I was laid off from a long term job at the age of 58, in the middle of the 2007-2009 recession. In case anyone doesn't remember what that that time was like, unemployment was soaring. With so many people out of work, the competition for the few existing jobs was fierce. To cite just one example, I attended a nonprofit job fair in Chicago, and it was so crowded that you could literally barely move.
I tried like crazy, but I couldn't find anything except temp jobs that had NO benefits, paid much less than what I had been making (which wasn't a lot to begin with, lasted for greatly varying periods of time, and could and did end at a moment's notice. These gigs were interspersed with dry spells that went on for months at a time. It sucked. Every time one of those gigs came to an end, I felt like a wadded up piece of used Kleenex being tossed out. Did I mention that it sucked?
When my 62nd birthday rolled around after several years of this, I found myself unable to resist the siren call of social security. The idea of money, even a small amount, coming in on a regular basis without my having to jump through any hoops looked like the promised land at that point. I continued to half-heartedly look for work for a while after that but I couldn't even land a minimum wage retail job, and my confidence was so shot to hell that I had to give up.
My social security check isn't very big, but it comes in every month like clockwork, and I don't have to get down on my knees and and beg anyone for anything. Retiring that early was definitely not my first choice, but it beats hell out of what I was dealing with before I decided to throw in the towel. The years between late 2008 and early 2012 (when I turned 62) were some of the worst years of my life, and I am still salty about it.
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