hwyengr
06-24-2007, 07:21 PM
I am so fucking pissed at my dad right now.
Growing up, I never had the falling out with my parents. The day I left for college, my dad broke down crying, saying "Why did you have to be so good to us." This was the same man who basically threw a party the day my sister left the house.
He turns 55 this year, and his company has an option for early retirement. This is probably one of the last companies in the US that still has a financially sound pension plan, which is the only good thing, because he and my mother have basically saved nothing for their retirement. Not only that, but for the past 4 years they've been competitively outspending each other on vacations (her) and tools and machinery (him).
But, since he's going to be retiring early, he gets just a small fraction of the pension payments. If he stayed working until he was 65, he'd actually make more money in retirement, with the pension, 401(k), and social security, than he's making now.
The problem basically is that both he and my mom have long-term medical issues. They're fine now, but they'll both deteriorate in the future, and probably before they're eligible for Medicare. I have no idea what he thinks he's going to do for insurance after he leaves.
If he wants to trash his own future, fine. That's his business. But I can't stand the fact that my mom's going to have to suffer as well. He claims that he can't stand his job, and has to leave this year, but she's been miserable at her job for decades and put up with it, just so they could live comfortably. So he quits, and she has to keep working? They're going to end up eating dog food, I just know it.
He has some grand plan that he's going to make-up the income difference by selling woodwork arts and crafts shit that he makes. He semi-successfully ran a custom woodwork shop during a 15-year sabbatical, and he seems to have forgotten how much he hated doing that. Why would you work hard your entire life, just to make it that much harder for yourself at the end?
And of course, I can't tell him anything. Me: "Let's compromise, wait until you're at least 60 to retire." Him: "Gee. Thanks for the advice, <i>dad</i>"
He resents me. Maybe he's the one going through puberty late.
Growing up, I never had the falling out with my parents. The day I left for college, my dad broke down crying, saying "Why did you have to be so good to us." This was the same man who basically threw a party the day my sister left the house.
He turns 55 this year, and his company has an option for early retirement. This is probably one of the last companies in the US that still has a financially sound pension plan, which is the only good thing, because he and my mother have basically saved nothing for their retirement. Not only that, but for the past 4 years they've been competitively outspending each other on vacations (her) and tools and machinery (him).
But, since he's going to be retiring early, he gets just a small fraction of the pension payments. If he stayed working until he was 65, he'd actually make more money in retirement, with the pension, 401(k), and social security, than he's making now.
The problem basically is that both he and my mom have long-term medical issues. They're fine now, but they'll both deteriorate in the future, and probably before they're eligible for Medicare. I have no idea what he thinks he's going to do for insurance after he leaves.
If he wants to trash his own future, fine. That's his business. But I can't stand the fact that my mom's going to have to suffer as well. He claims that he can't stand his job, and has to leave this year, but she's been miserable at her job for decades and put up with it, just so they could live comfortably. So he quits, and she has to keep working? They're going to end up eating dog food, I just know it.
He has some grand plan that he's going to make-up the income difference by selling woodwork arts and crafts shit that he makes. He semi-successfully ran a custom woodwork shop during a 15-year sabbatical, and he seems to have forgotten how much he hated doing that. Why would you work hard your entire life, just to make it that much harder for yourself at the end?
And of course, I can't tell him anything. Me: "Let's compromise, wait until you're at least 60 to retire." Him: "Gee. Thanks for the advice, <i>dad</i>"
He resents me. Maybe he's the one going through puberty late.