Please teach your kids to become financially independent by 40 - the labor market doesn’t want you

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am in my 50s, with a PhD in a quantitative field. I have changed jobs a few times in the last 5 years, and I can generally find work. I am currently a Fed.

Second all of the suggestions for accounting. My agency has a dozen vacant accounting positions. An older relative got an accounting job in her 70s. Tell your kids to embrace math.

Math will be the first automated function in any field.

Tell your kids to forget about college except to enrich their minds with knowledge in liberal arts: art history, music appreciation, literature, history, science, second and third languages.

Own a business that cannot be replaced by AI. Dog grooming. In-home care for elderly. Travel and tour guides. HVAC services. Welding.

[Anonymous]

Take off your shoes and touch grass friend. breathe. It’s a stressful time. People with 40 year old kids aren’t working to support them unless stuff has seriously gone awry.

[Anonymous]

40 and happily working, I work with young ppl in a start up ish company and we get along. I am no director but No one thinks twice about my age.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kids already have investment accounts, but the reason was more what I had to endure rather than what future might bring.
I worked high stress minimum wage job for ca 18 years. To get out of it, I learned to invest.
OP, at least you seemed to have had nice time working and getting to your freedom from work hasn't been a priority. I still have nightmares from that job.
It puts the damper on my financial freedom.
Me no speaky English is one of the reason I ended up being underpaid and mistreated for so long.

Really? I think I'm mistreated because I'm a 40+ mother in a male dominated field where all the men have SAHWs. The mentality is the I should be home with my kids my household doesn't deserve my income.

But look at it from other side. At my level I make 300k and nearly all the men had SAHW. The 30 percent of women my level with kids also make 300k but had husbands making at least 300k so they had 600k to 700k income. Every time they ran out the door to pick up kids or on maternity leave the men would pick up the slack.

Of course we had to listen to their stores of their visits to France, Martha’s Vineyard and skinning in Aspen something none of us could afford.

My unpaid wife attended school events, made dinner, cleaned up, put kids to bed by herself cause I was working late covering for a women making 300k with a 400k husband. That did not go well.

They need to pay SAHWs

Are you serious? My DH and I both make 150K to get our 300k HHI without the benefit of a parent at home to do all the stuff your wife is doing while you work. But you think your wife should be given money for cleaning up, putting kids to bed, and making dinner (aka stuff my DH and I manage to do while working full time jobs and don’t get paid for). That is so ridiculous you must be a troll.

And if you’re unhappy covering for a coworker, then that is an employer issue.

Men get the Barack Obama treatment. When he was President his wife expected to quit work and be available for free to help and his mother in law expected to move onto White House for free to help raise kids.

Heck when my wife was hospitalized for six weeks with a 5 and 7 year old at home I got, you can have two days off from work to patch something together. (That job I was making $450k)

Working Moms is the biggest oxymoron ever. The working Dads and SAHMs cover for them at work and at home.

SAHMs handle PTA, Brownies, Girl Scouts, class moms cover for you then at work the men cover for you again while their SAHWs have no help.

Today and Friday the mommy’s are remote due to school ending yesterday and camp starts next week. Just the dads and childless women at work today.

At least the working moms got a head start out to their 4 million Rehoboth beach house

So much sour grape for someone making 450k yo

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kids already have investment accounts, but the reason was more what I had to endure rather than what future might bring.
I worked high stress minimum wage job for ca 18 years. To get out of it, I learned to invest.
OP, at least you seemed to have had nice time working and getting to your freedom from work hasn't been a priority. I still have nightmares from that job.
It puts the damper on my financial freedom.
Me no speaky English is one of the reason I ended up being underpaid and mistreated for so long.

Really? I think I'm mistreated because I'm a 40+ mother in a male dominated field where all the men have SAHWs. The mentality is the I should be home with my kids my household doesn't deserve my income.

But look at it from other side. At my level I make 300k and nearly all the men had SAHW. The 30 percent of women my level with kids also make 300k but had husbands making at least 300k so they had 600k to 700k income. Every time they ran out the door to pick up kids or on maternity leave the men would pick up the slack.

Of course we had to listen to their stores of their visits to France, Martha’s Vineyard and skinning in Aspen something none of us could afford.

My unpaid wife attended school events, made dinner, cleaned up, put kids to bed by herself cause I was working late covering for a women making 300k with a 400k husband. That did not go well.

They need to pay SAHWs

Are you serious? My DH and I both make 150K to get our 300k HHI without the benefit of a parent at home to do all the stuff your wife is doing while you work. But you think your wife should be given money for cleaning up, putting kids to bed, and making dinner (aka stuff my DH and I manage to do while working full time jobs and don’t get paid for). That is so ridiculous you must be a troll.

And if you’re unhappy covering for a coworker, then that is an employer issue.

Men get the Barack Obama treatment. When he was President his wife expected to quit work and be available for free to help and his mother in law expected to move onto White House for free to help raise kids.

Heck when my wife was hospitalized for six weeks with a 5 and 7 year old at home I got, you can have two days off from work to patch something together. (That job I was making $450k)

Working Moms is the biggest oxymoron ever. The working Dads and SAHMs cover for them at work and at home.

SAHMs handle PTA, Brownies, Girl Scouts, class moms cover for you then at work the men cover for you again while their SAHWs have no help.

Today and Friday the mommy’s are remote due to school ending yesterday and camp starts next week. Just the dads and childless women at work today.

