What's Your New Plan B?
In Boston, Ma, law firms are laying off attorneys with only 2-3 months' severance.
In Merrimack NH, investment firms are cutting thousands of jobs across the board.
In Washington, DC, Fortune 500 accounting firms are stripping travel and marketing from budgets in order to save jobs - but only through June (3 more months).
When the New York Times ran a story about Plan B (February 7, 2009), they talked about dream retirement jobs being brought forward to become second careers long before retirement age. For example, a lawyer who runs a florist business out of his apartment at night; a controller of a Wall Street firm who sells furniture out of her basement in NJ; an ex-securities trader who runs an 'Aussie Pet Mobile' franchise.
If your job is not quite as secure as it was a year ago, what is Plan B? If you think you could find a similar job at equivalent pay quickly in the States, think again.
If Ever. . . .Then Now
If you've ever thought about moving abroad... If you ever thought about starting your own business...Now is the time to dust off those goals and dreams.
The New Plan B relies heavily on improvisation, so how about creating that dream job in your retirement location? Why wait?
The benefit of this global recession is that people are seeing the writing on the wall. They are awakening to the idea that they can't hide from it anymore. That this time, it applies to them too. People realize they need to segue into work they prefer, work they control, work they enjoy NOW. They can't wait until 'retirement age'. They need to start now.
With plummeting real estate values and net worth, along with increasing costs of living in the States, why are you waiting to launch Plan B?
As a society we are being pulled to get very creative about how we run our day-to-day business, how we earn a living, how we interact with each other. No one has to apologize for starting something new on their own. In fact, that resourcefulness is imperative in the current risk averse environment.
Waste is out. Entrepreneurship is in. Extravagance is out and frugality is in. Simplicity has returned. Bring all those superior skills you have and training you've mastered to a new market - a market hungry for what you can deliver, where you can add value.
The push towards a more creative, genuinely useful livelihood is on! If you pay attention, this can ultimately have a whole lot to do with living your life purpose.
You don't have to wait until you get laid off, your retirement accounts recover or you reach 'retirement age'. You can start now.
It's International Too
It's not just in the States. It's international too.
As an American (or anyone raised and educated in 1st world countries like the USA, Canada, Western Europe, Australia, Japan), you have a unique advantage moving to any developing country. You bring cultural assets: skills, education, values and a work ethic, which enhance the business environment where you choose to set up shop, to earn your livelihood.
When I was an English teacher in Benin, West Africa, I expected to give each class one quiz/week and one exam/month, similar to what high school English teachers deliver in the States. My students were accustomed to 1-2 quizzes/semester and 1-2 exams/semester. In the end, I had to compromise on my standards (1 quiz/month and 2 exams/semester) simply because I could not keep up with correcting so many papers for 370 students.
However, because I expected all my students to succeed in English, not just the top students, I doubled the number of students who passed the national exam (from 25% to 50%) in the two years I taught in that regional high school.
In fact, it's your cultural assets that will increase the likelihood and accelerate the success of your new Plan B in paradise. You bring more to the table than you think you do as an expat. Get started now.