The Financial Perils of A Career Change, And How To Navigate Them Without Losing Your Head
A career change is a big deal. It’s leaving something that we know and are familiar with, where we are comfortable even, of the brave new world of another field. Something that can be anxiety making, to say the least. Add to that the fact that it can be a financial strain as well as an intellectual and emotional one, and it can seem untenable. However, the financial side can be dealt with in a manageable way if you know what to expect. Read on to find out more.
Cost of training
A financial peril that you will likely come across when making a career change is the cost of the training you will need to do for your new role. This because most roles that will be financially rewarding after a few years require a high level of education to get into such as accountancy, law, and medicine. It’s also unlikely that you will have the prerequisites for these posts or you would be in them already, meaning there will be a gap in your education that you will need to fill, something that will definitely cost money.
However, this is not an untenable situation, even if you finances are less than perfect. As you can get things like adverse credit personal loans to help pay for the cost of your tuition. As well as their being grants and bursaries available for some students that fit particular criteria. It’s also a good idea to consider studying part time, as this will allow you to spread the cost of your tuition over a longer period, as well as allowing you to work at least some of the time to bring in some income. So avoiding a lot of the financial perils associated with a career change, while still making progress towards the role that you want.
Pay cut
If you are changing your career, you can usually expect a pay cut. Why? Well, it’s because you aren’t going to go into the beginning of a new career at the same level of pay you have reached by working years in your old one. That, for the most part, is just how the industry works.
You can prepare for this though, by giving yourself a year to save while in your current position before you make your move. It can also help to prepare by adapting to the reduced income you will have. Do this by assessing your spending and cutting costs where possible by moving to a cheaper apartment, shopping for food with a list, and surrendering your car for the first year of your new post to take public transport. Yes, it will be hard, but these sacrifices will seem small in the long run, compared to the gains you will make being in a career that you love and are passionate about. After all, money is necessary but taking a temporary pay cut for a better future is something that is definitely tenable in the short term.
