[quote=Coronita]
I appreciate you sharing this. Quick question. Given how in demand tech workers are these days, have you considered re-entering the workforce as a contractor? Seems like the barrier to entry is pretty low and the numbers are looking really good. If all else on your own terms. Or do you hate bureaucracy that much ? :)[/quote]
I have periodically entertained the idea of re-entering.. but at the same time I do enjoy the current independence. I can get up when I want, go to bed likewise. Pre-COVID, if I wanted to hike a mountain.. I could do it, mid-week if I wanted. The extra free time has allowed me to do a better job on my retirement investments (and allowed me to learn more). My CAGR(Compound Annual Growth Rate) is around 16% for the past 10 years and approx 19% for the past 6 years, at the same time I have been living off the funds. I have also managed to keep the tax exposure low(most assets have been held at least 3 – 4 years), and much of the funds are not in FAANG though I do have some.
I guess you could say my ‘re-evaluation’ of my life’s plans came a few years after being laid off near when I turned 50 (I’m over 60 now). The company I worked for laid off a large group of people including many senior engineers that were core engineers that created much of the company’s IP and products (new CEO). It made me wonder about why sacrifice so much of my life doing work for which the return was not proportionate to the effort. I understood the products and potential future products much better than management but management was pulling in the benefits off of the senior engineers work.. only to ‘dismiss’ the engineers when they wanted to make the ‘financial numbers’ look better.
I initially came back as a consultant. My first work was at my former employer. I also did some consulting at other locations. The pay was ok, but the work was sporadic. This was before the large jump in salaries that occurred more recently. The current market is largely around cell phones, which I find interesting.. but I can’t see myself enjoying doing apps. I find cell phones useful, but they are almost like crack to some people. After working on one of the worlds largest multiprocessor and distributed ‘laser tag’/war games (training system for the US military), doing a game or app for a phone just doesn’t ‘ring my bell’.. neither does working for a social media company(I know how much they can track and how much info they can extract from their clients.. gives me the creeps.)
On you last question
If all else on your own terms. Or do you hate bureaucracy that much ? 🙂
I don’t think its the bureaucracy as much as the type of people that are attracted to it and work in it, particularly at the upper levels. Sometimes I felt like I was dealing with Captain Queeg. I have also come across some of the newer engineers thinking the older people are completely outdated – and ignoring the possibility that the older engineer may have worked on or created the very thing these newer engineers are using on their job or are modifying and that some older engineers might now why something is done a certain way.
I guess the answer came out a bit longer than the quick question. I don’t know if the answer to something like the decision to retire is quick. It was more a weighing of options, looking at how I want to spend my remaining years and deciding to keep my sanity.
