Retirement thoughts Past Present Future

[MossRoad]

I agree I do not know your wife or her work. As I said, I expect you to believe your wife. However:


That has to include your wife from what you posted. Nobody, but nobody, works consistently for 4 hours straight without taking some sort of a break (ignore essential toilet breaks), and to not keep hydrated and stop for a few minutes now and again is a poor way to attemp to maintain functionality. Gey few people, if any, take exactly 60 mins every single day for several years as a lunch break. 50 to 60 hours a week on a permanent basis (2 to 4 hours a day more than 8 hours) is what I would expect most white collar workers to put in - even more is not, or was not, unusual in the last 60 years to my knowledge, even by junior staff.

My experience of attempting to deal with numerous organisations in several countries since this "work from home" began in late 2019 is that it is extremely difficult, and downright impossible in many cases, to get any organisation or government departments this side of the pond to even acknowledge written communications. From hearsay reports from others who live there I believe that USA is no different.

I don't know what to tell you. She's a machine. So are her parents.

 

[Gale Hawkins]

Greg was answering a question about current bank failures and went deep into what crypto is and is not. This was the first time I've ever understood Bitcoin and why and when and how to use it.

 

[goeduck]

Nobody, but nobody, works consistently for 4 hours straight without taking some sort of a break (ignore essential toilet breaks)

Are you sure? I recall being on the job at 6 AM, working like a dog and if a big order came in that day I'd stop by the office around 4 PM and ask the office if anyone wanted to go to lunch, I'd buy. I always got a bunch of strange looks and people would say they had to go HOME for dinner. I'd say "okay, invite your family for dinner then". After I bought dinner I'd work until about 11 PM. Then back at work at 6 AM. About killed me but I was young then.

 

[bigtiller]

Some piece workers don't rest until they have their money made. But that has changed over the years. A lot of piece work has switched to a quota system.

 

[MossRoad]

Some piece workers don't rest until they have their money made. But that has changed over the years. A lot of piece work has switched to a quota system.

My father in-law was a maintenance worker for a local company that makes electrical boxes, covers, etc.... any time he had vacation coming, he'd work on their lines doing piece work. So he got a week's vacation pay plus a week doing piecework. It was good money, and you could work as fast as you wanted, as much as you wanted.

My mother in-law worked for South Bend Toy doing piece work. She made wooden croquet sets. When they closed, she got a job at AM General working on the assembly line making HUMVEEs. That was a set hourly wage and you could only work as fast as the line was moving.

I've told this story before, but here it is again.... she was doing a job that required a lot of drilling and screw gun work under the dashboard. So she had to crawl into the body, lay on her side, and drag the pneumatic guns all over the place under there. She made it look easy. So some guy with higher seniority wanted to bump her off that job. As she told me, he had to qualify for the job before they'd let him bump her off of it. He couldn't do it. So instead of moving on, he raised a stink with the union saying it was a two-person job and she was working too hard. So...

The big-wigs and the union reps came down to the line and watched the guy try to do the job. He failed a few times and said that proved it was too hard for one person. The president of AM General at the time said OK, but he wanted to see my mother in-law do it one time first.

The next truck came up, she drilled all the holes, screwed in all the screws, got out of the truck, grabbed a can of soda from her lunch box, and sat down next to the president and they waited for the next truck to come down the line.

That's the kind of stock my wife comes from.

 

[JasperFrank]

I have an appointment with financial adviser this week. What I want to say, is, "I want investment in the nasiest companies on Earth." They always win, and they always have. I'm done with being "responsible." Money and how you can leverage it, to your personal gain, is the only thing that matters. Cause money solves things and can fix things. Altruism always will leave you wanting in this vicious world. These were the last words my grandfather said to me. I didn't understand them at the time. I do now.

 

[OldMcDonald]

Sounds like you are around baby boomers with a lower Work ethic perhaps or some of our wifes are a cut above.

No, I was born in 1944 and was full-time farming until a heart operation made me retire two years ago in May and just turned 77.
When younger I worked behind a desk to make enough money to get a deposit on a farm. As I posted, I expect any white collar worker to put in at least 50 to 60 hours a week. A few years later I was still doing that and farming too - not a hobby farm, but a business. My wife was in her late 50s and working over 100 hours a week (I was doing the same) when I decided we needed to change our farm for another where she did not need to work so much. We moved to a smaller place where we continued for another 18 years before retiring.

I don't know what to tell you. She's a machine. So are her parents.

No human being is a machine, and even machines need maintenance downtime.

Are you sure? I recall being on the job at 6 AM, working like a dog and if a big order came in that day I'd stop by the office around 4 PM and ask the office if anyone wanted to go to lunch, I'd buy. I always got a bunch of strange looks and people would say they had to go HOME for dinner. I'd say "okay, invite your family for dinner then". After I bought dinner I'd work until about 11 PM. Then back at work at 6 AM. About killed me but I was young then.

Yes, I am sure. If you worked 17 hours a day for 5 days a week that is still only 85 hours a week, but you have to deduct from that the time you spent travelling between home and your workplace (as everyone does that) and the time to have dinner, so let us say 60 to 70 hours a week. Not a lot really. Take off also any stops for refreshments. You cannot go from leaving home to be on the job at 6 a.m. and go to 4 p.m. without any break.

I agree that had we maintained 100+ hours a week in our late 50s it would have killed us too. In our 20s and 30s it was not too dificult.
.................................

I am not claiming to be anything special by way of working - the original point of me posting was that younger folks than me in supposedly office jobs are not in the office. The point of having an office is that all the information relative to the customers/clients/whatever are in the office and so are all the different people with the knowledge about those customers etc. Individuals working from home do not have the ready access (no matter how good they claim their computer systems to be) to colleagues and information that they would have in their offices.

Personal experience of attempting to deal with people in several different countries since the phenoma began is that responses from many governmental and commercial businesses is immensely worse than when they were in their proper workplace.

Let us be realistic people. There are those who work, and those who do not, but we all need some downtime every now and again. We all need to keep hydrated. We all need to eat. Those who claim not to do so are not telling the truth.

I expect others (who have a vested interest in staff not attending their workplace) to disagree with me.

 

[goeduck]

I am not claiming to be anything special by way of working

good point

 

[Gale Hawkins]

The aging population factors are mild in the USA when compared to China, Russia and Europe. This article gives us a glimpse of problems facing the USA. The pandemic long term cost to SS and Medicare is yet to be determined as is the impact of inflation and current layoffs.

The current labor shortage will permit some to work for a few more years so they can save more and increase their SS pay out. The article may be more help for the 45 year old group than the 65 age group

Why China’s population is shrinking

And why that’s a big deal.

www.vox.com

 

[Straightgrain3016]

My frame of reference; being born in 1961; the "doors" were already slamming shut; life behind the boomers; I felt I had to hurry...

With the exception of my parents, all my elders hounded me to get a HS diploma, get a family, and get a career with a pension plan; I did.

On younger ppl not paying-into the system....I have this opinion: young people aren't the only ones...

Mrs & me are 3rd generation Americans who's grandparents lived most of their lives LONG-BEFORE social security began, but they lived long-enough (early 90s to early 100s) to collect so much more money than they paid-into the "system".

I also have the urge to defend the younger people who ARE busting their butts; paying into the "system".

I think every generation has "side slopers" who don't, who won't, or who can't do their share of the work.