Life after contracting

[gingerjedi]

Swine Flu will resolve a lot of peoples retirement plans.

Old codgers seem to be more or less immune, it's the young guns who are getting shot down.

Someone at the lab must have got it wrong.

[milanbenes]

Expat,

'I think a lot of people who have fallen into the sometime easy money of contracting suffer from the delusion that they could just as easily make money somewhere else. '


I think you're right !

Now if I could just learn how to do bold and italics and add it to my cv :-)

Milan.

[Archangel]

I'm also thinking of jacking I.T. in before it jacks me in (l'm in my late 40's). I've been benched for two months, so the time may be now.

I'm now looking for a company I can buy, operating in a market that I understand and which is attractive to me (Timber/Building Supplies). Hopefully I can semi-retire after 10 years leaving someone else to run the business, giving me an income in retirement.

I looked at one last week, but the location was not ideal, but the figures more or less stacked up. I will keep on looking and hopefully one may turn up before the savings run out.

[Lockhouse]

Lockhouse if I may ask, what kind of going concern are you thinking about ?

Milan.

It's service industry related. I don't want to say any more at this stage but at 52 I don't plan on working 24/7 on it.

[Fred Bloggs]

Are you cofident that all these pensions that you have been promised will be honoured?

2? All? Yes I am, they are with two of the worlds biggest 100 companies and while I know that isn't a guarantee, it's pretty good since those two companies "make things that people want" as opposed to the banks who "just invent money" it seems.

[milanbenes]

Lockhouse,

fair enough.

I assume if you are looking at buying a going concern that is bring in in 40k per year then the retail price of such an operation will be about 5x profit ?

I must say, everybody, all the best with your plans.



Milan.

[expat]

...Or adopt a Buddhist mindset and learn to be happy without expensive and unnecessary possessions.

Go for walks, drive a small car, go for 'early bird' specials, there's millions of happy pensioners who never had unrealistic expectations in the first place who are enjoying life without the millions you talk of.

I think you're right there. Many of us think of retirement in terms of how early we can give up working and spend the rest of our lives living as we have been while contracting. I am now realising that I have unconsciously fallen into this trap myself. The only change in the plan that I am capable of absorbing is to push back the retirement date. But as you said it is not at all certain that the work will be there to make this possible.

Instead of working out how to sustain this life without working (when it is getting hard enough with working), think of what life is for. It all reminds me of the parable of the Mexican fisherman:

An American tourist was at the pier of a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked.

Inside the small boat were several large yellowfin tuna. The tourist complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them.

The Mexican replied, "Only a little while."

The tourist then asked, "Why didn't you stay out longer and catch more fish?"

The Mexican said, "With this I have more than enough to support my family's needs."

The tourist then asked, "But what do you do with the rest of your time?"

The Mexican fisherman said, "I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take siesta with my wife, Maria, stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine and play guitar with my amigos, I have a full and busy life."

The tourist scoffed, " I can help you. You should spend more time fishing; and with the proceeds, buy a bigger boat: With the proceeds from the bigger boat you could buy several boats. Eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats. Instead of selling your catch to a middleman you would sell directly to the processor; eventually opening your own cannery. You would control the product, processing and distribution. You could leave this small coastal fishing village and move to Mexico City, then Los Angeles and eventually New York where you could run your ever-expanding enterprise."

The Mexican fisherman asked, "But, how long will this all take?"

The tourist replied, "15 to 20 years."

"But what then?" asked the Mexican.

The tourist laughed and said, "That's the best part. When the time is right you would sell your company stock to the public and become very rich, you would make millions."

"Millions?...Then what?"

The American said, "Then you would retire. Move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take siesta with your wife, stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play your guitar with your amigos."

[Shimano105]

So the moral is why spend all your life and savings ensuring that you can eventually just work part-time - why not just work part-time and live on less?

That has always been my aim to be honest.

[milanbenes]

Shim,

granted.

One thing which is interesting and which is my fear is, plan as we might today to be able to retire on 25k a year at 52, the 25k a year needs to be index linked, otherwise it ain't gonna buy much when the time comes

and thinking further, how to build a sustainable pot, which will provide an index linked income, with index linked growth on the underlying pot, while also as much as possible being immune to the whims of big companies which raid the pensions ala as has been seen in the past,

giving consideration to the above, I find only one solution (when looking at the long term - ignoring year on year short term fluctuations), I see one solution,

buying apartments/houses and renting them, finding interesting areas, student cities, student neighbourhoods, first timers etc

the properties - on the long term - will rise in value index linked

the rental income will be index linked

your group of properties cannot be plundered ala maxwell etc


please provide alternatives to this model, or holes in the model

thanks,

Milan.

[Lockhouse]

Lockhouse,

fair enough.

I assume if you are looking at buying a going concern that is bring in in 40k per year then the retail price of such an operation will be about 5x profit ?

I must say, everybody, all the best with your plans.



Milan.

And what are your plans?