{"id":154269,"date":"2025-09-19T05:53:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-19T05:53:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/154269\/"},"modified":"2025-09-19T05:53:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-19T05:53:09","slug":"i-plan-to-retire-early-after-struggling-to-get-a-job-at-42","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/154269\/","title":{"rendered":"I plan to retire early after struggling to get a job at 42"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Tung Lam<\/a>\u00a0 &nbspSeptember 18, 2025 | 03:53 pm PT\t<\/p>\n

I thought 20 years of experience and skills would make landing a new job easy, but I was wrong.\t<\/p>\n

I am 42. I used to believe that nearly 20 years of experience and skills would make finding a new job easy if I ever lost my position. But reality proved harsher.<\/p>\n

A year ago, I lost my job when the company restructured. At first, I stayed optimistic and sent out multiple applications. But I kept getting rejected<\/a>. Some never responded, while others declined politely and said they “prioritize candidates under 35 or 40.” I realized that age has become a major barrier in the job market.<\/p>\n

I began to ask myself if a forty-year something still has a place on the job market. Would my skills and experience still matter? Most job listings had strict age limits. I felt pushed to the sidelines, no longer fitting the fast pace of the market.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The job market can be harsh for middle-aged workers. Photo by Pexels<\/p>\n

During unemployment, I lived off my savings. At first, I thought it was a temporary break. But after dozens of failed applications, I began considering early retirement.<\/p>\n

At 42, though not too old, I\u2019m no longer “young” for employers. Rejection after rejection, I felt defeated. The advantages I once relied on, experience and maturity, seemed undervalued. Instead, age became a reason to reject me early in the hiring process.<\/p>\n

Every morning, I ask myself: “What will I do next?” Anxiety grows as savings shrink and income is absent. From being in the prime of my career, I now feel lost.<\/p>\n

With limited options, I started thinking about early retirement<\/a> knowing that my future will not be easy. I am also exploring alternatives like opening a small shop or selling products online. This is not a big dream, just a way to sustain myself without relying on my depleting savings.<\/p>\n

Should people over 40 like me keep trying to find jobs or accept early retirement and build their own path? And should society change how it values middle-aged workers, neither old nor young, on the labor market?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Tung Lam\u00a0 &nbspSeptember 18, 2025 | 03:53 pm PT I thought 20 years of experience and skills…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":154270,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[45,49,48,133,81295,131,132],"class_list":{"0":"post-154269","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-finance","12":"tag-i-plan-to-retire-early-after-struggling-to-get-a-job-at-42-vnexpress-international","13":"tag-personal-finance","14":"tag-personalfinance"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154269"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154269\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/154270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}