How to Survive When Your Dream Job Comes with a Pay Cut

Going ahead, you have the option of following your calling in life blindly. People, money, relationships should take a back seat while you dive headlong into it. Or you can follow a more realistic path. When we decide to take up work that we love we need to follow a few steps to make sure that the experience does not turn into a sour one. This is specially the case when the pay from your dream is poor and you have a family to feed.

You cannot take a plunge into something new without prior planning and this becomes even more important if you have a family to fend for. So make sure you save a tidy sum from your present fulltime job. You will need the financial buffer. Make sure you don’t have a debt to your name, if any clear it off before you make the change. You don’t need additional financial burden on you henceforth. Credit cards should probably just be kept for emergencies.

Make a budget, a monthly one and then make the necessary lifestyle changes to fit your new budget. You might have to make a lot of sacrifices while you transit into your dream job especially if it involves a pay cut. Don’t eat out, sell off unwanted things in your house, move to a smaller house, get a smaller car, do everything possible to cut down on your living cost. If you are willing to do this then you are moving in the right direction.

The next question that you should analyse is will your dream job be enough for you to self-sustain over the long term. Will in due course of time the returns increase. Initially you might be happy to just break-even, but will that be good enough over the course of the years to come.

You have to accept the fact that there will be a learning curve. Any new venture or job will require a time frame to grow; this phase shouldn’t faze you out. This is the time when your savings come handy.

Getting a part time job or moonlighting is another way to sustain yourself while you do your dream job. It will help you to keep yourself financially afloat without digging into your savings.

Another way to go about this would be to incorporate your dream job in your life while keeping your regular job. Your regular job is there to finance your lifestyle as well as your passions. This of course would depend on the nature of your dream job, if it has the flexibility to fit into your daily routine. For example, if you want to take up painting, you can take it up, all the while keeping your fulltime job.

Being self-reliant is really good. But when you are making a career change it is advisable to seek help from whomsoever ready to extend a helping hand. There might be people in your family and your social circle who want to see you follow your dream. This being said, make sure you don’t become completely dependent. Someone else bearing your financial burden for too while you do your dream job might just lead to bad blood.

Also, make sure you spouse and children, if any, are completely on board with your plans. You will need their support.

Most of us suffer from optimism bias. Now that’s a good thing most of the time, it is what pushes us to do things. But when we need a realistic outlook and view about what we plan to do, it’s time to seek counsel of people we trust and we should be open to criticism and their opinion. This will help us prepare for the worst.

When we do something on the side or as a recreational activity it’s usually a lot of fun, but when that activity becomes your full time job, something you have to do every day, then it might not be as much fun and soon might lacklustre. Work is called work for a reason.

If things don’t work out keep the option of returning back to your previous job open. Keep your knowledge of your previous industry up-to-date, if you have to go back, it will come in handy.

Once you have planned and prepared for the change, it’s time to take the leap of faith and commit. Remember job well begun is half done. Rest your hard work and resilience will take you all the way.