Physically demanding jobs hamper retirement prospects: report

You are so on the money on this one. My husband is a truck driver for a lumber yard which means a lot of lifting and very heavy work. He is 58 years old and most of the people he works with are in their 20's & low 30's. But he does keep up with them as he is very fit but age is catching up. He has always done very physical jobs and does not know what he is going to do when he is in his mid 60's. What can he be retrained for? Unless we do something now it is going to be a very bleek retirement. I may have to keep working until I am 70 or 75 to keep us going. Sad to say, retirement is not an option.

As a paramedic (presently); with a spouse who works retail (preceeded by nursing care); musculoskeletal illnesses will make any chance of working into our 60's very painful (physicially). The white collars design the retirement choices to them. For us Freedom 55, will not be reality. With life choices that included, divorces, entry level jobs and long commutes to work; RRSP's are/were basically unexistant. Neither of us have family who we inherited any financial freedom from (inheritance/business/investments). Just, a "WORK HARD" ethic; and amazing morals and values. Unfortunately morales and values don't pay for Celebrex.
We are at the end of the Baby Boomers; unsure how we will provide, and care for ourselves into retirement; and beyond.
Somewhat freightening and unsettling part of our future.
Good Luck to all (soon to be) retirees!

Looking around my community (rural Ontario) today, it makes me ponder who is making the best long term overall LIFE choices.
As the local Police force coins it "Millionaires Week"; just started on the 20th of the month, (with the issue of Child Tax Credit/Baby Bonus) and extends into about the 27 th of month with the issue of Welfare (and etc) payments. Who is making the most correct life choices? In this community, most of the individuals on "assisted living" don't appear to have the stress of hectic paced and physicially demanding lives or jobs, commuting stress, costs and time or shift work to concern themselves with. They appear as content as the balance of society, with fewer "cares". They get to spend more time with their children, do more tasks at home, enjoy their weekend (24/7). Some of these individuals are as able bodied and minded as the working class; what gives?

Also, I believe that a study on the extra "work-related" hours rural workers spend commuting to work; has on those individuals; would be relevant. How many extra "work-related" years are added to their real work years?

This article is way too true. That is why I believe, in our country, we have an over abundance of people wanting gov't jobs. In this country, university education equals high paying gov't jobs, which is of course little to no labour, and also the high pay means they can retire earlier. Is it fair? No. However, I don't see any change coming to the forseeable future. (By the way, I don't see unions as the answer either. All they seem to do is work to make the worker dissatisfied with their environment, while collecting their money. In my opinion, that doesn't work either.)

God help us all!

i didn't play any part in this capitalist set-up, don't look to me for help.
i've got other irons in the fire....

I really feel bad for those of you who are having problems making ends meet. I'm sure many come from difficult backgrounds and had to work early to survive. For those people, I feel bad.

Without wanting to offend anyone, I do believe that university-educated people should get paid more and should have an easier time retiring. They spent an extra 4 years of their lives working hard, taking out loans, learning skills that will make them useful. By having useful skills that are not easily replaceable, they guarantee themselves a good life. If instead of doing that, some decided to not work hard in school, drop out and work for money to enjoy life faster. That is fine, but don't expect to have the same life as someone who put in the sweat and tears of getting a (relevant) university degree.

In case you're wondering, I don't come from a financially rich family. I come from a family of people who left their country because of war. They came here with nothing but the clothes on their backs, a bunch of kids and elderly parents. These people managed to raise the kids, take care of their parents, go to university, land a job and now, they will be retiring happily. If my family was able to do it under such disadvantageous conditions, I have a hard time understanding why there are so few people pursuing university degrees.

I hope I don't offend anyone.

Try being at a labour-intensive job and then go thru a divorce in ur 40's - what retirement? I dont feel as strong about the blue-vs-white collar thing, as BOTH are presently being pushed-squeezed in their work environment. Anyone remember how computers were supposed to make life easier for us? 30 hr work weeks and all? HA its now like computers run the people, and push harder and faster for longer - thus LOTS of office personnel putting in 50-60 hr weeks consistently. And the body does break down as it ages. 59 here, and havent worked now in 2 yrs after our plant being shut down (29 yrs at the same company). Physically unable to do most labour jobs now, so I just go as I can, when I can, for as long as I can. Then I have to quit and recuperate. Would love to go for early CP, but what if I live to be 85 or so? I will need every penny from it and OAS plus whats left from my pension. Getting old is hard enough to deal with; sore, broke and old isnt much fun. The dreams of retiring to travel, avoid our winters, etc HA Right up there with winning the lottery for some of us ......

education - you are hopeless, so I will make it short. University is not the only way to get an education. I work in the commercial HVAC trade and can pretty much guarantee that I make more money then you and your educated family. On top of that I invite you to diagnose and fix some of the equipment I fix on a daily basis with your university education, you can’t, that is another thing I can guarantee.

