Since you are already in the door with the government job, Couldn't you do something else for them? Most local county governments also stripe highways, build bridges and maintain public facilities. I'd be willing to bet they have a space for you somewhere. Who knows? Maybe you might enjoy work of a more physical nature...

lol to Bad cop I would be eccentric enough to be wanting to be in the band RAZORCLAW with the son Lol... I am a bit different from the average parent... I was an example of being held back from the arts and made to pursue science areas in school and I spent years unhappy so If I had a son, and he wanted to do something creative I would be all for it. Cause I know what it's like to be told no by a well meaning parent. I just want Tofu to be happy doing something he wants to do instead of showing up for drudge duty.

laughing here at JanetDog... your forum comments always ALWAYS make me happy and give me a good chuckle. I can see Tofu sweating out in the heat with one of those construction bibs on trying to avoid being hit by a crazy driver.. In SC they even have highway signs that say.."LET THEM LIVE... LET THEM WORK.." because so many highway construction crews were killed on the job. LOL to JanetDog...

My dream of being a web designer is fading away

For those who told you to not upgrade your web skills, I would heartily disagree. The web is only going to get bigger and more advanced, this is only the beginning. Think about what we were doing on the web 10 years ago and think about what we do on the web now. Dude, it is totally night and day and 10 years from now it will be even more advanced.

Even if you just know ASP and HTML, you are ahead of the curve. Take a look at Facebook, MySpace, and Youtube, they are not entirely complicated things to program but they are meeting the demand for more online interaction. People are becoming more and more social online (*cough *cough THIS site).

Bottom line, though is to find something you love to do and do it well. And hey, if that doesn't work you can always be a gigilo!

Todd I'm not as good looking as you so gigolo is not an option for me.

This weekend has been long and flown by fast at the same time. My emotions have been all over the board and back several times. The idea of doing something new is exciting. The prospect of not making enough money to keep the house I just bought two years ago is terrifying.

I've come to decide that no matter what I'll be going back to school. Whether that's full time or not depends on how my finances look when I'm done at the county.

Unfortunately I'm pretty much guaranteed that I'll have to cash in my retirement plan so that I can have a buffer. The only way around this would be to get a job that pays the same or more than what I currently make. I don't see that as being very likely.

Anyone know how state pension systems work? I've never looked into them. I desperately need to know if I can cash out my pension for a financial buffer while either looking for work or going to school. I know I'll pay taxes on the money but if I can cash it out early then I can go to school earlier. Not to mention the buffer that it would give me. Yeah it would suck to lose that much retirement fund buildup. But if things work out with a job then I could move the money to managed funds and hopefully not be down that much.

Bro..when you are talking about things like cashing in your pension, you're talking about gambling your future. I hope you don't mind me saying this, but gambling what you already have to finance 'an investment' such as re-educating yourself is something you need to think over during a long period of time. Personally I'd do a little study on finances in the Word. There's actually a lot there. If you're considering giving up your home, take into account the idea that when our economy finally recovers , property is going to double in value everywhere in a very short period of time, and depending where you are could be much higher. That's the time to consider downgrading to a smaller home and taking the huge profits to finance school, and a new career. You'd keep your pension fund, still have a home, and no new loan debts. Take a class at a time in the evenings for now, hone your new skills and be patient till the economy turns. It will turn around--it always does. If you truly believe you can take risks and be successful, then all my best hopes for you. (not sarcasm) it also may be a good idea to know when you're figuring these things out, how much and if your wife will receive a Soc. Sec. check if you were to pass away, and the status of life insurances.
As a middle aged man , if I saw those particular things were in place and able to provide for my family..it would greatly ease my mind when looking at such a change in lifestyle, and career course.

tofu has tried the striping the highway thing...that didn't work out too well....

Tofu,

There is much wisdom in what Scion said.

About twenty miles up the road from you is a UW campus at Stevens Point. I don't know how large it is, but it must be larger than a community college, because your state's website lists those seperately. Universities hire programmers and techies of all sorts. I'd check them out. I'd also look at other UW campuses and CC's that are within reasonable driving distance.

Also, check out this webpage: http://wiscjobs.state.wi.us/public/index.asp It's the civil service job search site for Wisconsin. I searched for IT jobs and found many. I don't know if any would suit you, but it can't hurt to take a look.

I'd guess that your pension is part of the state employee's retirement system. Here in NY, you can borrow against your retirement contributions, but you can't cash it in, the last I checked. Call your retirement system to find out how this stuff works. Be careful, though. I'm with Scion on risking the future. Re-educate yourself on the side. Security of the family comes first.

Imho.

--twk

Hi TofMan,

just saw your thread here. As I think you know, I've been free-lance design (web/graphics) for almost 10 years now. It has been a fun ride for sure and I've had a lot of sweat drop off my nads too (for many reasons). You have much more control of you life if you freelance, but you may not always be happy that you have that control.

I think schooling is ALWAYS good, but I hope you pick something that will allow you a fair chance of being employed / employable when you get out. I get Manic-D's JUST DO IT thang, but after almost 50 years of "life stuff" I've noticed that people that do well at life are the ones that make it EASIER for God to provide the miracle for them And Bad Cop has a good point about you prolly starting out a long way from 70K/yr and it is also true that the New Young Meddling Kids are always ready to undercut you by hundreds of dollars - they don't care, they're living with ma & pa and don't have the financial challenges you might have. I'm not trying to FEAR MONGER here, but taking a check of the pond's bottom before you jump from that tree branch is usually a wise idea.

All this being said, if you are reasonably intelligent and have some gumption, then I do find that ANY change can be a GOOD change for a person. I have found that a door closing usually does set one up to find a couple more have just opened.

Best of luck whatever you end up doing!

you mean we will watch even better porn?!?

I hear what you're saying Joe. And, to an extent, I agree. However the area where I live has an area economy that is very depressed right now. Just down the road is a town that's booming. I helps that they have a major highway running right by the town. My town doesn't have that fortune. We're smack in the middle of the state but 20-30 miles from the largest highway. It's an old union town with a union mentality. Now the paper factories are canning people and there's not enough local industry to absorb the unemployment hit.

I know it's not a good idea to dip into retirement. But I have to look at the worse-case scenarios and all of my options for handling those scenarios. That's why I have to look at my pension and retirement as savings (both future and now).

As far as life insurance goes; my wife is set if I die. There's enough for her to completely payoff the house, send both kids through college, and send herself back to school as well. That policy is not tied to my employer at all.

Thanks, twk, for the site pointer. I'll check that out when I get home tonight. Everything is Wisconsin is within driving distance if you give yourself enough time for driving.

I do know about UWSP. You can't live around here without knowing about UWSP. That's actually where I'll probably be going back to school. Other options are UW-Madison or Lakeland College via distance learning programs. But I hadn't thought to check on their IT jobs. I know many of their IT jobs are filled by students. I know this because the county IT I work for hired three if UWSP's little IT whippersnappers.

Reinman I hear you loud and clear. I am most definitely trying to position myself for employment over self-employment. My goal is to get into another computer-related job and then be able to do more "side-job" stuff besides the computer tuning that I currently do. I have many ideas on the side-jobs front and I just need to secure the primary-job portion first.

One thing I have going for me is my age compared to the ages of my kids. My son is half-way through his junior year of high school. My daughter will be a sophmore next year. Basically I'll be in my early 40's when both of my kids are out of the house. So at least some living expenses will be cut down here soon. The next 3-4 years might be tough but we'll get through them somehow.

Burn it before you leave!!!