{"id":172564,"date":"2025-11-10T04:54:17","date_gmt":"2025-11-10T04:54:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/172564\/"},"modified":"2025-11-10T04:54:17","modified_gmt":"2025-11-10T04:54:17","slug":"im-49-and-treated-unbearably-at-work-though-i-dont-have-as-much-money-as-id-like-i-want-to-work-for-myself-but-how","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/172564\/","title":{"rendered":"I\u2019m 49 and treated \u2018unbearably\u2019 at work. Though I don\u2019t have as much money as I\u2019d like, I want to work for myself. But how?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Question: <\/strong>\u201cI\u2019m turning 50 and don\u2019t have as much money as I\u2019d like but I am working. I get sick a lot and need some guidance because I don\u2019t want to work for a corporation anymore where people treat you unbearably. I want to invest in my own business. Is hiring a financial adviser the first step in figuring out if this is even possible? What kind of financial pro should I look for to help me determine whether this is feasible?\u201d<\/p>\n

Answer: <\/strong>As much fun and fresh as it may sound to own your own business, it\u2019s also a tremendous amount of work, not to mention, rather risky. \u201cIt can take years for privately owned businesses to turn profitable [if they ever do]. You need to have enough cash to live on during the time period that you\u2019re building the business,\u201d says Mary Clements Evans, certified financial planner, behavioral finance expert and author of Emotionally Invested: Unlocking the Hidden Drivers of Your Financial Decisions. (You can use this free tool from our partner SmartAsset that can match you to a fiduciary adviser<\/a>, as well as resources like NAPFA and the CFP Board.)<\/p>\n

Have an issue with your financial planner or looking for a new one? Email questions or concerns to picks@marketwatch.com<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Advice for starting your own business<\/p>\n

The most important thing Evans says you need to do up front is prepare a comprehensive business plan. \u201cThere are some CPAs and financial advisers that can help you. There might also be a local college that will offer those services,\u201d says Evans.<\/p>\n

Aside from the financial intel you might benefit from, there\u2019s also something to be said for learning skills to help you navigate starting your own company. For his part, serial entrepreneur Sam Miller, CEO and co-founder of digital payment platform Kasheesh, says the best advice he ever got was, \u201cIf you want an MBA, start a business. You\u2019re going to learn the most from the school of hard knocks more than anything else. There is no crash course in entrepreneurship. The best way to learn is to commit to doing something and in that process, build with purpose and surround yourself with people who share in your vision,\u201d says Miller.<\/p>\n

While some people in your position might opt for creating a business plan, Miller says having a good deck is better. \u201cYour business shouldn\u2019t need 10 pages of explanation. You will eventually create a roadmap but for any entrepreneur who is pre-seed or just starting out, spend time in creating the idea instead of creating a business plan,\u201d says Miller.<\/p>\n

Karla Dennis, CEO and founder of the tax strategy firm KDA, Inc., says it\u2019s key to learn both formally and informally. \u201cThere\u2019s no shortage of classes and educational platforms that can teach you how to start and run a business. You can choose a formal route like a community college or online university class, visit a small business development center or a more informal one like self-help courses or series on YouTube or Udemy,\u201d says Dennis.<\/p>\n

Still, some pros believe the old school path to branching out on your own requires certain educational courses and a strong business plan. Evans says most universities have classes on becoming an entrepreneur. \u201cI recommend you make sure that you have marketing and accounting classes. These are two skills vital to the success of any business and most startups don\u2019t have the cash to hire these. You\u2019ll also need a strong business plan. You can purchase workbooks online, fill them out and see if you can find an experienced financial person to review it with you,\u201d says Evans.<\/p>\n

Note that online platforms like YouTube often feature real business owners who have actually started companies and can give you practical, step-by-step advice based on experience, says Dennis. \u201cA big bonus is the free advice you can receive as a lot of these content creators will answer your questions when you post it under their comments,\u201d says Dennis.<\/p>\n

