Study: Retirement at 65 no longer realistic for many

Sure, a client can fire you, but that's why it's important to not put all of your eggs in any one client's basket.

A big launch customer is great to get you off the ground, but you need to have a bunch of steady clients.

Walmart vendors have fallen into this trap. They get into Walmart and sell a shit load, but then they blow off all their other customers. Then Walmart owns them. They can squeeze them so hard that they can barely make a profit.

And, it Walmart drops them, they're dead.

Personally, I've only ever lost one customer, and they came back to me. In fact, I've got to get over there in a little bit. (I actually just got two service calls & need to get the hell out of here.)

I have dropped a couple of clients because they didn't pay on time or were otherwise more trouble than they were worth.

Woody Allen was right. 90% of life is just showing up.

If you answer your phone calls, return voice mails and emails, show up when you say you will and do what you say you would, you'll be ahead of 90% of other small (or large) businesses.

 

Yeah, but you can have two seasonal business. You can clean pools in the Summer (like Buttermaker) and plow driveways in the Winter.

The car keys thing was unbelievable. He had an inflatable pouch like they wray around your arm to take your blood pressure. He put that between the door and the frame and then inflated it to create a little bit of a gap.

Then he had several of what I can only call commercial strength coat hangers. A couple of different shapes that could bend, but were strong enough to grab and unlock the door.

I looked up and found the tools online. The top of the line kit was a couple of hundred dollars.

It honestly took him less than a minute. I was floored.

But, when you're keys are locked in the car, you'll pretty much pay anything if someone will come over right away and get it open.

 

Last post for now because I really do need to get out of here.

But, I recently went to the NRA show. (That's Restaurant, not Rifle.)

Companies need distribution. They need people to sell their products and services.

If you're looking for work and are not ready/able to start your own business, find someone wo does own their own small business. maybe a friend or relative.

Talk yourself into a sales job for them.

Small businesses want to grow. They need good people. And, despite the economy, it is hard to find good, reliable, trustworthy people. Trust me. It is.

So, instead of (or in addition to) applying for jobs that are listed and being one of a couple of hundred applicants, convince someone (again, hopefully someone you know), that you can add value to their business.

 

Shit, they get a buyout if they're lucky.

 

If, as a responsible adult, you to think about retirement at age 25 (setting up a 401(k) or whatever) and get into the habit of putting something away every paycheck, you will have a very comfortable retirement at age 65, barring utter unforeseen catastrophe.

If you start thinking about retirement at age 53, you're fucked. And deserve to be working until the day you drop dead at work.

 

Yeah!!! Fuck you boomer journalists!! You decided not to get rich at 25, so you deserve to drop dead at work!!!

 

I agree with YF here. I took a chance on employing myself after getting let go at my old station last year, and so far it has worked. (I've joined a family business, but one that was very small--1 person--and we've started a second company off of that one.)
I think a lot of people are going to have to use the skills they have to make money on the side for years to come, even when the economy picks back up.

 

He isn't saying anything close to that, and I totally agree with what he is saying. I have been maxing 401k since as long as I can remember, and that meant there were a lot of things I couldn't do. All that time I watched as my co-workers, making the same amount I was making, would take these long extravagant trips to Europe or completely overpay on their rent because it was important to them to live in the cool party district in town. I imagine they had a lot more fun in their 20s and I am going to have a lot more leisure in my 60s.

 

Not to make the thread more political, but if health reform truly gives us affordable, half-decent health insurance for individuals, I think you'll see the entrepreneurship rate go up. I know for some friends who wanted to step out, they decided against it after seeing what they would have to pay for health care. I have a friend who runs a couple of successful restaurants, and his wife still works full-time in large part for the health insurance.

Or a continually lousy economy may create more entrepreneurs, out of necessity.

 

. . . . a move popularized by such business "mavens" as Andy Grove, who should choke to death
in his own vomit. The number of worthwhile, active business people who have been tossed into the woodchipper without a second thought thanks to this recently-fostered mode of thinking is
mindboggling.

 

All absolutely true.

 

Went to Panama City last summer and had my keys end up in the bottom of the bay. We hiked back to the state park's camp store and called the locksmith on the one business card we had. I was begging to be gouged.

Guy comes out, does the same inflatable cuff trick, has it open in 30 seconds. Charged me something like $55. Nearly fainted after expecting double the bill.