Scary career decision--what do you think?

Parent Cafe
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<p>I was going to write this on spideygirl’s new thread, but I realized I was hoping to get some specific feedback, and rather than clog that thread up, I’m posting it here:</p>

<p>We have been in a years-long slow motion overall change. First, my H career-changed from pediatrician to HS teacher, meaning a pretty big cut in income. To compensate, a few years before he made the move, I went from very full part-time work to an actual full-time job, one I like but do not love, so we would have continuity and benefits while he took classes, student-taught, found a new job, etc.</p>

<p>a few years ago, we bought the house we plan to retire to, near the shore in Southern NJ. It’s not by any means a “shore house” as anyone pictures one, but rather a boxy suburban house in a random suburb a ten minute walk from the Delaware Bay. We love it. We can’t move there now, because there are basically no jobs with benefits there, but it’s costing us a a lot to maintain the rickety old house in NJ where our jobs are.</p>

<p>Along the way, I have tried to resuscitate my writing career (derailed by early parenthood and life in general). It’s showing some signs of life, but needs more time and attention.</p>

<p>Which brings me to our present turning point–H and I are discussing the possibilities of me quitting my full-time job and going back to adjuncting/tutoring etc, so I can really work on the writing, and also so we could spend whole summers in South Jersey, where we’d rather be. I would love, love, love to do this. But, best case scenario, it’s hard to imagine making more than 20K/yr from this, about half what I’m making now. It also means giving up other benefits (401K, for example, and doubled up dental plans). Our income would take another hit, and we’d be dependent on H for benefits entirely. We do have some savings, retirement and other, though not the amounts I see bandied about as really being necessary. If and when one of us did find a job in South J, we could sell the North J house, for little profit at this point (housing market being what it is), and will do this when H retires if no southern jobs forthcoming, which would then make it likely that Southern house will be paid off, as northern one already is.</p>

<p>Anyway, that is is the financial side of it–the intangible is how are lives would be changed if I wasn’t trying to work one job, take care of life in general, and squeeze the thing I most want to do in around the edges–we both think that change would be a good one for us.</p>

<p>I’m interested in what others think–would you make a change that would reduce your income to just-enoughness, are there aspects you can think of that I’m not, has anyone else made (or chosen not to make) a similar change? All opinions, advice welcome.</p>

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<p>Be sure you have enough for retirement.</p>

<p>My great-aunt lived for about 8 years in a nursing home at $8000 a month. Yup, the total cost for the last 8 years of her life was $768,000!</p>

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<p>I think having “just-enoughness” is fine if the payoff is happiness and challenging work. Identifying the amount would be the trick, I think. I would suggest making out a budget of absolute essentials to determine what “just-enough” really is and then identify what, if anything, else in terms of comfort, etc you would be willing to forego in order to make your dream happen. </p>

<p>I am all for frugal. I am not, however, high on starvation.</p>

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<p>I’ll leave it to others to debate the financial details, but I took a significant income hit a few years ago to go from a job I hated to working independently and it was the best decision I ever made. The positive impact of working part time on every aspect of my life was worth making drastic cutbacks in spending.</p>

<p>At the time my husband was unemployed, but our mortgage was paid off, the college savings were where we wanted them to be, and the IRA looked pretty good. The big impact was on the day-to-day spending, which we cut by 2/3. The bulk of the cut was related to eliminating expenses related to my job (clothes, car, lunches, house cleaning, etc).</p>

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<p>Wow, garland, another thought provoking post.</p>

<p>We are in similar spot in life and also in NJ. I’m quite jealous as my shore house ( even if not an actual ‘shore house’) hasn’t materialized yet!
It sounds like have been turning this around in your head for quite some time and the details are all being considered. I bet you’ll make a fine decision because of this.
If I get a vote, I go with ‘enoughness’.
Like you, the numbers that you hear needed for retirement are larger than it seems possible to amass. So, I put aside 20% each year in 403b and it will have to be enough when I can no longer work.
I earn the health benefits for me and DH so will need to work till Medicare kicks in. Love my job but don’t know if I will/can love it for another 12 years.</p>

<p>I enjoyed reading how you and your DH have traded breadwinner roles over the years and enabled each of you to pursue different options. Way cool and not so common perhaps. I’m betting that you can make another career change work as well.
Good luck!</p>

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<p>With benefits from the HS teaching job, I think not having double benefits is not a bad risk, if, in fact, he has job security. We have not had anything other than individual benefits in nearly 30 years, having one person with benes seems like a safe place to be from my perspective!</p>

