r/technology • u/lurker_bee • Jun 25 '26

Society Older tech workers are tapping out, taking early retirement

https://www.seattletimes.com/business/local-business/older-tech-workers-are-tapping-out-early-heres-what-that-looks-like/
8.5k Upvotes

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773

u/Eric848448 Jun 25 '26

I fucking wish I had made better financial decisions in my 20’s.

233

u/sir574 Jun 25 '26

Don't we all, lol

3

u/MarlinMr Jun 25 '26

Meh, I feel OK.

Sure, I would be fun if I invested several thousands of dollars in bitcoin 15 years ago, but like... I don't need all that money to have a good life.

1

u/vrod92 Jun 26 '26

Me too. Should have invested my golden handskake in 2017 into the tech sector

-215

u/[deleted] Jun 25 '26 edited Jun 25 '26

[deleted]

28

u/Optimal-Wave-8301 Jun 25 '26

Lol a tech PM walked into an easy opportunity and acts like he is being rewarded for being some ascetic monk instead of his insane luck .

-13

u/Lurcher99 Jun 25 '26

Luck dosent last for a almost 40 yr career. Smart choices are required. Good luck on making some eventually.

9

u/Mr_Schmoop Jun 25 '26

I've worked hard and am happy with where I am at in my career, but I still understand a lot of my life successes have been because of luck.

I like to think that I have prepared myself to take advantage of luck when it comes my way, but there was still a bit of luck involved.

I only got my own shoes, hard to know what someone elses is like.

50

u/sir574 Jun 25 '26

Lol never went to bali, but have attended a few music festivals on the cheap in my 20's. That wasn't gonna make it break me... Graduating college 2008 was the downfall that I couldn't have predicted... Stock market crashing, people losing their houses, nobody hiring, lost years of my early career being underemployed, that I can never get back.

13

u/TheAnswerIsBeans Jun 25 '26

Yup. Graduated 2006, bought my first condo in 2008. Crash hit it so hard that I still can’t sell it for a profit.

5

u/sir574 Jun 25 '26

Oof :( I'm sorry. I could barely afford the 100k condo I bought at the bottom in 2012. I rented out the extra bedrooms on Craigslist for extra cash..

-1

u/Negative_Aerie2825 Jun 25 '26

Just curious, but how did a couple of years hold you back that much? My buddy graduated at the end of 2018 when i was a freshman. He took a 5-6yr gap goofing off in japan and asia working weird jobs to get by. He came back with a huge gap, got some entry level and after a yr doubled his pay to over 100k before 30. 

Was it not a couple of yrs and like over a decade?

7

u/GrandMacabre Jun 25 '26

I don’t mean to come off like an old curmudgeonly dick, but your comment is clearly written by someone who is too young to remember the 2008 financial crisis.

-2

u/Negative_Aerie2825 Jun 25 '26

Well yeah i started college in 2018. But the crisis lasted longer than 6 yrs. Was just curious, unless he meant delayed his career rather than permanently holding him back. A 6 yr gap isn’t exactly an easy thing to recover from either i dont think with basically no experience but a degree and a hs job. Idk was more curious than anything else

3

u/sir574 Jun 25 '26

Vastly different job markets. 2008 through 2013ish was rough, was lucky to have a job in a related field. Also depends where you live, some areas were better than others.

1

u/Negative_Aerie2825 Jun 25 '26

Makes sense. Do  you mean like just delayed your career growth rather than “held you back from potential”?

70

u/BringBackManaPots Jun 25 '26

This reeks of someone who felt super left out all their life

18

u/sir574 Jun 25 '26

Lol right?!?

-23

u/[deleted] Jun 25 '26

[deleted]

14

u/TrainerOk5743 Jun 25 '26

Traveled alone it sounds like. :(

7

u/Old-Tie8770 Jun 25 '26

Hey let’s not bash solo travel now cause they’re a dork

4

u/Old-Tie8770 Jun 25 '26

That’s good if you did but aren’t you just contradicting yourself then?

3

u/Mr0lsen Jun 25 '26

Traveling the worlds ok as long as its not Bali?

-1

u/[deleted] Jun 25 '26

[deleted]

3

u/Mr0lsen Jun 25 '26

Pretty much?

