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Ask HN: Do you have the courage to abandon your high paying job?

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Re: Ask HN: Do you have the courage to abandon your high paying job?

#141

Post by surds »

I am not in a position to give any advice to OP, as I am not experienced enough, don't have that kind of financial options but not in a position where I can't stand my job.

That being said, I look forward to be independent some day and try to spend my free time building something on the side. The problem is that it is not not as easy as some people make it seem. Depending on how the day at work was, I might be completely exhausted mentally and not in a position to do anything in the evening.

This part-time approach might not work for the OP as the job already seems to be stressful. Given that he has a cushion, is probably quite competent AND hates the current job - in his position - I would quit and do something that drives me.

Make a time bound plan with milestones that keep you on track and evaluate after a year or two. If it does not work out, you can always come back to the industry with your current experience and whatever new you learn starting up.

Would you get the same package or better? Maybe. Maybe not. But you can look ahead knowing that you tried. Then you get back to the job till it gets tiring again, or you get the bug of going out and doing something else again. :)

Re: Ask HN: Do you have the courage to abandon your high paying job?

#143

Post by zerr »

tsetse wrote: post #82
lazyjones wrote: post #58

Unless there's unique opportunity right now to start your own company, keep your current job until you have enough savings to sustain most of your current living standard. I'm surprised you haven't saved more at your age with this kind of salary.

I haven't always had this salary... 4 years ago I was at 200K/year.

Did you get to 500K by switching the jobs/companies? I wonder how you negotiated such number, or maybe they offered it right away?

Re: Ask HN: Do you have the courage to abandon your high paying job?

#144

Post by simantel »

shanghaiaway wrote: post #91
milliondollar wrote: post #86

I just quit a $1M a year job at 45 years old, moved out of the city into the country, am working to bootstrap something from scratch, and am the happiest I've ever been. (That said, I'm one week into my "retirement", so time will tell.) I did the math and realized that I had "enough"; anything more would just be working to enlarge my kids inheritance. So there was nothing really stopping me except peer pressure. Give…

Can I ask what kind of job pays $1M per year?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13421078

Re: Ask HN: Do you have the courage to abandon your high paying job?

#146

Post by jackgolding »

badpun wrote: post #135
siculars wrote: post #129

Clearly you're very good at what you do. Speak to the folks at your company and help them help you make the situation better. Stay at your job. Especially if you have people depending on you like a spouse, kids or parents. Hold out longer and build a bigger cushion. Remove the risk from your plan by building a passive income stream now through investments in the market and/or real estate. Life is a long time if you'r…

> Clearly you're very good at what you do. Speak to the folks at your company and help them help you make the situation better. I'm in a very similar position (less money, but in a much cheaper country, so I still make about 40x minimum wage). I think in my case partially the reason why the company is paying me so much is precisely because the overall conditions there are so shitty, not because I'm some genius. So, a…

I think this is the case for most Enterprise

Re: Ask HN: Do you have the courage to abandon your high paying job?

#148

Post by pragmatic »

pragmatic wrote: post #147

Just off the top of my head, shouldn't your net worth be higher? Might need to check your savings rate. The 1.1 from the property sale is great but that sounds more like a lottery win.

When I left a stable job with good pay and excellent benefits for self employment, I underestimated the costs of buying benefits on par with my old job.

Also keep in mind your family may be used to a certain standard of living and paring that back can be a challenge. We were frugal work a high savings rate. I underestimated the mental stress in down months when more money was going out then coming in.

With that much coming in, you could start it on the side, easily pay someone or a few people to do some of the work.

But it really depends on you, your mental state, etc.

Re: Ask HN: Do you have the courage to abandon your high paying job?

#149

Post by pragmatic »

pragmatic wrote: post #148
pragmatic wrote: post #147

Just off the top of my head, shouldn't your net worth be higher? Might need to check your savings rate. The 1.1 from the property sale is great but that sounds more like a lottery win.

When I left a stable job with good pay and excellent benefits for self employment, I underestimated the costs of buying benefits on par with my old job. Also keep in mind your family may be used to a certain standard of living and paring that back can be a challenge. We were frugal work a high savings rate. I underestimated the mental stress in down months when more money was going out then coming in. With that much…

I ended up getting a different Corp job. Wasn't worth the stress. However, I may try something else.

If nothing else, I leaned about the things I don't like to do and why.

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