<p>We used to live in a bigger city and make more money and pay more to live (and impress our neighbors) Over time we have ended up with lower income and lower expenses, we appreciate the lifestyle we have created, others may not.</p>

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<p>Thanks for responses. Pipmom–I’ve done a rough budget in my head (which is how I generally operate, for good or bad) and I think we would cover it. I’m good at frugal, though I agree, starving is not a good plan (though H says as long as he can fish/clam and garden, we’ll have food…:)). </p>

<p>Indiana–good to hear this worked out for you!</p>

<p>Somemom–We mostly don’t have double benefits for major stuff like medical, because once H got tenure, it made more sense to go for his, which were cheaper than mine. We did double up on dental since that’s not much and we both had major work done. :(.</p>

<p>But it’s true, prior to my present job, we always only had his benies, and it was fine.</p>

<p>Musicmom–wouldn’t it be great to have a way to get affordable insurance prior to Medicare? That’s the one thing that most makes all planning problematical!</p>

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<p>^^^ Starting in 2014, that will be available, through the State health exchanges that health care reform set up. Assuming that the coverage is reasonable, I anticipate that a lot of people ages 58+ will through in the towel at work, since they won’t need the benefits anymore.</p>

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<p>Much is unclear to me. If you have a paid off house in NNJ, that sounds like a considerable asset. Would it be possible to rent this house and live in a cheaper place so it produces income for you?</p>

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<p>2college–our north jersey house is very small, in pretty bad shape (home repairs were replaced by college tuition) in a deteriorating neighborhood. Not sure we would get much for it as a rental. But more to the point, it’s where our jobs are. If we rented it out, we’d have to rent another place to live. We can’t quit both our jobs; unfortunately, there are very few where we want to go, so we need to keep this house until we find something in South J, or we retire.</p>

<p>VH–I’ll be interested to see how those exchanges really work. They could make a huge difference to us. Not to let this get political, but I was rooting for the public option to keep prices down. Oh well. Still hope it’s something affordable.</p>

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<p>Could you husband go back to being a doctor? This is what I"m thinking - I’m guessing that he left the medical field because insurance was making his life miserable. The area in sough Jersey that you are describing sounds very rural. Maybe rural enough to need a doctor. I have read of doctors who no longer accept medical insurance or who set up their practice in such a way that they are able to put more focus on what they love (taking care of people) and minimize the part they hate (medical paperwork/insurance). This would provide a job in south Jersey which seems to be the part that you are looking to solve. And he might enjoy this. And then you’d be freed up to do the writing that you want to do. </p>

<p>I may be way off in my suggestion but I thought I’d throw it out there for you.</p>

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<p>DW and I are also considering encore careers. We set a goal ten years ago when we were in our 40’s. Everything is on track, but we’ve pushed it out another year, maybe more, maybe not.</p>

<p>There are four issues holdings us back.</p>

<p>The first is ensuring DS becomes completely emancipated. So far so good, but I’d like him to see graduation as a light at the end of the tunnel.</p>

<p>The second is related to health care. </p>

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<p>This is not political. I too was rooting for an overhaul of health care, not necessarily for the cost, but to see if we, as a society, could break the relationship between affordable or accessible health care and the employee/employer relationship. I’m encouraged so far, and agree with the OP that should this happen there will likely be a significant transition for late career employees. I think this would be a tangential benefit. Get us old folks out of the work force and allow the new graduates to rise in the ranks. We can then go pursue the “life of the mind.” </p>

<p>Third. Costs of long term care or disability.</p>

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<p>While we’ve planned for long term care and disability for ourselves, and both sets of parents, nothing in our planning horizon assumes something even remotely close to this. Having worked as an aid 30 years ago in a “retirement home”, I have no intention of allowing myself or a loved one to reside in one for more than a few months. But at $8k/month for 8 years maybe we’re talking apples and oranges. Nonetheless, this is a big consideration.</p>

<p>Four. Fear.</p>

<p>While we can address all of the concerns above to our satisfaction, at least on paper, I just can’t pull the trigger.</p>

<p>Sorry for the high jack. But if you haven’t already seen the Pixar movie, UP, go ahead and view it. That’s what I’m going to do this weekend.</p>

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<p>Bookreader–though he has said in the past that if necessary, he’d go back to it, I think it would be better if he didn’t. You’re absolutely right that insurance was part of the reason he left; the whole medical system seems broke. It would be interesting to learn if there’s room for a boutique kind of doc down there, but as a pediatrician, he’d still work the crazy hours and worry about the sick kids 24/7. </p>

