Time for the Second Act?
The house is empty - and sometimes you feel like you are too - as the kids leave home to begin managing their own lives. You know it is time to change your life, but where do you start?
Reinventing yourself often involves a creative merging of your old talents. These are the building blocks that can direct you into a new career. Begin by making an honest assessment of your skills, interests and experiences. Ask yourself:
- What did I love to do as a child?
- What do I feel passionately about?
- What do I value the most?
- What would I do if money were no object?
- What activity keeps me so involved that I don't notice time passing?
- What are my strengths?
- What are my transferable skills?
- What kind and how much education will I need to start my "second act"?
By evaluating your skills, interests, strengths and desires you will be able to see connections between what you value and what you excel at. While your new career is still in the planning stages, you can gain valuable information by:
- Attending professional meetings and informal gatherings
- Networking
- Joining an online career discussion group
- Asking questions
Here are some other possibilities to get you thinking about what you would like to do: Deliver a daily or weekly newspaper (a great way to exercise while earning extra income). Offer your child-sitting services to parents of school-age children on Friday and Saturday nights. Tutor high school students in a subject you enjoy. Sell books, CDs and DVDs or other items on eBay.com. Work part time in a small business. Create and sell arts and crafts at local fairs.
Update Your Skills
This is also a good time to improve the skills you already have. Sometimes learning a few new software programs is all you have to do. You may want to browse library and bookstore shelves for resources to help you identify career trends that fit in with your individual and family needs. Be sure to edit your resume to reflect the knowledge and experience you have gained from your previous careers. Constantly seek opportunities for self-improvement and professional growth in order to be prepared for your next reinvention.
Owning your own business is a dream for many women, but a vast majority of new businesses fail in the first few years. It's important to research marketing trends before taking on the back-breaking work of building a business without a strong marketing prospect. Consider that to reinvent yourself you have to shape yourself as a marketable product with already developed skills and passionate interests that can be transferred to a marketable endeavor.
Give Yourself Time
Major career changes take from three to five years, says Herminia Ibarra, author of Working Identity: Unconventional Strategies for Reinventing Your Career, published by Harvard Business School Press. "Change happens in bursts and starts," she says, explaining that there are times when you are open to big change and times when you are not. Take advantage of windows of opportunity and don't be afraid to hang in limbo while you examine your feelings about changes.
Career change is not the same as career advancement within a specific career. Most career changes are either lateral or a step down in income. You should be prepared to downsize your lifestyle. Review your budget regularly. Are your key costs in line with your income? Check out Farmers easy-to-use budgeting workbook, "From Garage Sales to Gucci: Which Financial Type Are You?"
Farmers Financial and Personal Finance Calculators can also be helpful tools to gauge your financial situation and visualize the tangible future results of a well-organized financial plan that fits your reinvention strategy.
Prepare for Change Financially
Take this quiz to how prepared you are financially to make a change:
- Do I have cash reserves in a savings account that equals at least three month's of my essential living expenses?
- Do I know how much my monthly essential living expenses are? Do I set aside time every day or every few days to monitor my checking accounts and pay bills?
- Do I keep my credit card balances at zero?
- Do I enjoy my money without having to go into debt to purchase things I desire?
- If I had to fly across country, could I purchase the tickets without having to charge them to my credit card?
- Could I live on 60 percent of my current include for the next couple of months?
- Do I regularly check my credit report and know my credit score?
- Do I consistently save for the future?
If you find yourself answering "no" to two or more of the above, you may want to look for a temporary income source as you work on reinventing yourself. It doesn't have to be big and it doesn't have to be steady. Save this income for retirement purposes and try to live on your earned income alone.