I think the truth is more like “Older tech workers can no longer compete in an ageist world where youth and shininess rule”.
Being frugal, doing certifications at a young age, being in cyber security (high salary even within tech) and investing almost everything I earned, and being privileged (coming from a financially stable family, getting a highschool education, having a computer from an early age, etc) means that at 25 I essentially didn’t have to worry about how much I earn anymore and could just do what I want (still need to earn some money so that I wouldn’t start chipping at my savings) and know that as long as there isn’t some crazy financial collapse, my savings should be able to casually grow into a retirement on their own.
I recognize that I am really lucky to have gotten the opportunities that I then used to the best of my abilities. I am still living very frugally (in general, but extremely compared to my coworkers) but to some degree that is in my nature. I still find myself sometimes deep diving into my finances to make sure I am correct in my predictions and budget as it is insane to me that I was able to do this.
Important notes for why this is even possible, on top of the stated reasons above:
- I don’t intend to ever buy property, even if I could. I will rent until my parents pass away, after that, I might reconsider. (Long term this is the best financial option as investing in stocks yields generally more for less risk, and for now I don’t have a place that I want to “settle down” in)
- I am child free and have invested around $3K to get a vasectomy (yes, I see it as an investment to avoid unwanted and expensive consequences, plus it basically pays itself back after a decade of not needing other forms of birth control) So no huge budgetary lifestyle changes expected until my health deteriorates.
All the ppl i work with who are older than me are retiring this year. Im super concerned im now the person with the most experience.
… retirement?
I thought we were just gonna lose our jobs and be societally murdered instead.
paywalled. heres an archive https://archive.ph/EXPAp
Welp i’m one year into my SWE job and attempting to hang on until I’m tapped out by external forces. Living with in laws, luckily partner had a job, so save all of my 85k each year. Minimum Viable retirement is 10 years away if we don’t buy a house.
yup this is me, 25 years in the industry and I’m getting out for my birthday in October. I can’t do it anymore, sick of it. I had hoped that CTOs and various managers would have turned their backs on ai agents after the absolute cluster fuck they’ve all collectively witnessed first hand but no, they doubled and tripled down. I’ve lost hope.
I’ve lost hope of a bubble bursting and what have you. I don’t think it’s going happen now. months ago I said “any day now” but how I’ve seen them all dig their feet in they’re in for the long haul regardless of what it will cost them. they’re all in too deep and are going to make this thing “work” even if it kills people.
So I’m out. Good luck to everyone else, but i have no more faith.
They’re asking us to scale back our usage.
I give it another year. The markets are souring on it, big time. Unless something big and good happens w/ spaceX (because retail investors are underwater on that) the next set of AI IPOs are going to be a disaster.
Ask yourself why all these companies are scrambling to IPO now. Thier investors see the writing on the wall: it isn’t going to happen. The breakthrough. The singularity. An army of virtual workers with the ability to actually do the job. The only thing left for investors to do is push the IPOs to get any kind of return.
They think we’re at a peak of perceived value, and a higher plateau isn’t anywhere in the foreseeable future. Judging by how quickly ALL these private companies are suddenly interested in IPOs, I actually think they think they’ve passed the peak already and are sliding.
You gotta understand, the C-Suite, even the CTO, need to collectively “paint a picture” for investors. And that is art, and art is subjective. If investors wanna hear “we are prepared to leverage a new technology so that we can remain competitive”, then you gotta paint that picture. The buy in, the double down… take it for what it’s worth.
Did you think your C-Suite has ever actually been honest with you about plans, priorities, the value proposition of your work… anything really? Don’t ever confuse what they “say” with what the actually think or believe.
You SHOULD quit, I WISH I was in a position to do so. I’d spin by we could crack a cold one. Hella jealous.
Just like… for your soul… don’t think this is the new normal. Some neat and good and useful stuff is going to come out of this… but the impact that this tech will have on the workforce is being wildly overestimated.
Removed by mod
Dammit, they’re gonna buy up all the remote small farms.
One of my coworkers has an rv he works out of now. He’s just going to travel around in retirement.
quote: “Otteson and his wife plan to sell their home in Redmond and move somewhere with lower costs of living, such as Vancouver, Wash., or Hillsboro, Oregon”.
