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Well, so we're told. Or sold. "Work real, real hard until you're quite old, and then you can go play." I suppose it works out for some people, but a majority - I suspect - find out that it's all a bit of a shuck. Not only can you not rockclimb and hike cross-country, but likely your vision and your fine motor skills are not quite up to quality work as an artist or gunsmith or furnituremaker, and your stamina may not even be up to gardening.
Double this if retirement means relocation - you can finally move from the cesspool city of your work, friends, pension, benefits, children and life to paradise... where you know no one and have no community connections.
Triple it if you spent your life like most, giving lip service to savings and retirement funds while you spent, spent, spent your endless river of income on toys, trash and a 'proper level of living.'
And... but enough. The idea of a right-angle turn at retirement, dangled as a carrot to keep us working longer and harder, is bovine excrement.
Work and life should be intertwined so that you can continually adapt and scale down as the years go by; a linear progression from your days as a 20yo world-changer to an 80yo dabbler. Everything else is a shuck and an illusion designed to benefit employers, consumption and 'the economy' far more than the individual.
There's no doubt that if you have a heart attack or a stroke the day you retire, you are totally screwed. If you get early onset dementia, you are totally screwed. However, most retirees have about 20 years of retirement to do what they want. If they can't come up with something, they are totally screwed.
To me the saddest thing is people who spent their working years sitting in front of a TV every night, while letting their mind and body deteriorate. I have over 400 college credits earned over my working life. I speak four languages. I studied photography. I studied log scaling and grading. I studied silviculture and mycology. Computer programming on multiple platforms and in multiple languages. CAD/CAM. Blacksmithing, Welding, machining and metallurgy. Hey, it was only a couple hours a night 2 or 3 nights a week.
One of the things I did was install a front projection home theater in a room with really big windows. You can't watch TV while it's light outside. Walk the dog. Work in the yard. Build a barn. I'm 72 and can hike up a 1000' hill without getting too winded. I can still do engraving work. I have a lab quality microscope, loupes and magnifying shop lights that let me do whatever I need.
Have you heard me talk about my 90 acre rural estate with a quarter mile of creek frontage? I've been living here since 1994, and paid for it without putting up with any city cesspools. I have been surrounded by beauty and privacy for decades, and didn't go anywhere when I retired.
If people don't like their retirement, they have only themselves to blame. If they die first it's sad, but there's not much way to fix bad genes.
I don’t know what led you to make any leap to a job when I said my career dreams. You realize most people who aren’t worker bees enjoy what they do, right? I’m a filmmaker, nothing makes me happier than standing on a film set directing my story. It’s the best feeling in the world and the most fun thing I could be doing. Any time spend off a film shoot I like to spend watching movies or writing scripts or planning movies. Why would I ever want to retire from that??
I don’t know what led you to make any leap to a job when I said my career dreams. You realize most people who aren’t worker bees enjoy what they do, right? I’m a filmmaker, nothing makes me happier than standing on a film set directing my story. It’s the best feeling in the world and the most fun thing I could be doing. Any time spend off a film shoot I like to spend watching movies or writing scripts or planning movies. Why would I ever want to retire from that??
Okay, I can relate to what you’re saying now. I have been a musician on the side for decades and I do recording and songwriting as a hobby. Would love to keep doing that full-time after I am financially independent and retire from my regular job.
I know the feeling. What else is there, right?
As far as traveling goes, I enjoy traveling to certain places, but could care less about traveling to others. So, it’s a mixed bag for me. Usually, the places I like to go are expensive though. Cities with a lot of high culture, museums, art galleries and such. They tend to drain your account a bit.
Last edited by BigCityDreamer; 05-23-2019 at 05:09 AM..
I was in a bad car-accident, it was my fault...................thankfully I was insured and nobody
got injured. The credit-card that I rented the vehicle with was used as my primary insurance, so my
insurance-rates did not take a ding. Visa paid-off the vehicle that I totalled in the accident. Just stupidity on my part, I dodged a bullet.
I would think working class jobs are those where you are paid by the hour, you punch in and punch out a time clock as opposed to a salaried job where you get paid by an agreed monthly salary.
Any person who trades their time for a wage is considered "working class".
I was in a bad car-accident, it was my fault...................thankfully I was insured and nobody
got injured. The credit-card that I rented the vehicle with was used as my primary insurance, so my
insurance-rates did not take a ding. Visa paid-off the vehicle that I totalled in the accident. Just stupidity on my part, I dodged a bullet.
***********OOOPS, ignore, posted in wrong thread !!!!!********
A doctor may choose to work in those circumstances, but that is not the common "lot" of someone in the professional class. Someone in the "working class" cannot go into a private practice and set his own hours and prices.
It does depend on what you do and how good you are at it.
Contractors do this all the time. The market will more than likely adjust the prices that they can charge. because of the Thomas fire plenty of contractors are setting their wages around here.
A close friend works as a hair dresser. His wife actually got him into it. He works when he wants. He has a studio in the area. He also does red carpet events. He works his schedule around his kids events, how good the surf is, and his music studio time. With him it is a talent though that he has. The average hair stylist is not taking on the same clients as my friend takes on.
It's safe to say that modern class distinctions were mostly a Euro concept that traveled throughout the "new world." And yes, ancient societies also had some sort of delineation notions regarding tribal status as it applies to privilege. But, at one time the most telling distinction in the Euro sense was whether one worked--or not. Living on one's accumulated wealth, not to mention the backs of those who labor, connoted the upper class, mostly made up of royals who were classified by title.
Today, we hate the idea of being, as one poster put it, "worker bees." Our modern equivalent of royal titles would be the corporate and professional titles, and lacking those we are automatically considered as part of the working class. At any rate, titles are now all important to those who strive for them, and the modern monetary compensation rates are often tied to those titles.
We still cling to the old connotations of low, middle, and upper class, as American class norms, but modern day economic realities are blurring those lines. And there has been a fair amount of meandering up and down the economic scale due to recessionary conditions, but most of America works, and in that space we are all somewhat aligned with the bottom two thirds of our own notions of three classes.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rls929
That would include doctors, lawyers, and psychologists, then.
Yes, they are working, in fact more hours than most non-professionals. Those who are not working class
are those that have passive income sufficient to live comfortably without having a job or business. For example income from investments, proceeds from sale of a very successful business, or a large inheritance.
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