Starting over at 50 and broke. How to reset and rebuild your finances at 50.
Starting over at 50 and broke is going to be a scary experience.
It’s going to take all your skills and experience to reset yourself and start rebuilding your life.
At 50, the idea of starting again can feel overwhelming.
After a significant life change like a career, financial or relationship setback will take time and effort to start again.
Reviewing what you are good at, love doing, people will pay you for and the world needs are going to be a great place to figure out what to do next at 50.
Recovering and rebuilding is going to be a process to refocus your efforts and relaunch yourself.
If you are starting over at 50, you will probably need to manage your money carefully to work towards a comfortable life now and in retirement.
Read on to hear what steps you can take starting over at 50 with no money.
Photo by Kendall Scott on Unsplash
How do you start over at 50?
If you are starting over again at 50, the first thing to do might be to ease off on the 50 bit.
This might help remove some of the pressure that being 50 is the problem.
It’s not; being 50 has a host of advantages also. Play to your strengths, not your age.
Spend some time thinking about what good would look like now.
- What goals do you have? If you don’t have any goals, what are your best guesses for what a great life would look like?
- What are you good at in your professional and personal life?
- What do you like doing in your professional and personal life?
- What might you get paid for in the above in either a job or a side hustle?
- How can you make a difference with your skills and abilities locally or further afield?
These questions might help you discover several options or avenues to restart, rebuild or relaunch your life or career at 50.
The answers to the above will hopefully identify what’s going to make you happy.
How do I start over with no money at 50?
Reset your finances:
How drastically you reset your finances depends a little on how bad things are for you.
First of all, steady the ship. Stop all the leaks in your finances.
Review all your income and outgoing cash.
Is it going on things that are needed? Could you cut back or cut out anything?
Get a pen and paper, spreadsheet or an app and start tracking what is going on. Review and adjust every week and month.
Recover your finances:
Start by setting up an emergency fund.
3,6 or12 months living costs in cash in an easy access account.
This money is to help you ride out any storms that come your way.
Your emergency fund is there to stop you taking on debt to deal with a crisis.
Put a plan together to get rid of your debt. It’s an unwelcome guest that needs to be shown the door.
Rebuild your finances:
Pay yourself first – this means save first and then spend what’s left, not the other way.
Collect free money. If you are an employee, there is likely to be a worked based pension. Make sure you are making the most of the free money on offer.
Find your old pensions to understand where you stand in terms of retirement.
Relaunch your finances:
What do you want your money to do for you?
Buy more stuff or more freedom?
Thinking about what will bring you’re the most freedom might help refocus how or what you use your money on.
Relaunching your finances might mean looking for ways to make more money through a career change or starting your own business.
This may be a full-time or part-time side hustle to try and increase the sources and amount of funds flowing into your bank account.
Working more hours will bring in more money, but it may come at the price of freedom.
Reality might mean getting a job that pays in the short term but not forgetting in the long term when you want work to become optional what job or side hustle will help that the most.
Only take considered risks; trying to make up for lost time by getting involved in get-rich-quick schemes might backfire badly.
How can a 50 year old make money?
At 50 you will have a lot of life and work experience.
Look at the skills and experience you have that can be matched to jobs that are out there.
You may need to refresh your CV or interview skills if you have not done this for a while.
Using your network would be a good place to start to see who has any opportunities out there that might be right for you.
You could look at finding a 9-5 style job, either full-time or part-time and or also look at starting your own side hustle to earn income.
Creating your own job and, even better, an asset that earns you money while you sleep might be a great way to form the type of work that doesn’t feel like work.
Could you consult or mentor people on
- The things you are good at.
- The things you love doing.
- Your work and life experiences
Could you do the above in person or on the internet?
- one-to-one like coaching or mentoring
- one too many on webinars
- or non-to-many like blogging, YouTube, or courses.
You may need to revise your CV to reflect your current skills and experience.
Find work, then find or create work you love.
FAQ: How to start over at 50 with no money?
How to start over at 50
Starting again at 50 is not going to be that appealing but at least you have a good idea of what you don’t want anymore. Figuring out how to start again at 50 is going to involve 4 steps.
1)Getting very clear on what good looks like going forward.
2) Figuring out the actions you are going to need to take to reach your new health, wealth, and happiness goals.
3) Looking at your means or money flow. How or where is the money going to come from or be created to pay for your lifestyle – how will you create the assets you need to create the cash flow you need?
4) Review and revise as you go, course correcting as you go.
Broke at 50?
Starting over after 50 and broke is going to take some radical action to get you back on track. How to start over at 50 with no money is going to involve a few clear steps.
Get a clear picture of your finances, and figure out your net worth and cash flow.
Stop any bleeding i.e. money that is just bleeding out of your accounts for no good reason.
Working on clearing any expensive debt.
Start rebuilding your credit score by using free credit score apps to review and correct the damage done.
Start saving: save first and spend what’s left not the other way around.
Collect the free money from any employer’s pension contributions.
Save up an emergency fund of at least 3-6 months.
Then start investing for the future in income-producing assets like stocks, property, and businesses.
Keep doing this until you are wealthy.
Summary: Starting over at 50 and broke
Starting over at 50 and broke will be tough, but you can recover and rest your life and finances with a plan and a few clear actions.
Spending some time focusing on what good looks like now will help you start in the right direction.
Figuring out what you’re good at and like doing will be a good pointer on earning money so that work doesn’t feel like work.
It may also hint at what people will pay for a potential side hustle.
Stabilizing and rebuilding your finances through paying yourself first, budgeting and setting up an emergency fund will help set you for launching your money and your life.
Anyway, those are my thoughts on starting over at 50 and broke; let me know yours in the comments below.
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