Thinking about my day yesterday advising three friends about things related to finance and feelings, I got to thinking that in another life I would be some kind of financial life coach. I suppose it’s not too late, but I don’t want to spend the time going back to school or getting certified or whatever. I’m just musing. But clearly in my friend group I am seen as someone who can be trusted with all kinds of intimate details, and I enjoy talking about finances, partly because I think so many money issues aren’t really about the money at all. My college minor was psychology, and I love exploring why people do the things we do.
Anyway, what would you like your later-life occupation to be and why?
I am doing my new career now. My 1st career was being an attorney in a trial law firm. 2nd was being a mom and PTA co-chair and soccer mom. 3rd was being special ed hearing office and part time judge.
4th is now being a lung health advocate and running a nonprofit and being vice-chair of a national organization. I toyed with going back to school to get more education but all I ended up doing was taking a course in creating a running and nonprofit and a course in how to perform lung testing. Also got certified in HIPAA. I can also take a course on being a patient PI for clinical trials but haven’t made time to do that yet. I started down this path in 2007.
I think things evolved great for me and I wouldn’t have changed anything.
Hmmmm. I think backing up a couple of decades still works. If most of us here are about 60, then two decades would put us at 40, which means that we’d still would’ve had a first career.
I’m not talking starting at the beginning. I guess I’m thinking about a career that would emphasize some facet of your current self.
With my nonprofit, I plan one major event a year. That’s plenty for me. One of my friends has a D who is an event planner. She seems to enjoy it. It seems a job with lots of deadlines & coordination.
Already did that. First career was with the government, finishing as a management analyst. Then at home mom for a few years. Then returning to Northwestern’s adult university to get a 120 hour certificate in accounting. While simultaneously being school classroom volunteer and later Cub Scout den leader.
I had hoped to rtw part time anew as an accountant. I learned you could start full time, or return part time. But I couldn’t find beginning work part time except in bookkeeping types of stuff. So a couple of years part time temping, then 10 years full time in admin type stuff for a major company. Which meant I vested for a pension and, long after I retired from them, a small annual health benefits fee I use to partly reimburse my Medicare premium.
I guess my third career was working on the move to California; at least I spent ten years accomplishing it.
My job of 26 years as a legal secretary is ending next month and I am likely moving on to similar work, but if I didn’t have to be concerned about money I would like to open a clothing consignment shop!
I had a career in corporate accounting/finance but I think my strength was in training people. I was always the person who did that because I was good at it (and enjoyed it). So I think a career as a corporate trainer would be a great occupation for me. Except I’m not un-retiring.
I would like to be a handyman or a fixer. I’m partially doing that now as a mom and as a neighbor!
On Monday, while on a walk, we noticed a that water was gushing out of an elderly neighbor’s yard.
It turns out the pipe burst overnight and another neighbor tried to knock on the door but no one answered.
When we walked by at 8 am, we approached the wet door and he immediately came out and said I can’t get a plumber out here and water is shooting everywhere!
On our walk, there was a small landscape crew doing a remodel on my street. I ran over to the crew asking them, in Spanish, if they had a pipe wrench and if they could help me to help the neighbor turn off the water; the valve had broken off.
They had to lift concrete block and get to the city’s valve. They got it turned off and asked the eighbor if he was OK.
Through my translation, they told me to tell him what to say to the plumbers, and what needed to be fixed immediately.
On some things they said he should wait because they could come back later and fix those landscaping items for free because they already had the extra parts on their trucks for no charge.
I baked the guys some cookies for their families. They were very appreciative and didn’t expect anything so it was a nice surprise for them.
My friend said, “wow you were really quick to think like that about getting the crew down the street to help. You should be a fixer/problem solver!”
So fantasy occupation would be Sutton Foster because (a) Broadway musical star; the only thing that stopped me was no talent or drive and (b) Hugh Jackman, apparently.
I always dreamed about striking it rich with a best selling novel. But rich people live such a contradictory existence. They have big houses with pools, tennis courts, and home theater systems…but they work so much they only have time to eat and sleep…which is the exact same thing as I’m doing now.
