job market is grim, particularly if u r 50+

Quote from nutmeg:

You know, even if you're over 50, have the energy and the know how along with some money. There's really nothing exciting in the way of starting your own business where you aren't basically a cash churner for the various gov't agencies, insurance cos, and expenses that go along with a start up. I just don't feel liike being a donkey. Work 60 -70 hours a week as well as investing money to buy a job and net $10 hour.

Everything out there is franchise. You don't see any independent business's popping up & down main street.

I've seen a few foreclosures that are in major need of repair that look exciting. Actually, two of them look like someone took out a home equity loan, started to remodel them, ran out of money and lost the place. Unfinished dreams, so to speak.

Other than that, in my book, business prospects look gloomy.
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I just talked a guy who does accounting for fast food franchises. Franchises fees are high, cost of franchise about 200-250k, and you have to have some start up money which is gone if the franchise fails (20% fails), owner works 70 hours a week or more, it comes to about $10/hr when the franchise is successful. Franchise is a scummy deal for the franchisee.

If I have the money to start a franchises here, I would rather take it and go live in the 3rd world and wait for Social Security to kick in. It would be another hippie adventure.
 
Quote from hippie:

I.

If I have the money to start a franchises here, I would rather take it and go live in the 3rd world and wait for Social Security to kick in. It would be a fun adventure.
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I pretty much think this is the way most of the retiring boomers look at the situation. Everyone is going to take what they can get for their house, maybe get a small inheritance from a dead parent and that is that. Kick the adult kids to the curb, and collect SS. Die broke or in debt up to the ying yang with medical bills. Nice run. :D

Good by diversity, political correctness, dadt, the current generation will never know what hit 'em.
 
Quote from hippie:

I just talked a guy who does accounting for fast food franchises. Franchises fees are high, cost of franchise about 200-250k, and you have to have some start up money which is gone if the franchise fails (20% fails), owner works 70 hours a week or more, it comes to about $10/hr when the franchise is successful. Franchise is a scummy deal for the franchisee.

If I have the money to start a franchises here, I would rather take it and go live in the 3rd world and wait for Social Security to kick in. It would be another hippie adventure.
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Dude (or dudette), there is your biz idea... Many people due to financial circumstances or just plain lifestyle choices will retire abroad. Pick the spot and work it hard!
 
Quote from dwpeters:

I'm surprised that in a trading forum I have yet to see any mention of turning to trading professionally. I've been working on my trading skills for some time and for the last couple years I have been achieving consistent results that can now replace much of my income (and growing while I'm still working), and that's enough because my wife and I have been living below our means for years.

I work in IT and for years my company has been laying off, especially in the US (they are hiring overseas at much lower rates) and squeezing as much as they can out of those of us left in the US. Well the writing is on the wall and I'm looking forward to being laid off because I'm done with this industry and done with looking for another job that I don't want where I will be asked to work 60 or more hours but paid for 40. Trading is not so different than any other endeavor. With hard work and persistence success can be achieved.
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I have been at it for 10-11 years, maybe 12+. Many years ago, I only traded the Qs - everyday I traded a certain strategy short/long on the Qs - watched them all day everyday and then worked late into the night (I might not be able to take the burnout now at my age, but I did then). So long ago that the Qs were QQQ, not QQQQ. ;) I now trade a different strategy that has me out usually near 10 am pst, which allows me to work the rest of the day and weekends. The last couple of years have been particularly good & I have confidence in my trading and in myself to make the right decision, or non-decision... I stuck with the biz b/c kids were in college and b/c anything you read about the Great Depression says "DO NOT QUIT YOUR JOB". Also, one of my kids may want to takeover for me, but I can scale back a little bit by simply raising my fees - I will get less bid awards!

Its pretty amazing, the tuition and education costs have been really going up, and my medical insurance increases are so exponential as to be almost comical. Tough times - but the people that have continued through this "Great Recession" will be kicking ass when the worm turns. Not "having" to trade with a successful biz has been easier, although more work.

My advice to new traders is start small - try to develop patience and discipline. In the beginning I traded very, very large positions (for me) and held over night - basically I traded size well above my competence level... The market will be there tomorrow, next week or next decade - just develop a strategy that works... I am not being a wise ass, but look at it like your job is to "Lose as little as possible" (this focuses on the risk, not the grandiose reward).
 
oh cry me a river!!

if you're over 50 now, that means your working career spanned the 80s and 90s -- great times for the stock market and economy. you should have been saving during that time and investing wisely. you should not be in a position now where you're totally screwed if you can't find a 125k/yr job like you had before.

how many of the penniless 50-somethings spent all their money on toys or gambled it away in tech stocks in 1999? or, like hippie, fucked around instead of working when times were good (by his own admission).

for every sob story out there, there's a long history of personal mistakes. you and the foreclosure crowd can save your excuses for someone who cares to hear excuses
 
Quote from blackjack007:

oh cry me a river!!... you and the foreclosure crowd can save your excuses for someone who cares to hear excuses
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Nobody is making excuses. It's a fact. The job market is grim, pretty much for everyone, and especially for those 50+. Kindness is the beginning of wisdom. You should try it sometime before you learn another of life's lessons: time wounds all heals.
 
