Tag: downsizing

When the big "C" (cancer) entered our world, it forced my husband and I to get our priorities in order pretty darn fast. Funny how a ticking time bomb will do that to you just when you thought you had it all.

Very little discussion was given to how we were going to make the best use of our time while we still had it. All we knew was that we were determined to squeeze out as much living as we could into each and every single day that would be gifted to us.

Throughout my career I have, many times, found myself in the middle of husbands and wives who couldn't agree on whether to sell their family home for something smaller—an apartment, condo, or cottage. They also couldn't agree to settle in the city, near grandchildren or somewhere else. I have learned to embrace this role of middleman, helping couples reconcile what they both want so everyone wins.

I tell couples they can have it all. All they have to do is figure out what having it all means to them and what compromises they are willing to make in the wishes that aren't really important.

There you are, newly hitched and thrilled about it. This is a time when your two-income family abruptly becomes a stable one-income family. "Downsizing" sounds like one of those fancy made-up-kind-of-words until it happens to you. Then you realize the awful certainty of what it really means—fired. And you soon find out that getting a new job just isn’t that easy.

Companies don't want to hire you at the pay scale you were accustomed to, but would rather go with that fresh-faced 22-year-old (which you were not so very long ago) and suddenly life gets very scary.