ALT-1 Changing Jobs
Boredom is no excuse for wanting to change jobs. Although career changing, unlike fifty years ago, is common today, it is still problematic. Think seriously before changing careers and make sure your reason for changing is a step upward and not a step down. Sure, one may want to go into another field of business, one less stressful and one that offers more excitement, camaraderie, and a place where most of your friends work, but think twice: Can you afford the less pay offered? Is the company of the new career as solid as the present one?
Only you can know for sure whether the new change is a good idea. It may be necessary whether or not it’s a good financial idea but if everything else is equal and the positives outweigh the negatives, then the decision is made. But if life and health have nothing to do with the switch and you’re changing for other reasons, you’ll still need to get some good advice on financial matters.
Midlife Career Changehas good ideas that may help you decide: They offer you six good reasons for changing careers and they discuss fully what each choice means.
Read each fully to see how they may or may not apply to you and your financial situation: The first reason is “Your life circumstances have changed so it’s time for a career change.” Money matters are discussed and indeed may be the reason for the job switch. They talk about the possibility of having been laid off, of your company being on the decline and your family needing more security. That’s excellent reasons to look for a new work place.
In the #5 reason they point that “Your earning power is limited by your current career.” What better reason than now, at any age, to change careers where a new one that offers “more financial security than you now have”.
Bukisasuggest that you carefully examine you financial situation before you change over.
1. Learn as quickly as possible how the new “pay schedule” matches up with the one you now depend on. The time of payment of each may change and you’ll need to work around this or make adjustments. It may not be sufficient to know that pay wise both work situations may be the same, routines will need be considered and possibly altered.
2. Be ready money wise for those first few months until the cash flow evens out. In other words be sure there’s enough money to tide you over until you are at an even keel again. When you’re working on a close budget, a few random months of irregularities can cause more problems financially than you could have imagined.
Make sure your credit is still good and your credit cards will help make this transition easier. It makes sense to pay off these down to a comfortable level before you add any new amounts to them.
3. As much as possible have your plans for how your new financial pay plan works before you stop working at one company and begin with another. If more money is coming in that’s good but before you assume you’ll have money to throw around, why not look any another saving plan for your children’s education, your retirement, or whatever.
If you’re comfortable with your life style and your take home pay is adequate, it makes more sense to begin a heftier saving plan than it does for upping your living standards that will use up the extra money coming in with the new career. However you use and spend any future money, the best plan is to have it first in your bank account and then decide how to spend it wisely.
Don’t leave anything to chance. Look into the health insurance issues with the new company, their retirement plans, their sick days, and compare these with the old company. Then plan accordingly and put in place a workable transition budget that will gently guide you over the first few rough months.
Whether for better or for worse, don’t do anything foolish such as borrowing excessively because you expect the newer earned wages to make up the difference—it may not— or become such a penny pincher you make your family miserable. Moderation in all money matters is best.
