Generally, people who remain as individual contributors and earn near the top of where there capabilities are - if they lose their job, is it typical to not always find a new position that pays more?

High paying positions are hard to get, and it makes me wonder if people sometimes take a lower paying position if they have to relocate or they get laid off or something along those lines.

Im not paying as much for a 50 year old hooker as i am for a 25 year old hooker.

When you approach retirement probably, average earnings peak in the 40s-50s

yea if you're a fuking basketball player lmaoooo

There are no guarantees with anything. The people who get screwed the most are lifers to their employers, carve out a name and cushy role for themselves where they are a subject matter expert, but in return become extraordinarily niche in their field to the point where you could count on one hand at times the equivalent type of jobs in the US. Good news is most major employers will give you a very generous severance package if you are a lifer, so even if you get cast out at 45 - 50 from your job you should be financially independent and ready to retire anyways

Problem is most americans are max consoomers and as they get more income they spend more. If you are a white collar professional you have almost ZERO reason to not be financially able to retire at some point in your 40s. At this point, even with a pretty average career, you should be or close to a multi millionaire. Why would you want to spend your 40s and 50s continuing to wage slave in likely more stressful in demanding roles?

IMO your GOAL should be to not to have to worry about later in life income reduction. Being financially independent is now owed to you. At that point in life you can either be cucking it for noseburg or starting your own venture, however small.

becomming use to the money your employer gives you is how you remain enslaved to them.

By the time regular income starts coming down, you most definitely should have an asset base already that makes it inconsequential

I think what's more likely is you get axed. After enough tenure, all the annual raises, promotions, grandfathered deals... you'll find that 2-3 decades later the average wage overall in the USA barely went up in comparison to your salary. At which point when the company has struggling years, they look at budget cuts, and realize they could save hundreds of thousands per team if they axe the senior citizens and focus on recruiting college graduates for 1/4 of the salary. You'll get a phat compensation package, probably a lump sum of 1 year's salary. But now you're older, even with lots of accolades and experience under your belt, you'll have to take a significant salary decrease at the next company.

What I'm saying probably doesn't apply to middle-upper level management though.