Are you having a tough time enjoying what you do for work?
Do you WANT to stay at home with your kids and watch them grow up, but your finances won’t allow you to do that?
Do you have a job in mind that you are extremely passionate about, but it’s a complete 180-degree shift in careers and you honestly don’t know how you can you justify the change?
Well, guess what? You are not alone, NOR are you stuck with the career you have!
I know exactly how you feel because I’ve recently made this crazy 180-degree change in careers and have gone through the WHOLE gamut of emotions you may be feeling! If I can do it, you can do it!
I started out as an engineer and held a job in engineering for close to 10 years!
But throughout those years, a lot of life happened which changed my job
perspective. My first year holding an engineering job in 2010 I had a pile of student loan and car debt that stressed me out beyond words! Basically, we were drowning in payments with two good-paying jobs.
It didn’t matter if I loved my job or hated it. I had to keep it because we had to get our money issues and lifestyle under control.
Thankfully we found a money plan that worked for us and we got a handle on our money for the first time in our marriage which felt so amazing! In fact, all the budgeting, paying off debt. and confidence I got from handling money well for the first time in our marriage stirred something inside of me that hasn’t gone away since! I loved working the money plan we were on so much that I started teaching these principles at my church. Helping others who felt the stress and emotions I once felt with money was so incredibly fulfilling it rocked my world. I felt a lot less passion for my day job in engineering and was fueled up anytime I got to talk about personal finance!
THEN I had my daughter, Addison, in 2017 and that was another event in life
that changed my perspective. After four beautiful months of staying home with her during maternity leave, I had to go back to work. I had to drop her off at a stranger’s house (even though she was the best daycare provider EVER), and go back to a job that brought me little-to-no joy. I tried really hard to get my head in the game and really give it my all when I was there but my mind kept thinking about my daughter and helping others with money.
So with all of these changes in my life, I finally did the unthinkable. In 2018, when my husband got a new job across the country, I quit my job as an engineer, and DIDN’T pursue another one in that career field!! Do you know what I did? I started my own business to help others reach their financial goals so I could work doing something that lights a fire in me with pure passion,
AND I now stay at home with my daughter to watch her grow up into the beautiful person she is becoming! It is seriously a dream come true.
Do you want to know how my husband and I made this decision and how we handled our finances to make it come true? Do you want to pursue your dreams without finances holding you back? Well, you came to the right place. Here are the steps my husband and I took to make this dream and passion of mine a reality!!
BEFORE we made a decision on this 180-degree job shift
1. Created a future budget with our future income
Kyle and I knew what our current expenses were in 2018 since we budgeted every month (which I highly recommend and if you don’t know how, click here). From the current budget, we knew the minimum income we could afford in order to cover all of the necessities like food, water, shelter, transportation, and medical insurance.
The next thing we did was we created a future budget with our new income to understand if this job change was feasible with our current lifestyle and if not, could we cut out the necessary expenses needed to make the job transition. In our situation, because I was starting a business for the first time, we created our future budget with Kyle’s income alone (we assumed my paycheck would be $0 as I needed to build clientele) and adjusted expenses according to our new situation which included lowering the gas bill due to less commuting, decreasing childcare to $0 since I would stay home with my cutie, and decreasing our grocery expense because I now had more time to shop for deals. All in all, the future budget would be much tighter as we lost an entire income, but we would be able to make it work each month with a little money left over for extra savings which was worth it to both of us since I could stay home with our daughter and pursue something I loved doing!
So first thing's first, make a current budget and then compare it with your future budget with your future income to see if this job transition is financially feasible for you and your family. If it’s not right now, don’t give up. Keep budgeting, get on a plan to pay down your debts so you can free up your money and make these dreams a reality!!
2. Sought counsel before making this major decision
You CANNOT over-communicate on a big decision like this. Even after Kyle and I created our future budget and understood we would be OK financially, we still needed to be sure this was the right decision for our family long term. Kyle and I had long discussions with one another for many months leading up to making the decision. We talked about our fears, concerns, and even excitements around this job change because we needed to make sure we had a plan in place if we decided to pursue this new journey as well as verify we were on the same page with each another. We also sought out counsel through friends and family who have done something similar to gain wisdom around how their journey went. Lastly, being a woman of faith, I prayed A LOT with my husband as we felt the best guidance and assurance in our path of life was from God.
So whatever your method is, I highly recommend having big discussions with your spouse and seeking out wise counsel before making this huge decision for you and your family.
3. Had an emergency fund!
Kyle and I already had an emergency fund in place before this situation arose,
but because we were unsure of how this transition period would go, we beefed up the emergency fund. A rule of thumb is to have 3 to 6 months of expenses in your emergency fund and we had a little over 3 months in an account at the time. So we decided to increase the emergency fund to have 6 months worth of expenses as a “just in case” buffer!
So I highly recommend a nice-size emergency fund to make you feel more secure before making your decision.
**Entrepreneur tip: If you are starting your own business as I did, make sure you also have extra saved for start-up costs (laptop, printer, website, training, etc). We made sure to do that and it saved us a lot of stress because things added up quickly!
AFTER we made the decision on the 180-degree job shift
1. Adjusted expenses during the transition process
After making our decision to move forward with me staying home with my daughter and starting my own business, we began adjusting to our new jobs and new income which meant we needed to adjust our expenses as well!
We found that we needed to add expenses we had forgotten about like an oil bill and a family gym membership. We also had to adjust other expenses like retirement, tithe, and utilities (we moved to a new house in another part of the country so we didn’t know what the expenses would be like until we started the transition. Click here to get the full story).
So make sure you are ready to be flexible in the first few months of your transition because even though you tried your best to plan for this job change, there’s always something you forget about that you’ll need to adjust for in your new adventure.
2. Grabbed the MONEY and ran!
When I left my job, I had to roll over my 401K to a different account so that it could stay in my control even after I left the company. I mean after all, it is MY money. So I rolled it over into a self-directed IRA and I did NOT cash it out because I didn’t want to pay early withdrawal penalties and income taxes.
So if you are leaving a job where you have invested in your retirement DO NOT LEAVE IT THERE! Roll it over into a self-directed IRA that is in your control! Don’t forget about it! Also be aware that some companies have deadlines of when to do this so make sure you have all the information of how and when to rollover your money before you leave the current job to make the transition as smooth as possible.
3. Had patience with each other
Kyle and I had our good days and our bad days as we were adjusting to my drastic job/role change. Our income was chopped down AND I had to adjust to not working a 9 to 5pm job while jumping into mommy/mompreneur mode!
Instead of getting my everyday adult time and praise on my good works as an engineer, my new full-time boss was all of 2 years old who did not praise me for my great job on watching her but instead threw random temper tantrums and required more attention then I ever thought was possible!
BIG ADJUSTMENTS meant BIG mood swings for me and my amazing husband had to endure it with patience as we walked through this new journey.
So my last piece of advice for you is to have patience with each other during this transition period. Any type of job change can be stressful because it’s a new area for you to learn and change can feel uncomfortable. It is seriously exhausting to learn new things and be out of your element so be kind and understanding to each other because this is a TRANSITION no matter what the job change!
Take-Home Message:
You are not stuck in a career job that you hate. If you want to pursue your dreams, your passion, and love the work you do it is possible to transition jobs if you PLAN ahead for it. Make budgets to understand how this decision will impact your family financially, get advice from other people, and beef up your emergency fund before making the decision! Once you’ve made the job transition, adjust your expenses accordingly, be patient with you and your spouse with new changes in life create a roller coaster of emotions, and don’t forget to take your retirement money with you before leaving your old job!
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