Second Career?

Anyone ever decide to take a hard left and start a new career in their 40’s?
Been thinking about it for a while, just never really seem to find anything to chase the dream?

I dream daily of finding a career to bring me outdoors. The desk/computer routine is slowly eating my soul. Unfortunately my family needs me where I’m at for the foreseeable future.

Besox wrote:

Anyone ever decide to take a hard left and start a new career in their 40’s?
Been thinking about it for a while, just never really seem to find anything to chase the dream?

Nope – I waited till my 50’s to take the Hard Left and start a new Career. I got a chance at something that I had thought about doing for about 10 years and Jumped. It involved relocating the family to a new City about 80 miles away from where we had lived for 13 years. I figured that you have to take a shot at something once in your life and at 50 my chances were running out so I took it. Its been a little over a year now and the jury is still out on if it was the right move or not. I think I’ll have a much clearer idea in another year or 2. I do have to say I’m really happy being self employed – Even though my Boss is a real _SS somedays

I’m trying. I keep filling out applications for Lottery Winner.

I plan on retiring at 50. That is my career change. I may work at a fishing store part-time or something to keep busy. Or not. Fingers crossed.

About a month ago I thought about it very seriously. Updated my resume and had a position I wanted all picked and ready to apply. I changed my mind and am not sure I made the right decision. I am 52 and have been at this company for 31 years. Seniority, benefits and vacation time are just to valuable to part with as I make my slide to the finish.

flanders51 wrote:

I plan on retiring at 50. That is my career change. I may work at a fishing store part-time or something to keep busy. Or not. Fingers crossed.

flanders…I too think about this pipe dream of a retirement at 50….you can plan and plan so much…which I have and I am sure you have too but you never know what life might throw ya in the next 15 or so years!

Hopefully it keeps throwing 401k gains of +20%+

Though that is highly unlikely ha

Evan Pheneger wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>flanders51 wrote:</div>
I plan on retiring at 50. That is my career change. I may work at a fishing store part-time or something to keep busy. Or not. Fingers crossed.

flanders…I too think about this pipe dream of a retirement at 50….you can plan and plan so much…which I have and I am sure you have too but you never know what life might throw ya in the next 15 or so years!

Hopefully it keeps throwing 401k gains of +20%+

Though that is highly unlikely ha

Yeah, maybe. I only have about 12 more years. I keep crossing my fingers for unprecedented market growth until I reach about 51. At which time I will have safely transferred all my money to totally risk-free bond funds or something of that nature. It’s just gonna work out fine, I know it.

I’m on a mailing list that hit this topic today. Thought it might be relevant to this thread.

https://xh298.infusionsoft.com/app/linkClick/3060/7cedd132fadd8168/173760/431e662bdc15b065

He’s got some other articles that I’ve enjoyed as well.

Evan Pheneger wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>flanders51 wrote:</div>
I plan on retiring at 50. That is my career change. I may work at a fishing store part-time or something to keep busy. Or not. Fingers crossed.

flanders…I too think about this pipe dream of a retirement at 50….you can plan and plan so much…which I have and I am sure you have too but you never know what life might throw ya in the next 15 or so years!

Hopefully it keeps throwing 401k gains of +20%+

Though that is highly unlikely ha

Enjoy the unprecedented growth while you can, it certainly can’t last forever. I’m with you on the wishful thinking though…

Besox wrote:

Anyone ever decide to take a hard left and start a new career in their 40’s?
Been thinking about it for a while, just never really seem to find anything to chase the dream?

Yup, It seemed all my Bosses were A-holes. So I started my own business, best thing I ever did. It’s tough and demanding and I work a ton of hours but I’m the Boss.

and I go to bed at night and wake up hoping I don’t turn into an A-Hole.

