Do you feel sorry for unemployed folks in their 60s?

[alphamale]

I feel sorry for anyone who is unemployed and actually wants to work....especially the older folks.

[le roi]

Originally Posted by I'm Retired Now

There are tons of articles online highlighting unemployed folks. These stories try to personalize the story of unemployment by talking about individuals with their story and a picture.

Many of the stories about the unemployed have chosen to highlight someone my age (in their 60s) who are desperately trying to rejoin the workforce after an employment termination.

I am sixty two, and collecting Social Security and also living off an annuity that gives me a monthly income and other income from withdrawals from my 401K and dividends from investments, etc.

While I would love to rejoin the rat race and get back into a senior management position paying $100K again, it may not happen.

What do you think when you hear about unemployed people who are in their 60s? Please take my poll!

i feel a small amount of sympathy for anyone who is unemployed and wants to work (even if it is their fault, like allowing their skills to go obsolete). that's a difficult emotional / psychological situation to be in.

but that goes for 15 year olds as well as 60 year olds.

[le roi]

get a grip, people

[BruSan]

Originally Posted by tinman01

Well at 51.
House paid off. Check
Close to 800G in retirement acct. Check
Own property in country I will retire in. (Thailand). Check.
I am thinking that I'll be okay and won't (need) to work as a senior citizen.
We have an entire life to prepare. Some folks do and some don't. Some people are focused on today and today only. Some folks trusted in social security and some understood that SS is meant to supplement your retirement income and not be the sole source or even the primary source. I'm sorry if planning for your own future offends you.

It's all about early life's lessons and how well they get assimilated. I was fortunate enough to have a father who was fairly astute financially. My brother and I grew up on a steady diet of learning stuff like the differences between a defined benefit pension plan and a money purchase one across the dinner table at evening mealtime. Stuff like using gold plated real estate growth equity to finance depreciating assets like boats and swimming pools. Refinancing a house to buy a car. Using a finance plan to buy household appliances etc., Yes; even back in our day, electing to buy disposable diapers rather than using cloth ones all made a difference to the bottom line.

We absorbed some of what he attempted to impart and both of us are enjoying the fruits of never being unemployed and also FORCING compliance to an investment strategy to the point of maintaining deposits into our retirement portfolios when it would have been very easy to take that cruise some friends wanted us to join them on even after we'd just returned from indulging on an overseas trip.

Witnessing this latest boondoggle of people jumping onto those 5 year sub-prime idiot designed programs to then use that home equity to finance a lifestyle, was simply heartbreaking to watch as anyone with a scintilla of intelligence knew from the outset that house of cards was going to collapse. The number of high dollar motorhomes showing up on consignment lots throughout the southwest being left there by owners who could no longer afford to put fuel in them due to realistic interest rates taking their mortgage payment through the roof with the subsequent loss of their home they'd previously paid off, was just stunning to witness. I still wonder if anyone watching learned anything or, if they'd repeat that today.

We were fortunate to be the progeny of parents born in the very early 1900's who had lived through the depression, a couple of WW's with returning as a veteran from 4 years overseas instilled with a mission to see his kids through life avoiding all of that type of strife if possible. He succeeded and we are eternally grateful to him.

Many did not have that type of parental guidance nor learned by themselves. At this late stage of the game, sympathy is of no benefit to them.

[brienzi]

Originally Posted by Volobjectitarian

I don't feel sorry for anyone who still has control over their own life, and certainly don't feel sorry for people already getting 13% of my compensation as a reward for being old and still having a pulse, but who would like to have more than just what they take out of my paycheck and are having trouble securing six figure salaries.

I feel sorry for the parents of a little kid who gets cancer. That's a person to feel sorry for. Not someone living off saved wealth + the federal dole, griping that they want more.

You make it sound like these folks are wealthy and are trying to get more...How wrong u are. Most want and need to work just to get by.

These people have put into the system their whole lives too, and i applaud older folks who still want to work
as it's keeps them vibrant, also I would take some of these 60 somethings any day than some of the younger generation i see working

Many older folks want and need to work to support themselves, and what's wrong with that. And I don't wanna here that "they didn't plan properly for their retirement" crap.

Talk too me when your sixty something and maybe things didn't work out well, and you need social security
to get by, never mind working.

Social Security is the one tax i don't mind paying, it's all the other taxes our government throws on us i have
a problem with..depending on which state you live in.

[risotto11]

Originally Posted by rikoshaprl

Don't. Many love to work.

I know, that's why they put the sign up in Auschwitz: Arbeit Machts Frei.

Again, I feel sorry for those who can't afford to retire after a lifetime of hard work.