Anyone take a big paycut for lifestyle?

[tqu9047]

Yes I did. But it was short lived.
Had a high stress job making good money. I told supervisor I wanted to step down to ease stress and enjoy my family. They decided to really cut my salary in a new
position for less than half of what I was making.
We (wife and I) decided I needed to retire. We couldn't make it on what they were paying me so I retired. Took out my 401K, paid off the house and my wife's car, bought a new (used) vehicle for myself and we are making it just fine on my wife's salary.
This is giving me loads of time to get all the Honey-do projects at the house done.
It can be done, but I would say my case was a little different than most.

Tim

[AlaskanInTexas]

Thanks for all the feedback and encouragement. I really think we are going to decide on the lower paying job, the Lord willing. I am so blessed to be in a position where this lower paying job still pays well enough that finances will not be a strain, and the exit opportunities a few years down the road will put me in at least as good of a position that I am walking away from. I'm just convinced that actually living life is more important than making lots of money. I don't want to get to the end of my life with a pile of cash and no happy memories.

[The Annoyed Man]

Life has turned out in ways that I would not have expected 40 years ago.

We moved from California to Texas in April of 2006, following my job when the small-format printing/engraving company I worked for at the time relocated from North Hollywood to Dallas. That was the job at which my career salary peaked..... and it wasn't much. I think that the very best year we every had, my wife and I made $82K between our two jobs, and it has been downhill since. Moving to Texas afforded us some financial advantages we would not have otherwise had, and that has made all the difference in what I have done since with my career. We sold our home in California in 2006 for a little more than 3X what we paid for it in 1999. That cash equity enabled us to buy our home outright here (writing a check for a house is a singular experience), furnish it properly, and pay off our other debt. On the other hand, when my wife left California, that was the last time she had a steady job, so our income went down along with our cost of living.

Be that as it may, being debt-free was a true blessing, because in September of 2007, my employer committed suicide, and his business closed its doors in mid-November of that year. I was 55 years old. None of the local printing businesses had positions open that would pay anywhere near what I had been earning, so the options rapidly became A) take a large cut in pay and start a new job doing the same thing; B) take a large cut in pay and start a whole new career; and C) take a large cut in pay and start my own business.

I went with (C), but (C) would not have been possible at all if we had still had a mortgage and other debt. I do have some regrets about that choice, but I also have experienced some positives. The negatives are mostly financial in nature. The nature of what I do is such that work is either feast or famine. I go through periods where I am overburdened, and I go through periods where I can't find work..... so the income is not steady, and that means that it is difficult to plan financially. A steady paycheck makes that much easier. And with that uncertainty comes a fair amount of stress. The upside is that I can come and go as I need to. I can take an afternoon off for the range on a weekday, when there isn't a crowd.....but I end up working on a lot of Saturdays ......and Sundays too.

I honestly don't know if I can say that my quality of life has improved. I can say say that it is different. Living in Texas is a vast improvement, and I am grateful for that, but I have fewer financial options today than I had before I moved here.....in part because of my choice to be self-employed. And now, at age 62 with retirement around the corner, prospects for a steady employment elsewhere are increasingly dim. And as I age, I find it increasingly difficult mentally to stay on top of the progress of technology, which is at the heart of my business......and any potential employment with someone else. The key to happiness is to let go of the "what ifs" and "if only's", and to find the blessings given me right where I am.

Because of that, God is good, and overall, I am satisfied with my life. Things could be better, but they could be a LOT worse too. I guess what I'm getting at is this, learn to be satisfied with what you have, regardless of what that is. The acquisition of great wealth is a worthy goal ONLY if you know what you are going to do with it, and even then, only if you leave the world a better place than when you found it.....at least for your loved ones. But if you distance yourself from those loved ones in the process, then all the money in the world isn't worth it.

Don't worry. Be happy.

Philippians 4:11-13 English Standard Version (ESV)

11 Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. 12 I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. 13 I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

[RPBrown]

In 1972 I left the DFW area for Houston. While in DFW my salary was $2.25 an hour. I started a job doing the same thing in Houston for $6.00 an hour and thought I was in high cotton. However, my family was never happy. We spent almost 20 years in the Houston area before we bit the bullet and moved back to Dallas. When I left Houston, I was making $19.00 and hour and it went to $16.00 when I got here but everyone was happy. As time went along I managed to get up to the $100K range for a couple of years and then November of 13, I was informed that my division was being closed and I was being let go. Like TAM, I basically had 3 choices and I too chose (C) and started my own business. We sold off some stock and had my 401K (but never had to use it) to start the business on as well as a fair severance package they gave me for my length of employment. that we lived on for a few weeks.
Well after a lot of prayer and hard work, all of the customers that my division took care of found out I had started my own and followed me. This was a blessing but it also brought som problems along with it. We experienced sudden, rapid growing pains. We were blessed with the work coming in but had issues with cash flow since all of my customers were commercial and expected to be on a Net 30 days account. Don't allow it and you lose customers, allow it and you literally have no cash on hand for your own needs. We went along for about 6 months before our cash flow caught up with the needs of our company as well as personal needs. Now, we are an established company with a line of credit at the bank that I haven't had to use (and hope I never have to use), accounts at literelly every supply house in DFW. I have 12 full time employees, 5 new service trucks and most important, a happy family.
Was it worth the hardships we went through? For me, yes it was.

