I’m a 27m that has a good income for my area, area is fairly low COL and income is about 130k a year. I have no degree or anything besides work experience and was lucky enough to land at a way above average company pay wise. Unfortunately, because of this , if I were to leave or lose this job I would likely be looking at nearly a 50% pay cut. The job has a schedule that’s not sustainable for me on the long term, and getting out of that schedule within the company is almost not an option. If I were to stay here for another 5-10 years to take advantage of the money, what would you personally be doing with this time frame? Nest egg as much as possible? Invest it, invest in education for a career switch? Ect. Just looking to hear some advice from some very financially literate people. Alittle background info. I’m debt free aside from a sub 3% interest mortgage payment that equals just over 10% of my GROSS monthly pay. I have a good head start on 401k around 130k. I’m dreading the day I have to walk away from this kind of money and would love to get back to it at some point , through a more sustainable career. But at this time, I’d like to atleast be working towards something and taking advantage of today’s situation for my future and smoothing the transition of a career change.
What would you do if you had a good paying job that you hate at a young age?
byu/z283848 inpersonalfinance
Posted by z283848
29 Comments
Save every penny you can and then once you’re burned out take as long of a break as you need
with the current job market i’d say you tough it out as long as possible and save/invest as much as you can so when you eventually take the pay cut you have some cushion.
You can either use your free time to build up your resume and skill set to try and land a job you enjoy more that pays just as good, or you can minimize the negative aspects of your job (make it sustainable long term) and find fulfillment in life elsewhere. Join a rock climbing gym, get into pottery, etc.
I did this. I hated it. I told myself the goal was to pay my way out of saving for retirement and then live that freedom at jobs with a purpose.
It basically worked. But you need to know your exit to keep a light at the end of the tunnel. It isn’t healthy to do forever. Don’t upgrade your lifestyle or succumb to retail therapy. Save absolutely as much as you can.
You’ll have down days. You’ll have moments of thinking why not this fancy whatever. It’s not easy to stick the landing.
Meanwhile, take courses at night if you want. Get a masters in the field you really want to be in. Or, get a backup job. Radiology techs make good money and need a 2 yr degree, for example. Not a ton of classes. Easy to spread over 5 years.
Max out your 401(k) plan. The earlier, the better. Maxing out as in contribution limits, not the amount necessary to get 100% employer match.
Consider taking classes online or part-time slowly to credential prep for a career pivot into something that you find interesting.
Leave mortgage alone because 3% is free money at today’s rates. You might even earn more intetest just putting the excess savings into a MMMF.
For your mental health, determine the end date of this job. As you said, you could stay 5 to 10 years but the final number is up to you. Keep this end date to yourself for now.
Once you do that, then you can reverse engineer your plan. Save money towards other goals (retirement, FIRE, mortgage payoff, education, travel fund, whatever) in the meantime.
Recheck plan every year. Adjust dates and amounts as needed.
Your headline asks about “good paying jobs that you hate at a young age” but there are plenty of people with “good paying jobs that they hate at ANY age”. LOL
It is all a matter of defining personal priorities and then mapping a plan to make it happen (as the great philosopher Mariah Carey sang).
https://www.madfientist.com/how-to-access-retirement-funds-early/
https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/01/13/the-shockingly-simple-math-behind-early-retirement/
I’d max all tax advantaged accounts and put as much as possible into taxable investments until I no longer needed to work.
I’d probably just keep it because odds are I’d take that 50% pay cut to… work in some other job I hate the same amount? Unless I were being seriously abused or it were destroying my health, I’d take the better-paying devil I know over the lower-paying devil I don’t.
Only you can decide in your specific case though. A bad schedule can mean a lot of things.
You’re young. Keep supercharging your retirement savings. With the power of compounding interest in your favor, you’ll have more flexibility than other people your age to reconsider career options in 10 years or so. Retirement accounts are obviously restricted so make sure you’re also adding to your brokerage/savings accounts to draw upon when you do decide it’s time for a change.
I saved and invested a ton of money then retired in S. America with my family after about 11 years.
I also found a more sustainable position after a couple years looking and moved halfway across the country for it. Great decision.
Invest as much as you possibly can for 5 years and go back to school or travel or something.
If you hate your job and wanna quit then you gotta do what you gotta do.
But you should definitely suffer for a little bit at least so you can set yourself up properly
How bad is it? If it isn’t making you physically debilitated I think you gotta roll with it
This is like making 3 million a year in nyc lol
Get your home paid off get a million or 2 then maybe change
You could think of it like being career military and done before 40
What would it take to be able to jump at the same salary? A degree? I would work towards that. There are a lot of very affordable options these days online.
