http://www.cnbc.com/id/102082203
I mostly see ER as a hedge against becoming an unemployable old person.. we often hear stories of people in their 50s and 60s who lost their jobs in the recession, have meager retirement savings, and have fought nose to the grindstone to get back into the workforce to no avail. I don't see myself ending work unless I become unemployable.. I'd work in my 80s if I still enjoyed it even if I were sitting on tens of millions in assets.. but I'd like to have the option to not have to work as early as possible in life.
CNBC is constantly peddling this click-bait propaganda to scare the masses back on the hamster wheel and to make sure they are eternally grateful for their corporate job so that the market can keep going UP UP UP! Seriously though, look at the real numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics...even during the worst part of the recession, college educated 45+yos had something like a 3-4% unemployment rate.
They also purposefully seek out the most sad-sack individuals for these pieces who made one terrible decision after another, all in an effort to push the CNBC agenda. Like the first guy...$150,000 in student loans and a masters in entrepreneurship? C'mon, what is THAT?? It's not the job market that ruined this guy, it's his horribly flawed idea that you need to pay $150,000 to get a piece of paper that says you're an entrepreneur, when real entrepreneurs would have actually used that kind of money to start any of a thousand businesses. I'd give 10-1 odds that the author of this article was laughing his butt off while writing about this guy, and then laughing even harder when he thought about all the people who would eat this story up, hook, line and sinker. The author also knew that tons of "technical and smart" people would lay into this entrepreneur guy after reading about his story (like I just did), and feel superior all the while, rather than think about how bad the system in place must be if someone told this guy his $150,000 degree was a good idea. The author and CNBC can't lose!
There were jobs to be had for these people with education and experience, and they certainly were not "unemployable". Yes, maybe they weren't dream jobs, or there was slightly lower pay/benefits, but "unemployable" is a far far stretch from the truth. Don't fall for the CNBC gimmick.