Maryan was married for over 20 years. Her husband traveled a lot on business and was often away for long periods at a time.
“So, I was really self-sufficient in the day-to-day stuff,” said Maryan. “I either knew how to do it or how to pay for it.” However, while she handled all the bill paying, her husband rejected her attempts at being involved in the investing of their assets.
“Whenever I would say things like, we ought to diversify, we ought to have some blue chips not just dot com stocks, do we have any bonds?” recalled Maryan, “the response was always, ‘what do you know? You don’t know anything. Just leave it to me.'”
So, when she divorced, the biggest change in day-to-day living was taking responsibility for her investments. “I realized I needed to learn how to do this and I needed to learn how to do it well.” At the same time, Maryan wasn’t having much luck getting a marketing job so she decided to join a stockbroker firm and train to be a financial planner.
That meant studying for state and national licensing, and financial planning accreditation. My previous work experience was in the financial services sector and I know firsthand these exams are not easy and are a lot of work but Maryan found it was natural fit for her. “I was amazed. It just came to me.”
The hardest part was the networking she had to do.
“I can be very outgoing once I know someone but I can also be very reserved if I don’t know people. I would have to go to these networking meetings and would have to steal myself before I walked in the room and walk in with a big smile on my face, introduce myself and say what my business was and what I could do to help people.”
Now with her training behind her, Maryan is loving her new career and feels she has a talent for investing. “And if I hadn’t gotten divorced I never would have known that,” she laughs.
If you’re like Maryan and had a complete change in career after your divorce, please share your story – you can leave a comment or email me directly. And if you’ve never handled your investments, then Maryan has some advice for you: find a financial adviser you can trust – they’re not all like Bernie Madoff. More on that to come ….
Photo Credit: Tracy O at Flickr