Taking a 100k paycut for a less stressful job?

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hopeyourewell
Posts: 12
Joined: Tue Aug 25, 2020 5:07 am

Re: Taking a 100k paycut for a less stressful job?

Post by hopeyourewell »

You’ve already answered the question.
You have taken action to create passive income to get out of medicine.
You know this job isn’t possible long term.
You are struggling to deal with this realization.
It seems your wife is considering jobs outside your current location, otherwise your departure from this job could be postponed... you could OMY until you hit a tipping point. This leads me to think you or she or both want to live elsewhere. Perhaps decide a location.
As someone with grown children, elderly parents and a scattered family (nationally and internationally) my personal recommendation would be to make a choice that allows you the greatest amount of family proximity and time together. Your schedules may leave precious little free time together as your child/ren grow, and eventually family members will find it it harder to travel, if only for health reasons. Having extended family nearby also would provide you and your wife with support so you can spend some time alone together, keeping the foundation of your family strong.
Greed and ego are powerful forces. A while ago I took a roughly 50% paycut for a more reasonable situation. Perhaps easier for a female from an expectations standpoint. The emotional adjustment was real (and took a year or two), especially helping the family adjust to a lower lifestyle and feeling responsible for any disappointment. My health and mental health are much better now, though, so I can honestly recommend taking the hit.
Best wishes to you and your wife and daughter.
hopeyourewell
Posts: 12
Joined: Tue Aug 25, 2020 5:07 am

Re: Taking a 100k paycut for a less stressful job?

Post by hopeyourewell »

p.s. Congratulations on doing such an awesome job for so long! You know few could match the accomplishment.
reln
Posts: 718
Joined: Fri Apr 19, 2019 4:01 pm

Re: Taking a 100k paycut for a less stressful job?

Post by reln »

Cyanide123 wrote: Mon Nov 16, 2020 10:35 am This post is maybe a way of myself trying to convince myself to take a paycut for essentially better quality of life. But i hesitate because it's a lot of money.

The facts:

I'm an ER doctor. Currently making 450k per year 1099 income. I work all nights. 12 12 hour monthly shifts - 1728 annual hours. My current contract was very well negotiated and i make significantly more than most ER doctors.

This job is stressful. Often times at shift change when i come in, i walk in to 15-20 patients in the ED. This is a single coverage ER, the ER doc is the only doctor in the hospital after 5 pm.. i often walk into a full waiting room and it is not unusual for me to see 4 patients per hour for the first 4-5 hours. This is a lot in an ER setting. Eventually volume slows down after 1 am and i finally take a breather and start catching up on notes.

My job is now even harder than before - staffing cuts, decreasing mid level support, hiring of 3 new doctors who are all slow and i dread taking sign off from. It used to be only one that was slow, now it's 4. Which is one of the reasons why when i walk in a lot of people haven't been seen and are waiting. I do not exaggerate when i say that I've picked up patients who have been waiting for 3 hours because the out going doc just stopped picking up patients 2 hours before the end of his shift.

I am perfectly capable of handling these thinga, but i don't know if i want to anymore.

I took this high paying job to pay off debt and build net worth. I was worth negative 100k 1.5 years ago when i started this first attending job. Today i am worth 375k 1.5 years later.

The alternate option: the greener grass on the other side.

I've started job hunting in another city. Looking at places with low volume - potentially 30 percent less patient volume. This change in pace can mean less stress, longer career, no longer working all nights, healthier life, more time with family and my 10 month old daughter.

The downside is - around 75-110k in lost income depending on which job i pick based on what seems to be available. That's a big number.

I'm trying to convince myself that at such high income levels money doesn't matter. Moreover, my wife graduates from residency too when I can start a new job, which means she will gain 150-170k of income over current levels and essentially off set any of my decreased income for essentially still an increase in net family income.

What would a biogglehead do? Take the paycut? Suck it up for another couple of years until at least a million net worth? Realize the grass is probably just greener on the other side since most ERs are stressful?
How much is your time worth?
I would take the pay cut in your case.
vg55
Posts: 184
Joined: Sun Jan 06, 2013 7:55 am

Re: Taking a 100k paycut for a less stressful job?

Post by vg55 »

A properly resourced ER would reduce your stress.

What does a properly staffer ER look like:

Then go to management and insist that they resource the ER correctly. If they fail to do so, you are walking.

Vote with your feet or be abused by management -- those are your options.
Nowizard
Posts: 4842
Joined: Tue Oct 23, 2007 5:33 pm

Re: Taking a 100k paycut for a less stressful job?

Post by Nowizard »

You are relatively new to the profession and possibly still on the treadmill for all the effort it took to get to your current position. Clearly, this is not a financial decision but a lifestyle one. Not to oversimplify by intent, but the options are simple, the choice more complex. Money and whatever satisfaction you get from treating your patients or a more balanced life. One of the issues that many of us who are in healthcare face is who we are working with and our evaluation of their performance since the decisions are literally life changing in many instances. That part could be improved by a change of scenery, but the rest is perhaps best answered by frank conversations between yourself and your family.

Tim
teniralc
Posts: 288
Joined: Sun May 10, 2009 8:57 pm

Re: Taking a 100k paycut for a less stressful job?

Post by teniralc »

Cyanide123 wrote: Mon Nov 16, 2020 10:50 am
Rainmaker41 wrote: Mon Nov 16, 2020 10:40 am Consider what the paycut looks like in net after tax terms. The cost of purchasing better quality of life, lower stress, presumably better personal health, etc. is substantially less than the $100k gross figure in those terms.

Even after your gross compensation is reduced to around $350k, adding in your wife's projected $150k puts you guys at half a million gross per year. Assuming you save a large chunk of that, you'll be fine.
Actually... Wife currently makes 56k as resident. As family medicine attending, we are getting offers of 230k roughly. So probably will hit 550-600k combined income.

It's a mental block. I know I'm good at my job and can handle the volume and stress. It feels like defeat - not living up to my level of capability. Not fully pushing myself to do my best.
Is there a way to measure the "risks" of staying in the current position-potential of making a mistake where you would be sued for a mistake? Would that make your own insurance premiums go higher and possibly make it harder to find a new position later? If there is a way to measure those types of risks, it might give you more data to mull over to help make your decision. Another risk to consider is that once your spouse begins working and your child has both parents working opposite schedules, is there a risk of marriage separation/divorce?
mr_brightside
Posts: 897
Joined: Sat Oct 17, 2020 3:23 pm

Re: Taking a 100k paycut for a less stressful job?

Post by mr_brightside »

"a candle that burns twice as bright burns half as long"

only you know how long you can keep going at your current rate / pace

good luck --

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