career change to acupuncture

[user1480889603]

I am 45 and have a fairly comfortable job in the charity sector. But I can't see myself doing this til I'm 65. I'd like to retrain as an acupuncturist before I get too old. The thing is the course costs about £25k - I'd have to either take redundancy or work 3 days a week part time (this is an option luckily) and so it would involve hard work (though I love studying) financial hardship ( I could do it if I rented out the spare room) and then I could either take redundancy or continue to work freelance in charity while building up a practice. I also have the option to work from home (another spare room - and a large mortgage!!). Would it be worth it? Is the market saturated? - I'm in London. Any acupuncturists out there who can tell me if this sounds like a good idea? I do need to be able to earn money as an acupuncturist after qualifying - I could just about survive working 3 days a week in my other job and working 2 days a week in acupuncture but eventually I'd want to do it full time.

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Really sorry as don't actually know much about this but see you've been looking for a response! I do have a friend that's an acupuncturist and know she charges £45 for a one hour session in Yorkshire. She sets her own hours and works out of two treatment rooms in different locations. I imagine your income will largely depend on how good you are at finding clients, up selling other products, how many hours you want to work etc. my friend is busy but she's in her early 60s and this is a second career. She's retired from her first career and doesn't need to work full time. If I'm honest, I think £25k for an acupuncture course sounds extortionate. I spent £17k on my masters degree but attended a top business school in London...