Has anyone successfully changed their career after 40 and is now working in a trade for example and is doing well? Or knows about services, resources, support in the UK?

I had a well paid job in cellular, but when all the companies left the UK or failed 15+ years ago, I was in trouble and the business unit closed.

It coincided with the financial crisis. So I spent a year with no money and no interviews. I almost ran out of money and savings and had no means to pay the mortgage. I couldn't afford to go get a MSc or a different degree.

I managed to get another job, at 50% less salary, after looking at over 10,000 job ads. I spent all day everyday on it applying to things. It destroyed my confidence which has still not really recovered and my career is going nowhere. I have also lost my job twice since.

I read you have peak earnings in your 30's and early 40s. That is my experience. Not what I expected for the sacrifice I made.

I still earn less in 2025  in absolute terms than in 2005, allowing for inflation I have about 40% of the spending power now.

I am not poor and earn more than average but once you are behind the curve you stay behind the curve.

There is no help. You have to do stuff yourself , get to uni for a masters or something,  or start your own business.

I seem to have been more unlucky than others but I was in more of a niche and perhaps I undersold myself or screwed up. People don't understand or believe my CV.

I don't have the drive now, at 56, to work 70+ hrs a week and forego leave anymore. I have spent 30 years on my own fighting the world single handedly,

There are no easy answers. You are responsible for yourself. You just need some luck and to be in the right place at the right time.

Thank you for sharing your story and I can imagine how tough it must have been. I can hear the bitterness... A bit scary to think that I am past my prime earning power, because that means I will spend my retirement aka I can't find a job anymore in poverty.... 
I won't work 70hs a week or forego leave, that's for sure, but that also makes me less employable / employers reckon that they can't work me to death anymore because of my age. 

I know there are no easy answers and have to come to the realisation that life is a *** and that luck is a real thing. 

Thank you for sharing your story and I can imagine how tough it must have been. I can hear the bitterness... A bit scary to think that I am past my prime earning power, because that means I will spend my retirement aka I can't find a job anymore in poverty.... 
I won't work 70hs a week or forego leave, that's for sure, but that also makes me less employable / employers reckon that they can't work me to death anymore because of my age. 

I know there are no easy answers and have to come to the realisation that life is a *** and that luck is a real thing. 

Thankyou for reading and commenting. The peak earnings age is something I read for tech and is an average. Some people go into management but not all can or want to. The life of companies is shorter now and tech keeps moving, rendering hard won knowledge obsolete.

I worked hard to get my corner office and a team so I could go play golf and retire early, but it went wrong. I also forgot to have a life somewhere along the way.

But this has been the case in a number of areas for me. I am not sure I really understand life as well as I thought I did, perhaps it is the autism. Perhaps it is how life is. Maybe I sell myself wrongly or think I am better than I am.

I was too stubborn to accept help for nearly all my life. I think I finally am ready to start my life now I am too old. It is tough to take, but black and white thinking is a big problem for me. I also seem to have a distorted sense of time.

I have a 40hrs a week job that pays quite well. I can't complain, but I do. I don't know why. Just like I partially yearn for a dysfunctional relationship I threw away due to stubbornness and burnout. 30 years alone is a long time, yet I can't bring myself to do anything about it. She said I didn't need anyone, which I thought was true, but I really don't know now.