Would Laid-off Barbie rock recession chic?
- Posted by Sharon McNary
- on February 25, 2009 3:00 PM
Would she blog, join a Facebook group? Would she hang with other hip jobless folk at Laidoff Camp San Francisco and network over their mutual career malaise?
Reading the Urban Institute’s recent report (opens pdf file) on rising unemployment among older workers, I suspect that Barbie, officially aged 50 (but assuming that she was 18 at her 1959 debut could be as old as 68 in people years) might not return to the sort of high-powered jobs she’s held as Mattel’s iconic career woman role model over the years.
What about you? If you were laid off or took a buyout years ahead of your planned retirement date, what would be your money strategy? Has that already happened to you? Share your retirement planning story with our newsroom or share a public comment below.
Jack Davis of Sarasota, Fla., 68, worried for many years about having enough money to retire, but then he did the math.
After considering all the variables (taxes, long hours, commuting, costuming, eating out, office gifting, wear and tear on vehicles, gas, other commuting costs, etc., the pension I would receive in retirement) were considered, I was working for minimum wage. So I retired.
It wasn’t easy, and he had to downscale. He sold a big house in Virginia and bought something far smaller. But voluntary simplicity is working for him. He’s paying lower taxes, volunteering, and laughing at the advice his financial advisors used to give him — like how he’d need 75 percent of his former income to support himself in retirement.
By realizing that the environmentally destructive mindset that ‘more is better’ is a morally and physically bankrupt I became financially secure and free for the first time in my life. I no longer allow myself to be defined as a person or a man by my income or net worth.
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