<p>There was a point where i almost quit everything to write, before the full-time job came along, but I realized he really needed to get out of medicine. I think it was killing his health. And, happily, he loves teaching. </p>

<p>I’m enjoying all these suggestions, though! And would love to hear more downsized-the-income-but-glad- we-did stories.</p>

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<p>Redwing–not a hijack at all. I understand and share all your points. Including the fear. I have also been told to see UP; will make a point to do so. Thanks!</p>

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<p>garland- just curious- what type of writing would you do full time? Depending on the type of writing with which you are most comfortable, could there be online freelance opportunities to help augment the income?</p>

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<p>My FIL did something many people just dream about doing. He retired by age 50 in Missouri and bought a house in San Diego and moved his young family. Life sounded good and he had saved for retirement. But, here’s what he didn’t plan for: 1) living until the ripe old age of 97 and 2) inflation. He was a super smart man and knew how to invest his money, but he still did not recommend we follow his path. Basically, he lived many more years than he ever worked. And an added factor that he missed because he retired so early was the lack of same-age peers to hang around with.</p>

<p>So, to get this straight, here’s a summary of your situation. 1) DH works as a tentured teacher in NNJ 2) you work currently, but want to quit and write. 3) Benes are through your DH, so they wouldn’t change. 3) you have a house in SNJ where you wish to live fulltime, but can’t b/c of the job possibilites 4) you’d like to sell your house in NNJ, but need that as a primary residence b/c that’s close to work. How about:</p>

<p>*has DH looked for work in SNJ? There may be openings to consider and maybe, the retirement package could transfer over, since it’s still in-state. Good teachers, especially male, are needed everywhere.</p>

<p>*your job adds the comfort-factor, but since you do not get any benes, if you can be frugal, you might not be losing too much if you quit.</p>

<p>It sounds like the house in NNJ is costing lots of money, even though the mortgage is fully paid. * it’s costing us a a lot to maintain the rickety old house in NJ where our jobs are There’s the emotional factor to hang onto it. There’s the maintenance factor. And NJ taxes aren’t cheap either. How about spending some time and money to fix it up and just sell it? You might find a much less expensive rental near-ish work, so you can dedicate your time and energies down on the shore. Certainly a one-bedroom rental makes much more sense in northern NJ, since you already have a house in southern NJ.</p>

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<li>in order to understand the $$$ factor if you gave up your job and started writing, can you overlap both for a while somehow? Dedicate time as a writer and see how much you like it. This could be a romatic pipe dream, but you might never know until you give it a go and see if you still love it.</li>
</ul>

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<p>Pipmom–aiming to be a fictioneer, but am definitely open to online and other freelance jobs. There’s a lot of competition for them, but it’s something I need to get involved in, definitely.</p>

<p>Wow, Limabeans, lots of good suggestions. I am already in the overlap phase, and it’s somewhat doable, but would rather work part time and not feel I have to squeeze the writing in when there’s time. I have figured out I am fairly good at it, some stories published, so I fully believe it is something I can do. (whether it ever makes money is another question.:))</p>

<p>H has thrown out the idea of selling the house and renting a one bedroom. It’s an option we may follow eventually, though the market has gone through the basement right now. As you surmise, the taxes are killer, despite that. More than twice the taxes in S. Jersey. Selling it will definitely save us a ton of money, but nothing is selling in the area right now. I’m a little afraid to put money into it now, with prices falling. But it’s definitely something to consider.</p>

<p>And yes, if H finds a job in the area, I’d quit and we’d move in a nanosecond. That would take all the maybes out of it. He’d probably have to start over tenure-wise, but we’d be willing to take that risk. However, there’s very little movement in teaching jobs right now, and very few high schools where we’re heading. We check jobs down there every day, though.</p>

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<p>If DH is still a licensed pediatrician, would he consider picking up moonlighting shifts at CHOP or ST. Chris’ for some south Jersey income?</p>

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<p>Don’t retired teachers get health benefits? How long until you husband can retire and collect his pension?</p>

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<p>Mominva–we’re a couple hours from Philly. Of course, there are hospitals nearer, but he’s pretty officially done as a doc and has let license lapse. I think it’s for the best.</p>

<p>Notrich–he’s only been teaching for a few years. There’s no chance of medical benefits at retirement, and his pension will be minimal from that. We aren’t counting on it.</p>