I was recently tagged by my blog partner Mr. Cheap in his post – Courses I’d Like To Take. I’ve managed to take the fun and creativity out of this meme by putting serious courses with boring names – but that’s what I came up with 🙂
Following in the tradition of Mr. Cheap I’d like to suggest a couple of courses that I’d like to teach as well as a couple that I’d like to take:
Courses to teach
Financial & retirement planning for DIY wannabes – it’s not as hard as most people think it is so this course could allow people to either become DIYers or at least know what they are talking about when working with an advisor.
Home staging course – my wife & I have fixed up and staged three homes, watched countless hours of HGTV and attended many open houses, which as far as I’m concerned makes us world class experts. This course would cover the basics as well as trying to focus on big improvements for low costs rather than just ending up with the best looking house.
Courses to take
Financial planning courses – no I don’t want to take the same course I’m teaching – but one of the ideas I had was to be a financial advisor in retirement or possibly as a second career. I don’t know how realistic this is since I’m not interested in doing sales and working only part time might not fit too well either. Unfortunately giving financial advice is not something that you can legally just start doing – you need certain qualifications.
Handyman courses – I’m thinking electrical & carpentry here – I’m not crazy about doing renovation work but being skilled at this sort of thing would lead to a good part-time or occasional work in retirement if desired (or needed!). Electrical might be a problem since you have to be licensed so maybe carpentry might be more feasible.
11 replies on “Courses I Would Like To Take”
I wouldn’t mind seeing if we could get a group discount on the handyman course, Mike. With the purchase of my current home, I had the unusual luxury of having a considerable amount of transition time, so the wife and I did a lot of DIY work on the home before moving in. I went the self-taught method (buy book, read book, do, re-read book, redo) on basic plumbing, electrical and minimal carpentry. Despite the fact that it took me 10x as long as it would a competent person, it was pretty rewarding to learn how to do stuff and, ultimately, finish.
Mike: You should do post or two on home staging…
Mike-TWA: Home reno stuff can be rewarding and even fun at times. I think the trick (for me at least) is to keep it in manageable chunks so that it doesn’t become a part time job.
CC: I’m planning on doing a few posts on that (maybe another series??).
Mike
I’d love to be able to do the home staging and repairs as well, but knowing myself I think I’d be lazy and I wouldn’t really want to *do* the repairs or staging (even if I knew how). I know how to clean, but I sure as heck don’t like doing it…
Great courses! I’d love to take all of them…
Mr. C. – my attitude towards reno & home staging (and financial planning) is that knowledge is your best tool. Whether you do part, all or none of the work yourself is not as important as knowing what you are doing and where you want to go.
Mike
Mike – definitely do a home staging series! I’ll link to it, print it, and use it if you do.
Financial planner would be a great career for most of us personal finance bloggers (and I include myself loosely in that “us”) if it didn’t involve the used-car-salesman aspect that so many of them have to have. I can see myself offering advice, but I can’t see myself selling services to people who don’t want them – it would just make me uncomfortable.
Home staging sounds like fun. Make show to pretty it up with photos. 🙂
BB – thanks for the vote of confidence, however I would suggest that you read it first 🙂
You’re right about the used-car thing, that’s the problem with industries that are is based on commissions.
FJ – there are two fun parts of home staging: 1)- the planning (deciding what work to do) and 2) admiring the finished work. Everything in between sucks….
Mike
“Kodak Kolorkins ”
Can’t say I’ve ever heard of those, but I suspect that you’re right and they should go…
Mike
I think you only need to be qualified and registered if you sell mutual funds or provide advice on securities, but not for the provision of general financial planning advice. cf my post of August 31.
CI – thanks for the info. It would be a bit limiting to be a financial planner without being able to recommend specific securities (ie specifid ETFs) but it’s better than nothing I guess.
Mike