Hippie,

What were you doing as an IT freelancer during 2003-2008?

There were lots of jobs then but the skillset keeps changing in IT so one needs to keep it up.
 
Definitely correct but you're missing my point. You either put yourself in a postion where someone will ring your phone or you take matters into your own hands. In most states you need roughly 24 hours of accounting to sit for the CPA. If you're unemployed you got nothing but time. Take out a loan if you're broke and go to school full time and get the hours done ASAP. Study your ass off and take the exam. Or, there's a faster way. Buy an EA book and take the enrolled agent exam -- congratulations! Now you can do taxes. Hang out a shingle and start out of your house. Grow, grow, grow.

Are you going to be competing with India or China here? Probably yes. I've heard HRB is farming out some tax work for a few bucks an hour and charging $300 but it's been my experience that people really need to shake someone's hand when it comes to taxes. Become an expert in taxes. It doesn't take that long. Here you go -- Title 26. Start reading under Subchapter A. Find what the most common sections are -- 280A, 162, 262, 212, 401(k), to name just a few -- and start studying. A year from now you're licensed and ready to go. Damn it! I worked 16 hours a day to break into the trading industry. Put 16 hours a day into this and you're good.

http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode26/usc_sup_01_26.html

EDIT: Damn Hippie. Just learned you're a free lance IT'er? Put that together with the EA and/or CPA and you're golden. The medical field, just to name one field, is going under and massive transformation. Shit, the government has set aside something like 5B for the next 5-years (no source) to get medical records IT-ized. Is there a way to put the two together? I dunno but look for demand and put yourself in a position to fill that demand. It's just like trading. You put yourself in a position to take advantage of an opportunity when it is presented to you.

Quote from hippie:

It takes money to go back to school. I am learning a new skill on my own - if u read my posting. What bennies? Are u kidding?

A friend near my age went back to school - for nursing, believing there is one job that cannot be exported. She graduated a year ago. No nursing job for her yet. Hospitals in her county (Seattle) imported 500 foreign nurses instead of hiring the new local graduates.
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Quote from the1:

Definitely correct but you're missing my point. You either put yourself in a postion where someone will ring your phone or you take matters into your own hands. In most states you need roughly 24 hours of accounting to sit for the CPA. If you're unemployed you got nothing but time. Take out a loan if you're broke and go to school full time and get the hours done ASAP. Study your ass off and take the exam. Or, there's a faster way. Buy an EA book and take the enrolled agent exam -- congratulations! Now you can do taxes. Hang out a shingle and start out of your house. Grow, grow, grow.

Are you going to be competing with India or China here? Probably yes. I've heard HRB is farming out some tax work for a few bucks an hour and charging $300 but it's been my experience that people really need to shake someone's hand when it comes to taxes. Become an expert in taxes. It doesn't take that long. Here you go -- Title 26. Start reading under Subchapter A. Find what the most common sections are -- 280A, 162, 262, 212, 401(k), to name just a few -- and start studying. A year from now you're licensed and ready to go. Damn it! I worked 16 hours a day to break into the trading industry. Put 16 hours a day into this and you're good.

http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode26/usc_sup_01_26.html

EDIT: Damn Hippie. Just learned you're a free lance IT'er? Put that together with the EA and/or CPA and you're golden. The medical field, just to name one field, is going under and massive transformation. Shit, the government has set aside something like 5B for the next 5-years (no source) to get medical records IT-ized. Is there a way to put the two together? I dunno but look for demand and put yourself in a position to fill that demand. It's just like trading. You put yourself in a position to take advantage of an opportunity when it is presented to you.
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I know of an accountant worked as a supervisor at KFC for $11/hr. A friend is working on outsourcing accounting to India the last few years.

I rather learn to trade well than waste my time learning accounting. It is not my thing. I have severe ADHD, not suited for accounting.

Trading is what I want to do now. I need to stay focus on it than being distracted by "possibilities" that may or may not be there.
 
Quote from hippie:

I know of an accountant worked as a supervisor at KFC for $11/hr. A friend is working on outsourcing accounting to India the last few years.

I rather learn to trade well than waste my time learning accounting. It is not my thing. I have severe ADHD, not suited for accounting.

Trading is what I want to do now. I need to stay focus on it than being distracted by "possibilities" that may or may not be there.
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I think QQQBall gave some very sound advice. Namely, that your best bet and MANY people's best bet is to leave this country and find a reasonably affordable "third world lite" type of place to call home. Once there, you'd probably have quite a few options as far as setting up business advising your fellow baby boomer, soon to be ex-pats on how to move to wherever you are.

I see that as a very big business in the coming years because the cost of living aint going down in the USA and more people will be unable to afford the health care racket in this country and will move abroad.

You should front run it as much as possible (and I do realize that it's not a novel concept, but it has not become even remotely mainstream yet).
 
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