I’ve read some recent studies that confirm that a good percentage of 50+ year-olds (typically men) lose a job in in their 50-year-old decade and most don’t recover financially. Many people in my family and now in my social circle have experienced this personally. My father was laid off from work in his early 50s and was never able to find well-paying employment again. Seeing my dad struggle impacted me greatly as a child.

My older brother had a 26-year, successful career at a Fortune500 company, having only been employed at this one company for his entire professional life. This company ended up being acquired by a larger conglomerate, the headquarters moved, and most of the company executives from the acquiring company won their roles, while the acquired company executives were forced to leave. My brother ended up departing and was never able to find a position anywhere near the same level of responsibility or compensation.

I was lucky to have been an executive at a large tech company in 1995 when I was 30 years old. The company was going through lay-offs and long-term employees, some with 20+ years with the company, were being fired. Company policy was that upon a lay-off, the impacted employees would have four weeks to try to find a new job within the company. Any group trying to hire new employees had to post job “reqs” internally and anyone impacted by the lay-offs could apply. My group was growing and we had several job reqs posted, and my assistant was flooded with requests by laid-off employees to meet with me.

I met with several impacted employees, each with the same story line – the person was in their 50s or 60s, only needed a couple more years of work at the company to qualify for their pension, and typically were financially stretched, paying for kids in college while trying to catch up on retirement savings. The background fit to the positions was always poor, and they were lacking the skills needed for the jobs, but they were desperate. I had two men break down in tears while meeting with me. I always tried to be empathetic, but I clearly remember thinking to myself, I never want to be sitting in that chair in 20 years, begging some 30-year-old for a job.

I’m not sure why this happens so frequently to older people, but a worker in their 50’s is at the peak earning years (highest cost to the employer), has great experience (maybe skills with older technologies), and maturity (with other time demands and sometimes limited flexibility), which could in some circumstances be viewed as a liability. Many young people think, “I’ll make a lot of money in my 50s and 60s, and save for retirement then,” but the problem is that a good number of older people end up losing jobs and are unable to save substantially in those years. Saving has to happen sooner in a working career (which also is beneficial for compounding) to ensure a comfortable retirement.