Posts Tagged ‘Pensions’

Welcome To the Retired Old Geezers’ Club

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October 31st, 2011

We are here to protect you from yourself

It’s open season on retirees like me: We are fair game to the predators. The hunters are out there, watching you, checking on you waiting for you. The instant that you slow down or lose concentration they will pounce in and strip you of every cent you have.

Look at my story

I worked my entire working life. I opened a pension saving account way back near the start of my career. I paid into it faithfully every month, moaning about the high premiums. Eventually I retired with a smile knowing that I had a nice plan going. But now that I’m there, it’s not what they told me. Sure, the money is there, I’m here but things have changed. Dramatically.

What changed

Everything has changed. Prices have soared beyond belief. Things we used to buy without thinking in my salary days are now totally beyond our means. We used to eat out at restaurants. These days if we decide to eat out at all, it’s a choice between different burger places. Gas has become a problem. A service on the car leads to a major debate between my wife and I. For that we have to miss out something else. We have money. In the days when I socked it away with a holiday in mind, a hotel room ran to $100 a night. Today we’re looking at $250. Clothes? We hardly buy anything new these days. The supermarket? We do minimum shopping. Now comes the bad news…

Investing

In all my planning over all the years, I counted on being able to invest my nest-egg money and earning interest on it. In the early years it was at least 10%, then it dropped to 8%. I never, in my wildest dreams, thought about 0 or 1%. Is this what I was saving for?

Offers to retirees

I saw this small ad in the paper the other day: “We promise you at least 8% on your money.” So I called and I got a very professional voice who started by saying: “Sir, I need to know what amount we are talking about. Can you please indicate if it is less than $20,000 or over $100,000?”

“It’s well over a hundred,” I say. The guy got very excited and said, “Sir, with an amount like that I believe we can promise you a return of well over ten percent on your investment.”

No such thing

I got quite excited at the thought that I could be earning a monthly amount of say $2,000 in interest on my investment. That would me back in restaurants and a couple of nice sweaters for the coming winter. I could even afford a set of new tires for the car. “How do you invest the money?” I asked. “Oh…, er…, um…, it’s a, you, know…”

I hung up at that point.

Retirement Wreckers

I was breathing heavily at this point. I nearly fell for it. Retirement scams could leave you in the poor house. These days, retirement scams range from the out and out fraud, where scammers intentionally separate seniors from their capital, to the more benign cases such as employers misusing or squandering the assets in a 401(k) plan.

Tags: Pensions, Retirement, Savings funds, Scams
Posted in Business, Economy, Employment, Money, Personal / Internet, Retirement | No Comments »

I’m Caught in a Job/No-Job Trap

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June 20th, 2011

The Job Market is miserable and so am I
For a change I had nothing to do with my current debacle. I am usually the culprit when it comes to the making a mess of things, but in this case I am the sacrifice. I am an engineer, university degree and all that. I had a successful career, working in various design offices and managing my own engineering practice for some years. When the recession hammer dropped, I was in my late fifties, so I checked all my retirement funds and savings and decided to take a break. I could afford it and anyway, I reasoned, recessions don’t last forever. So I fished, sailed and golfed for a few years and then decided that I wanted to get back to work.

Unemployment market
I knew all about the unemployment situation. I saw that the headline number that comes out every month was 9.1 percent in May. It measures how many people are out of work and looking for a job, but as yet did not include me. There is also the U-6, which is technically the broadest measure of unemployment. It includes people who are underemployed and people who have stopped looking; perhaps they’ve decided to go back to school or they’ve just given up their quest for work. That rate is 15.8 percent.

The Hollywood WorkSource Center
I went down to the Hollywood WorkSource Center to see what was available. Yes, there were jobs for engineers, so I went for an interview. “Site supervisor and that new office building going up in Westwood. My honest opinion, you’re a little old for that sort of thing. It’s on the 20th floor already and has another 16 to go. Still interested?” I smiled thanks and left in a hurry.

Ace Personnel
I called at Ace the next day and filled in forms and stood in a line to get a number to stand in a line. When I finally sat down in front of the interviewer I was offered a draftsman’s job in some small town engineering department way out in the sticks. Computerized drafting hasn’t reached there yet. I smiled thanks and left in a hurry.
I took a 3 day rest after this interview to make sure I still wanted to go back to work.

The money situation
My finances are not as healthy as they were a few years ago but I figure if I take it easy and maybe give up playing golf, I can still afford not to work. The game of golf is inordinately expensive and I’m a poor player, enjoying the camaraderie more than the game.

One more try
This time I went into a placement office that specializes in the construction industry. I was greeted warmly, offered coffee and then offered a job in a steel reinforcement factory checking the goods that have been manufactured to engineering specifications to ensure that the goods are exactly as specified. I smiled thanks and left in a hurry.

Beware you fish
Tomorrow I will be back on the lake in my dingy. Beware you fish!

Tags: Finances, Job market, Pensions, Retirement funds, unemployment
Posted in Economy, Employment, Finance, Money, Personal / Internet | No Comments »