don't believe it. money is everything. being broke and no work is no fun. and don't start drinking.
for me: 20 years, 10 months and 28 days. but i only had a job for 9.5 years, mostly 100 hr weeks though, so close enuff in total sentenced time served.
i am actually now finishing some remodeling on this house i started over 31 years ago while i was just graduating with my masters. all that stuff came in between. actually i now can do a much better job than i could back then. i know more but don't have the strength or stamina to do the work: windows, insulation, heat, doubled square footage, built the four charging spots into my driveway apron. 40 yards of concrete, doubled the footage from 1700 to 3400.
why not go back to school? i know you don't drive, so that would keep you in home based business? have friends who you could partner with for stuff or do you already have a business plan?
it is the shock of not being in that same job, the withdrawal phase that is mind bending initially, but i found it gave me the time to get myself reacquainted with stocks and the real world, the financial and economic reality we dwell inside.
i had an interest in the markets when i was a kid and then again while still in grad school the last time, but once i started working i had no time for it.
but now, once the job was gone, it has become my full time job. this is where i hang out to chill from the day to day trading. it works for me, maybe you wanted to do other stuff you put off.
to get here, i would drive down to golden, colorado once a week and spend an afternoon in the Colorado School of Mines library photocopying monographs on petroleum frontiers and the oil and gas geology to develop the knowledge base that i use now.
in just 6-10 months of focus, reading up using some of the best available monographs that were only present there at the school of mines. once i had the free time, i was able to operate pretty much like i had spent several years in grad studies in petroleum and sedimentary geology. being older and more mature you can get more from school than when you are younger. but i am a permanent student, you may be into different stuff.
just don't let it get you down, but i still wish i was doing the same stuff. it takes younger smarter guys, i met some of them after wards, sharp as tacks, and i realize that the entire group i was part of is now all gone. laid off in the 20 years since when H-P shrank to increase profits. now in one fell swoop some ignorant directors have totally destroyed the company that we worked so hard to create.
all just to please dave packard, he was just the greatest guy to work for. we felt so bad because they had spent 400 million building the plants and the clean rooms and the technology and people and engineers and just huge project, that was basically a flop, we were bypassed by IBM and the PS-1. that was 400 million, enormous amount. they just blew 11 billion for a phony company because of the stupid board of directors who run the place now. but between him and bill hewlett, and stanford, the entire world was changed. all the talent that came from H-P to create silicon valley. jobs, wozniak are the most famous. for leaving. but it was bill hewlett's interest in steve jobs that made all the difference in the world for steve jobs and where he ended up mentally.
getting sentimental, missing work does that to you.
