Is Your Retirement Safe?
The Earth is Flat
We live in a world where education is everything. Education is meant to brainwash us one way or another. It may be that you have been taught that the world is flat....while others have been taught that the world is round. Who is right? Who is wrong? Well there is definitely one right and definitely one wrong. Both cannot be right. Education is the great demise of the ignorant. What do I mean by that? If you are not a seeker of knowledge...you will fall for anything. Fortunately, mankind decided to explore to find out that the world is round.
The world is full of theories. There is a theory of evolution. There is the theory of relativity. There are conspiracies about everything. These are all based on tidbits of information that do not necessarily see the whole picture. People draw their conclusions based upon what they see. You have heard the phrase, "You do not know, what you do not know." This is a very true statement. There many ways this discussion could go, but I would like to focus on one specific situation. That being your job, your career, and your life! That is all one topic.
Climbing the Corporate Ladder
You were taught since you were a little kid, to go to school! At school you were taught a schedule. You go from class to class by the sound of a bell. The school determines when you go to lunch, and when you go to the restroom. Once you graduate you go to get a good college education, hopefully at an IV league school. Here you are taught the same thing....you go from bell to bell. Finally, and upon fulfilling your academic standards, you graduate from college. At this point you jump into the world hopeful and looking for a career that fits your beloved major.
So you join Corporate America. Your dreams are bigger than ever before. You dream of getting rid of your college debt, you dream of owning your own home, and you dream of making 6 digits and climbing the corporate ladder. Ultimately to find out that a couple of these are beyond realistic for most people.
Today, most people can buy a home. Most people however do not get to pay off debt or climb the corporate ladder. Instead they work everyday like slaves for their boss. The work every day Monday through Friday, and even some weekends. You are told when you are to go to lunch, when you are to go to break, when you are to go on vacation, and when you are not allowed to go on vacation. You are given hype about potential job promotions, but to no avail. They are all a pipe dream.
Falling into Ford's Trap
Ultimately you are committed to a job. You are committed to a boss. You are committed to an owner. None of these are committed to you. There is a phrase that "no one is irreplaceable." This is so very true. And it is more true in the work world. Today, more and more people are getting laid off of their job the older they get, because their company that they have committed their life to, has decided that they do not want to give as big of a retirement package to older people. They are looking for younger blood to run their company. They want this people because they are at the very beginning of their career, and their retirement package at this time is very small. These younger people are naïve and hopeful.
It is all a money mindset to the owners and bosses of these companies. They are more worried about padding their wallet and their dreams and really could care less about you. You are committed to their business, but they are not committed to you. So, what then? You are in your mid 60's working at Walmart or sweeping the floors of McDonalds. This is not fair. It is unjust. It is wrong. What happened? Where did society go wrong?
Well, December 1, 1913 was the day. It seemed like a great thing for America. It seemed like a great thing for the economy at the time. 100 years later it was a detriment to hard workers. Ford had been trying to increase his factories’ productivity for years. "The workers who built his Model N cars (the Model T’s predecessor) arranged the parts in a row on the floor, put the under-construction auto on skids and dragged it down the line as they worked. Later, the streamlining process grew more sophisticated. Ford broke the Model T’s assembly into 84 discrete steps, for example, and trained each of his workers to do just one. He also hired motion-study expert Frederick Taylor to make those jobs even more efficient."
Ford taught his people to work in a system. Going from point to point, bell to bell. This was then introduced in the school system and is still used today. In October 2010 Mackie Academy, in Stonehaven, Kincardineshire took the move to turn off their school bell system, following criticism that the school bells agitated pupils. According to the headteacher the corridors became much quieter after the system was introduced. It was hoped that pupils would take more responsibility for ensuring they arrived on time to lessons. A number of other schools in the United Kingdom have made similar decisions and either partially or completely turned off the school bell system.
Is there retirement in Corporate America?
Why did they decide to change it? Is this something that makes logical sense? Should we consider revising Corporate America? Let me give you an easier suggestion. If you want something that will reward you for your work. If you want something that will not dictate your worth? Is Corporate America the place? Has our educational system brainwashed us to follow a system that only benefits those who are on top? Let me give you a hint! It has brainwashed you! And you are following head over heels for the American nightmare of corporate America. Do not worry there are millions of other Americans who have also fallen into this trap.
Corporate America is trying at an all time high to cut employees that have tenure out, before they are ever able to have their full benefit package. Forbes gives 11 ways that they are trying to do this. They are only looking after one thing, their pocket book.
If you are younger do not hold your breath! The promises to you are not really promises at all. They are deceitful tactics to help you believe that they are going to promote you up the corporate ladder, only to fire you later on, when you get close to that time of retirement. This is a common tactic lately in Corporate America.
What do you do? Change! Build your own empire. Build your own dreams. Commit to something that will not bite back. Commit to something that you dictate, not what dictates you! Build a business. What are you passionate about? Can you build a business off of that? I will say...of course you can!
Will Millennials Ever Be Able To Retire?
Many Millennial today have not started to save nor do they have any ways to save their money for retirement. According to David Moratta, President of Moratta Wealth Management, today's 20 year old's will need over $7 million dollars to have a lifestyle of $43,000 a year. If you are living the Corporate American dream of trying to climb the ladder and retire with a nice retirement package, now is the time to start thinking of a different method to secure your future.
If you are a Millennial and want to learn more about how to overcome the retirement problem, I would strongly recommend for you to read Robert Kiyosaki's book Rich Dad Poor Dad. This will change your way of thinking about your finances and your retirement.