Too old to change career and make good money?

redundantmortgage

I'm 43 and coming up to 2 decades in a career I hate. The only thing I like is that it's good money.

I've always been driven by money, when I was younger I wanted the big house, flash car etc. but over time it's been to get out of the rat race as early as possible.

One job that is really well paid and sounds interesting is a pilot. I have enough in my savings to pay for the training. However I read that it takes around 15 years to become a captain which is where the big money is at, so not enough years of making big money for it to be worth it.

If I stick with my career and am able to make this level of money for the next 10 years or so then I could probably afford to leave it behind and go and work at B&Q in 10 years time. Just the thought of sitting at a desk at a computer all day every day for the next 10 years fills me with dread.

MattMattMattUK

redundantmortgage said:

I'm 43 and coming up to 2 decades in a career I hate. The only thing I like is that it's good money.

I've always been driven by money, when I was younger I wanted the big house, flash car etc. but over time it's been to get out of the rat race as early as possible.

One job that is really well paid and sounds interesting is a pilot. I have enough in my savings to pay for the training. However I read that it takes around 15 years to become a captain which is where the big money is at, so not enough years of making big money for it to be worth it.

If I stick with my career and am able to make this level of money for the next 10 years or so then I could probably afford to leave it behind and go and work at B&Q in 10 years time. Just the thought of sitting at a desk at a computer all day every day for the next 10 years fills me with dread.

Being a pilot can be good money, but it is not a particularly interesting job, very process drive, lots of ongoing training etc. If you have 3nough money and like the idea of flying you could get a PPL and fly as a hobby?

What is your current career, is there a way to take it in a more interesting direction?

tacpot12

The best advice I can give you is to save for an early retirement as hard as you can. You will never earn as much as you do currently if you change careers. Changing will be hard and risky. It will be easier to leverage the job you have for all you can. 

Se your self some savings targets. Treat yourself occasionally, but keep focused on the prize, which is to retire early. I retired at 53 and have never regretted it. 

Marcon

tacpot12 said:

The best advice I can give you is to save for an early retirement as hard as you can. You will never earn as much as you do currently if you change careers. Changing will be hard and risky. It will be easier to leverage the job you have for all you can. 

Se your self some savings targets. Treat yourself occasionally, but keep focused on the prize, which is to retire early. I retired at 53 and have never regretted it. 

What a shame you didn't have a job you loved enough to want to go on doing it - but that's a luxury not open to many (ditto early retirement, and certainly not at 53!). Stating firmly that OP 'will never earn as much as you do currently if you change careers' when you know nothing about them or their current job probably isn't best advice, simply because you are working on the basis of close to zero knowledge.

Changing career can, and often does, mean a significant level of risk, but there's also a much increased chance of higher rewards if you choose carefully and have the means, the ability, the determination and yes, the luck, to make a go of things. Looking at some of OP's previous posts (eg https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6430224/feel-stuck-between-a-rock-and-a-hard-place#latest) perhaps they may not have the necessary resilience to take that leap? A vague idea that training to be a pilot might be quite good - which is what comes over from the original post in this thread - sounds like teenage pie in the sky (no pun intended!). In one breath OP thinks it sound great, and then a few words later dismisses it, so not exactly the best researched and thought through career option...

OP, how realistic are you being? Do you, for example, have the drive, resilience and contacts to identify a gap in the market and build up your own business, which could be a real money spinner? Otherwise what other careers might be open to you that would pay the sort of money you believe you are worth/need to earn?

redundantmortgage

The reason I thought of being a pilot is because I like the thought of going to different places. There's a whole world out there but I spend most of my waking hours sat in the same chair. I did the occasional travelling earlier on in my career and that was the best thing about it. I've not done a single bit of travelling in my current job and probably never will. All external meetings are done via video calls.

I forgot I made that post. Nothing has really changed since then. I can't see myself building my own business to be honest.

I guess I didn't always hate my career to the extent I do today. When I started out it was something new. I'm easily bored though and any enthusiasm I had is long gone. 

When I had builders round it occurred to me that they never work at the same place for very long. They're always going to different houses to work on jobs. I'm not cut out to be a builder myself, but that aspect makes it sound much more interesting than going to the same office day in day out. 

Marcon

redundantmortgage said:

The reason I thought of being a pilot is because I like the thought of going to different places. There's a whole world out there but I spend most of my waking hours sat in the same chair. I did the occasional travelling earlier on in my career and that was the best thing about it. I've not done a single bit of travelling in my current job and probably never will. All external meetings are done via video calls.

