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[quote=Anonymous]I'm 50 years old, my youngest child starts college next year. and I have enough money saved that in addition to paying the kids' college costs I could afford to stop working for a few years, go back to school, and subsequently have relatively low paid jobs for a while. I very am tempted to completely change careers: I am just tired of what I do, though I earn a very comfortable living, it's a "high prestige" job, I am successful and well known in it, blah blah blah.

I am toying with various "crazy" ideas: becoming a nurse; getting an MBA and starting my own consulting practice; going to do an MFA in creative writing and trying my hand at writing fiction....

I know that sounds a little schizophrenic, but these very disparate things are all things I have thought seriously about at different stages of my life.

Part of me thinks: don't be stupid, you'd have to start all over again, you won't like being at the bottom of the totem pole and being in school with classmates who seem like kids, people will think you're completely nuts, you "could" afford it but it will require a much-reduced standard of living, reduced retirement savings, less money as a cushion later, less money to help kids if they need it -- so stick with what you have, enjoy the fruits of an adulthood of hard work, and maybe do a little volunteer work on the side - become a volunteer EMT, do some consulting on the side, do some writing on the side, but don't go "throwing away" 25 years of a career.

But another part of me thinks: I'm healthy, I'm fit, I don't smoke or drink, and I probably have another 25-30 years or more of good health ahead of me. When you think about it that's about the same time as I have spent building my current career. 25-30 years is plenty of time to build a successful career from scratch, and it's a very long time to stick with something that by now bores me. We only get one life; if I think one of these other pathways is the pathway I "should" have taken the first time around, why spend the next phase of what could be a long life thinking about what could have been?

Anyone on this board been through a major career shift after 50? Happy with it? Regretful? I'd love to hear other people's thoughts and experiences. [/quote]

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