.