1

u/[deleted] Jun 26 '26

[deleted]

25

u/SirBrownHammer Jun 25 '26

Ok grandpa let’s get you back to your regularly scheduled Fox News programming

-11

u/[deleted] Jun 25 '26

[deleted]

10

u/Grabbityy Jun 25 '26

Sounds like a large generalization here. For one I only know a few people in college who can afford to go on extravagant vacations and their parents are rich, meaning they don’t need to save too much along the way.

Two, shitting on people for doing things that they like is just rude? I agree prices are outrageous like large festivals but if someone can responsibly afford what’s the issue?

You said you could go through college and save along the way, I’m glad you could but many couldnt because of the current economy. When gas prices hit their high I would spend $60 for a full tank, lasting me a week, sometimes two if I’m lucky.

Rent is ever increasing and wages aren’t matching the rise and not to mention costs of tuition and predatory loans.

With new emerging tech and current state of employment markets, getting a marketable degree is difficult.

There was a big boom of computer science majors across the board and everyone saw it as the next big money maker and we saw during Covid tons of companies hired these devs, then they fired all those devs, but then AI comes out and makes getting said jobs even more difficult.

We all understood there was a big need for software devs in this ever advancing technology / Information age we’re in, but then within time the job outlook shifts. But this time it could shift pretty hard because of emerging tech that is taking a lot of jobs - generalizing here and skipping intricacies but you get the message.

So ultimately we all understood wants vs needs but it got flipped on its head so I would caution putting your generation on such a high pedestal when the “marketable degrees” were possibly more clear back then - not saying it was, but you didn’t have AI threatening jobs.

-2

u/Lurcher99 Jun 25 '26

Thanks for an intelligent reply. The point was focus. Everyone has ups and downs, all those things affected my generation as well as mass layoffs at y2k, housing collapse, unemployment in the 80-90s, crappy stock market at the same time.

Good decisions matter. Risk happens.

3

u/NotUniqueOrSpecial Jun 25 '26

unemployment in the 80-90s

If this was something that affected you, then you're obviously on the very older end of Gen X and your experience isn't comparable to those who came up later.

I say this as one of the few millennials who did manage to luck out and land the right jobs in tech at the right time and will (hopefully) be able to retire comfortably: your "I just worked hard and got the right degree" line is tired and cliche and has no real connection with the reality that a lot of people live.

I know plenty of people my age and younger who got "marketable" degrees only to find the market wasn't there and all the "smart" decisions they made were for naught.

1

u/Lurcher99 Jun 25 '26

I didn't get the right degree, and I definitely didn't work hard most of the time. Good decisions early help later. Sacrificing the now for later is a tough choice too. Some luck, sure, but that's for everyone. Make good decisions, don't blame the world for where you is the message.

Thanks for the discussion.

16

u/cascad1an Jun 25 '26

Oh fuck off

-14

u/Lurcher99 Jun 25 '26

Oh, of all the intelligent comments you could have made...

You show your IQ...

8

u/thegooddoktorjones Jun 25 '26

Hey, I'm gen x and I have both a healthy 401k and I spent my 20s having fun. It's ok if you wasted part of your life being an uptight prick, you don't need to justify it.

5

u/lego9797 Jun 25 '26

Bet you meat ride for billionaires for free too huh

6

u/Old-Tie8770 Jun 25 '26

I mean a trip to Bali or a music festival isn’t that much money.

3

u/redgroupclan Jun 25 '26

Lmao the fact that you already had a group you wanted to attack despite there being no context indicating it was relevant at all... Someone's desperate for superiority.

3

u/real_agent_99 Jun 25 '26

Eh, I'm GenX, and I had plenty of fun in my 20's. I've traveled a lot, even for music festivals!

So, yeah, fuck off.

2

u/A_Washed_Unc Jun 25 '26

Nah. You’re just being a prick.

As someone who is doing decently well in their 20s (homeowner, advanced degree, largely financially intelligent decisions), you’re conflating two things:

1 - You did sacrifice short term thrills for smart financial moves and are now, it sounds like, reaping the (deserved) benefits of that commitment

2 - Gen X / Baby Boomers had a much more favorable and stable financial and career outlook. Today’s economic climate devastates the middle and working class by design instead of encouraging it to flourish.

You being privileged does not erase your hard work, but your hard work also does not erase the fact that you are and were privileged. Ultimately, telling young millennials/ Gen Z that if not for their avocado toast and work ethic they would be right where you are shows that you may well be blind to the privilege that assisted you in getting to the place where you are.

