Well it took 47 years but as of today I am no longer an employee of anyone. I had planned to stop work the year I was 62 and with a few bumps in the last few years, I hit the goal. It might have happened 2 and 1/2 years ago when my former employer decided to shut down their consulting division. I had worked from home in a rural area for 12 years and it was not likely I could find a similar work at home position, and I really did not need to work. One thing I probably would be unable to do is go back to work in a "cube farm". I had done that for close to 20 years and I found that it was an invention to screw up my productivity. I had a few projects I was working on with a firm we had partnered with and ended up working for them as an employee on a part time basis (by choice). One project may never end but the two others were interesting and were supposed to be up and running by December of 21 so I committed to hanging around until the end of last year as a part time employee. Both are running late so I will continue to support them until both are running on a 1099 basis. I renewed my Professional Engineers license for 2 more years so at this point it is, "never say never", but one of the constants over my career was when I ended one job I really was not in rush to start a new one. They were not paid sabbaticals but having enough money in the bank and no debt meant when I did need to find a job I didnt have to take the first one that came along. I had a couple of extended "vacations" over my career by choice and in both cases I was financially ready for both of them.
One thing I found out over the years is I did not mind managing projects but had no interest in managing people on a day to day basis. When I went to college at UMaine there were two types of students, the "gearheads" and the future managers. Engineers were frequently recruited out of college by industrial plants (in Maine pulp and paper mills) to be the future supervisors and managers. I knew I was the hands on "gearhead" so I avoided the management track. Engineering skills grow "stale" if not used and by sticking with project type work, I kept my skills tuned up. One employer recognized on a corporate level that they needed a few real engineers around and gave me a pay incentive to get a Professional Engineers license along the way which was further encouragement to keep my skills active. When the pulp and paper industry crashed and burned in the US, I could take my skills and switch industries while many of the folks who became managers and supervisors struggled to stay in pulp and paper by moving around and working for a progression of sleazier owners.
My standard career advice is plan on having a couple of careers. No matter what the future looks like, things will change. I was in high school and college during the first oil embargo and the doom and gloom was in the air that the world would run out of oil in 20 years (remember the Hubbert curve and peak oil?). Current thinking of the day was by the time I was ready to retire, Social Security would be long gone, Global Cooling at end of particularly long interglacial period would be kicking in and electricity would be too cheap to meter as fusion energy would long since be commercialized. Pulp and Paper in the US at the time was king, every chemical and most mechanical engineers who graduated at UMaine had a guaranteed job with a pulp and papermill and once we had 2 or 3 years of experience in a mill, head hunters would call us begging for us to move to a different company. When I went to work for my second pulp and paper mill they paid a headhunter 30% of my first years pay plus handed me very generous relocation benefits. Within 15 years, the big companies were dumping their mills on smaller owners who specialized in extracting what little profits they could make before going belly up. The folks my age who went on the management track had a lot of lean years until they got back on track in another industry.
The other advice that is universally ignored by many is do not try to keep up with the Joneses. The Joneses usually are propped up by debt to give the outside impression of their lives. The whole economy is pitched to buy now pay later. Start early to get off that bandwagon, the longest car loan I ever had was 9 months for my first car, every subsequent one was paid for in cash unless the dealer gave me an incentive to take a loan which I would then pay off at the first loan payment. The last loan was my house loan, I paid it off in less than 10 years by making additional payments against principal. If I had cash in the bank and no loan payments, I could be picky about what I did for work and I did not need to take the first job offered. Employers like it when their employees are in debt as they know that when things get tough they can abuse on their employees as many just do not have the option of quitting. If I could recommend two books that are both still valuable but somewhat dated are the Millionaire Next Door and Bogle on Mutual Funds: New Perspectives for the Intelligent Investor. The Millionaire book shows why keeping up with the Joneses is a dumb idea and the Bogle book shows how to invest the money you will inevitably save by reading the first book.
This broken ankle has put a damper on 2022 as I really am unsure how active I can be so I dont mind supporting projects this winter but expect it will get a bit more difficult as the weather warms up. Luckily by then I will only be dealing with one project, and it will be in final construction and startup which will a nice way to close out my working life. I still plan to use my engineering and project management skills but expect they will be on my own projects.
One thing I found out over the years is I did not mind managing projects but had no interest in managing people on a day to day basis. When I went to college at UMaine there were two types of students, the "gearheads" and the future managers. Engineers were frequently recruited out of college by industrial plants (in Maine pulp and paper mills) to be the future supervisors and managers. I knew I was the hands on "gearhead" so I avoided the management track. Engineering skills grow "stale" if not used and by sticking with project type work, I kept my skills tuned up. One employer recognized on a corporate level that they needed a few real engineers around and gave me a pay incentive to get a Professional Engineers license along the way which was further encouragement to keep my skills active. When the pulp and paper industry crashed and burned in the US, I could take my skills and switch industries while many of the folks who became managers and supervisors struggled to stay in pulp and paper by moving around and working for a progression of sleazier owners.
My standard career advice is plan on having a couple of careers. No matter what the future looks like, things will change. I was in high school and college during the first oil embargo and the doom and gloom was in the air that the world would run out of oil in 20 years (remember the Hubbert curve and peak oil?). Current thinking of the day was by the time I was ready to retire, Social Security would be long gone, Global Cooling at end of particularly long interglacial period would be kicking in and electricity would be too cheap to meter as fusion energy would long since be commercialized. Pulp and Paper in the US at the time was king, every chemical and most mechanical engineers who graduated at UMaine had a guaranteed job with a pulp and papermill and once we had 2 or 3 years of experience in a mill, head hunters would call us begging for us to move to a different company. When I went to work for my second pulp and paper mill they paid a headhunter 30% of my first years pay plus handed me very generous relocation benefits. Within 15 years, the big companies were dumping their mills on smaller owners who specialized in extracting what little profits they could make before going belly up. The folks my age who went on the management track had a lot of lean years until they got back on track in another industry.
The other advice that is universally ignored by many is do not try to keep up with the Joneses. The Joneses usually are propped up by debt to give the outside impression of their lives. The whole economy is pitched to buy now pay later. Start early to get off that bandwagon, the longest car loan I ever had was 9 months for my first car, every subsequent one was paid for in cash unless the dealer gave me an incentive to take a loan which I would then pay off at the first loan payment. The last loan was my house loan, I paid it off in less than 10 years by making additional payments against principal. If I had cash in the bank and no loan payments, I could be picky about what I did for work and I did not need to take the first job offered. Employers like it when their employees are in debt as they know that when things get tough they can abuse on their employees as many just do not have the option of quitting. If I could recommend two books that are both still valuable but somewhat dated are the Millionaire Next Door and Bogle on Mutual Funds: New Perspectives for the Intelligent Investor. The Millionaire book shows why keeping up with the Joneses is a dumb idea and the Bogle book shows how to invest the money you will inevitably save by reading the first book.
This broken ankle has put a damper on 2022 as I really am unsure how active I can be so I dont mind supporting projects this winter but expect it will get a bit more difficult as the weather warms up. Luckily by then I will only be dealing with one project, and it will be in final construction and startup which will a nice way to close out my working life. I still plan to use my engineering and project management skills but expect they will be on my own projects.
! Good luck and enjoy.
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