Company Downsizing

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thebbqguy
Posts: 436
Joined: Mon Feb 18, 2013 2:33 am
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Company Downsizing

Post by thebbqguy »

My company is in the midst of a down sizing exercise.

There is no indication I will be leaving but there's no guarantee I won't either.

It appears there is up to a 6 month time horizon for these actions.

I would like to start earning extra money in some way. I am a process auditor manager, have financial analyst experience, and have lots of procedure writing experience, and have been a supervisor for 17 years so leveraging my day job into a second income doesn't seem possible.

I have no tradesman skills. I think I could learn grant writing fairly quickly, but it's by no means a high paying job. But I am a good carp fisherman. :-)

I don't play an instrument, have a skill I can teach classes on, etc. That people will pay for anyway.

Any ideas for ways to earn extra money?

I am in a bit of a "down" period because I never imagined I'd be in this position. It's a direct result of the tariffs someone decided to implement that have had unintended consequences.

I have $480k in 401k, $150k in home equity, $60k in savings and a pension accrual. I thought I was in a good position, but the next 10 years might be different than I've planned for the past 22 years.
Last edited by thebbqguy on Sat Oct 06, 2018 9:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Optimal_Solution
Posts: 57
Joined: Tue May 07, 2013 4:56 pm

Re: Company Downsizing

Post by Optimal_Solution »

That sucks. At least it sounds like you have the time and resources to make a transition to one or more other income sources.

Did you have a question?

DutchGirl
Posts: 1646
Joined: Tue Sep 06, 2011 1:49 pm
Location: The Netherlands

Re: Company Downsizing

Post by DutchGirl »

Sorry to hear that, bbqguy!

I don't know your line of work. But wouldn't it be better to "just" start looking for a different job right now? It seems like there should be other companies out there who are (still) hiring? For an auditing position, financial position or a managerial position...

On the other hand, it might be possible to still survive well with a lower-paying (parttime?) job. I don't know how much money you had hoped to get before calling yourself financially independent? But with a total of $690k plus pension rights (plus home equity?), it might be possible to downsize to a lower-paying job to sustain yourself for a couple of years while you let your savings grow. Or it might be possible to quit altogether, possibly by moving to a lower-cost area.

Good luck!

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Seppia
Posts: 2016
Joined: Tue Aug 30, 2016 9:34 am
Location: South Florida

Re: Company Downsizing

Post by Seppia »

Sorry to hear, hopefully everything will be ok, but as you're doing better to plan for the worst.
Definitely start looking for a new job immediately in your line of work.
Then, unless you are already in "advanced ERE mode", probably looking into cutting expenses will be faster to implement VS adding income -> you could start with that.

When I glance at your situation, the first things that come to my mind are
1- you're in pretty good shape overall
2- if there's one thing you're lacking is accessible investments: 401k isn't very fungible, house is not very liquid, pension is accruing, leaving you with "only" 60k.
60k isn't small by any means, but it's small relative to the total of your assets.
Try tighten the belt and add to that fund

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