What Does Starting Again at 50 Actually Cost?

If you're thinking about changing careers around 50, you may already know what you want to leave behind. The harder part is imagining what comes next. Let's take the first year. There are still bills to pay while you're learning, and finishing a course doesn't necessarily mean a decent salary will follow.

Before you hand in your notice, how long could your household manage with little or none of your income? That means looking at the life you're actually paying for, including the people who depend on you. If someone else's earnings would keep things going, they need a say in how long that arrangement could last.

The course fee is only the beginning

A training course has a price you can look up. The income you go without is easier to leave out, perhaps because nobody sends you an invoice for it.

In The i, a UK newspaper, a man describes leaving accountancy at 50: he gave up a £45,000 salary, paid about £6,000 for training and worked unpaid for six months. Half a year's gross salary plus the course fee gives a rough scale of £28,500.

Now come back to your own year. The course might be affordable while the months without your usual pay aren't. Or you might manage the training period comfortably, then find that the wait for paid work stretches further than you'd allowed for.

And what actually gets you into that work? Some fields require supervised experience or evidence that you can do the job. You may need someone willing to take you on before you're much use to them. A certificate won't arrange that introduction. Finding a placement, talking to employers and understanding how beginners get experience belong in the picture before you leave, while you still have a salary.

Getting paid again may still feel like starting over

Imagine you're further into the year and the first pay arrives. What a relief! Except it may cover much less of the household spending than your old pay did. Savings could still be shrinking, just more slowly.

Meanwhile, you're also getting used to asking questions you once answered for other people. You might miss being trusted to get on with things, or simply finishing a day without having to think so hard. In the Middle-Aged Adult Blob, ages 49–54, being a beginner again may feel a long way from where you expected to be.

So what would make that first year worth living through? Perhaps the work interests you enough that you want to learn more. Perhaps you get evenings back, or stop spending Sunday dreading Monday. Those are real things to want from a working week.

Staying has a cost too, if your job leaves you too drained for much else. Even so, worrying about money can follow you home from a new job just as easily. You may decide you need longer to prepare, or that a smaller change would give you enough of what you're missing.

Sources

• The i, a UK newspaper: read the original account of leaving accountancy to retrain as a plumber