You can absolutely afford the downgrade in salary. The part I’m less confident in is the assumption around work life balance of the theoretical new job. I’ve made a similar trade in the past. The new job ended up being similarly annoying, for less money and professional respect. Really regretted it, but learned a valuable lesson.. the grass isn’t always greener. But making the extra $100k at least gets you off the ride a good bit sooner

I think we need your yearly spending to answer this properly.

So your total net worth is 1.3m, income is 450k, and expenses are 100k…. And you want to know if dropping income to 350k is okay?

Yes go for it, as long as you’re willing to forgo 100k a year to realize the incremental benefits of the new job.

If you can still achieve your goals with less TC then absolutely.

I took a 50k pay cut from a 250k salary.

Do I miss that extra money? Sure do.

Am I fine without it? Sure am.

The delusion is strong on this sub.

You are currently in the top 3% of net worth individuals in your age bracket. Your compensation is going down to a "mere" $350,000.

Absent completely profligacy or avarice, where is the debate here? You have a young child. Spend time with your family.

I just made a very similar decision, it's in my post history, but a bit worse since it includes a new long commute. I decided to take the potentially lower paying job (who knows how stock prices go) that's hopefully less stressful and better WLB.

Once your income, after taxes, is more than 120% of your expenses, time is the most valuable currency imo, and it's even more valuable when your kids are young (I have twins that are a few months older). Followed by health and stress levels.

Your income, after taxes, is still definitely much greater than your expenses. You'll be fine.

Planning to do the same. 

You’ll be fine. Go for it.

I've thought about this many times. What holds me back is the chance that I'll take a job that pays half as much but still has all of the hassle and stress. I'd have to have pretty good certainty that it would not be a demanding job.

I know someone that works in tech for a nonprofit and he says they barely work half of the time. He has 5 weeks off for Christmas. Their business is seasonal so there are two big crunches per year besides that most people are coasting. Comp isn't great neither are raises but they get full benefits. Something like this would work for me.

You'll need to post your expenses, because otherwise how could anyone know if reducing your income by 100k is a good idea. If you've saved 1M in 5 years then odds are good you have some room to step down your savings, but you'll want to model your financial goals to see if reducing your savings rate is worth it. Would you be willing to "spend" the difference to have the better WLB? 

Absolutely to spend more time with your family especially during the early years.

How is a 350k job better WLB? I haven’t seen many jobs at that range that is “chill”.

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Really depends. We need to know more: expenses and aspirations. Having a kid increased our expenses significantly (by around $40k - mostly HCOL childcare, 529 etc) while reducing our savings rate. Adding a second kid would probably increase costs by $30-$35k. Together, this probably represents about $100k pre-tax income that we no longer save.

Intentionally reducing our income by another $100k would be a non-starter for us. Perhaps we have different expectations and aspirations.

Also you don’t say whether new job would mean you dont need childcare 5 days anymore. That could change things significantly.

Yes.

Needless context: this isn’t a difficult decision. You have plenty of headroom and additional work life balance is important with a baby.

Yes, absolutely.

With expenses of just $100k a year I say hell yeah, go for the new job. If you do nothing but let your current investments grow and max out retirement accounts going forward, you will have more than enough for retirement. If your expenses don’t inflate too much, you’ll likely still be able to retire early.

Plus it’s hard to put a price on getting to spend more time with family.

No one seems to be weighing the other side. How long have you been in your current role and what sort of political equity have you built up at current firm? Things like that are intangible and take years to build but and can help craft a path to personal situation improvement.

I feel like being in a role for a long time, the trust you have built and relationships that are already set has huge value. This differs in every organization but there are a lot of roles where this has outsized importance.

Join a new role and have to work “extra hard” to build reputation and trusted relationships. That’s something I think about a lot, that going to a new spot would require an intense workload period to properly settle into vs. being in a role that I’m very settled and proficient at. It’s also a bet on yourself/risk that you can even carve out the same lane/expertise/respect that you have now. So it’s a known entity vs an unknown better or worse situation.

If you are a strong performer and well aligned internally you can probably keep performing and moving up and find a way to offload workloads over time (e.g. find lieutenants to manage projects / more remote work freedom etc). Figure out a goal like that to improve WLB and pursue it over time where you are at now instead of going somewhere else, that’s my suggestion assuming your position is good there now as a platform to build from.

Debating something similar to maximize WLB with a young family but worried about the psychological aspect of it. I anticipate it will be difficult to see peers or friends continue to rise the corporate ladder while purposefully staying put.

Go for it! Who can even find a job with work life balance??? Hell, have another baby if you can manage!!

What do you do?

Bro, your net worth is greater than a million. You’re not HENRY anymore, you made it! Enjoy!