Much has been written about career training. There is career training that adds to your career skills, other training helps with managing others and team building. Still other training hones in on special skills like selling, technology, engineering, and marketing.
However there is one area that many neglect in their career training. Get this wrong and all the other skills that you work so hard at mastering will be diminished in proportion to your lack of attention to this critical area.
Over a working career you can expect to earn in excess of $2,000,000 or more. How you effectively manage these funds will have a considerable impact on your career and beyond.
A few years back in a conversation with the chairman of the board of a Fortune 500 company he related how he redesigned his career training, which over time had a major impact on his overall career. He was in his late 30's at the time and seemingly going nowhere in the company. Working in the comptroller's office as a junior accountant he was frustrated with his career progress. His future did not look to him as all that bright.
Although making a decent salary, if he did not distinguish himself, he could expect small annual raises and if someone left or retired get a modest promotion. In his career plan he was looking for more.
So he and his wife put together a strict saving and investing plan. They called it their "drop dead" plan. Their plan was when the fund reached sufficient size he would have the financial resources to tell the employer to "drop dead," quit the job and then do whatever he desired.
So he embarked on a career training program to become knowledgeable about investing, mutual funds, allocations of his 401k plan, and the economy in general. He had glossed over many of these areas while in college but, he admitted, he was mainly ignorant of the fine points of managing his savings and investments. So he put together a plan of reading and self study on investing in particular and the workings of the economy in general.
Over the next few years when tempted to buy a new car rather than a used three year old vehicle the "drop dead" fund pulled him back to reality. When others went to the Caribbean on their vacations he took his family in the summer to a local lake area.
Within a few years as he added to his "drop dead" fund and the investments began compounding he felt he could become more aggressive with his career. He advanced a number of proposals that were approved with significant positive results. This led to other opportunities, a promotion with salary increases, and an acceleration of addition funds into his "drop dead" fund.
He continued to advance his career training. He was promoted to a vice-president position and shortly thereafter his "drop dead" fund reached the point where he could actually tell his employer to "drop dead." Thereafter, he was promoted to CEO and ultimately to Chairman of the Board. He proudly stated his career advancement was as much because he was building his "drop dead" fund and could look at things critically and act independently with no fear of losing his job as any overall executive ability or skills.
Do you have a plan like the Chairman? Are you conversant with all the nuances of saving and investing? How many books have your read in the past year related to saving and investing? Do you maximize the benefits of your 401k plan? Do you look long term?
If not, now is a great time to begin building a financial component into you career training. Training that will develop career options down the road that today you can only dream of. It's never too late for you to develop your own "drop dead" fund.
John Groth is a former HR executive and career coach. Find Career Training Ideas, valuable articles and a free seven day career planning guide. Discover up to date career and recruitment strategies at our Career Planning Guide, all to assist you in advancing and managing your career.
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