However, I do believe that pensions and social security as we know them were well intentioned but ill conceived from the start.

While I agree with your principle points – that we need better economics/finance education in this country – you can’t blame the baby boomers for not saving enough for retirement. I entered the work force a few years ago, and was told from the start that I’d need to save and invest wisely (and significantly) in order to retire some day. I can’t say the same about my parents.

You are right that most of us would be better off if we thought more like an engineer but this problem starts so much earlier than a college education. I beleive it stems from a divergence from the common wisdom that the baby boomers were taught. Go to school, get a good job with a good company, stay with them for 30+ years and they and the US Government will take care of you via a pension and social security.

That model doesn’t work any more and unfortunately many of the baby boomers learned that too late in life. Some of their children are starting to figure that out but far too few. We need to fix the way we teach economics and finance at home and in schools.

Just to let you know, i only have a technical certificate in electronics, but i believe in lifetime’s learning in anything to build up your human capital.
So i know, with my meager education, therefor salary, i know i must learn how to invest in the stock market and money management.
i started with asking for God’s Blessings and He has being unfair to me.
Of course i believe God only helps those who help themselves.

I think that most just dive into their job, work hard and care for their family and friends. But most engineers do not apply their analytic skills on how to manage their finances and grow theirs savings. They cut themselves short.

For a long time, I was one of them. 10 years ago that changed and I have never looked back.

Articles like this are good to tell all engineers out there that also without an MBA in Finance, they can take their financial future in their own hands.

I believe that you will find these values in many millionaires regardless of profession.

The unfortunate take away from this is that once those values are forged in early life, it is very difficult to learn them or even emulate them.

Like others, I’d love to hear the qualities that tend to make teachers millionaires…discipline comes to mind.

Thanks.

For the rest of us, there’s balance–earn, save, allocate, and most of all, keep expenses low.

Just staying out of debt is a seriously underrated component of retirement planning (or any kind of financial planning). Any money going into debt isn’t going into savings. By being debt free, you can 1) save money faster, and 2) keep your lifestyle cost in check.

And, uh, the entire article is an outline of how well Mr. & Mrs. Engineer have done; a result of fortuitous timing (read: the utility stock) and careful, well executed decisions.

But you are still failing to acknowledge that fortuitous timing and smart decisions can be overridden by a debilitating family illness, a longer bout of unemployment, and/or any number of factors beyond personal control.

Yes, there are always lessons to be learned from periods of hardship. Yes, we should all be prepared for life’s ups and downs. Yes, we should all be planning for “what if?” scenarios (my earlier comment assumed those points were a given; we are, after all, reading a personal finance site). I cannot, however, fathom expressing to a mother with a well-balanced portfolio, six months of living expenses socked away, and a frugal lifestyle who is in the midst of the heart-wrenching decision to either keep her house or give her son the life-saving and financially devastating surgery his doctors have prescribed.

Strategy? Or crappy odds?

I don’t think it’s fair to discount Mr(s). Engineers decades of hard work, when you have know idea if they had any tragedies in their life.

I think that if someone is motivated enough then they will succeed with or without college. But it’s much easier to succeed with a college education.

My manager at work, also an engineer, created a large spreadsheet to figure out the cost of the house he eventually bought. A fellow older coworker emailed me a spreadsheet with compounding interest formulas showing how my money could grow if started investing in the company 401k plan now.

I think engineers like spreadsheets, lol.

We also have expensive houses, because the area is expensive. One older guy on the team has a 1.4 million dollar home. It’s paid off. Another guy just put down 20% on an $800k place. I bought a “conservative” place for $550k because I want my wife to be able to stay home.

All in all, it’s just not the same sort of environment many people are used to, but in a way that’s good for those who are in it.

Sorry if there are typos or weird auto corrections in this comment, it was typed entirely with my left hand on my iphone – the baby is asleep on my right arm.

I have a hard time with talks of luck in this context not because it doesn’t exist, but because so many people use it as a cop out and a crutch. So many people have *bad* luck that ends up doing good things for them, like in this case where a layoff taught him about frugality. I am as compassionate as the next person but I have seen how compassion often cripples. Within my own family I have seen plenty of devastation that starts with: “Poor you and your bad luck, let me help you out.” When, even if the person is completely blameless for the situation (which is rare), the person could have learned things if you let them work it out for him/herself.

And even then you need to take into account someone’s responsibility for innocent decisions. If someone takes a higher paying job with more volitility does he have more responsibility for his situation when he is laid off? I would argue that such things should be taken into account and the person has some responsibility for the outcome. life is more poker than craps. There is strategy involved in order to influence the odds of *good* or *bad* luck.

So no, I don’t buy *luck* as an excuse/reason, not because it isn’t a factor, but because as soon as you buy it everyone is going to be selling it.

Reminding everyone that sometimes a twist of fate can mean the difference between a setback (after which one recovers relatively unscathed), versus a blow (after which the course of a life is forever changed) is not being disrespectful. It’s being realistic.