The saddest thing is most people buy into the life plan of “work steadily until you’re old and then retire” hook, line and sinker.  Even worse, the elder middle class indoctrinate the young from an early age with these appalling life plans and poison their ambitions.  Many older people who have spent their lives working for others discourage the young from “risky” ways of making a living and advocate embracing security with both arms.  That’s only because conventional work life worked for them and so to them it’s more or less a sure thing.

If someone in their 40’s working a full-time job starts to question what they’re doing with their life the people around them in the same boat will often do everything in their power to keep them where they are.  In such cases jaded parents still mired in the 9-5 world or retired try quashing their childrens’ ambitions to escape 9-5, telling them that “the clock is ticking” and that they’ve only got a limited number of work years ahead of them for achieving financial security before their working years are over.  They tell you to “make enough money to support yourself before you become obsolete”!

They’re basically saying the older in years you become, the less useful you become in your work and what you contribute to the organization you work for.  Then, once you reach retirement age (whatever age that is) you suddenly become obsolete: that is, because you’ve reached retirement age what you offer work-wise to society is no longer valuable.  All the newer models out there (IE younger people) will simply force you out of the pecking order.

This notion of obsolescence due to age simply isn’t true.  You never become less useful regarding your work and the value of what you offer, especially if you dedicate yourself to continuing education and bettering yourself at your job beyond what experience teaches you.  In fact, the longer someone does a certain profession, the better they usually get at it.