Skip to content

Average tenure at a job was 4.1 years (Jan 2020) – surprised?

When I worked in the corporate world, there was always the advice that you shouldn’t job hop. Moving around a lot was seen as a bad thing.

Except it was the easiest way to get a pay raise. 3% a year is fine for cost of living adjustments but if your entire career consists of raises like that (or even less), you’re going to fall behind new graduates. And fall behind badly.

So would it surprise you that the Bureau of Labor Statistics tracks average tenure and it’s only like four years? The average time someone stays at a job is around 4 years and it’s been close to that figure for decades. The idea that you should stay at a job forever is probably something made up by the people who benefit from someone staying in the same job for 40 years and taking 3% raises each year.

Food for thought.

The Perfect Career Length [Happily Disengaged] – “My friend’s wife mentioned that a co-worker was retiring after 54 years of working at her company. The current owner of this company was 9 years old when this retiring co-worker started her tenure. And apparently, this company didn’t want to have a party for this lifer till our friend’s insistence made its way to top leadership. […] Is a 54 year work career a cause to celebrate? Is that a success… or complete failure?” 54 years is a loooooong time.

How to build an investment portfolio for Long Term Returns [Banker on Wheels] – “A 10+ time period is long and while Long Term Investing Strategies for Financial Independence should be relatively simple they need to cover key asset classes (at least 2-3 different ETFs in the Core Portfolio) that can boost returns in the long run. The great news is that given your Time Horizon and if you follow sound investment principles you have, by historical standards, no chance of losing money.”

Do you have an investing edge? [Monevator] – “In my professional capacity I’ve witnessed actual edge, firsthand. And pretty much none of these edges are available to the private investor.”