Oftentimes change is forced upon us. This can certainly be the case for baby boomers when they lose a job after 20 years and must scramble to find another job and start dipping into savings to survive.
There are two ways to look at Change when it happens to us baby boomers. One, refuse to accept it and prolong the agony or embrace it by taking positive actions. More on that below.
First, as a baby boomer, understand that it is more likely to happen as you grow older. If you have been with a company for 20 or 30 years, your salary has likely climbed over the years and as companies are looking to shed costs, you may find yourself on the chopping block. Unfortunately, this is a fact of life. Understanding that it can happen will help you to be more prepared when it occurs.
Being 50+ years of age and trying to find a job can be a daunting task. Yes, there is pockets of age discrimination in the work place, but you can still find a job. Don’t give up!
You have a Choice
I discussed earlier, there are two responses to forced change, i.e. change was forced upon you, but you have a choice in how you react to the change.
You can Wallow in Self-Pity
I have a friend that was laid-off from a tech job. The technology in his area was changing and he had not upgraded his skills. He refused to gain new skills and looked for jobs in his current expertise and those jobs were few and far between. He was very frustrated and angry at the job loss. He still is. I’d like to tell you he was the only person that responded that way. He wasn’t.
Or you can look to the Change with Excitement
While no one wants to be out of a job, as a baby boomer there can be advantages.
- Your kids are likely on their own.
While there can be valid reasons to stay in the same area because your children and grandchildren live close to you. However, for many baby boomers, their kids have taken jobs in other cities and in some cases, such as mine, other countries. There may not be a reason to stay in the current location. Which leads to the second point.
- You can widen your job search.
You may be in a city that has a poor job market. There is nothing like getting dumped into the unemployment line with like-skilled people, fighting over a diminishing number of jobs. There are many parts of the country that are doing well (national unemployment is 4.1% as of early April 2018). Being willing to move to another State opens more job opportunities to you. The sunbelt (those States such as Texas, North and South Carolina, Florida and Arizona) have been steadily growing for years. As of 2010, 7 of the 10 largest cities were in the Sunbelt. To give you an example, Dallas in 1970 had 844,401 and Houston population was 1,232,802. By 2010 Dallas population was 1,197,816 and Houston was 2,099,451. Impressive growth for each because companies are either moving their headquarters or expanding their footprint. In contrast, Chicago’s population in 1970 was 3,366,957 and in 2010 it was 2,695,598.
St. Louis has had a dramatic population drop over the last several decades. In 1950, St. Louis was the 8th largest city with a population of 896,796 and by 2010, 60 years later, it was 319,289, a drop of a whopping 577,000. People move to where the jobs are.
- It can be cheaper to live in a new City
If you live in San Jose, New York or Chicago, where the cost of living is very high, finding a job that pays a little less, but the cost of living is much lower, can be a blessing. Let me give you an example. The cost of living in Chicago is 11% higher than Raleigh, NC
Raleigh, NC is in what is known as Research Triangle Park (RTP), which is made up of the cities of Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill. When you factor in rent between the two areas, the cost of living in Chicago is 25.4% higher. Sales tax in Raleigh is 7.25%, but in Chicago it is 10.25%, the highest in the nation. This is just one of the many higher taxes in Chicago.
A $475,000 house in Raleigh has real estate taxes of less than $3,000. In Chicago, (Cook County), it is $10,600 for a $475,000 house. And by the way, you get a lot more house in Raleigh. State income tax in Illinois is 4.95% and in North Carolina it is 5.75% so it is a bit higher in North Carolina. However, in 2011, Illinois made a temporary tax increase from 3% to 4.95% and after $18 billion that has been raised via this tax, the “temporary” tax increase is still in effect 7 years later. And Illinois it still broke, owing $200 billion in pensions.
So, if you are in a high tax city and State and you lose your job, there are many desirable locations in the US where you can find an excellent job and have lower taxes. And that little bit of money that comes from a lower cost of living, (or a lot, in the case of Chicago).
Part of accepting Change sometimes means the need to acquire new skills.
New Skills
There are 3 things you can do when you have additional time on your hands because you are not working.
- You can upgrade your current skills, so you are more employable
Studies have shown that there has been an increase in the number of college students that are older than 50. A survey by PNC Financial Services found that more than half of retirees 70 or younger retired before they had originally intended; 40 percent did so because of health-related issues and 26 percent because of layoffs, forced early retirements or other issues with their employers.
- You can get skills in a new area
While it will be easier to find a job by upgrading your skills in your current expertise, there are also opportunities to acquire a complete different skillsets. I have a friend that took early retirement from an IT management job and went back to school to get a degree in library management. Today, he is employed by a local library.
- Start your own business either on a part-time basis or a full-time basis; but start it
You’ll need to acquire new skills as an entrepreneur because it takes a different skill set to run your own business. Use this time to learn how to start a business (my other blog posts have information on this). Take the initiative, don’t lament the loss of a job, but rather have a positive attitude and see this as a new adventure. Take advantage of this time of change. Utilize this time to develop business ideas and craft a business for yourself and truly go for it.
In his 2011 commencement address at Dartmouth, Conan O’Brien described how he had pursued one dream for 25 years – to host the Tonight Show. When he lost the dream, he had to develop a new vision of himself as a successful person. “Whatever you think your dream is now,” he told graduating seniors, “it will probably change.”