[BigGuy]

Yep. Back in 1988, I was working for a man who owned a bank and an insurance company just outside of Memphis. We were actually across the river in Arkansas. I was making an insane amount of money for a 23-year-old. I had a nice house, huge office, and was treated with a deference I couldn't believe or understand. As a wide eyed kid from a small town bank, I didn't initially understand who this man was, or the price I would pay to live this life style.
As the horrifying truth dawned on me, I was desperate to get out. Easier said that done. This man's reach was such that I couldn't apply at a bank or insurance company. Things would not have gone well if it got back to him that I was applying for another job. There is a line, that once crossed, can't be uncrossed. Fortunately I managed to avoid that point. The man was in ill health, and I was a project that he just never got around to.
I had been doing editorial cartoons as a side interest, and that proved my salvation. A job opened up in Texarkana for an editorial cartoonist/graphic and advertising artist. It paid less than half of my salary at that time, and what little savings I had in the two years I was there, evaporated in the hasty, unrecompensed move. We could barely keep the lights on for the first few years. The deference I'd gotten accustomed to was replaced by suspicious glances from utility companies and banks.
Without doubt that was the second best decision I've ever made. (Best was asking Mrs. Sharon to be my wife.) Even in the hard, early years, I was happy.

For a time, my personal logo was a monkey with his hand in a jar. I read about these guys who sold monkeys. The way they caught them was to put a piece of fruit into a jar with a small opening. The monkey would reach into the jar and grab the fruit, but couldn't pull his hand back out while holding the fruit. He would have to drop it to withdraw his hand. I suppose some of them dropped the fruit and escaped, but many would keep trying to yank it free. As the human approached, the monkey's anxiety would increase to the point that they were eventually unable to think clearly enough to make the decision to release the fruit as the price for freedom. That just seemed to be a profound lesson to me.

I don't know your sitiation, but ask yourself what the fruit is worth.

[TVGuy]

This is an interesting conversation, thank you all for the stories. My wife and I are late 30s w/ no kids (DINKs) that make a very good living, but considering taking a couple of years to sail around the Caribbean while we are still fairly young. It's still a few years away, but still stressful to think about the change sometimes.

[puma guy]

Thanks for all the feedback and encouragement. I really think we are going to decide on the lower paying job, the Lord willing. I am so blessed to be in a position where this lower paying job still pays well enough that finances will not be a strain, and the exit opportunities a few years down the road will put me in at least as good of a position that I am walking away from. I'm just convinced that actually living life is more important than making lots of money. I don't want to get to the end of my life with a pile of cash and no happy memories.

AIT, Praying for you whatever your decision. I will leave you with this. I took a job that had excellent pay, great benefits, great bonuses answering to the refinery manager who was the top executive. I knew the hours would be long and in my dedication spent even more time than was required, which brought even more responsibility and special projects, union negotiations, and even managing our UW campaigns for two years. I was brought to tears by an email I received at work from my middle daughter telling me she was Homecoming Queen; she wanted me to know. She was 10 when I took the that promotion. I eventually took early retirement to spend at least a little time with our last daughter. I think you'll make the right decision.

[Oldgringo]

We decided to hang it up at age 62. That was 11 years ago and we do not regret that decision at all.

Good luck!

[Redneck_Buddha]

I'm about to invoke the nuclear option on a job I was relocated up here for last March. I like the Dallas area but loathe this job, company, and manager and am going to tell HR exactly what I think today. I am in a niche area of technology in high demand and have some really good savings, so I'm not sweating it. Life is indeed to short. Good luck to you.

I believe leaving that way is shortsighted.

Enemies are a luxury few men can afford.

I've never burned bridges, and I cannot tell you how many times there have been intersections in my career with people who knew me or knew former co-workers.

I get it that you are frustrated, but taking the high road and simply leaving peacefully is advantageous.

Seriously, thank you for your concern J.F.

In my 30 years in the work force, I've only encountered a situation remotely this bad once. When you have a manager methodically setting you up to fail, trying to ruin your career, bald-face lying on your performance review, doles out credit for your work to other people, and the company indulges that behavior -- well, it's time for the 1/2 peace sign to go at full salute. I will not be trifled with and the only thing these people understand is hard ball.

I've got a very robust professional network, and only plan to spend another five years working so I'm gonna go out on a bit of a limb and assert that I'll weather this storm.

[oohrah]

Another story. When I was in my late 40s, a work colleague same age was diagnosed with a possible terminal illness. Subsequent tests and surgery revealed that he was not terminal, but he had already gone through the mental agony of all the things he had missed. He quit, bought a sailboat and he and his wife sailed away.

[mgood]

Last year I took another job and moved to a different town for it. Same pay per hour, but fewer hours. What good is the money if I have no time to enjoy it?
New job has insurance, which I did not have at the old job.

[jmra]

New job has insurance, which I did not have at the old job.

Thats a huge benifit.

[AlaskanInTexas]

Just found out one other twist to this question - taking the new job would require me to move to California (though I would have the option to live out in the country).

[TVGuy]

Just found out one other twist to this question - taking the new job would require me to move to California (though I would have the option to live out in the country).

I used to live there, it was beautiful and one of the best times of my life. Depends on what part you are in. I was in Coronado, just off of San Diego.

I know we all go nuts over the "high capacity" magazine bans and such, but it's not a bad lifestyle. Problem may be in taking a pay cut and at the same time moving to a place with a much higher cost of living. Once again, depends on where you are.

[mgood]

New job has insurance, which I did not have at the old job.

Thats a huge benifit.

Yes it is, and considering that, it wasn't really a pay cut.