Gerard Spinks UndagroundMilli

People like to avoid these types of questions because everyone is so mired in what’s happening today and don’t ever think they’ll live until tomorrow. But, I think it’s important to truly examine what your life will be like in 30 years from this very day or this very month of February. What you do today will determine exactly what February of 2041 will look and feel like.

First of all, the reality of corporate America is that older Americans don’t really get jobs. Look around any corporation and see how many regular workers have a ton of gray hair and look around 62 years of age. No really. Stop and think about it. I’ll pause. Now back to the question. There may be two men in the entire corporation that are looking around age 62 and if they lost their job, it would be curtains for them because they are not going back on the market to interviews to compete with everyone who is age 24-44 looking for a job.

And let’s be brutally honest with American job hiring. When a recruiter sees someone who is in their 60′s versus someone who’s in their 20′s or 30′s, who do you think they are more apt to hire even though corporations talk about equality. Equal opportunity is just something required by law to talk about and never, ever practiced. There are two things that are still widely discriminated against in America: age and weight. If you’re old or if you’re fat, it’s a wrap. Unfortunate, but true.

There will also be no real social security for you to draw from and no one will employ you until you get paid a pension for the rest of your life. So, at age 62 you will not be able to get a job and the United States Government may give you a monthly stipend of say $450-$650 from Social Security to live off of. If you still have a mortgage payment or especially rent, you tell me where you will be living to cover all of your expenses?

The problem is that your income drops considerably in retirement age but your expenses stay exactly the same as when you were 25. At age 25 and age 65 you still may have a car payment, car insurance, home mortgage, college payment for your kids, etc. But how do you pay all of this on a stipend from the government called Social Security at $500 per month?!

When it’s sink or swim, it’s time to think to win, NOW! What you do today will determine how you’re living in 2041. And get this – the chances that you will outlive your money are greater than the chances of you dying suddenly tomorrow. People always think they will drop dead because we hear that so much on the news. However, contrary to media, you will live from 62-92 on no income. That’s 30 solid years of no income which is the same amount of time that you would have worked for corporations.

Lay down your future, right here…right now. No one will.

I just had a long conversation with upper management at a major publicly traded United States corporate leader. It’s interesting to hear the opinion of outsourcing from someone who gets paid to outsource American jobs to India. This actually was very interesting to hear the other side. I usually hear it from employees and contractors who obviously are impacted by outsourcing in a negative way and loss of income and jobs.

As most of my readership knows, I have run a technology company in America, Spinks Technologies, since the mid 1990′s. Obviously, I have worked with some very great people from India since this time since most of them are heavily involved in technology. At any rate, this US corporate executive was telling how most technical projects are being outsourced to Tata Consulting Services via a “ranch” methodology meaning that all new projects will be serviced on the ranch. They don’t care about the people, the process, the service level, or anything else. This executive cares about one main thing: the stock price.

Seriously. The only thing he was adamant about was increasing shareholder value which means improving the stock price of the company. How is this achieved at a major United States Corporation? Decrease the cost of services and supplies and you will increase your profit margins. Increasing profit margins for a corporation is measured quarterly and trickles down to different departments monthly. In other words, each month of a quarter is of vital importance to measure success. How is success measured? Saving money while still being able to meet deliverables.

Honestly, no one cares about whether or not someone makes a house payment, is in debt up to their ears, or have an outstanding car payment. Corporations care about profits because they have corporate shareholders who buy their stock. Your job going to India is necessary. The question is: what are you prepared to do for the inevitable?