Thursday, August 6, 2009

WWTD


When a man tells you that he got rich through hard work, ask him: 'Whose?' Don Marquis

A friend was telling me about his latest escapade in the working world where his large company, that became larger by buying his previous large company, was being bought by a yet larger (largerer?) company. The new company uber-large company was promising great and marvelous things….for the investors, and thus were promising 70% downsizing to the rank-in-file.

So my buddy is dutifully going through the job search drill trying to beat the buzzer.

When I asked him how he was holding up his reply was “WWTD”.

“WWTD?”

“Will Work Till Death”

Ah-Ha and Amen.

I read an article a while back that stated that my parents generation – Depression era/ WWII – are the only group in the history of civilization that will get to “Retire”. Prior to them people just worked until they couldn’t go anymore then depended on family members to put them up for their remaining days which was usually a short amount of time.

My parents are in their mid-eighties, in good health, been retired since sixty-five, and are scared to death of running out of money. No one born in the 1920’s dreamed of living so long.

Now come the Boomers, followed by the Gen-X and Gen-Y folks and who knows how long “normal” life spans become and how much dough it’ll take to live outside of squalor.

But I know this, I’m not counting on company retirement plans (hell, the last company I worked for that had one was in the ‘70’s), Social Security (snort), Government programs (snort, snort) or professional investment groups (sn…nevermind).

Nope, WWTD is my slogan (unless I win that Mega Millions jackpot).

1 comment:

Davd Locke said...

The day will come when WWTD won't be possible. The only way to escape is to spend your money on income streams. You will need a portfolio of income streams.

In an economy without work, WWTD will be the words on the signs that these days say "Will Work for Food."

WWTD won't provide.

DIY, no not the home shows. Be the boss. That way WWTD won't feel bad. You will need to follow your passion to escape the WWTD.