Do you need a financial planner to help?<\/p>\n

It could help, pros say. \u201cPreviously, it was nearly impossible to find a financial planner willing to work with a client who didn\u2019t have a substantial investment portfolio. Today, some excellent professionals offer financial planning services on an hourly or project-based basis,\u201d says certified financial planner Alonso Rodriguez Segarra at Advise Financial. (You can use this free tool from our partner SmartAsset that can match you to a fiduciary adviser<\/a>, as well as resources like NAPFA and the CFP Board.)<\/p>\n

For reference, hourly advisers generally cost between $200 and $500 per hour while project-based advisers can charge between $1,500 and $7,500 depending on the scope of work.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Segarra says many of the professionals operating under hourly and project-based relationships are also entrepreneurs who may be well aware of how difficult it is to start a new business. \u201cThey understand the general precautions they would have liked to have taken before embarking on the great adventure of being an entrepreneur and they can help guide you along the way,\u201d says Segarra. <\/p>\n

Have an issue with your financial planner or looking for a new one? Email questions or concerns to picks@marketwatch.com<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Other things to consider<\/p>\n

\u201cYou need to be clear about what your business will offer clients, how you plan to finance a start-up, what the costs will be and how you will pay your business expenses and personal expenses while establishing yourself as a business,\u201d says certified financial planner Deborah Ellis at Ellis Wealth Planning. <\/p>\n

You\u2019ll also need to consider how much time you\u2019ll have available to work on this project if you\u2019re often ill and can\u2019t work. \u201cConsider what your business would be, what knowledge, equipment, education and background you would need to proceed and what the initial start-up costs would be. Take a hard look at how long you would need to support yourself and your business until it becomes cash positive and include a buffer,\u201d says Ellis.<\/p>\n

Once you\u2019ve taken more initial steps and you have a clear goal, a financial adviser can help you work out the details. \u201cFinancial advisers generally specialize in specific areas, so you need to have a good understanding of what you require from an adviser [before you start working with one],\u201d says Ellis. (You can use this free tool from our partner SmartAsset that can match you to a fiduciary adviser<\/a>, as well as resources like NAPFA and the CFP Board.)<\/p>\n

Have an issue with your financial planner or looking for a new one? Email questions or concerns to picks@marketwatch.com<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Questions edited for brevity and clarity. By emailing your questions to The Advicer, you agree to have them published anonymously on MarketWatch; they may appear anonymously in other media and platforms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Question: \u201cI\u2019m turning 50 and don\u2019t have as much money as I\u2019d like but I am working. I…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":172565,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[177],"tags":[2552,79,41572,15436,41570,13782,41584,41559,41565,18,41571,47522,18131,19,41586,3442,41557,17,41588,47521,234,235,786,19363,41589,41574,6158,41569,11309,41575,41590,41576,26243,10654],"class_list":{"0":"post-172564","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-analysis","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-ce-executive-news-filter","11":"tag-capital-expenditure","12":"tag-content-types","13":"tag-corporate","14":"tag-corporate-strategy","15":"tag-corporate-strategy-planning","16":"tag-corporate-industrial-news","17":"tag-eire","18":"tag-factiva-filters","19":"tag-financial-investment-services","20":"tag-financial-services","21":"tag-ie","22":"tag-industrial-news","23":"tag-investing","24":"tag-investing-securities","25":"tag-ireland","26":"tag-medium-businesses","27":"tag-mpsmartasset","28":"tag-personal-finance","29":"tag-personalfinance","30":"tag-planning","31":"tag-securities","32":"tag-selection-of-top-stories","33":"tag-selection-of-top-stories-trends-analysis","34":"tag-small","35":"tag-small-medium-businesses","36":"tag-starting-a-business","37":"tag-suggested-reading-industry-news","38":"tag-suggested-reading-investing","39":"tag-suggested-reading-investing-securities","40":"tag-synd","41":"tag-trends"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=172564"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172564\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/172565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=172564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=172564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}