5 ms·

Ok? The article should be titled "I was financially irresponsible and had to get a job at 57" instead it's some overly wordy fluff piece trying to make working

Ok? The article should be titled "I was financially irresponsible and had to get a job at 57" instead it's some overly wordy fluff piece trying to make working for Amazon sound like some amazing adventure filled with lying to friends, calling women bitches, battling hellish throngs of traffic etc. I mean, journalism has been a dying career field for at least a decade, author is also 57 and had they been at least aware of the need to eventually retire they should be most of the way to retiring and with even slight motivation should have been able to retire a decade or more ago leanFIRE style. The author failed to see the writing on the wall that their industry was dying, they've failed to think outside the box with their degree as well, like... being a substitute teacher and/or tutor. "During my 33 years at Sports Illustrated, I wrote six books," Yeahhhhh 33 years at the same employer, 6 books sold and having to hump packages all day... Then look at how the article ends, approved for a loan. Borrowing more money to make more bad decisions so they can keep churning out articles about how life sucks needing to deliver packages. The author is wholly clueless and is going to work until the day he dies or he wanted to exercise his creative writing skills and is still holding out hope of salvaging his career as a journalist.

magduf 8y ago
I generally agree with your comment, however with the substitute teacher idea, I suspect that being an Amazon delivery driver pays a lot better than that in the US. Teachers in this country are compensated extremely poorly, and substitute teachers even worse. Seriously, I think trying to be a professional writer these days is a terrible career choice. Unless you get lucky with a few best-selling novels or something, you're probably better off driving for Lyft.
- ryanmercer 8y ago
  >Teachers in this country are compensated extremely poorly, I disagree. Average teacher salary here in Indiana is $54,308 (after 'falling', even the really underfunded public grade schools in the inner city here in Indy look like they're paying around 41k) according to https://www.nwitimes.com/news/education/teacher-pay-in-indiana-continues-its-downward-slide/article_6adb505d-9e8c-5e9d-8100-6635c1ce4eec.html https://www.nwitimes.com/news/education/teacher-pay-in-india... That figure above doesn't include benefits like pensions either. State minimum wage is $7.25, the median household income is $45,943. Teachers are handsomely paid. A lot of people are quick to say "but teachers work evenings and weekends for free" yes they do, and they also have 2 months off in the summer which likely equals them out to 2080 hours a year (sans vacation time) if not under 2080 hours a year. As far as subbing, my lifting coach makes makes 30-40$ subbing for a few hours a day between times he has the training facility open. Someone subbing all day makes 60-100$ a day for essentially babysitting. Yeah, it's not full-time delivery driver money but it would have given him plenty of free time to continue to pursue writing freelance, or work on more books, I think the real reason for the working full-time though was so he could take out another home loan, as he needed enough documented income to justify the bank loaning it.
  - magduf 8y ago
    Last I checked, public school teacher compensation varied radically from state to state. Some states do pay pretty well (though I have a hard time calling $54k "handsome" for a position requiring a college degree), while other states pay peanuts.

magduf 8y ago

I generally agree with your comment, however with the substitute teacher idea, I suspect that being an Amazon delivery driver pays a lot better than that in the US. Teachers in this country are compensated extremely poorly, and substitute teachers even worse. Seriously, I think trying to be a professional writer these days is a terrible career choice. Unless you get lucky with a few best-selling novels or something, you're probably better off driving for Lyft.

ryanmercer 8y ago
>Teachers in this country are compensated extremely poorly, I disagree. Average teacher salary here in Indiana is $54,308 (after 'falling', even the really underfunded public grade schools in the inner city here in Indy look like they're paying around 41k) according to https://www.nwitimes.com/news/education/teacher-pay-in-indiana-continues-its-downward-slide/article_6adb505d-9e8c-5e9d-8100-6635c1ce4eec.html https://www.nwitimes.com/news/education/teacher-pay-in-india... That figure above doesn't include benefits like pensions either. State minimum wage is $7.25, the median household income is $45,943. Teachers are handsomely paid. A lot of people are quick to say "but teachers work evenings and weekends for free" yes they do, and they also have 2 months off in the summer which likely equals them out to 2080 hours a year (sans vacation time) if not under 2080 hours a year. As far as subbing, my lifting coach makes makes 30-40$ subbing for a few hours a day between times he has the training facility open. Someone subbing all day makes 60-100$ a day for essentially babysitting. Yeah, it's not full-time delivery driver money but it would have given him plenty of free time to continue to pursue writing freelance, or work on more books, I think the real reason for the working full-time though was so he could take out another home loan, as he needed enough documented income to justify the bank loaning it.
- magduf 8y ago
  Last I checked, public school teacher compensation varied radically from state to state. Some states do pay pretty well (though I have a hard time calling $54k "handsome" for a position requiring a college degree), while other states pay peanuts.