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Kimeiko Hotta Dover spends her days helping clients process emotions, balance their energy, and rethink their lives. It’s a very different job from the one she had for decades, and that’s not by accident.
For years, the now 59-year-old, who is based in Markham, Ont., taught English as a second language at Seneca College. But after a traumatic event in her late 40s, she began practising reiki, a healing technique with origins in Japan. What started as a personal coping tool evolved into a second career.
While working at Seneca, she obtained a certification to teach reiki and started working toward becoming a registered psychotherapist. In 2021, she retired from her teaching job five years earlier than she had planned.
Although that meant taking a smaller pension, she is now working as a psychotherapist, while also practising and teaching others reiki through her own business. She now earns roughly as much as she did at Seneca, in addition to her pension.
“I was able to reach my college-level income, and I’ve been able to do it while managing my own schedule,” she said.
Thinking of a career change? Here’s how to make the leap successfully
Ms. Dover is part of a larger trend of Canadians in their 30s, 40s and 50s preparing for a second career, often while still in their primary job, as part of their long-term financial strategy.
For some, it’s a form of insurance against layoffs and industry upheaval driven by forces such as tariffs and artificial intelligence. It’s also a way to eventually step into work that offers flexibility and better work-life balance.
While losing a job can be difficult at any stage, a late-career layoff can throw a wrench into a carefully organized retirement plan. A July, 2025 report by RBC Economics based on data from Statistics Canada reported that workers aged 45 and over accounted for nearly 40 per cent of the increase in unemployment between June, 2024 and June, 2025.
Richard Antosik, a career transition expert and chief operating officer at the Talent Company in Markham, Ont., views planning for a second act in one’s professional life as a form of financial diversification. He calls it “career optionality.”
The concept involves building multiple ways to create income rather than relying on a single role or employer.
“It’s almost like if you’re thinking about a financial portfolio when you build a hedge. Job security today comes from having multiple ways to create value,” Mr. Antosik said.
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The good news is that, with larger numbers of baby boomers retiring, there’s plenty of demand for the kind of experience mid-career professionals can provide, Mr. Antosik said.
“Leaders who want to work more autonomously later in their careers are looking to take the skills that they’ve acquired in early career and then transition to opportunities that are a little bit more flexible,” Mr. Antosik said.
The most common second-act careers he sees include consulting, advisory work, and taking on governance roles on boards.
The transition often requires honing existing skills or picking up new ones.
The key, Mr. Antosik said, is to avoid starting from scratch. He advises clients to focus on identifying the skills they enjoy and excel at and building on the expertise they already have.
The ideal time to work on new skills for a second-act career is while you have the stability of your full-time job, he said.
Can you afford to take a career sabbatical?
People can build on their skills in various ways, including training opportunities through work, using free AI tools, or volunteering.
Many Canadians also choose to go back to school or pay for online classes. But developing new skills later in life can come with financial trade-offs, said Lesley Christodoulou, vice-president of retail sales at Co-operators and former assistant vice-president of financial planning.
“These upskilling costs may actually put them even further under financial pressure,” especially if people need to take time off work to pursue training, she said.
The challenge is that this stage of life often coincides with some of the most financially demanding years.
People in their 40s and 50s are often earning their highest incomes while also carrying significant debt, saving for retirement and helping support both children and aging parents. Missing even a few of these critical earning years can have a large impact on retirement security.
Ms. Christodoulou said the cost of retooling one’s skillset should be incorporated into a person’s broader financial plan. Luckily, government tax incentives can help offset the burden.
For example, Canadians can withdraw up to $10,000 a year – for a maximum of $20,000 – from their registered retirement savings plan through the Lifelong Learning Plan to finance full-time training or education. The withdrawals are tax-free if they are repaid within 10 years.
Transitioning careers required careful planning for Ms. Dover, who for years had to balance her reiki and psychotherapy courses while teaching full-time. But the payoff was worth it, she said.
Her advice for others considering a second act is to start experimenting early. She recommends developing new skills or starting a side hustle while still employed full-time and considering careers where age and life experience can be an advantage, such as psychotherapy.
“If it’s something that interests us, excites us, enhances our self-esteem, gives us purpose, gives us drive, helps us continue learning – there’s no need to end that.”
