When the time comes to decide the working life is giving you less joy than you want in your day to day, then often questions will arise about what to do next.
Maybe you are one the planners of life and you know exactly where you are going to spend your time when you are not selling it for dollars to put food on the table and keep the taxman happy. Congratulations if that is you! I admire that! Unfortunately for some of us. “Life” gets in the way of that. Kids, ex husbands, broken marriages, redundancy and bad decisions all can be a factor in you looking at a retirement plan which doesn’t have much invested dollars to support it.
In my case, an upbringing which left me with little sense around money, 2 divorces and lots of temporary work on contract meant I have less than I would like. Many in my age group were also cut off from the chance to add to a pension fund by a government decision to move the retirement age of woman with an immediate effect.
So now here I am retired, not as planned, because the redundancy goblin came knocking at the business I was employed in, and I began to wonder what to do with my time. So much time seemed to be stretched out before me with no job to fill it. No kids around because I raised them to be independent and they are happy elsewhere. No partner, because 2 divorces makes you gun-shy at this age. And no real idea of what to do next.
Of course, hobbies are available. Meetings with groups of like-minded folks for lunch or movies etc are always an option. But none of that meant I had a rosy secure future to look towards.
So I’ve done some exploring. I took a brilliant Money Coach course which brought up all my beliefs and understanding of finances which were skewed according to the upbringing mentioned earlier. Still, what to do with all my life experiences an knowledge acquired in offices and departments of big corporations being the lowly invisible woman who is happy to answer the phone and pay the invoices?
Fortunately last April, after looking around the internet for ideas and people I thought I could trust, I received an email from someone I didn’t know, but who sparked an interest in me. I thought to myself. If this bloke can be making a second income by talking about and connecting with people just because of his hobby then this must mean something! So I followed the link and consequently have been spending my time the rest of this last year (when I wasn’t travelling! Now that I have time!) training to be an online entrepreneur. Its not something I would have thought I would have ended up doing but to be honest to keep relevant in the world the best place to make a living is actually online. The training has been comprehensive, challenging, and fun and its kept me interested through to the end of 8 modules and many zoom calls with experts in the field of online business.
Take a look at the guy who owns the business and see if its something you would like to give a second look to. I am yet to conclude my launch but so far its looking good and I’m hoping to supplement my income enough to not have lean on a Gov pension and to instead create a financial freedom into my 4th quarter of life which is a fun future to look towards. Its giving me the chance to fully support myself if I want to work more and smarter down the track.
I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Di.
Aging as gracefully as I can in as many fun ways as I want.