100% of the blame lies with Jack Welch and his short-term thinking, reckless cuts that hollowed out the company, well now those bills are due.
Did you know his own retirement package included lifetime usage of the corporate jets?
Retirement Shock: Need to Find a Job After 40 Years at General Electric
41–50 of 144 posts
Re: Retirement Shock: Need to Find a Job After 40 Years at General Electric
#42Seems like an $85k/yr pension should be more than enough to retire on.
making the assumption the pension sticks around through the next recession..
look at those who had a GM pension...
Re: Retirement Shock: Need to Find a Job After 40 Years at General Electric
#43This looks like a failure with portfolio construction to me. Keeping a lot of your net worth in the stock of one company is not a very good strategy for diversification. This is especially true when it is the stock of the company that you are working for, because if the company gets into trouble, you might not just lose your job, but also your savings. One easy improvement your this particular case would have been to…
I blame Corporations getting rid of Retirement Plans for the sake of profit.
My father's side grandfather had 2 retirement plans, 1) Navy Seals (12 years) 2) NYC Handy man (25 years)
My mom's side grandfather 1) Custodian in NYC 20 years + 2) Jazz Musician Union 10+ years.
They both were able to live a decent life after retirement and didn't work a single day afterwards. This will not happen for me. I also have a privatized plan for 15 years but my son had cancer for 5 years (Drained my retirement early) and we had 5 kids and chose to have my wife stay at home for about 7 years. Not very easy to save, heck I have no debit outside of mortgage and some student loans still. Zero credit card debit and no car payment. I know I am ahead of the curve but what about everyone else up to their necks in debit?
The system is broken and most people don't save enough and a few can't. https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-01-03/the-401-k...
Re: Retirement Shock: Need to Find a Job After 40 Years at General Electric
#44This looks like a failure with portfolio construction to me. Keeping a lot of your net worth in the stock of one company is not a very good strategy for diversification. This is especially true when it is the stock of the company that you are working for, because if the company gets into trouble, you might not just lose your job, but also your savings. One easy improvement your this particular case would have been to…
I blame Corporations getting rid of Retirement Plans for the sake of profit. My father's side grandfather had 2 retirement plans, 1) Navy Seals (12 years) 2) NYC Handy man (25 years) My mom's side grandfather 1) Custodian in NYC 20 years + 2) Jazz Musician Union 10+ years. They both were able to live a decent life after retirement and didn't work a single day afterwards. This will not happen for me. I also have a pri…
Corporations have not gotten rid of retirement plans, they've gotten rid of unsustainable defined benefit retirement plans (pensions) in exchange for defined contribution retirement plans (401ks).
Re: Retirement Shock: Need to Find a Job After 40 Years at General Electric
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
this may be an unpopular opinion (especially if the stock is doing well) but I've also done the exact same thing (sell on vest + diversify).
if you think your company will outperform in the short term you could set up a stop loss limit to allow only a certain percentage of loss in your company stock that way you are only exposed to upside
limits are usually a guarantee you will sell at the very bottom of a crash. There are much better ways to diversify.. such as what others said - sell on the day you vest and buy an index fund.
Re: Retirement Shock: Need to Find a Job After 40 Years at General Electric
#46This looks like a failure with portfolio construction to me. Keeping a lot of your net worth in the stock of one company is not a very good strategy for diversification. This is especially true when it is the stock of the company that you are working for, because if the company gets into trouble, you might not just lose your job, but also your savings. One easy improvement your this particular case would have been to…
I blame Corporations getting rid of Retirement Plans for the sake of profit. My father's side grandfather had 2 retirement plans, 1) Navy Seals (12 years) 2) NYC Handy man (25 years) My mom's side grandfather 1) Custodian in NYC 20 years + 2) Jazz Musician Union 10+ years. They both were able to live a decent life after retirement and didn't work a single day afterwards. This will not happen for me. I also have a pri…
Were those retirement plans fully funded over their years of employment, or were they kicking the can down the road with "We'll make big retirement promises and in 30 years when the $XXX,XXX,XXX bill comes due it'll be someone else's problem"?
Re: Retirement Shock: Need to Find a Job After 40 Years at General Electric
#47I've always sold my company stocks soon as they were received. Then reinvested those funds in in either Vanguard index funds, or paying off school loans. Makes zero sense to tie up your entire income to one company. Your weekly paycheck, AND stocks are totally reliant on the same company performance.
this may be an unpopular opinion (especially if the stock is doing well) but I've also done the exact same thing (sell on vest + diversify).
It’s a conservative play but an understandable one for older employees: it’s usually too risky to both work at a company and hold its stock.
Diversify also means more than stocks and bonds... land, art, apartment buildings, laundromats, etc.
https://www.betterment.com/resources/should-i-own-stock-in-t...
Re: Retirement Shock: Need to Find a Job After 40 Years at General Electric
#48This looks like a failure with portfolio construction to me. Keeping a lot of your net worth in the stock of one company is not a very good strategy for diversification. This is especially true when it is the stock of the company that you are working for, because if the company gets into trouble, you might not just lose your job, but also your savings. One easy improvement your this particular case would have been to…
This looks like a failure with portfolio construction to me
I’m sure that’s a very useful piece of advice for a Worker for whom “construction” means, you know, actually making stuff, not financial trickery
Re: Retirement Shock: Need to Find a Job After 40 Years at General Electric
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
I blame Corporations getting rid of Retirement Plans for the sake of profit. My father's side grandfather had 2 retirement plans, 1) Navy Seals (12 years) 2) NYC Handy man (25 years) My mom's side grandfather 1) Custodian in NYC 20 years + 2) Jazz Musician Union 10+ years. They both were able to live a decent life after retirement and didn't work a single day afterwards. This will not happen for me. I also have a pri…
Corporations have not gotten rid of retirement plans, they've gotten rid of unsustainable defined benefit retirement plans (pensions) in exchange for defined contribution retirement plans (401ks).
While I agree with you, I think it is important to note that defined benefit plans aren't INHERENTLY unsustainable. If you do the math right and are realistic, you can off them. You just can't underfund them or assume unrealistic stock market gains.
Re: Retirement Shock: Need to Find a Job After 40 Years at General Electric
#50Seems like an $85k/yr pension should be more than enough to retire on.
No kidding, at a 4% safe withdrawal rate, that's the same as a $2+ million nest egg. That said, I think he's concerned that, given GE's trajectory, the pension will evaporate. What then?
He might look into buying pension insurance.