Slaving for other people your whole life, retiring at 65 & then dying. (grandparents, daycare)

[Ringo1]

I used to think I would work until 72. But life continues to get harder and harder in Corporate America and the job I loved has morphed into something I do not even recognize.

I used to put in long hours because I loved the work and wanted to do well. But the work has changed and at age 56, as a woman, I feel pretty much invisible in corporate america these days.

I'm praying I can hang in there until age 60.

I want out and I never thought I would say that.

[marino760]

Originally Posted by Ringo1

I used to think I would work until 72. But life continues to get harder and harder in Corporate America and the job I loved has morphed into something I do not even recognize.

I used to put in long hours because I loved the work and wanted to do well. But the work has changed and at age 56, as a woman, I feel pretty much invisible in corporate america these days.

I'm praying I can hang in there until age 60.

I want out and I never thought I would say that.

I'll make you a deal. You make it to 60 and I'll make it to 62 (I'm 58) and we'll meet somewhere and celebrate

[matisse12]

When I was 57, I thought I'd probably work until age 70. I stopped working at 62!

[ms12345]

Move to a remote South American jungle and take on the carefree life of a hunter / gatherer. You'll get to sleep late in the hammock. Don't work for the man!

[ClaraC]

This is how mammal's lives are.

Humans work for a token economy, and that's how they feed themselves. We don't have to produce food or find it, and make shelter. We contribute in other ways, and are given tokens to buy that stuff. Mammals in the wild work every day to secure housing and food and safety. Every day. And they may die early of some horrible disease or accident, or they may die later of some horrible disease or accident, or they may be eaten, or they may become old and feeble and no longer able to find food and create shelter. And so they get eaten alive or they die and scavengers eat them. Life and death for animals in the wild is rough and ugly.

I'm not sure why humans think you should be able to just play all day and night and not have a struggle and life should be a comfortable long joy ride. It isn't. You have to work to survive.

[Mikala43]

Yes, I would much rather show up to work and make money rather than:

Hunt and clean my own food
Raise my own gardens
Build myself a shack in the mountains
Harvest something to make into cloth
Sew said cloth
Die of a completely curable disease because I have no medical except for some leeches I found.

[Gerania]

My husband and his friends used to hunt.

I used to have a big garden.

We didn't live in a shack.

I bought cloth to sew things.

Leeches and maggots have been grown in labs for decades to do what they do the best. They have saved people from losing a limb or dying from an open, infected wound. Not pretty, but it works.

[Larry Siegel]

I've never "slaved" for anybody, and to suggest that I did would be disrespectful to actual slaves, who still exist. I have had three fascinating, although not always lucrative, jobs, and I am now set for life at 63 if I want to live a modest lifestyle. However, I love my work (which is now in my own business; I still have to please clients) and I would rather life a fairly lavish lifestyle, so I'm going to keep working part-time as long as my health permits and there is a market for what I do.

Having studied history, I know I am in the luckiest 1% of all the people who have ever lived just by being a middle-class American.

[brightdoglover]

Originally Posted by Tonyafd

Nobody's last words were, "I should have spent more time at the office".

I have said before and will say again, I bet there are many elder women living in poverty who would say exactly that.

[DaveinMtAiry]

Originally Posted by Jacksnacknyc

I guess I have to get into specifics when posting on here. I am very much new and I recently wrote this post about retirement and slaving for people our whole lives. The real point that I was trying to make was -
why are we so comfortable with getting up everyday and working for someone else etc, why do we find it necessary to go to school and get a "good job". I don't know about you all, but growing up I was never taught to "invest" or start a business or truly do something that makes me happy even if it wasn't something regularly accepted by society... and when you do get up and say I'm gonna start my own business or whatever people look at you like you're ****ing crazy because they have already been brainwashed to follow the routine! what I'm trying to say is, it wasn't set up for all of us to become millionaires (of course not) but do we just get up everyday hating ourselves working some boring job following the same routine until we turn 60 & die? Does it not hurt to try? And then if you fail say at least I gave it a shot! but to work for someone else forever is boring...Is there not more to life than that? I would like to travel the world but my regular ass job isn't allowing me the opportunity to do so (but its up to me to find a way to accomplish everything that I want) my coworker recently passed away (god rest his soul) but this year was literally his last year... all of last year he spoke about how he was retiring and literally a few months before he was finally set to be "free" and "enjoy retirement" he died... (granted we can die at any moment but that's a different topic) I don't know, it's like you work forever and by the time you are set to retire you're 60 and probably have some kind of illness that will most likely kill you soon anyway, it's just stupid but I guess that's life. Just venting, I am open to all opinions etc.

I think it's clear that you are unhappy in your job. But you need to get something straight. The example of your co-worker dying or your comment that by 60 you will probably die soon anyway is simply not the norm, in fact it's very unusual.

The average life expectancy for someone 60 years old is 21 for a man, 23 for a woman.

http://life-span.healthgrove.com/l/61/60


Enough with the doom and gloom already. You are simply not dealing in reality.