Choosing A Career and a Cushion

I'd like to talk about choosing a career for a moment if that is OK with you....Speaking from direct experience, I know that choosing the right career early is one of the most important life choices you can make. Choose the wrong career and your life will not be as good as it could or should be, instead you will find yourself always looking for something else, wishing your life away as you pray that retirement comes quick.

Trust me...it's no way to live.

It's easy to fall into a trap of a job when you are young. Not a career, a job. Especially if it pays well. The time will slip by, and life will go on. You go from being a young carefree person, to an older person with a mortgage, family, commitments that you cannot walk away from, and a job that is not only a deadend, it's also miserable.

Things change over time, both your own ideas, and the ideas of those around you, including your employer. Companies get sold, governments change administrations, most of the time, these changes are outside of your control. One day you are hamstering along, doing the same things you have done for the last 20 years, when suddenly it all changes, and those 20 years of employment don't mean much. It's new stuff now, new ways of doing things, new rules, new challenges. You need to be prepared to step up to them, or at the least, have a backup plan.

I have not only lived this myself, I have witnessed it in others, including my father-in-law, my buddies and aquaintences. You end up close to retirement age, in a job that you hate, wishing you could pack it in, but you can't. By this time in your life, you have commitments, perhaps a kid in University, car payments, and so on.

So what can you do about it? Well sometimes not much. You can plan for it a bit, expect it to happen, and if it does, you will be ready. Have a backup plan, a trade or a skill you can parlay into another job. Have some money saved. Every young person starting out in life should be putting aside a portion of their paycheck each week, not just for retirement, but also for rainy days, and for emergencies, like job loss, or bridging yourself between jobs should you have to leave a job for whatever reason.

I think a person should have at least the equivalent of at least six months salary in the bank before leaving a job. More would be even better. I kick my ass for not doing just that when I started working 34 or 35 years ago. I probably would have enough to get me through until my pension kicks in, in two or three years. So, save at least 10% of your salary. When you start working, start setting aside your cushion money, and add to it regularly. You will never be sorry you did...even if you end up with a career you love and never want to leave, just think of the sports car you can buy when you hit your middle aged crazy years....

I started this post talking about choosing a career, and kind of went off track, on my own little tangent. Sorry about that. However, I was hoping to demonstrate the importance of choosing a career you love and will continue to love 20, 30, even 40 years later...like me...I plan to blog until they pull the keyboard from my cold dead fingers....