Everyone I know is laid off by age 55

[Anonymous]

Be prepared for gig employment after 55.

[Anonymous]

Save save save.

[Anonymous]

It’s absolutely paramount that professionals plan to be able to retire by 55. If you think age discrimination is bad now, you haven’t seen anything yet. The automated tools coming down the pipeline (including in white collar fields like law) are kind-boggling.

[Anonymous]

^ meant to write mind-boggling! Truly science fiction type stuff.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am 40 years old and work for a government contractor. I have seen many people get laid off around age 55 or older but before they planned to retire. Some were high income earners in the 150-200 range. Most were unable to find another job that paid nearly as well with benefits. Some did not find jobs at all. Some were able to "retire" but others were not and had to work demeaning jobs. Maybe this will be a lesson to the frequent posters on this board that advise overextending oneself on the assumption that incomes will go up perpetually. It is critical to save as much as you can as early as you can.

$150k-$200k is high income?

This is why we love DCUM. $150-$200K is 92nd-96th percentile in the US.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am 40 years old and work for a government contractor. I have seen many people get laid off around age 55 or older but before they planned to retire. Some were high income earners in the 150-200 range. Most were unable to find another job that paid nearly as well with benefits. Some did not find jobs at all. Some were able to "retire" but others were not and had to work demeaning jobs. Maybe this will be a lesson to the frequent posters on this board that advise overextending oneself on the assumption that incomes will go up perpetually. It is critical to save as much as you can as early as you can.

$150k-$200k is high income?

This is why we love DCUM. $150-$200K is 92nd-96th percentile in the US.

If you adjust for depreciation, trusts, tax loopholes, pensions etc it’s more like the low 80s %tile. Still not bad though!

[Anonymous]

DH just got a new job (new company) at 58 which is good since we have a 8th and 8th graders. Can't retire yet!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am 40 years old and work for a government contractor. I have seen many people get laid off around age 55 or older but before they planned to retire. Some were high income earners in the 150-200 range. Most were unable to find another job that paid nearly as well with benefits. Some did not find jobs at all. Some were able to "retire" but others were not and had to work demeaning jobs. Maybe this will be a lesson to the frequent posters on this board that advise overextending oneself on the assumption that incomes will go up perpetually. It is critical to save as much as you can as early as you can.

$150k-$200k is high income?

This is why we love DCUM. $150-$200K is 92nd-96th percentile in the US.

If you adjust for depreciation, trusts, tax loopholes, pensions etc it’s more like the low 80s %tile. Still not bad though!

And 70% of Americans don’t have college degrees. So consider ourselves highly educated with a GMU diploma?

https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2020/educational-attainment.html

[Anonymous]

This is why we are sending our kids to public schools. Yes in theory we can afford private school on our current income ($600K, including bonus) but we have not been at this income for very long and we want to save so that we could retire at 55 if needed (even though neither of us would do that by choice). I know people who paid for private schools and then we laid off in their 50s and it was definitely scary for some of them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s absolutely paramount that professionals plan to be able to retire by 55. If you think age discrimination is bad now, you haven’t seen anything yet. The automated tools coming down the pipeline (including in white collar fields like law) are kind-boggling.

And then what do you do for 30 years?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s absolutely paramount that professionals plan to be able to retire by 55. If you think age discrimination is bad now, you haven’t seen anything yet. The automated tools coming down the pipeline (including in white collar fields like law) are kind-boggling.

And then what do you do for 30 years?

They’re not saying to retire. They’re just saying “plan” on it — in case you lose a job & can’t get new work.

[Anonymous]

Anyone here who had to retire early and fund their own healthcare? What does it cost per year? This is the part of getting pushed out early the scares me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is why we are sending our kids to public schools. Yes in theory we can afford private school on our current income ($600K, including bonus) but we have not been at this income for very long and we want to save so that we could retire at 55 if needed (even though neither of us would do that by choice). I know people who paid for private schools and then we laid off in their 50s and it was definitely scary for some of them.

We used to live in a much higher col area than DC, and I wanted to move because as we got older, I wanted to be able to live on one income, and we didn't want to put our kids in private school in case of a job loss. So, we picked an area with good public schools.

We don't have any family money we can fall back on. No pension, not even great healthcare. We pay for our own.

We are now in our 50s, and hope to retire in a few years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s absolutely paramount that professionals plan to be able to retire by 55. If you think age discrimination is bad now, you haven’t seen anything yet. The automated tools coming down the pipeline (including in white collar fields like law) are kind-boggling.

And then what do you do for 30 years?

Offtopic but i would so love to not work after 55 and have at least a modest income, portable to anywhere in the world. I would be happy with 3k/mo, 5k/mo would be really great.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Anyone here who had to retire early and fund their own healthcare? What does it cost per year? This is the part of getting pushed out early the scares me.

DH and I are in our 50s and pay for our own healthcare. Family of four, high deductible HSA plan is about $1200.

DH at 57 is the most expensive of all of us. I think we priced it out, and his premium is like $400/month or so. Last year, I think DH's out of pocket was about $600 or so for the year. He's generally healthy.