Not surprised one bit as this has been an ongoing trend for techies in the SF Bay area to Seattle for decades.
It’ll be less a problem with small offgrid farms and more an issue for rural to suburban areas with full utilities because most of these people have no clue how to farm.
As someone who has never farmed, I don’t understand why people think they’ll retire through farming, arguably one of the most back breaking jobs with least pay to produce stuff that costs the least out of anything… And is due to become more and more difficult as climate change gets complex.
This is not the type of manual labor you want to learn how to do and invest in as you’re older?
But yeah maybe managing some chickens and an herb farm, whatever that’s not a big deal. I just would expect to only be supplementing what groceries you buy as a hobby, not homesteading. Don’t get fucking acres of farmland that you won’t know how to use… Grow some rosemary and thyme, maybe potatoes. Fuck even one fruit tree is a lot of work. Try that out first. Potatoes! Try stuff you can do with a balcony first. Maybe a goat if you’re really wild.
But these are hobbies, not retirement income.
I assume people just mean having a small garden maybe a few chickens not full blown farming.
I think most people think about it more if the second way you described (as kind of a small retirement hobby, not to earn much money).
Tech workers spend all of their time working on abstract problems that have no end and spend all their energy to produce something intangible that must indefinitely be maintained.
They see farming as the exact opposite of this: something they can work on with their hands in the dirt, that eventually bears fruit that you can hold in the palm of your hand, and even eat yourself and personally benefit from.
This is much more an urge to return to nature and the feeling of actual accomplishment rather than an actual business plan. It doesn’t really matter how it goes financially because they already have enough money to retire.
Absolutely this. It’s why I love working on my old cars as a hobby. There’s just something therapeutic about getting your hands dirty for a tangible outcome that you can then enjoy after a week of daily standups
You’re right about some things but theres a few misconceptions here.
Farming is not back breaking work. Unless you grow a crop of potatoes or strawberries and try to harvest them yourself.
Here with a not-very-big farm you could grow hay to sell as fodder. Thats a few days on a tractor to seed then a few days on a tractor to cut and wrap.
You could also just lease the land to another farmer for them to run their livestock.
On a farm any larger than a few house blocks you e got a huge asset that kind of cant avoid producing value in some way.
The other aspect of retirement is that the objective usually is to avoid spending money rather than making money. You’re right that growing a few of your own herbs is not going to save much money.
If youve got room and time then growing most of your own food doesn’t really require “homesteading”. Get a cow butchered, give half to the neighbour, that and eggs and chickens can be your protein for 6 months, then the neighbour gives you half their cow and so on.
The keys are time, area, and rural contacts. Yes you wont have the latest gadgets - you’d have e to pay for those from your pension - but the lifestyle is very survivable.
They are taking early retirement. Shit, I’d be on a hobby farm now if I could afford it.
Hillsboro has a pretty high cost of living
Yup. They should go to ‘Methford’, Oregon instead…
That comes with it’s own disadvantages :)
Even worse: They’ll turn the small farms into suburbs.
I’m only 41 and I’m tapping out too
I’m just about your age and have been in IT for a long time… I feel pretty done with it and just need 918 more days until I’m fully vested for retirement. Granted I cannot afford to retire at all but I grew up in abandoned houses, literally poor enough that I didn’t attend school as that just caused a stream of visits from child services so I’m hoping to be able to buy a piece of property when we sell our house.
I know I’m in a “better” place than I was growing up but I don’t know how many more 3 hour meetings with Microsoft engineers where they give me AI slop I can stand.
Yeah also early 40s. Hoped to retire in 3 - 4 years or so based on my finances but it’s getting harder and harder to stick it out.
Retiring? Or changing careers?
I don’t think I can retire right now. I hope you are doing better than I.
I hope to be on that path. I’m in my 40s and tired of the grind. Nowhere close to retirement yet, but I am likely on track to pay off my house early in the next two years (maybe 7 years into a 30 year mortgage) which will go a long way.
I’m saving as much as I can and hoping I can retire lean in my mid or late 50s.
Right now though all I can think of is that I need a sabbatical after my current job ends (either layoffs or just quitting) because I really need a break.
Best of luck to you. I’m in a similar boat, but thankful I have a good job I don’t dread that makes an effort to take good care of me. I’m on track to retire in my 50’s, but if my investments do better than expected and I hit my number earlier, I’m out.
