I have been presented with an opportunity to take the job of my dreams for terrible pay.
It will mean going from never worrying about money to constantly worrying about money. On the other hand, it will mean going from mildly unsatisfied to extremely satisfied with my work.
To quantify things a bit, taking the job will mean going from living very comfortably and saving extremely well for retirement and the kid’s college to cutting coupons and barely saving at all. It will mean canceling the cable, selling the car, canceling those travel plans for Japan, no more restaurants, and letting the stucco continue to rot on the side of the house. It probably means not having a second kid. It means one big unexpected expense and we’re late on a payment for something. We’re not talking about a vow of poverty by any stretch of the imagination here, but it will be a substantial lifestyle change and taking on a lot more economic risk.
Wife is on board, in part because this has been in the works for years and she knows what it would mean to me, and in part because she has already made a very similar career decision which is why this one would have such a dramatic effect. But we’ve never tested our marriage over financial issues before. And there’s our kid to think about (though to some extent the job will mean more time for family).
Some questions for you to consider. Have you been saving in anticipation of this decision? How well-funded are your retirement accounts (since you’re not going to make additional contributions to them)? And how close are you to retirement anyhow?
With what you have posted I would vote ‘no’ do not take the job. Taking the job seems to mean you cannot have another child and puts your family at financial risk. You can likely get work in the same field in the future.
If this is an inquiry of a financial nature I’ve always found the quality of advice correlates with the quality of details given. Often times people believe they need a lot more money to live comfortably than what is required.
Yes, saving. Have about one year of the new job’s salary in savings (aside from retirement and college savings).
We’re in our thirties and lawyers tend to work later into life. So we have a lot of breathing room before retirement. But we don’t have that much saved yet since it’s only been a few years when money has gone there instead of principally to student debt and other things. Certainly not enough to retire on. We’d still be saving some, just not enough.
Unlikely. The nature of this job is that it comes around once a decade or so, and less without changing cities. And a decade from now I would likely not be an attractive candidate, since it’s a promote-from-within sort of gig.
Does that change your analysis at all?
I’m pretty confident about the finances. We have a cheap mortgage and rest of our fixed costs are pretty darn fixed. What’s left will be enough for food, netflix, and odds and ends.
If " it’s a promote-from-within sort of gig", is a promotion a possibility later? Because it’s one thing to take a low-paying gig now with some expectations of improvement and another to take it knowing that your salary is never going to improve.
Yeah. I’m probably being more coy than necessary. It’s a non-profit legal job. This particular organization tends to have three levels for attorneys: staff attorneys, legal directors, and executive directors. It’s roughly 5-10 years to become a legal director for a 50% bump in pay, and 5 or so more to become an executive director for another 50% bump, depending on the circumstances. But there would certainly no guarantee of either advancement, and many people remain staff attorneys for their entire career.
Also, a significant part of our fixed expenses is debt that will be paid off within a decade. So that will also free up money for retirement savings, etc.
I didn’t see that you are currently a lawyer. OK, so you will be content financially and have a good emergency fund (EF). To maintain the EF your family will exist with few life perks, possibly have no second child, and current child may have to shoulder more of college costs than what you had hoped. If your wife is happy with one child, this is an acceptable scenario for a chance at professional bliss. Given the increased job satisfaction and rarity of the position I will tilt my chad the other direction and say ‘yes’, take the new position. Best of luck whatever you decide.
Do it. If you’re good enough that the kind of position you’re describing is yours if you want it, you’re also good enough to make a bunch of money later on if you find you simply must.
And also, now I’m going to make this weird, but do it, too, because I’ve read your posts, and you ought to be doing the work you’re passionate about. The world doesn’t want you wasted on anything you’re midly unsatisfied by.
…not to be cliche, but this. If anyone else had asked on these boards, the instinct would be to say don’t do it. But its Richard-freaking-Parker. And he’s always only written awesome posts, and is undoubtedly a switched on, awesome guy. Go be happy: you deserve it.
It’s a funny thing, but people who do what they love tend to come out ahead in every catagory in the long run - including financially. It’s certainly not guaranteed, but doing something that you are really passionate about leads to success more often than not.
Very few people, while on their death bed, say “I wish I had made more money” [sub]except maybe a forger[/sub].
