THE CAREER CHANGE FINANCIAL PLANNER

This career change story comes from guest blogger and college planning expert Todd Weaver, Senior Associate with Strategies for College, Inc., our “go to” guy for August’s “Higher Ed” month.

Have you ever heard the phrase, “you can plan all you want, then life happens?” That’s exactly what happened to my family in the past year as I made the transition away from “W-2” payroll to self employment.
I am entering my second full year (fifth if you count my part-time “ramp up”) of my career as an independent college counselor. While my wife and I planned to use one of Sherrill’s phrases, “Break Away without going broke,” the reality is that even the best laid plans can come undone in the blink of a recession!

Approximately five years ago I made the conscious decision to plan my escape from Corporate America in order to return to a prior career which I loved: college and financial guidance. I truly enjoyed working with students and their families when I was part of a financial aid office at a private university twelve years ago. Like many other career changers, I felt the “pull” to get back to a more meaningful (to me) career after the events of September 2001 and after spending more than enough time behind a computer, on the phone all day long.

With family and the new career located in New England, my wife and I made the move from Philadelphia to Boston with one child in tow and another on the way. We had planned on saving money for another 18 months after relocating to Boston. That timetable was going to allow us to make our way through the expected start-up phase of little to no income. Then to our delight, we soon discovered that our household was going to increase 50%, with twins! While this event might have delayed others, we continued to press for meeting our self-imposed deadline so that I could make the career switch on target.

While my wife and I both lived frugally we knew that when the eventual separation from my “day job” came along, we might not enjoy our current income stream for a year or two. To plan for the career change we fully funded:

• 401k’s
• Roth IRA’s
• Coverdale accounts for our first 2 children
• Set up a home equity line of credit for emergencies
• Funded our cash reserves to cover nine months of living expenses

I began my new career on schedule and fortunately, was able to be a stay-at-home dad for a few months before the launch. Little did we know that a month before my wife was to end her maternity leave and return to her part-time remote work situation, her job would be relocated back to headquarters. In order to keep the position, she was informed she would have to move. Well, that didn’t fit the plan at all!  Talk about a BUMP in the road!

I’m blessed to have a supportive wife and family that are helping with the career transition that is now beginning to show some fruit from the labor of the past year. Some of the many ways that my family of six is coping with the career change include:

• My amazing wife and her ability to care for the four children and allow me to put the time and effort into my work. (She’ll be starting the job search for herself soon so that’ll be another interesting twist to deal with…)
• Keeping a vigilant eye on the cost cutting and savings on the home front
• Continuing to talk about my career with anyone I meet – because you never know who they may know! What “location, location, location” does for real estate, “network, network, network” does for the career change!
• Working with a great team of colleagues who have been wonderful mentors, advocates, and friends throughout this process

What’s kept me going most of all, however, have been the happy clients who continues to validate that I made the right choice in moving to a career where I know I am making people’s lives less stressful and making a meaningful difference for them.

Tags: Back-to-school, Career change stories, College // 5 Comments »