Ask the Recruiter

Why I left: To start my own financial planning business, helping individuals and families make sense of their financial lives with advice on retirement planning, investing, saving for college and other personal finance issues. The desire to start this business grew directly out of my work as a financial writer and editor. After 20 years in newspapers, I still enjoyed the thrill of working on a good story, but I worried that someday I would grow to dislike the work, and I wanted to get out before that happened.

New job: Owner of Four Ponds Financial Planning LLC in Falmouth and Mansfield, Mass. and personal finance columnist for ABCNews.com.

David McPherson

How long between jobs: None. I left The Providence Journal in early January 2007 and immediately went about setting up the business, which had been in the planning stages for several months before I left the newspaper. I landed my first client within a couple months and have been seeing them nonstop ever since. In October 2007, I started writing a weekly personal finance column for ABCNews.com after being contacted by a former Journal colleague who works there.

Hardest thing about the transition: Going from the security of a regular paycheck to the uncertainty of self-employment income. Early in the transition, I did quite a bit of freelance financial writing to supplement my financial planning income. I've scaled back on the writing with the exception of the ABCNews.com column.

What kept me going: The belief that the long-term risk of sticking with a newspaper career far exceeded the risk of starting a business. Over the short term, I felt my job at The Providence Journal was secure, but I worried about the risk of being laid off down the road -- just as my children approached college age. Since I left the Journal, there have been two rounds of layoffs and by the third round I might have been at risk.

The secret that made it happen: Preparing for a second career while I still loved my first one and finding a connection between the two. I began a Boston University certificate program in financial planning in early 2004, and then in November 2005 I passed on first try the Certified Financial Planner examination. When I started the coursework, I was not quite sure where it would take me, but I figured it did two things for me. One, it made me a better financial writer as I learned more about investing, taxes, insurance and other financial topics. Two, it prepared me for a second career should I decide to leave journalism.

What I wish I had done: Begun preparing for a change even earlier in my newspaper career by earning an MBA part time. That would have made me a better reporter and editor and would have helped me prepare for the next stage of my working life.