DH leaving me - what job can I look at to earn as much as possible?

[changename875467]

Husband has told me he wants to separate. We have children, one of whom is a small baby.
Pre maternity leave I currently work part time, earning circa 12k/year for childcare reasons and obviously will need to change that when he leaves as he is the main earner, much higher than me but I can't see him being able to support us both living in our own homes.

What jobs could I look at that pay well? I have a first class degree from a good uni if it's relevant, and currently work in education but would probably look to move sectors.

Not at all high pay but you can side step the childcare costs by becoming a childminder. Depending where you live and what the rates are you can earn ok money. Where I live working 10 hour days with a baby I could clear £25k easy

I would either stick with education, so you get the school holidays, start training to be an accountant (I've just recruited one with limited experience on £40k), or go into the Civil Service (as they are good with flexibility, and even better on pensions).

Are you a recruiter? You got someone with limited experience an accountancy job for 40k? How? That’s that typical salary of a qualified accountant with five years experience.

I would say the fastest route to earning a good salary with minimal outlay and qualifications as a sales role with minimum bar entry.

You need to be quite ballsy and pushy but I find having kids to fed rely on you does motivate one.

Nope I've just taken on a part qualified accountant for 52k at my company.

The best paying jobs tend to be traditional male jobs. Look at retraining in something male-dominated: IT, train driver, engineer, etc. Ideal would be something related to your degree. Many of these fields are also trying to push D&I initiatives so may help with the cost of retraining.

Source for that? My dad had us 50/50 and still paid child maintenance because he massively outearned my mum.

Aggressive sales people result in me turning around and walking out of the shop/showroom/dealership.

You could, of course, also call his bluff, turn the tables, and tell him to take the kids with him and say you’ll have them every other weekend. Your maintenance would be limited as a low earner and he would have almost full childcare responsibility. Once he realises he could end up (literally) holding the babies, and presumably he wouldn’t want almost full custody, you could use this as a springboard in negotiating the divorce agreement if you can hold your nerve (and get a good lawyer)!

Start your own consultancy in whatever field is your forte. Work from home, choose your hours, be there for the children. It does take time to build up an audience and client base though.

Be a portfolio worker, combining employer and self employment. Several income streams at once. Just tell HM R&C and pay all your tax.

Make sure he pays everything he should, child maintenance is both your responsibility

That’s not even remotely practical as a single parent. You have to do 3 years of training in Swanwick then once qualified you can get allocated a job anywhere in the UK, you don’t get to choose. Hardly practical

Depends what your degree/skills are and how much you have to make and what hours you're willing to do. Like would a basic £35k job do it or do you really need to make bank and retrain?

What jobs can I do to make enough money is not a lot to go on.

Similar for part qualified in my sector too.
they also may pay for you to finish the qualification

There's an age limit for training entry, isn't there?

You think secondary teachers don't?h🤣

That’s not what she’s asking.

I love posts like this. Not anywhere near enough context. You might as well have posted "what am I thinking?". Anyway, good luck. Thanks.

Source 🤣
The CMS calculator
It's based on nights. 50/50 means not payments.

Contracted admin work

If you can find a site nearby you the money in that is really good, especially in renewable energy sector

What would people suggest if you don't have a degree and maths is not your forte?

Secondary teachers don't get any TA support either do they?

That's just my observation though.

I was interested by that answer too considering GCSE and A level prep and preparing more in depth lessons for an older cohort.

Don't pursue a career you have no interest in for the money, it will become unbearable very quickly. As a previous poster mentioned, do what you like and something that interests you. I wouldn’t go into data analysis or IT if you have no interest in them. You need passion to pursue coding, it’s not enough to learn how to code, that will only get you so far.

I spent most of my adult life doing a variety of jobs I was good at, but never truly loved. I made a big career change into a field I was very interested in and had been trying to get into for a while. Eventually I took the plunge, but started at the bottom (temping allowed me to get experience and up-skill quickly by moving around). 2,5 years later I’m in a perm role & on more money than ever; I love my job, and have received rewards, recognition, and promotions at work. It was the best thing I ever did.

If you don’t know what you enjoy, you can temp in an office and figure it out along the way. You won’t have any problems finding an admin job with a degree and work experience behind you. Temping can pay really well & if you dislike anything about it, just move to the next one. Additionally, temping can lead to perm roles, and it’s a fantastic way to network too. I got offered a really good role which paid lots of money from a temp role (which paid not so well), as the manager from another team tried to recruit me (she liked working with me). I seriously considered it, but ultimately didn’t take it as I wasn’t interested in that field.

If you have to, use a credit card to help you whilst you change careers. You can pay it off when you’re doing better.

Best of luck

Great insight!

May I ask what field you moved into?

Whatever, they do well financially quickly.

😂😂😂