I will be 52 this year and will have over 29 years of service with my current employer. I have an old defined benefit retirement plan. I plan on retiring in the summer of 2022 or 2023. Current employer wants me to stay 5 more years but I don’t see that happening. They might be convince me to stay to 2024 but I’m not feeling that right now.
I will be too young to just retire and I probably need a little more income in addition to my pension. If want to maximize my income I would need to find work using my current "skills" (managing people and processes, project management and fixing problems, along with a host of typical administrative tasks from budgeting, to contract negotiation to HR). I think that finding that type of job and getting close to my current salary is not very likely and I'm sort of looking forward to doing something else with not necessarily less headaches but different ones. Maybe I could work somewhere that I am only responsible for a certain area than responsible for all of them, make less but not managing a lot of people. However, the idea of big change and not sitting behind a desk is appealing. The problem is I feel like outside of what I do I don't have any one area of expertise. I feel like the old saying “Jack of all trades and master of none” applies to me. I have 18-30 months to figure it out.
I thought about doing something that would be completely different like woodworking or a learning a trade. There was a post here a few months ago about a HVAC side hustle that was interesting. I have some rough carpentry abilities but not the skill of making furniture. I am thinking about setting up a shop in my garage, maybe it will never evolve beyond a hobby but who knows.
Has anyone here made a similar transition to doing something completely different as a second career? If so do you have any advice? Or do you work or have knowledge of a field that someone could transition to.
I am not extremely worried about figuring it out but it is hard to think about anything else. One thing I forgot to mention is that I am located in central Mississippi but that could change when I retire but I think I would like to stay in the South.
Thanks in advance for any help.
I will be too young to just retire and I probably need a little more income in addition to my pension. If want to maximize my income I would need to find work using my current "skills" (managing people and processes, project management and fixing problems, along with a host of typical administrative tasks from budgeting, to contract negotiation to HR). I think that finding that type of job and getting close to my current salary is not very likely and I'm sort of looking forward to doing something else with not necessarily less headaches but different ones. Maybe I could work somewhere that I am only responsible for a certain area than responsible for all of them, make less but not managing a lot of people. However, the idea of big change and not sitting behind a desk is appealing. The problem is I feel like outside of what I do I don't have any one area of expertise. I feel like the old saying “Jack of all trades and master of none” applies to me. I have 18-30 months to figure it out.
I thought about doing something that would be completely different like woodworking or a learning a trade. There was a post here a few months ago about a HVAC side hustle that was interesting. I have some rough carpentry abilities but not the skill of making furniture. I am thinking about setting up a shop in my garage, maybe it will never evolve beyond a hobby but who knows.
Has anyone here made a similar transition to doing something completely different as a second career? If so do you have any advice? Or do you work or have knowledge of a field that someone could transition to.
I am not extremely worried about figuring it out but it is hard to think about anything else. One thing I forgot to mention is that I am located in central Mississippi but that could change when I retire but I think I would like to stay in the South.
Thanks in advance for any help.
