2 weeks and 3 days left.
welcome to the "new rest of your life."
i asked my mom, aka "person who lives at my listed permanant address and receives mail on my behalf" to keep an eye out for a couple things i'm expecting, namely a U92 reunion information packet and and my brand-spanking-new AAA membership (the "plus plan" means more towing coverage and free international travel maps, means more trouble for me to get into.) she replied that she has not seen these yet, but she did get a merril lynch retirement plan information packet with my name on it and excitedly asked if i had requested this.
no, i did not.
insert lecture on the necessity of retirement planning.
it should be duly noted that she does not yet know of my plans to quit my jobs in 2 weeks and putter off to canada to play with birds for no money and then drive to los angeles by myself in my poor little car which is currently being tinkered with by some italians down the street. hence the AAA membership. i take my responsibility in small doses, thank you.
i solemnly swear that i am up to no good.
for the most part, i don't believe that a "generation gap" exists. it does in the sense that most people become more conservative with age, but not in the sense that things were soooo much different when people were growing up in the 60's than today. people still had crazy pointless dramas, worried about what they were going to do with their lives, and didn't have enough money for any of it. just because they didn't have ipods and PS2's while all this was going on doesn't make it a different world. and no, kids these days aren't ruder, you just don't remember how rude kids were when you were one of them.
the only real difference is in career behavior, because of economic climate... companies used to provide pensions for their retirees because it was easier to push an aging worker who had worked their way up to high wages through years of service into retirement, continue paying them a fraction of their wages until they die, and hire on a younger worker who would presumably cost less and be more productive and in the know with modern technology than a 65-year-old with 40 years of periodic wage increases under his belt. the "i've found this job and i'm damn grateful for it" era is gone, the "i can so do better" has been ushered in with increased ease of travel and relocation, and the ability to surf monster.com and look for a new job while working at the current one. people used to retire at 65 because the average lifespan was about that. you retire at 65 and die at 70 if you're lucky. if my generation is slated to be able to expect 100-120 year lifespans, why the hell do we still need to retire at 65? isn't it more important to take the time to find something that i might actually enjoy doing for the next 60 or 70 years than to throw myself into some crap that i hate for 40 years, retire at 65 and then realize that my biological life will be longer than my financial life?
of course, this is all conjecture. we all know i'm dying at 30-something after saying "hey y'all watch this."
we don't move back in with our parents because we're irresponsible. we move back in with our parents because long ago, the banking industry was stripped of regulations and jovially spat money out at anyone with the ability to sign their soul away on a loan contract. so every moron with two brain cells to rub together had the money to go to college, increased demand made tuition prices skyrocket, increased number of qualified applicants made wages for good jobs go down. increased number of qualified mortgage applicants drove up price of real estate, drove up price of rent... end of equation- a bunch of overeducated, underpaid 20-somethings living at home. failure to launch. thanks, mr. reagan, i do love you so love you. especially when you blow up teachers over florida.
but that's a different tirade.
i don't think i need a retirement account at 25. many people my age do have them, but they also have crazy insane debt. i have some savings, a trifle really, but that's more emergency funds in case i do something stupid like max out my credit cards in a foreign country and then get deported with no way to buy plane tickets. not like that's ever happened or anything.
but as of now, i have some money, some no-touchey money, and fully paid off credit cards with higher balances than the last crisis. plus AAA (aka stupid person road trip insurance with free maps.) best invention ever.
i asked my mom, aka "person who lives at my listed permanant address and receives mail on my behalf" to keep an eye out for a couple things i'm expecting, namely a U92 reunion information packet and and my brand-spanking-new AAA membership (the "plus plan" means more towing coverage and free international travel maps, means more trouble for me to get into.) she replied that she has not seen these yet, but she did get a merril lynch retirement plan information packet with my name on it and excitedly asked if i had requested this.
no, i did not.
insert lecture on the necessity of retirement planning.
it should be duly noted that she does not yet know of my plans to quit my jobs in 2 weeks and putter off to canada to play with birds for no money and then drive to los angeles by myself in my poor little car which is currently being tinkered with by some italians down the street. hence the AAA membership. i take my responsibility in small doses, thank you.
i solemnly swear that i am up to no good.
for the most part, i don't believe that a "generation gap" exists. it does in the sense that most people become more conservative with age, but not in the sense that things were soooo much different when people were growing up in the 60's than today. people still had crazy pointless dramas, worried about what they were going to do with their lives, and didn't have enough money for any of it. just because they didn't have ipods and PS2's while all this was going on doesn't make it a different world. and no, kids these days aren't ruder, you just don't remember how rude kids were when you were one of them.
the only real difference is in career behavior, because of economic climate... companies used to provide pensions for their retirees because it was easier to push an aging worker who had worked their way up to high wages through years of service into retirement, continue paying them a fraction of their wages until they die, and hire on a younger worker who would presumably cost less and be more productive and in the know with modern technology than a 65-year-old with 40 years of periodic wage increases under his belt. the "i've found this job and i'm damn grateful for it" era is gone, the "i can so do better" has been ushered in with increased ease of travel and relocation, and the ability to surf monster.com and look for a new job while working at the current one. people used to retire at 65 because the average lifespan was about that. you retire at 65 and die at 70 if you're lucky. if my generation is slated to be able to expect 100-120 year lifespans, why the hell do we still need to retire at 65? isn't it more important to take the time to find something that i might actually enjoy doing for the next 60 or 70 years than to throw myself into some crap that i hate for 40 years, retire at 65 and then realize that my biological life will be longer than my financial life?
of course, this is all conjecture. we all know i'm dying at 30-something after saying "hey y'all watch this."
we don't move back in with our parents because we're irresponsible. we move back in with our parents because long ago, the banking industry was stripped of regulations and jovially spat money out at anyone with the ability to sign their soul away on a loan contract. so every moron with two brain cells to rub together had the money to go to college, increased demand made tuition prices skyrocket, increased number of qualified applicants made wages for good jobs go down. increased number of qualified mortgage applicants drove up price of real estate, drove up price of rent... end of equation- a bunch of overeducated, underpaid 20-somethings living at home. failure to launch. thanks, mr. reagan, i do love you so love you. especially when you blow up teachers over florida.
but that's a different tirade.
i don't think i need a retirement account at 25. many people my age do have them, but they also have crazy insane debt. i have some savings, a trifle really, but that's more emergency funds in case i do something stupid like max out my credit cards in a foreign country and then get deported with no way to buy plane tickets. not like that's ever happened or anything.
but as of now, i have some money, some no-touchey money, and fully paid off credit cards with higher balances than the last crisis. plus AAA (aka stupid person road trip insurance with free maps.) best invention ever.