I’ve always saved some. I’ve posted about the lessons when I was 12.
Early in my career, I had a great job for three years working on a great team, for great leaders, and at a great company. In your late 20s, three years seems like a decade. Well after three years into my career our IT organization was transitioned from “company employees” to an external provider. We did the exact same work from the same desks, but there was a difference between “employee, contractor, and partner” badges.
Long strange story short—the company was flip-flopping from in-house IT back to outsourced. It was the opposite of what they did 3 years prior to both the same provider. Looking back, it was just a pricing/contract negotiation tactic for a MegaCorp.
In a matter of a week, I went from working with and managing vendors, to being on the chopping block and becoming said vendor. It didn’t matter how much (little) money I was presented with as a retention bonus, it still sucked. [Note: always treat everyone you work with as respectfully as you can. They may be your boss one day]
At home, we immediately clamped down on our spending since we did not know how the outsourcing position/salary would play out initially. Turns out, it was the same pay and role, but a different badge and benefits.
On another side note, because we were consciously spending less—on eating out for example—I started losing more weight and getting fitter/healthier.
As for my career, in the end, I FIREd. In the near term, after being outsourced for about 6 months I received a 10% raise from my new company, then a week later I was asked to apply for a cool new, higher-level position back at the MegaCorp company…with a raise based of my new higher outsourced salary. “Double-Bump”
My new job back at the company was great. The office was now just 5 minutes from my house, instead of 20-30 minutes. The job still had cool travel, and a better boss (my old boss who came back), and most importantly, the new position built my skill set into a new area which set up my next global position (with my bosses boss) that I enjoyed for 11 years before FIREing. (Plan was to FIRE in 8 years, but I worked three more “I love my job” years).
The points of my thoughts are probably applicable to many situations now—nobody really knew how their job situation would pan out as the pandemic raged (or was that the media) on. Nobody knows how the recovery will happen and what fields will do well and which will struggle.
Personally, we had been saving for decades when my job outsourced me. It didn’t cause a panic, but it did smack me in the face and demonstrate I was not in control of my job(s). The outsourcing gave me a push to save a little more aggressively and a little more intentionally. And more specifically, it really showed me I needed to plan in phases/stages. All wonderful lessons I still use to this day. RE: the “MoJo Decade.”
*** Nothing in this article is to be construed as financial advice. I am not a financial planner, nor do I pretend to be. You should always consult your own professional when seeking advice. This post is not a piece of literary mastery, just a random thought I had.