I forgot I made that post. Nothing has really changed since then. I can't see myself building my own business to be honest.

I guess I didn't always hate my career to the extent I do today. When I started out it was something new. I'm easily bored though and any enthusiasm I had is long gone. 

When I had builders round it occurred to me that they never work at the same place for very long. They're always going to different houses to work on jobs. I'm not cut out to be a builder myself, but that aspect makes it sound much more interesting than going to the same office day in day out. 

Some of the highest earners around work in sales - and boy, do you need to travel for that. Alternatively, plenty of other people travel for work and earn very well indeed - ever seen how much a train driver earns, not to mention the pension scheme and perks?

redundantmortgage

Train driver is another one I've considered but I'm seeing conflicting information on how much they really earn. I'm also aware you won't start on £70-80k which is fine, but the question is will you get there once you gain enough experience and how long will it take.

In my line of work a lot of it is down to luck. I started on a really poor salary and it took me around 8 years to reach the 40% tax bracket. It would have taken 3 or 4 years had I been offered certain jobs I'd interviewed for, had I continued working for my first company I would probably never reach that sort of salary level.

LeafGreen

I think train driver is actually quite a difficult one to break into, especially if you are competing against younger candidates.  Also lots of shift work with early starts and late finishes.  I also think £70-80k is highly unlikely unless including a big chunk of overtime, or you're on the tube or Eurostar (both even more difficult to get into). 
 

Flatfacedcat

@ redundantmortgage:

"One job that is really well paid and sounds interesting is a pilot"
Here I guess you intend airplane pilot. If so, please let me clarify on this point as it happens that I have some pertinent knowledge in the civil aviation field. The thought that airplane pilots earn a lot of money is more a myth than a reality. As a matter of fact, most pilots of civilian airliners and civilian general aviation aircraft, earn not that much if compared to other common jobs. And this reality is valid on a global scale, not only in certain continents. The aircraft pilots that do earn a lot of money are military pilots. But becoming a military pilot as job at 40+ of age is quite out of question for health reasons.
Freight aircraft pilots do usually earn more than passenger aircraft pilots - the reason is because of their night shifts which is what usually make their daily regular flight activity.
However, no matter if freight or passenger, the aircraft pilot market is pretty saturated on a global scale - there are already plenty of aircraft pilots available that are currently unemployed because they don't find a company that either pays them as much as they think they deserve, or that offer them an employment contract that seems fair enough to them.

"Train driver is another one I've considered"
From a training and bureaucratic perspective, becoming an aircraft pilot may be easier than becoming a train driver - as someone else already pointed out, getting into the train driving market is quite difficult. For entry level roles, the salary is more or less the same in both industries. On a long term however, being a train driver will require a lot less time spent in learning - aircraft pilots constantly have to study new material related either to procedures, either to new technologies applied in airports, either related to the aircraft they are flying.

"Some of the highest earners around work in sales - and boy, do you need to travel for that."
This, indeed is something very true - many people who managed to achieve notable amounts of money worked in sales. And working in sales brings also benefits when it comes to understanding the human psychology. Plus, is a career which is not that difficult to get into. However, the sales industry is not for everybody - it requires a certain type of personality; if you think that you have the right personality for sales, then this may be the wisest choice.

redundantmortgage

I've already ruled out trying to become a pilot because of the time it would take to make big money, not to mention substantial training costs. Train driver I'm gathering doesn't pay as much as you'd think it would.

Unfortunately I'm not cut out to be a salesman, one thing that's held me back in my career is that I've never really got the hang of networking.

When I'm out and about I see all sorts of people doing their jobs and just think of myself sitting in a chair looking at a screen all day. Many of them would be getting far less money than me but some will be getting more.

Man wasn't built to sit in an office all day. Even at school, as boring as it was, we at least sat in different classrooms for different lessons and went out to the swimming pool once a week. Not to mention the handful of field trips we used to go on. I feel like I'm doing the most boring lesson on repeat all day every day.

I do plan to quit once the mortgage on our forever home is paid off and my pension is in good shape but that's years away and this monotony is driving me mad.

TELLIT01

Unless you have transferable management skills you aren't going to walk into a new career and earn fantastic money.  That is a totally unrealistic hope.  If you have to start at the bottom again it will take a number of years to move high enough up to ladder to achieve good money.  A potential alternative is self-employment where at least you make all the decisions for yourself.  It certainly wouldn't be monotonous.