Please help me with slang..:-(

Hi my englishforums friends,

Please what does it mean if I say about someone that he is short of his 20? I''m really courious about it. I heard this expression in a movie where a truck driver was explaining to the FBI agents why he had stolen a big amount of money from his  employer. He said:

.

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I got my second moving violation in a month.  (no problem)

I had this punk-ass super.  (really ugly slang, but no problem again. He is talking about his superior.)

He's looking to put me on probation, all right? (no problem)

And I was six months short of my 20.  (??)

So I...needed a short-term bridge loan. (no problem)

 

Many thanks in advance for your clarification. Because I was really confused after I heard that highlighted sentence. 

thank you.

with regards

JCD

 

 

 Was the speaker middle-aged? It could mean that he was six months away from the date when he would have worked for the company for 20 years. (oh, what fun we're having with verb tenses) This date might be important because it's when his pension or other retirement plan would become "vested," that is, he would be entitled to contributions the company had made on his behalf over the previous 20 years. I'm not positive this is what it means, though. 

Ok, many thanks to all of you. There wasn't any other context, just this. I just though that "be short of twenty" is some kind of slang. But according to your replies it isn't. Perhaps it was really meaned as that he was six month's short of being there for 20 years (like DellMobile and SusanKay said). His super/superior wanted to put him on probetion, because of his second traffic violation. During this period he wouldn't be receiving his salary. That's why he decided to stole that money...He called this money short-term bridge loan...which is really cool...:-)

thanks again.