New in crate '79 CR125R

More than that. About $1,500 OTD.

1 of many misconceptions popular for bashing people based simply on when we were born. My wife was born 1951 and me in 1958. We both worked entry level low pay jobs starting in our teens. My 1st "on the books" job was 1974 and I made a whopping $1.75/hr. many more like that followed. No pensions anywhere in those. Always worked and went to college at same time after high school. I got an AS degree from Jr college in 1984. It was Computer Technology, and jobs still paid crap- no pensions. Wife was on same path long before I knew her. Met her at work in 1990 and we had a 401k, low wages and no pensions.

$401ks were not some big $ giveaway programs to make people like us rich- you had a deduction out of each paycheck paid directly into the account pre-tax and if you were lucky the company would match some % of your contributions (ours didn't). I left that company after 2 years and cashed out the 401k to get the massive $2k sitting there to pay living expenses. 2nd time I did that. I job hopped every couple years after that and wife stayed put. Got decent pay bumps at each new company- and a voluntary 401k with no pension offered. Ended up at a pretty decent tech company late 1990s that matched 401k and a pension after you were employed 5 years waiting period. Just after my 5 years Motorola bought out our company and had a pension program and 401ks. A few years later they broke the company into several divisions including cell phones, internet-based technologies and some additional radio-based products connected to their main headquarters in NJ. I got transferred to that division internally but not geographically. Anyone that got moved had their previous pension paid out immediately and they started us in a brand-new Motorola pension program. My payout was a measly $5k and your 401k was merged into main Motorola. I stuck it out for 10 years there and quit with $63k in my 401 but left it there. The pension froze in time and you had to wait 25 years because it was an annuity.

This is getting long but after a career break, I ended up at Nokia with great salary and 401k with huge matching and bonuses every year. When I turned 50 IRS allowed extra "makeup contributions" in my 401 annually. That job lasted 10 years until Microsoft bought Engineering group I was in along with Smart Phone division. I lasted 2 years before burning out and retiring at 56 in 2014. And those 2 401ks I had? they took a 50% hit during the "Great Recession" and housing market crash in 2006-2008. I didn't panic and just left them alone and got rewarded when the economy came roaring back starting in 2009. I recovered everything I lost and rode the market up not touching any of it while it doubled and tripled by the time I retired.. Wife had stayed at her former company for 40 years and also had her 401k fully funded the whole time and she retired same time as me with a disability income. We never did end up with millions from the 401k, IRAs and no pensions. Between her disability and eventually IRA withdrawals and my savings + 401k then IRAs we made enough to get by in San Diego and the exploding housing market gave us a nice equity bump too. We knew staying in CA would cost a lot more in retirement, so we moved to another state that was far more affordable and then SS kicked in as our main form of income to cover all our basics and then some.

Sorry for the hijack but the idea Baby Boomers got handed everything in life is a huge lie and many of us had nothing handed to us but worked for what we have and got lucky along the way too.