I left a much higher paying job about 3 years ago after getting out of debt (except my mortgage) at the age of 32. I decided that an older paid for truck and boat was just fine for me. I now find myself fishing and hunting more, enjoying my 10 and 12 year old sons, and going on a week long fishing trip every year, as well as a few long weekends to northern Minnesota. With less than 1/2 the income, I am much more happy.

sticker wrote:

About a month ago I thought about it very seriously. Updated my resume and had a position I wanted all picked and ready to apply. I changed my mind and am not sure I made the right decision. I am 52 and have been at this company for 31 years. Seniority, benefits and vacation time are just to valuable to part with as I make my slide to the finish.

This is where I am also. Starting over at a new place would stink unless money would be significantly more.

Been thinking about this for awhile now as well, fortanutely for myself I’m still fairly young. Pretty tough to leave a somewhat successful business I started just a few years ago though.

Decisions get a bit easier when health is involved. My back and knees are a constant reminder something needs to change.

Good luck to everyone who does make the leap. It certainly takes some guts to do at times.

I haven’t personally due to the “golden Albatross” (Grumpus Maximus) but I hope to have my sons retired by the age of 40ish due to listening and applying the concepts of “ChooseFI.com”.

Besox wrote:

Anyone ever decide to take a hard left and start a new career in their 40’s?
Been thinking about it for a while, just never really seem to find anything to chase the dream?

43 When I did and couldn’t be any happier because of it. Life is way better and my family loves it. Shawn

Besox wrote:

Anyone ever decide to take a hard left and start a new career in their 40’s?
Been thinking about it for a while, just never really seem to find anything to chase the dream?

You wouldn’t be the only one. I work in a hospital and we train in more new grad nurses that are 35+ than the typical 22-24 year old college graduates. Don’t let your age scare you away from something you might regret when youre even older!

If you are contemplating starting your own business consider these things

1) Taxes, you will be taxed by the state and feds
2) must be willing to only take a paycheck when there is money
3) employees, both hiring and retaining can be a challenge
4) you must have a major online & social media presence. People no longer use the yellow pages
5) renting retail space will kill you
6) have a product or service you can really charge for. check all the competition to see what they are charging
7) if you can only work 40 hour weeks, stay where you are
8) your wife must be 100% onboard. Otherwise just divorce her before you start.
9) Most importantly have a marketing plan and budget going in to acquire customers

I could go on but those are just a few things to consider. If you become self employed you will work long hours but they will be rewarding hours if you are successful.

Good luck.

At age 65 this guy created one of the first and largest fast food companies of all time. His name?

Harland David Sanders

If you’re thinking about a career change, I HIGHLY, HIGHLY, HIGHLY recommend you read Half Time by Bob Buford. A perspective-changing book on this exact topic. If you actually DO the thinking that Buford lays out it’s a game changer.

Personally, this past year I (well, my wife and I) decided I needed to change the game. At 46 I have been full-time (and then some) employed for over 25 years. No layoffs, no slowdowns, never a day unemployed full time since I was in college.

Basically, I was fried. I was tired of being tired. I was in a leadership position in a company that sold products our customers don’t want to buy, but have to buy, so ever day was dealing with people that wanted to find way NOT to spend money on our services. 2 hours of commuting, etc, etc.

I woke up and said I don’t wanna do this anymore and through good decision making and good luck, I read Half Time and realized I didn’t HAVE to live like that.

Here’s my observation: If you’re thinking about it, you’re BEYOND thinking about it. Do something about it.

Evan Pheneger wrote:

Hopefully it keeps throwing 401k gains of +20%+

Look, let’s all NOT forget the lessons that we all should have learned during the last crash:

– Past performance is not a guarantee of future returns.

– Do NOT have money in the market that you may need in a near-term horizon in order to retire. In other words, diversify appropriately and manage market risk. I personally know 2 people who screwed themselves out of 6 years of retirement because they were “all in” on aggressive high-growth (and risk) 401k funds when they were within 2-4 years of retirement. Don’t make that mistake.

– Get high-quality professional advice. Its OK to admit that you’re not an expert on investing and retirement planning. More people would be vastly better of if they admitted this instead of “going it alone”.

Grouse