How to downshift

Downshifting, or opting for a quieter life, is all the rage. At least 600,000 people aged 35-54 in the UK plan to downshift by 2006, a survey by Prudential, the insurance company, shows. But if you are to avoid the many pitfalls, you should not be impetuous.

Lee Bryce, a coach at the Change Partnership career consultancy, said people who are dissatisfied with life often find it hard to make rational decisions when it comes to moving on. Unhappiness is associated with low energy levels, said Bryce. In looking for a way out, there is a tendency to clutch at unrealistic ideas of the good life.

Bryce said: 'People tend to come up with alternatives that are too radical and based on myth. Freelance arty careers may look attractive from afar, but they usually involve a lot of uncertainty and stress, particularly about money.'

After a decade in the City of London, Andrew Green, a former computer programmer at CSFB embraced an alternative lifestyle over 15 years ago. A freelance writer, qualified aromatherapist and practitioner of herbal medicine, Green spends his time growing vegetables in the Dorset countryside in southern England, where he lives with his wife and twin sons, both of whom are educated at home.

He said it takes a lot of commitment to move away from a high paid job to a simpler life of intermittent self-employment. 'You can only do it if you are absolutely certain you don't want the money, the long hours and the pressure that goes with them.'

Assessing your needs and cutting down spending before you make the move is imperative, said Green. 'If you have a big mortgage and no savings, setting yourself up in self-employment is virtually impossible. You need a fair-sized financial cushion to see you through.'

Alexander Brady is another former banker who said goodbye to the City in search of something more fulfilling. In 2001 Brady was a director trading interest rate derivatives at UBS. Today he is a furniture maker in Essex. He too said careful financial planning is essential.

'We never had the second home or the Ferrari. We paid off the mortgage on our house in 1995 and saved money. We are still living off our savings now.'

Brady said he lives frugally, but not so frugally that he can't afford to eat out at a restaurant run by the top chef Gordon Ramsey once a year. 'When I left banking, I promised myself an annual treat,' he explained.

Duane Elgin, doyen of US downshifters and author of 'Voluntary Simplicity', said downshifting is not about a life of poverty, but a life of purpose. How you live will depend upon that purpose. It will also mean eliminating the clutter obscuring its pursuit, not only in terms of what you consume, but in terms of the work you do and the people you associate with.

'Downshifting has more to do with a state of mind than with physical surroundings and possessions,' he said.

To establish precisely what your purpose is, a period of deliberation is necessary. Bryce warned this could last a year: 'You have to go through a journey of thought transformation and change.'

En route, she said it may be necessary to work through psychological baggage. This does not mean overcoming partiality to Louis Vuitton accessories, but problems such as the internalised aspirations of ambitious parents.

If you don't work through this baggage, you will end up no better off, Bryce warned: 'Your life may change, but you will have brought all that stuff with you and you'll feel the same. You will have downshifted and lost a lot of money for nothing.'

More practically, Bryce advises her clients to conduct research into their planned new lifestyle before adopting it wholeheartedly. This means contacting people already involved in it and asking what it is really like.

Once you have made your decision, be prepared to stick with it. Things are likely to be difficult for at least the first six months, and problems may come from unforeseen sources.

For example, if you opt for the country route, earth may not be all you need to cultivate. Relationships with neighbours will also need attention. Green advised: 'You need to take steps to integrate, to do things for other people and get on their wavelength. The more different you appear, the harder it will be.'

After the fast-moving, high-performing milieu of financial services, relating to your new peer group may prove unexpectedly difficult. They can appear unmotivated, undemanding and uninspiring, said Green. 'They may not be high achievers. There are very few people who are really doing something with their lives.'

Making a success of your new life is important, because the door to your old life may close behind you. Siobhan Hamilton Philips, senior consultant at Career Psychology, a counselling firm, said people often feel threatened when one of their peers leaves to do something very different:

'You get ostracised when you turn your back on the City. You are burning your bridges and you need to do it with aplomb. There is no going back.'