Originally Posted by
Fillmore Slim
Have got to respectfully disagree with you. Your profile states that you're a retired 747 pilot that's now delivering packages for Amazon. I'm not going to pretend to understand anyone's personal finances, but would you agree that after retiring from an airline one should not need to deliver Amazon packages? Through all my years here I've met numerous pilots who've had 2nd jobs because they couldn't afford to live on just an Atlas paycheck, much less their paltry retirement. These are 747 Captains that drive buses (seriously), drive for Uber / lyft or numerous other "side hustles." ****! Right now Atlas is capitalizing on $10 / KG freight prices and bargain basement fuel costs. Every 747 landing RIGHT NOW is netting the company approx $1,000,000 in net profits. The union is the only shot we have at retiring with a nest egg large enough to honestly retire. I have friends that have retired from all the majors................not one of them has had to take another job after retirement. Atlas prey's on pilots and their good nature and intentions. UPS and FEDEX pilots have figured it out. All they had to do was collectively look in the mirror. Buyer beware.
The danger with humor is that it is often lost on those who do not understand the background.
It should not be hard for an actual Atlas pilot to figure out who I am from my profile. My situation, after a lot of years flying 747s for Atlas, is the exact opposite of what you suggest. All from W2 income -- I am far from having been born into privilege. LPT - save 15% for retirement, have a simple asset allocation, use index funds, re-balance once a year, do not think that you are smarter than everyone else. Do not follow creative investment advice from Captains. Do not buy expensive toys that you won't, in truth, enjoy. But do let your wife have a toy or two, so as to stay on wife 1.0. Fortunately my wife's favorite toy is a classic BMW. May the Kugelfischer God continue to smile upon me and not make me search for fuel injectors!
Meanwhile too many of my friends at majors have retired into stress because they can not figure out how to make it work. I guess that you have smarter friends than I do.
One of the interesting twists in history is that of the two best known practitioners of the Stoic Philosophy one was a Roman Emperor and the other was a former slave. A well lived live is not about your job.