Thanks. I think we’re roughly the same year out of law school, along with Hello Again and a couple of others, so I know you know what’s like to be a lawyer these days. I think seeing everyone lose jobs (or not get them) in the 2008-2010 period has left me especially cautious about finances. It would be one thing to save a bunch and be ready for when the whole lawyer economy tips over in 2025. It would be another to be living paycheck-to-paycheck. But maybe the non-profits are more insulated from the craziness?
You clearly haven’t read all my posts!
(Thanks. I think I can say with some confidence that you’d be proud of the work.)
You’re only given one life and this sounds like a chance for you to enjoy what you’ll be spending most of your life doing.
Dip into the college fund if shit happens - your kid will be an adult by then and can pay for their own education.
It sounds like you’ll still be able to get by with the lower income, so why not do what will make you happy? You will adapt to surviving with less, trust me. You will be a better person for it.
You can always go back to your higher-paying work if you eventually become unhappy with the lower income position.
But do talk to people who work there. Non profits are rewarding, but they also come with the same bullshit as any other office. Make sure you have realistic expectations.
Probably, although I think that’s influenced by how big and how visible an organization it is. My anecdotal experience has been that fewer public interest attorneys have lost jobs they were already in, but many fewer have been hired, too. Doesn’t sound like the drying up of new hires is going to be your problem, though. Ultimately I think it depends on where the money comes from - I know the decentralized rural legal aid kinds of offices have been fairly devastated in my region - but I think for the most part the people that have the jobs have kept them.
Very good advice. We have a friend who left her extremely well-paying job in the energy sector (she was a vice president of something or other) to go work for a homeless charity; she left that job after about a year because of the bullshit politics, and now she’s back to making huge mega-bucks again. I’m not saying your experience will be the same, but do the research first. Other than that, I’d say go with your dream - satisfying work makes life more enjoyable.
I think you should consider how hard it would be to return to where you are now if you want to. Are you burning bridges?
Obviously, in the very short term you are making a commitment. But, if in a year you decide “Hey, this was a mistake, I want to go back to a high-paying gig”, could you realistically be back to where you are now within three years?
If so, I don’t think you are risking much at all by taking three years to explore the idea. process.
You mention how rarely opportunities come up for your dream job. What you have not mentioned is how easy it would be to get back to something similar to your current job if it didn’t work out. I think that should be a factor in your decision. From the sounds of things, you would not struggle to step back on to your current career ladder (albeit possibly a rung or two lower, but still paying much more than the dream job) if you had to in a year or two.
Also, regarding your mortgage - it may be cheap right now, but unless it’s a long-term fixed rate (and most mortgages aren’t), it could easily rise very fast at almost any time. That’s worth bearing in mind.
Overall, though, I agree with the majority that you should go for it.
Yes and no. It’s likely I would be able to find higher-paying work of some kind if push came to shove. Doubly so because in a real squeeze my wife could also have a higher income.
But in all likelihood I would be shut out of the biggest part of the legal market with higher incomes: large commercial law firms.
So it’s cutting off some potential avenues, but not locking me into this income necessarily.
I personally WOULDN’T do it. Reason #1 is that I don’t really believe in dream jobs or I have never seen really good evidence they exist outside of a few rare specialties (and that doesn’t include any office jobs). Every other job I know of is more about sucking less than the alternatives and all about the pay. I realize not everyone feels that way but I would clean gas station restrooms all day if it paid enough. Rewarding and fun is for your free time and money goes a long way towards making that part more rewarding. This job may not seem nearly as great after you have been doing it for a year or two. You may not even like it as much as your current one.
Reason #2 is that you say it could impact your thoughts about having another child. I assume that means you want one to some degree. Screw the fictitious dream job, kids are way more important than any of those even if those jobs did exist and having kids lasts a lifetime (hopefully) whereas any job can just go poof at any time. It may disappear right after your wife’s reasonable fertile age and that would be a terrible tragedy.
If you don’t like your current job in general, you could just widen your net to anything that has less stress/better hours/more interesting for somewhat less pay rather than just deciding ahead of time that there is only one good job for you. That would open up your options a lot more than this black or white situation that you have mentally boxed yourself into.
