We'll never forget a call from a man named Roger in Oregon who was practically in tears on the phone with us. He was let go from his job three months before he was to become eligible for retirement benefits, after many years of service to his company.

Can you imagine a company doing that? Believe it.

Lean and mean employers like young blood, particularly because young staffers are less expensive (though not necessarily smarter) than experienced old hands—that is, if you don't factor in the cost of training and mistakes over time. Few senior managers do because they are mostly concerned about quarterly performance figures. Don't get us started. . . .

Anyway, efforts to streamline corporate operations can make older staff members particularly vulnerable. "Older" can mean as young as 40 in some companies! The sort-of-good news is that if you have a long record of service to the company, you may be offered a "golden handshake" in the form of an early-retirement package as an incentive to leave the company.

To Accept or Not to Accept:

If you haven't built up a strong retirement account, losing a job could be rough going. On the other hand, it might present a golden opportunity to take a lump sum that you can invest wisely while looking for a more rewarding second career or another job in the same field if things aren't too tough all over.

What you must find out, as soon as you start to hear rumors of packages in the offing at your company, is how serious the problem is. Are there hints, or official announcements, of bonus cuts and salary freezes, too? If the company is talking cutbacks, there is a strong chance that you could be laid off in the next few years whether you accept a golden handshake or not. We think you should start scouting around for another job right away, and if you get an early retirement offer, consider snapping it up. If you turn it down, you might not have another chance.

Many early-retirement packages compute your pension benefits by adding three years to your age and three years to how long you worked at the company. Then they offer a lump sum payout equal to half your weekly salary, multiplied by your years of service.

For example, if you worked for a company for 20 years, earning $2,000 a week before taxes, you should expect a lump-sum payment of at least $20,000. A really sweet deal would be one that adds five years to both your age and your years of service, plus two weeks' worth of pay for every year you've been there. In this case, your lump-sum payment would be $80,000 ($4,000 x 20).

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