I am aware of four paths, but maybe I am missing something. 1) Get into management. 2) Become an independent contractor, or start your own company. 3) Stay many years in one company and become an internal specialist on their software. 4) Work for a software company that sells to other software companies (e.g. Oracle), and become a specialist on their software. These paths are ordered by a number of people I know who took them, which is probably not a representative sample.
1) Getting into management brings somewhat higher salary, but also more overtime and having to deal with bullshit on daily basis. Which means that your actual salary is almost the same or even lower, but you are supposed to get a big bonus when the project is successfully finished on time. Depending on the company, you may need to talk with your customers daily, telling them a lot of buzzwords and assuring them that the things you actually have little control about will all end well and on time; also if the customer wants to yell at someone, you are the person. If your company works for government, you will have to read a lot of paperwork, and cooperate with people who would prefer if everything failed and they were just left alone. It is a great choice if you don't care about the content of your work, or if you don't really have good programming skills, but you enjoy feeling "important". On the other hand, if you are in IT because you love programming; well, that's exactly what you will not do.
2) This seems to be the best choice. It requires some skills I don't feel sure I have, such as networking and making deals with customers.
3) I could actually enjoy this, but there is a lot of risk. You have to spend many years in the same company, and there are some things that could go wrong and then a decade later you would start from zero again, because the skill is non-transferable. For example the company could get bankrupt, or someone else could get your place because of e.g. nepotism.
4) I never worked for a company like that, so I don't know about the advantages and disadvantages. Could be actually a good choice.
Well, reading what I wrote... seems to me I should seriously put more time into networking and similar things. (But if I had an option 5 -- a safe way to protect my savings from inflation and use them for early retirement, I would certainly prefer that. And possibly combine it with some of the other options.)
But if I had an option 5 -- a safe way to protect my savings from inflation and use them for early retirement, I would certainly prefer that.
Many countries make this possible. Is moving an option?
I know I said I'd be gone... but this was just a comment originally, and I noticed it may actually be relevant.
Elharo said in Munchkin Ideas:
I'm interested in the following:
Why should people invest in retirement? Or, instead, why should someone invest as much as most do in retirement.
Few facts that make it a boggling question for me:
You are 10% to 20% likely to die before you enjoy even your first retirement year.
People adjust much more to harsh economical conditions than they believe they would. They remain happy, as many studies by Seligman and others show.
People who retire are only happier as retirees if they retired by choice (I lost the paper, sorry).
Most people here live in rich countries - darn, hate to be the exception! - , and their state would happily provide them with at least the maximal retirement plan legal in my country (aprox 2000 dollars/month). And surely would provide them with double the minimal (about 200/month) if they needed.
If you have descendants, they may support you in case you are still alive, and if you are not rich enough to keep a house, you have a good excuse to be in company of loved ones (you have nowhere else to go).
Last, but not least: That person is not even you that much anyway.
Given all that, I have no clue what the whole fuss about retirement plans, and being 60% of a rich old person with a crappy body is all about, specially if you are in the grave.
I mean, in the cryopreservation chamber, of course.
Edit: A related question not worth its own post, but maybe worth discussing, is Should inheritance "jump" a generation. Everyone inheriting from grandparents, instead of parents? Just the abstract ethical question. Regardless of implementation procedure.