Don’t insult people with your pee brain opinions, you are a perfect example of a university pawn, someone who can’t think freely and believes the hyperbole that is thrown at them from their uni Profs.

Randy. There are several things to consider. First of all, you don't know who we are nor do you know how much we make. In our family, there are radiologists, general practitioners and dentists and many of us make WELL over the six digits. Many of us wear wristwatches that are worth more than people's cars. The point is not to show off but rather to let you know that you may not know much about me nor do you know anything about my family.

Second of all, the fact remains that obtaining a degree (a relevant one) in university will increase the chances of you having a decent income. Yes, there will be high school dropouts making millions of dollars every year. Those, however, are the exceptions. Compare that to university graduates in certain fields starting at 45K, averaging out at 90K and peaking somewhere close to 120K. Perhaps their salary isn't as high as Mr. Randy's commercial HVAC salary, but it does help them retire. That's all I'm trying to say.

So in the end, what would you recommend to some of these youngsters? Going to university and having a sure way of ending your career at 120K/year (or more)? Or dropping out of school, learning a trade, having problems with retirement and hope that you get into a "high-paying" HVAC-related job? That's what I thought.

OK. After hearing "education," I have to reply to this.
I DO have a University Degree "education." It did me NO good at all. Now, before you jump all over me for my irrelevant degree, let me give you the information that I found out from many friends that I made in University. (They are still friends today, almost 20 years later.)
Some went to be teachers, some vets, and the odd doctor. (I went, hoping to be a teacher someday, myself.) Well, after talking to all my friends and all my husbands' friends as well, ONE person out of the lot of us ended up being a doctor. ONE. That is all. Now, most of us ended up with big brains, while our pocketbooks got drained, paying OSAP and ONE has the job in the field of his choice. JUST ONE!! (I can't stress that enough.)
Dear "education"...University is useless. How would YOU like to go through, have to pay OSAP at the end of it all for 10 years or more (it's like a second mortgage) and NOT get the job you dreamed about since you were a teen?? NO, education for most is useless.
To answer your question you asked randy...I would NEVER recommend University to anyone after my experience, unless they were darn sure in their early 20's that they wanted to be a doctor or vet. (By the way, who IS that sure in their early 20's what the heck they want to be??)

i went to university and got a computer science degree and i'm very happy with my job and my finances and my life...do any history or sociology majors really expect to get work in their field?

Univeristy graduates seem to have a very high opinion of themselves and a low opinion of everyone else. Makes me wonder why any of my tax dollars made on doing my lowly job should be given to educate these people. What exactly are we to do with the majority of people who cant attend university due to grades or lack of spaces available. I, for one am sick of being told how much better anyone who goes to universtity is than the someome who didn't.How they deserve so much more. Makes me think that that is what they teaching in university which makes me angrier because I am helping pay for someone to develope this attituide. Try showing a little respect. University or not you are still nothing without your customer which is who is ......right...a lot of the low life types. And by the way four years of blood sweat and tears is given by most people to develope thier careers, university educated or not. Please get off the i work harder and I am so special band wagon. People in non-university positions tend to wiork a lot harder (physically) than any universtiy graduate and should be commended not condemed. What a world it would be if there was no one to do any of these other jobs that seem to be viewed as ?????? What do you think they are worth.......nothing ??? In a lot of cases they have wrecked their bodies to provide for their families with enough money to live , edcuate their childern,and to provide the neccessities of life so many of us take for granted. Please think a little before making such statements. The well educated should be able to do at least that much for the people who helped educate them. Maybe they should work longer to provide the services we helped educate them for....after all they dont live and work in pain for many years because of the nature of thier work. they should be able to handle it.

To Don: Hmmm, my wife and I went to unversity which is subsidized (I believe it was around 6 thousand a year or so in subsidy we would have each received with lower tuition costs). Now we (while still in our twentiies) pay $60,000 and rising in tax each year. So you, at whatever small amount of tax you pay each year, support us for 4 years by a couple of thousand and we will pay in an extra 30-40 thousand more EACH YEAR than the average Canadian for the rest of our lives. I'm not bitter (well not overly) , but I am a little ticked that you think that small investment entitles you to have us pay your "necessesities of life" for the rest of your life.

To everybody else: Of course being a blue labour worker means retirement will likely be difficult and problematic. Thats why people with any other option aren't blue collar workers. I had the pick of pretty much any career I wanted, notice I didn't become a fry chef at McDonalds. People I grew up with went to work at 18, bought a new truck and had a great time. I instead studied hard and worked hard (I grew up on a farm shoveling wheat where an 80 hour week was standard and I didn't learn what real work and work stress was until I became a professional). Now I have 9 years of post secondary education that gives me a great career and I already have a great start to my retirement (aka in twenties with 25% of my retirement needs already socked away).