But I’ve also never understood why anyone works longer than they need to if they have the means to live comfortably in the first place.
Institutionalization.
It’s like that one movie…pretty sure its Shawshank Redemption? There’s that one guy that gets out of jail and then commits suicide in a few months or so, because he can’t handle the real world after spending most of their life in jail.
I think work operates in a similar way…but the cruelty of the trap is that the things that make life worth living, i.e. hobbies, friends, a life outside of work, etc. kind of interferes with your ability to get that high level income you need for early retirement.
I think a lot of people that work even though they have the means to live comfortably for the rest of their lives are there because…work is their entire life. They have nothing outside of it. No purpose.
We talk about retirement as a question of resources: do we have the financial resources to live x years? What we don’t talk about is every other resource. Social, emotional, physical (in the does your body work sense) etc. Sure, you’ve got the house and the money…but your friends are all at work, and making new ones is pretty hard…even if you manage to make bank and retire in your mid 30s.
Bingo. It’s been very interesting watching family members retire. You can get very good at seeing which ones will thrive and which won’t. Some don’t even really retire- they keep getting part time jobs, etc. because they never developed the hobbies that they could now lean into.
Yeah 30 years at Microsoft, with bonus and stock options etc can give you retirement at 55yo, but all the others programmers like me that went through some companies (that where bought by bigger one and stripped out), forget it, it will be 65yo or more.
That’s me. Working local jobs with rather unambitious colleagues. I’ve worked for construction, property management, a digital marketplace, and professional services for retirees. All small local organizations. Only one of which with an internal dev team. None of which had any customer facing products in the analytical space.
My entire career has existed under the rock of entrepreneurial blindness toward disciplined engineering. Someone starts a business, it starts doing okay, and eventually they realize they have “too much data” and “don’t know what to do with it.” Then I come into the picture, saying all these big funny works like Governance, Catalog, … they hire me. I get their BI section working good enough that I get bored of being there. They eventually refuse to give me meaningful raises and I leave shortly after that.
Wish I had more money. I’ve gone from 60k -> 80k -> 85k -> 110k after each job transition. I’m still paycheck to paycheck with no savings and a car that only half runs.
You could say the same of aerospace companies
It’s never been a better time to cash out those 401ks full of tech stocks.
Well, maybe six months ago. Or pretty much any time before March.
QQQ and VOO are both up handsomely year-to-date.
DOW is back over 51k. That means everything is good and nobody is allowed to complain.
FYI, DOW doesn’t stand for anything. “Dow” is commonly used to refer to the “Dow Jones Industrial Average.”
They weren’t implying it was an acronym. They were just shouting DOW at you.
NNNNNAAAAASSSSDDDDAAAAAAQ!!!
And yet, you knew what they meant.
Sure, this time I managed to figure it out. Next time they screw up an acronym, somebody else might not.
Holy fuck, you’d have fun in the military.
Nobody would be having any fun.
Dow stands for Charlies Dow, the co-founder of Dow Jones & Company.
No, his name is Dow. DOW doesn’t stand for anything.
Department Of War
DOW is just his name in capital letters
THIS IS JUST A COMMENT IN CAPITAL LETTERS
I’m absolutely looking to retire at the earliest possible time. I am looking to move to Europe for semi-retirement once we get a couple things paid off here. I have no interest in being one of those guys in my office who are 80, even 90!!, and still working.
Sounds like someone who was stuck in a comfortable position.not really adding any value to tge world, but rewarded plenty. Unwilling or unable to adapt to a changing industry and too affraid to find out what their career future holds. I say let them farm. Make room for new talent that is capable of handling the new ways.
New talent for new ways. Of doing what, exactly?
Shut up dweeb.
You could just say that you disagree with my statement and forego the insults. Open discussion between people with different opinions is a generally a good thing for a growing platform. Gatekeeping and insults is generally not.
Make room for new talent that is capable of handling the new ways.
You’re a no talent ass-clown, my dude. How about you fuck off.
Good argument… so do you think starters in IT should just stop complaining and get a job? Or are you just spouting random insults?
As someone in the industry affected, how about you just stop fucking talking about something you don’t understand.
