I was talking with one of the other dads on the way home from school today. He's the European Sales Manager for some international tech firm so he doesn't usually do the school run but he had to get out of the house because of how stressed he is.
I've no doubt that he's on a lot more money than I am, his house is certainly a lot nicer, but he's regularly working 12 hours days without a proper break and must be close to burning out. His daughter is an extremely nervous and anxious child because of how much stress there must be in their household.
As for me, my income fluctuates as I'm self-employed but not really self-employed and should be somewhere north of £40k in this tax year. I know that's better than the average salary but my girlfriend doesn't work at the minute and we've got kids so most months there is very little left over once the bills are paid; it's at the point where I couldn't order something online on a whim or have a takeaway just for the sake of it.
I dick around a lot of the time and I know I could earn more if I wanted to put the effort in, but I'm reaching the point where I'm starting to question whether I actually want as much responsibility as I have now or I'd rather take a lower position where I have less accountability and I can do my 35 hours a week and then completely switch off.
Is there anything wrong with just being comfortable?
>>14217 That might be the most difficult question in the universe to answer. It's very individual. For me, it's all about what do I first think about when I wake up? Am I already gnashing my teeth about who I might deal with, and thinking strongly of a duvet day? Or am I getting up and at them?
I have considered this a lot recently, and have also reach my limit on what constitutes that balance. I quit my job (without having another one lined up) because I thought the balance was out - I'm quite sure I'll find something else. Time will tell - if I'm queueing up at the foodbank in two months time, I was wrong.
It really depends on what you want. My mum works two days a week, and it pays her bills and has enough left over for the things she enjoys, and enough of a savings account to retire whenever she feels like it. On the other hand, I have a pilot friend who works as much as he's legally allowed, on about 100 grand a year, but because he lives in a giant house, has two posh cars, and so on, he's actually struggling for cash sometimes - and if he lost his job he'd be fucked. If my mum lost hers, she'd basically not notice.
>Is there anything wrong with just being comfortable?
Nothing at all, in fact I think knowing when you are is a very valuable lesson in life.
A great deal of people simply don't know when to step off the hedonic treadmill, and that's what causes them their greatest misery in life. I'm reaching the age that I see a lot of younger colleagues pass through my place of work, and it always gives me this weird mixture of amusement and resentment hearing them say things like "Oh yeah I mean I'm not planning on being here forever, I can't imagine working a place like THIS all my life". It occurs to me that they've not yet been through whatever it is that teaches you that lesson, and that it's going to sting when they realise they are going to end up working somewhere very much like this all their life; because ultimately, most jobs are a lot of the same old shit.
Finding somewhere you've got the right balance of elements to remain happy is vitally important, and sometimes that means making less money. One day you realise there's no pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, it just goes on and on and on.
The question doesn't work because the two things aren't linear. I have a 'cool' career and as a result I work my arse off and get relatively shit pay for it.
What I've instead found is that as you rise the ranks into management you're increasingly not doing [subject] but back end corporate decision making and reporting. The kind of things that you really don't want to do but have to. That's more work than doing the things you're moderately interested in.
>>14224 I'm the opposite yet similar. I have a cool "career", but mostly sit on my arse yet get paid significantly more than the SA required amount. I'm not management and really don't want to be because, as you say, you stop doing the job and increasingly start having to do glorified paperwork. (Management should be a transparent shit umbrella, so you see the shit but don't have to deal with it.) I didn't "rise into management", I instead rose the "do the job" side of things, though the two get a little fuzzy at this stage. I'd rather go back to previous work[1], but the money is addictive and it fools me into thinking I'd be a fool to quit.
My opinion for >>14217, it's a balance. Do you have a family, do you have a mortgage, do you have other obligations or aspirations? Have you planned for your retirement financially? Sometimes sacrfices have to be made and needs must, and alternatives matter. If you could live your life and retire happy (this is not a given even if you own your property, c.f. fuel poorness in current pensioners).
So the question of balance is one up to you, with a whole lot of variables attached. And there is no right or wrong answer.
1) I used to work for a family company where I could see the daily take-in. They paid me what they could, I biked to work... I couldn't afford shit. Bit different now.
