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Let's say you work in a high paying job, but it also has high stress (fast paced, long hours). The salary you are making (and what you could further make) is a once in a lifetime opportunity. Once you leave, there is no going back. When would you feel comfortable leaving for something with a better work/life balance? Would it be according to a certain amount of money saved or net worth achieved? Some other metric? A new job would provide better work/life balance but the pay would be much less (although still good).
If it doesn't put you in a financial hardship, you should leave when the misery creeps into the "life" part of the work/life balance.
My husband and I recently had this experience. He took a 25% pay cut but he's gone back to being pleasant to live with. We don't regret the decision to make the change.
Everyone will of course look at this differently. I'd look at the effects of the "high stress". Is it something that can lead to health issues? Pay is important, but so is health. We can work ourselves to death, and that might be honorable, but is that truly any way to live?
Maybe scale down costs and expenses, so you don't need as much money. Then it might be easier to jump ship. Look at options. Make a plan.
I know of two people who only looked at the bottom line - money and income. They ended up dying early, even before retiring. It didn't add up or make sense at the end of the day.
On a Friday, some of my coworkers received a txt message from our project manager saying if he's not in on Monday, then he won't ever be coming back. He didn't show up on Monday. He got so much dumped on him that the stress was building up. Some of us noted that he was 50. No amount of health insurance would help with what he had to deal with!
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Originally Posted by HokieFan
If it doesn't put you in a financial hardship, you should leave when the misery creeps into the "life" part of the work/life balance.
My husband and I recently had this experience. He took a 25% pay cut but he's gone back to being pleasant to live with. We don't regret the decision to make the change.
I talked with someone who did a similar thing. He took a $30K pay cut just so he can go to work outside of rush hour traffic. He gets back 10 hours a week from his commute alone. He and the whole family ended up being happier about this!
If young, single, and healthy, yes.
I would not miss out on a once in lifetime opportunity to make a huge salary if I was just starting out--at least for a couple of years.
Let's say you work in a high paying job, but it also has high stress (fast paced, long hours). The salary you are making (and what you could further make) is a once in a lifetime opportunity. Once you leave, there is no going back. When would you feel comfortable leaving for something with a better work/life balance? Would it be according to a certain amount of money saved or net worth achieved? Some other metric? A new job would provide better work/life balance but the pay would be much less (although still good).
I say it would much better for you and your family to have you more present in their lives. The work/personal balance is key. Although we want to save as much money as possible, it might tear too much out of your guts to keep striving for the pinnacle of financial gain or work status, or both.
I’m already burning out. It’s a good question for many people.
I could live OK on $20k less. It wouldn’t be a huge hit to my lifestyle. Because I can’t get much time off, it’s not like I’m spending a lot on travel.
I pulled 62 hours last week in support of a go live. This week will be about 50. Next week is likely 55-60. I’m salaried. We aren’t getting any comp time or any other benefit to make up for this. It’s just “part of the job.” I had a 4 AM meeting a few weeks ago. We’ve been told to be available to support our systems 24x7, even though we have an on-call rotation.
At some point, another $20k a year doesn’t compensate for the extra hours. You can’t get the time back.
I would suck it up for a few years, put my head down, and "make bank." You can enjoy life once you're financially secure. But that's just me. I'm really good at delayed gratification, and most people aren't...
Let's say you work in a high paying job, but it also has high stress (fast paced, long hours). The salary you are making (and what you could further make) is a once in a lifetime opportunity. Once you leave, there is no going back. When would you feel comfortable leaving for something with a better work/life balance? Would it be according to a certain amount of money saved or net worth achieved? Some other metric? A new job would provide better work/life balance but the pay would be much less (although still good).
If you are young and single, suck it up, work hard, save, save, save, and eventually find something else with good work/life balance later.
If you are older (say 40+) and have children, and have some health issues, you need to think very carefully about it. No money is worth for the job with so much stress that causes you high BP, anxieties, nauseating, heartaches, headaches, nightmares... and it takes away your precious times with your loved ones. When you see these signs, you can say "I'm done."
Knowing that it's only temporary (you can make twice the money in half the time) should relieve some of your "stress." Real stress might be taking another job that pays half as much, finding that also stressful, but having to work your whole life...
Let's say you work in a high paying job, but it also has high stress (fast paced, long hours). The salary you are making (and what you could further make) is a once in a lifetime opportunity. Once you leave, there is no going back. When would you feel comfortable leaving for something with a better work/life balance? Would it be according to a certain amount of money saved or net worth achieved? Some other metric? A new job would provide better work/life balance but the pay would be much less (although still good).
Mind giving us the job title? It's hard to answer that question without knowing your definition of "high paying"
It would have to depend on my retirement goals.
I'd assume that I would get about 8% for the S&P500 and do some basic math to see where my saving needs to be to retire comfortably at the age that I wish to retire.
Are you comfortable with investing in individual companies? Maybe save an extra 100K and teach yourself as much as possible about how to analyze financial statements for investing purposes. That might be fun hobby
Years ago, I left an almost ideal position that I worked at for 8 years. Great company, only drawback was a long (1 hour, 10 minute, one way) commute in heavy rush hour traffic. The work was great, but the long hours and commute were wearing me down.
I resigned to take a position at a smaller company, much closer to home (15 minute, one way commute), but took a 15% pay cut (which could be made up or exceeded with the annual bonus, based on company and individual performance, but not guaranteed.)
After a few months at the new company, I felt “at home” again and very comfortable. No commute stress any longer and shorter hours. I had more time with family and time to exercise after work, etc. One of the best career decisions I’ve ever made.
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Originally Posted by sightlysalt2020
Let's say you work in a high paying job, but it also has high stress (fast paced, long hours). The salary you are making (and what you could further make) is a once in a lifetime opportunity. Once you leave, there is no going back. When would you feel comfortable leaving for something with a better work/life balance? Would it be according to a certain amount of money saved or net worth achieved? Some other metric? A new job would provide better work/life balance but the pay would be much less (although still good).
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We don't regret the decision to make the change.
