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In many areas of life, there are trade-offs to be made. For example, if you want to retire early, you may have to make more sacrifices at a younger age. If you want a better job, you may need to pay for more education to get it. And if you want a bigger house, you may need to work more hours to pay for it.
When you are facing these kinds of trade-offs, it can sometimes be really hard to know what the best course of action is. This is the situation that one Reddit user is coping with right now. The person is trying to make a career decision, and simply is not sure about which option is going to bring him the most happiness, now and in the long term.
46M | Net Worth ~$3M | Should I take a tougher, higher-paying sales role--or stay comfortable and bored?
byu/Ok_Ganache_789 inChubbyFIRE
So, let's take a look at the person's dilemma and some suggestions from other commenters, as well as some advice on how the person might make the right choice.
Image source: Getty Images.
Is a more rewarding job worth taking on a lot of extra work and stress?
The Reddit user is facing a tough career dilemma, as his post explains. He's 46 years old and has a $3 million net worth, which is a pretty good financial position to be in. He also has a small pension in Europe.
This person had a job he loved in the past, working in Amsterdam between 2006 and 2015 and earning between $200,000 and $500,000 per year while also having freedom, flexibility, and the ability to travel with his children to over 20 countries. Now, however, he is working for a different company in an easy remote job, making $200,000 per year.
Although his job is pretty lucrative and he said he has a ton of flexibility, unfortunately he does not enjoy the work and says there is limited upside.
He does have a golden opportunity, though. He could go back to his old company, make $250K per year, and have the potential for long-term growth. Furthermore, he'd also like the job more. However, the big catch is that he would have to commute almost two hours each way, three to four days a week, and would have a lot less flexibility.
So, he's boiled down his choices to either accepting a bad commute with a big possible future paycheck, or staying where he is and having flexibility, but potentially being underpaid with a stalled career for years. And, obviously, there are major trade-offs with both choices.
Which is the best move?
Many other Reddit posters weighed in and said the commute was absolutely a deal-breaker -- and they are probably right. A four-hour round-trip commute is unworkable for most people, and since this Reddit user is used to flexibility, it would likely mean major lifestyle changes.
Other commenters did have some good suggestions, though, with several people suggesting the original poster (OP) simply accept the job he prefers and move. If that's a choice, it's a good one since there's no reason for the OP to stay stuck in a bad job when a better one is available, as long as he's able to relocate.
If the poster can't relocate, he also has a third option he did not mention; he could simply look for a better job that doesn't come with a two-hour commute each way. The COVID pandemic made remote work much more accepted, so there may be plenty of employers within his industry who would be open to his coming aboard and wouldn't make him come into an office.
If he can neither move nor for some reason look for a better job than either of his current two options, ultimately, he will need to consider what makes him happier. If he is willing and able to put up with the long commute for a job he likes and the potential for more money, that's the route he should go.
But if that doesn't work for his family situation or the two-hour commute would be too much, as most believe it would be, he'd be better off accepting that his current job is good enough and finding meaning and joy in his life in the flexibility the job provides, rather than the quality of the work.
