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Hopefully the social security kicks in soon, or you're not that old! If you're looking to buy a house I think there are some tax loopholes for using retirement savings. I'm sure trump and his cronies would also love to relieve you of your retirement in some diabolical way. So I'm guessing your job market is fucked too?
yeah and unfortunately im not that old. just into my 50's so to far from retirement but definately a minus when job hunting along with being unemployed for over a year now. its like two strikes. I mean they won't say that outright. honestly like anything when you look at how fucked so many people are I know im not getting the worst of it.
Yea I’ve been out of work almost 3 years now. I’ve been taking seasonal jobs and burning through savings. I’ve seen a total of 3 jobs I really wanted in that time. I’ve tried to sell myself at under asking price. It’s ugly out there and if it goes on for a few more years it’s destroying my chances of retiring.
The hardest part is once upon a time I made incredible money. I’ll probably never get to enjoy that lifestyle again. I got kicked off the damn ladder and found the thing fully pulled up. I’m younger than you but man the years go by fast when society has forsaken your skills.
you sound like me. I did well but I was single income with a sick wife so needed it. I to am picking up work as I can. I mean I have seen many more jobs I would want but nothing ultimately goes through. 3rd shift weekend in office falls through. I have put in for a variety of jobs outside my field that don't pay much and don't have many requirements and never hear back. Im not sure if they figure I will not hang around or if the whole age and long term unemployment are just too big of strikes. If I could have insurance without it sucking up time to maintain and did not cost me anything I could likely float us with pick up work but unfortunately filling out forms and calling offices and such along with interviews or such limits my ability to go full force on it.
If nobody will hire you, then hire yourself. It has never been easier to start your own business, and make it pay. The Internet makes it almost free to start. You may not become wealthy, but it can still generate steady revenue.
that is so ridulous. taking time away from job searching to what. make youtube videos? yeah just go star a business that makes more than it costs to a level that its a long term option. or maybe just learn to code or any of the other inane offhand, low effort advice people like to give. I mean I assume your motivated from the best of intent but go start your own business is so. ugh.
How is it ridiculous? MANY people are self-employed. Sure, there's daily stress, but I was under daily stress in my corporate life, too. At least my future and my fate is in MY own hands, and not being decided by the whims of some Sociopathic corporation that despises me, and is constantly looking for ANY excuse to replace me with anything cheaper.
Besides, I can't think of ANYTHING more stressful than long-term unemployment. If I've been applying for jobs for months, with no response, I would try a different strategy. What have you got to lose?
And even if you do find a job, having a side hustle that actually makes money keeps your employer from being able to exploit you too badly, because you know that you aren't 100% reliant on their Sociopathic policies.
But if you don't get it, that's okay. Not everybody can be a business owner, which is a LOT different from just being a boss. We need workers, too, and some people can't see themselves as anything but an employee.
you hit the nail on the head. its not so easy and it takes a lot of time and much like a lot of things you need some talent in the area. I could go get phlubotomy training but I can't stand needles and blood. I mean its not quite as bad as just go get a phd but basically you have to realize the average person and even exceptional people have a limited set of options that fit their background, training, and general talents. Well why not just become a professional sports guy. They make lots. or go become a famous actor.
Sure, choose ludicrous options to try to disprove my point. Nobody is expecting you to go out and become a professional athlete or artist, and to pretend that those are the ONLY options is disingenuous.
I used to be in the music business, a career I planned for, and tailored my entire education toward since middle school. After a couple of decades in it, the entire business collapsed, and millions of people lost their jobs, including me.
I tried a few other things, mostly sales jobs, and finally decided to start my own thing. That was 18 years ago, and it was the best decision of my life.
This is looking like the toughest year, due to MAGA screwing up the economy so badly (the indicators lag by a few months, but in a quarter, it will be apparent how badly the economy has slipped. Small business owners are already feeling it, including me). So I'm not sitting around whining about it, I've already started a few other initiatives to generate some money, including an online business. I have confidence that my regular business will survive this, but it will be good to have alternative sources of revenue, and when the economy recovers, I'll have those side strategies boosting my income, which is always nice.
You have skills, and they are transferrable to other businesses. My music education and experience didn't help my current business, so I developed the skills I did have - sales, negotiating, improvisation, quick thinking, etc. - and applied those.
You're what Small Businesspeople call a Dreamstealer. You're fishing for excuses, but if you don't think you have what it takes to work for yourself, that's fine, but don't try to make it sound like I'm wrong for encouraging people to follow their dream, and Hire Themselves.
your treating running a business like its not a skill unto itself. people are better and worse at that. just look at the trust fund babies who burn down companies. its not a dream stealer to be rational about your own capabilities and what is most effective to do time vs result wise. building a successful business is way harder than all ludicrous options I gave. business is not this skill that is natural to the whole human population.
There are an infinite variety of businesses, they aren't all the same. Uneducated immigrants come to this country without speaking the language, and start successful businesses every day.
The basics of business are easy. Business management is one of those college degrees that kids with no other skills get, like communications. At its core, business is just fairly simple math, with lots of percentages and what not. I'm pretty dumb about that stuff, and I managed to start my first business with no money, a legal pad, a pen, and a list of potential clients. Then I started cold-calling. Don't know how to do that? Neither did I. You learn by doing.
Eventually, you can get into the advanced stuff like funding, going public, and selling your business, but most people just have a small business large enough to support their family, and they only have to worry about costs, expenses, and profit. Learn to balance those, and you'll have a business.
Or you can keep convincing yourself that you can't do it, and you will be 100% correct. Those that succeed don't listen to that nonsense.
You can literally say this about everything. There are examples of undeducated people becoming superstars. Also if you look you will see many people from other countries who own businesses are not undeducated and many came with a nice chunk of money they started the business with. You have to make calls. Every hour trying to get a business off the ground is time your not looking for work. You call yourself dumb but its possible. Just possible. You have a knack for it but did not realize until you did it. You know most people in my age and my field went into management but I did not. Why. Because of my natural ability and inclinations or lack there of. Although also partially because the generation before held on far to long and by the time it came my way I pointed to the next generation who have the time to make a career out of it. Look im one of those people who think people know things the same as they but ironically I had to learn that is not the case and it just so happens one of my inclinations is education where that has good feedback to work against that particular inclination I have. Think about this. Can 100% of the total population run a business. Would a society work out that way. I would say no. My initial reply was basically. You can't just tell someone to go start a business or go learn to code or do whatever thing someone thinks anyone can just go do.
I get it, and I even said somewhere that not everybody is cut out to be a business owner/boss. I just got really tired of having to take stupid orders from stupid bosses. My current boss is as dumb as an ox, but I'm self-employed, so that's the best I got.
The world needs employees, too, so that's okay, but I'm just saying that if I was in a long-term unemployment situation, and was getting nearly no response, I think I would keep that up, but carve out some time to establish some side hustle, like Etsy, or eBay, based on something you can do. Do you play an instrument? Maybe you can get into a band. You don't have to be a rock star to make a little money playing 2 or 3 wedding receptions a month.
It's better than sitting home week after week, month after month, waiting for things that are entirely beyond your control to break in your direction. At least you are taking responsibility for your own fate, not leaving it to others who don't even know you exist.
If you are so willing to work that hard for somebody else, why wouldn't you work that hard for yourself?