At least the working moms got a head start out to their 4 million Rehoboth beach house

Sure. But 99.999% of men ain’t Barack Obama or anywhere near that, so adjust your expectations.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kids already have investment accounts, but the reason was more what I had to endure rather than what future might bring.
I worked high stress minimum wage job for ca 18 years. To get out of it, I learned to invest.
OP, at least you seemed to have had nice time working and getting to your freedom from work hasn't been a priority. I still have nightmares from that job.
It puts the damper on my financial freedom.
Me no speaky English is one of the reason I ended up being underpaid and mistreated for so long.

Really? I think I'm mistreated because I'm a 40+ mother in a male dominated field where all the men have SAHWs. The mentality is the I should be home with my kids my household doesn't deserve my income.

But look at it from other side. At my level I make 300k and nearly all the men had SAHW. The 30 percent of women my level with kids also make 300k but had husbands making at least 300k so they had 600k to 700k income. Every time they ran out the door to pick up kids or on maternity leave the men would pick up the slack.

Of course we had to listen to their stores of their visits to France, Martha’s Vineyard and skinning in Aspen something none of us could afford.

My unpaid wife attended school events, made dinner, cleaned up, put kids to bed by herself cause I was working late covering for a women making 300k with a 400k husband. That did not go well.

They need to pay SAHWs

Are you serious? My DH and I both make 150K to get our 300k HHI without the benefit of a parent at home to do all the stuff your wife is doing while you work. But you think your wife should be given money for cleaning up, putting kids to bed, and making dinner (aka stuff my DH and I manage to do while working full time jobs and don’t get paid for). That is so ridiculous you must be a troll.

And if you’re unhappy covering for a coworker, then that is an employer issue.

Men get the Barack Obama treatment. When he was President his wife expected to quit work and be available for free to help and his mother in law expected to move onto White House for free to help raise kids.

Heck when my wife was hospitalized for six weeks with a 5 and 7 year old at home I got, you can have two days off from work to patch something together. (That job I was making $450k)

Working Moms is the biggest oxymoron ever. The working Dads and SAHMs cover for them at work and at home.

SAHMs handle PTA, Brownies, Girl Scouts, class moms cover for you then at work the men cover for you again while their SAHWs have no help.

Today and Friday the mommy’s are remote due to school ending yesterday and camp starts next week. Just the dads and childless women at work today.

At least the working moms got a head start out to their 4 million Rehoboth beach house

Wow, you really hate women in the workplace. Did you get passed up for a promotion or something by a woman who had the audacity to ask for flexibility and got it? You not being able to take the time off you want isn't because of working moms, it's because you weren't assertive enough to get what you needed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:40 and happily working, I work with young ppl in a start up ish company and we get along. I am no director but No one thinks twice about my age.

Haha, not to your face…

[Anonymous]

I stopped working from 35-40 to take care of kids so DH could focus entirely on his career without me losing my mind (I recognize this privilege). I completely underestimated how difficult it would be for me to reenter the workforce (to be fair, I’m trying to switch fields). It is very dispiriting!

[Anonymous]

We do pay for SAHWs….via tax breaks for married couples. A SAHW is a tax shelter for a high earning man.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:40 and happily working, I work with young ppl in a start up ish company and we get along. I am no director but No one thinks twice about my age.

Haha, not to your face…

So? Does my paycheck get cut in half every time someone thinks about my age?

[Anonymous]

yep, woman after 50 at risk, even in federal government. I'm telling my kids to make money while the sun shines. You never know when unexpected hit to your finances can happen, not just job loss or difficulties to increase finances.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am in my 40s and exhausted. I am trying to balance a stressful job and manage a household, including a nanny's schedule, house repairs, all the kids' activities, and on and on.

I’m sorry but why are you so stressed if you have a nanny? It seems like there has to be a way to leverage that to decrease your stress and exhaustion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am in my 50s, with a PhD in a quantitative field. I have changed jobs a few times in the last 5 years, and I can generally find work. I am currently a Fed.

Second all of the suggestions for accounting. My agency has a dozen vacant accounting positions. An older relative got an accounting job in her 70s. Tell your kids to embrace math.

Math will be the first automated function in any field.

Tell your kids to forget about college except to enrich their minds with knowledge in liberal arts: art history, music appreciation, literature, history, science, second and third languages.

Own a business that cannot be replaced by AI. Dog grooming. In-home care for elderly. Travel and tour guides. HVAC services. Welding.

+ 100000000. You said it very well. I have masters degree in pure mathematics from a French University and your assessment is correct regarding the huge importance of liberal arts. I had 2 minors in philosophy and history. And the skills I gained in those courses were valuable to me today than the skills I gained in my math courses.

My son is 12 today and I keep stressing him to learn to use his hands. We do a lot of projects at home. I got him into wood making for example.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am in my 40s and exhausted. I am trying to balance a stressful job and manage a household, including a nanny's schedule, house repairs, all the kids' activities, and on and on.

I’m sorry but why are you so stressed if you have a nanny? It seems like there has to be a way to leverage that to decrease your stress and exhaustion.

Yeah, we have 3 kids, two jobs, an old house, and no nanny!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is impossible to raise kids, work 8 hrs a day, stay healthy and fit (or straight up takes longer to work out after 40 and recover), have a social life, get 8 hrs of sleep…..and anyways the labor market doesn’t really want anything to do with you after age 40

People need to stress to their children to get financially independent so they aren’t subject to full time employment after 40

Speak for yourself.

- 60 and still gainfully employed.