Keep it, invest heavy and exit while still young? Most jobs have some kind of drawback, or risk of layoffs. With my job I can’t be laid off, but the atmosphere can be very toxic. That’s why I invest the max possible to shorten time I’ll need to work.
I’m in the same position at you, but I’m 25F. I don’t work shift tho, still I don’t like my job. My plan is giving myself an end date in 3-5 yrs and pay off my starter house. And then switch to a less stressful job. The mentality that gets me going rn is I’m not working for the company, I’m working to buy my own freedom 🥲
At that same age I quit a job that paid extremely well. I struggled financially for about 18 months but I never felt bad about leaving a toxic job. My life improved dramatically.
I’d stay as long as possible and save as much as you can. Why is the schedule not sustainable? Is it shift work? If so there is a medicine that can help you be awake and feel better.
Realize that most jobs are like this. And if you switch without any real goal then you’re just bound to repeat the cycle. $130k is a great salary. You can retire early if you’re smart with your money. I would change your mindset regarding work and try to find the things you like about it and focus on that.
Then I would invest/save aggressively. With that salary and depending on your lifestyle, you can easily retire before you hit 50. Best of luck.
what do you mean the “job has a schedule that’s not sustainable for me on the long term”? That you’re working something other than 7-8h a day, 5d a week, 40-50 w a year? How does the salary in hourly wage equivalents compare to the hypothetical 50% pay cut?
Former credit counselor here. You’re doing great- I would just suggest saving some money (in a HYSA or CD) that you can use as replacement income for when you do finally quit. I’d aim for roughly 6mo worth of living expenses. That way you’re not tempted to make an early 401k withdrawal or get into debt. Once you have that, consider investing in something that will generate income for you, like a home you can set up as a vacation rental.
Look for another job while working it.
Im stuck at 3 low paying jobs that I all hate, cant seem to land anything above 20 an hour. Only redeeming quality is that im secure in paying vet bills
I’m 33m, so a little older, but I have a well-paying job that I know I can’t / won’t do forever.
My strategy – invest as much as realistically possible at my current income level so that when I inevitably quit or get fired, I won’t have as much pressure to replace my income 1:1 (because I highly doubt I could, quite frankly).
Right now, I’ve got $800k invested. By the time I’m 60, that *should* be worth about $3M in inflation-adjusted dollars at a 5%/yr return rate. So, I’m already in a position where if I never invested another dollar, in theory, I should be ok in retirement (~$90k/yr using 3% rule, and not including any social security). In my opinion that should be the goal for you – invest, invest, invest, and future self will thank you.
Save up money for the training to get into a job you want to do longer term.
Be frugal and invest as much as you can. I don’t know your tax situation or how expensive your cost of living is. But imagine you invest $5k a month regularly. After 10 years that’s worth $855k with a 7% annual return. That’s a good chunk of money to have when you’re 37.
some context I haven’t seen anyone else add: with 130k already in retirement savings, you are projected to have just over 2 million in today’s dollars at 67. you could make just enough to cover your insanely low mortgage and feed yourself and you’d be all set for a very comfortable standard retirement.
so now the question is, what, if anything, do you value beyond that? if the answer is “eh, nothing really other than less stress”, you could get a job at Starbucks, work just enough hours to get healthcare, and settle in for life.
now, if it were me, I’d maybe stay at that job another year, just long enough to figure a real solid plan for going to school, save up tuition, and maybe throw a little more at retirement. them quit to do school full-time, starting at a community college.
you’ve gotten really lucky, but also clearly worked really hard. I think the best thing you can do for yourself is not look at it as “I’m stuck”, but rather “I’m free”.
$1 invested* for 30 years will be worth $10; for 40 years it will be worth $21 and for 50 years it will be worth $47. Save a lot of money early and you won’t have to work as long.
*Assuming an 8% return. This has been the average of the stock market for the past 60 years.
Keep it up for 10 years and save as much as humanly possible. Save every goddamn penny and live on beans and rice. All those savings are invested in VOO. Then downgrade to a more relaxing job. There, you win at life.
>What would you do if you had a good paying job that you hate at a young age?
I would find a good paying job that I loved.
In fact, that’s exactly what I did.
the golden handcuffs thing is real and it only gets harder to leave teh longer you stay, tbh.