‘Funny thing, Ageism: You eventually become the target of your own bigotry’.
I can’t remember the source for that, but the older I get the more it resonates. When I was younger (and I suspect this is still true for anyone), I saw people older than, oh, late 30s, as ‘old’ and irrelevant in the work place.
My bias was exaggerated by the fact that I was in Technology, specifically Software, in my prior career.
I fortunately entered Financial Planning afterwards only because I have a rabid fascination with it, and, purely by happenstance, age works to one’s advantage in this field.
But what about for everyone else?
How in the world do you stay relevant after your early 40s?
For most people they will have no choice: They have decades yet to work because they want to or, in many cases, because they didn’t start saving early enough.
And, with 48% of early retirement being involuntary (source: Russell),there’s a whole lot of brutal reality coming for those of us who are unprepared for it.
It creates a sense of urgency and a hope that it’s not too late to start saving enough for the day when our skills may be perceived by our employer as irrelevant and we join those early retirees.
(Disclosure: I am a Fee-Only Financial Planner. My website is here.)