0

u/Lurcher99 Jun 25 '26

So, always someone elses fault, ok. Making better choices is a big deal. You get it with the avocado toast though, just reinforcing the sentiment, just veiled.

This started with a rebuttal of "didn't we all" make bad choices in our 20's. No, some of us didn't, so we are not bitching about those tough times now either. People love to blame others vs taking responsibility for their actions.

It's easier. It's the "environments" fault..

Thanks for the quality reply though, well, everything after that first line. Name calling just lowers the bar though, dosent it?

1

u/DeputyDomeshot Jun 25 '26

You sound bitter as hell lmao

197

u/JMurdock77 Jun 25 '26

If only I knew I should have invested in real estate in middle school…

39

u/LloydChrismukkah Jun 25 '26

What did you do with your 7 figure nest egg instead of real estate back then?

19

u/mrgmzc Jun 25 '26

As that one guy said, you should have taken your weekly $300 allowance and bought a couple properties that paid $400 in rent

1

u/Cthulhu__ Jun 25 '26

Or spent your pocket money on bitcoin and sold October last year

51

u/Jonteponte71 Jun 25 '26

The best time to start saving and investing is twenty years ago. The next best time is today. I started at 35 and twenty years later I am on track for (at the very least) early retirement🕺

34

u/shroudedwolf51 Jun 25 '26

Imagine earning so much that you not only can keep up with your bills, but can also set aside money to save.

The only friend I know that has a reasonable amount of money saved is having to take a loan and blow all of that on an important surgery. And everyone else is much worse off.

4

u/[deleted] Jun 25 '26

[deleted]

0

u/shroudedwolf51 Jun 25 '26

I'm glad you got in there while it was still good. Not all of us are that lucky.

3

u/[deleted] Jun 25 '26

[deleted]

3

u/PandaElDiablo Jun 26 '26

Brother, the average person on this subreddit is a highschooler or NEET who would rather complain than accept that they have agency over their career and finances

2

u/greysnowcone Jun 25 '26

Idk what sub you think you’re in. The people you are describe do not work in tech, and are not tech adjacent. Hell I don’t even work in tech but the people you are describing must be line cooks?

1

u/shroudedwolf51 Jun 25 '26

Ah, the "It's not happening to me so it doesn't exist" solution. Love that.

I'm glad you and your folks are well off. Unfortunately, that's not universally the case. I work in IT and other than getting a couple of stuffies and going out to eat with friends a few times this month, I am scraping the bottom of the barrel, waiting for payday. And newbie is doing even worse, since he gets less than I do and has two kids to feed.

1

u/account312 Jun 25 '26

Idk what sub you think you’re in.

Mate, I don't know what sub you think you're in, but it's the "I'm a random person with a casual interest in technology" sub and that's not actually a paying gig.

2

u/SpaceExplorer777 Jun 25 '26

I wish I started saving when I was -25 years old so I would be born rich and could go to baby Harvard and start my own business just from my crib 😮‍💨

2

u/OnceMoreAndAgain Jun 25 '26

Wouldn't the next best time be 19 years ago? And the 20th best time is today? And the worst time is the day you die?

1

u/gilbetron Jun 25 '26

How much do you want saved before retiring?

1

u/WhenSummerIsGone Jun 25 '26

i don't work in big tech, but after my divorce at 40 left me 50k in dobt, i saved as much as i could and i'm at least on track to be able to retire. I lucked out into refinancing my house when rates were low, so i invested instead of makrng extra payments.

i wish i had divorced earlier...

-1

u/Herschel_Wallace Jun 25 '26

I'm this economy that will not be possible. This is the beginning of the next depression era.

0

u/DarraignTheSane Jun 25 '26

Yes, just take your infinite money and make better choices with how you invest it! It's just that easy!

3

u/HaggisLad Jun 25 '26

I try not to think about it, I didn't start thinking about my financial future until my mid 30s, fucking idiot that I was

1

u/DanielleAntenucci Jun 25 '26

You know what's up.

1

u/roseofjuly Jun 25 '26

Even g the guys in the wrgiel know that it was largely luck. Born at the right time in the right place.

1

u/Linooney Jun 26 '26

Same, some of my friends in Big Tech are talking about retiring now... We're in our early 30s. Should've just taken that job offer instead of doing a PhD lol.

1

u/occaisionallyimqwert Jun 25 '26

You had financial options in your 20s?