My friends made their choices and I made mine. I always find it disturbing that people in dire straights will often blame everybody else instead of themselves. If you can't retire its your own fault for spending too much, not pickng a career that paid well enough, other bad life decisions, etc. And if you are thinking oh this doesn't apply to me because of ______ (pick your excuse) remember somebody out there in our society started with less in all aspects and had greater obstacles to overcome is now doing better and more easily weathering the storm of life than you.

In summary, of course blue collar workers will struggle with retirement because they have generally failed to live up to their abilities. Anybody can go to university or not go and still find the career of their dreams. If you didn't thats your fault as you made bad decisions that lead to that outcome. Its a harsh reality in the real world where people only get out what they put in. If you don't start planning wisely in your teens and being ambitious throughout your life you will likely struggle all the way through.

So this means you dont have to show respect? I dont begrudge you yours . I am more educated than my parents and my grandparents and yet I feel they deserve respect for what they have done and I have made more money and paid more taxes them. That is the point I was trying to make. Education to the level that is provided in our country is a gift. Don't you agree?

i understood your point, don.
what you have to realize, is that any talk regarding problems associated with the less-than-wealthy will be met with ridicule, dismissive reactions and smug attitudes.
if you would like to talk about $25,000 annual bar bills, how incredibly overpaid you are, watches that cost as much as cars, or anything that does not differ from the view available when your head spends most of its' time up its own @rse....well then, feel free to share their opinion.
what i don't get is why all these super intelligent ambitious and productive leaders are spending ANY time at all on these blogs......there's no money involved....so what's the appeal? never knew braggarts needed to practise.

bloghat. The funny thing about being university-educated is that you can afford to have free time, in addition to not worrying about retirement.

Going back to the main topic, I think jobs that require little (1-2 years) or no training should be paid less than jobs that require 5-10 years of training. I figure it's logical. It doesn't mean that these manual laborers don't deserve respect. Most of them are hard working people and I respect them for that. However, it's quite naive for them to resent university-educated people for being more successful. As Albertan said, and I'm paraphrasing, you've made a choice and now you have to live with it.

And aaa, I feel the need to remind you that not all university degrees are equal. Having a degree in engineering or computer science will most likely get you a better job (and salary) than a degree in philosophy of ancient Greece. I feel bad for your choice of degree not leading to a job. As for not recommending university to anyone (except...), I feel you'd be cheating them out of a good future because of your own misfortunes.

First of all, I try hard to respect everyone. I'm thinking about Don's comment right now. I realize there are people who, unfortunately, at times end up in blue collar jobs. (Some want them and that's o.k. too.) We need blue collar workers too.
As for your comment "education" about who I would tell to go University and who I would not...I have my feelings on this from my experience, the same as you. All I can say is, it's VERY difficult, coming out of University, getting married and trying to pay off loans also, while trying to pay rent, etc. Those days are now over for me, but because I care, I wouldn't want anyone else going through the same heartache that we went through.
My main point is, think before spending the money.

It is interesting that there appears to be such vitriol based on the type of one's education. There are requirements and benefits to both types. If you want to be a highly paid government employee (Doctor, Judge Professor) you have to get a degree. If you want to service oil rigs or cell phone towers you had better be fairly strong with good manual dexterity. Look at many of the old farmers on the Prairies still putting in physically hard days well into their 80’s & 90’s compared to the financial analysts dying at their desks in their 40’s & 50’s, it's not just education. We should be providing tools to allow everyone to continue their work unhindered by physical age or weakness. That way our whole country can be more productive and EVERYONE will have a higher standard of living. As for those who envy Vet’s or Dentists, take a look at their suicide rates, your envy will soon abate.

I am just relating my own experience. My parents were poor and instilled into me the need for a higher education for a more comfortable life, even though they have no concept of what education was. They had zero education. My brother took the easy way out, partied, put no effort into education, and ended up with a job that he now hates. He is a blue collar worker, has no pension and no benefits. Even in his position, he should be doing better. I know many blue collar workers that have a great job with good benefits. I went as far as you can go in edcuation by working up to post-doctorate level in engineering. My salary is extremely high (certainly more than Randy's in the HVAC trade). What I earn in bonuses alone is more that what the average Canadian makes. I also get huge stock options. What I pay in income tax is outrageous, but I am not complaining. I am employed by a major international engineering company, work out of my home, sitting in front of my computer, doing design work for locations in Canada, US, Europe, China, and Korea. In my situation, my work is certainly not physically demanding. The mental stress is quite high, developing projects that are up into the $100 - 500 million range, meeting all the govenment safety and environmental regulations (in different countries). Although I enjoy my work immensely, I will likely retire very early (which I can afford to do). I know too many people, with similar work, getting heart attacks.