Purely a hypothetical question...

Answer the question from the standpoint that you have finished your schooling and set out into the career you wanted. You are marred with 2 kids and work the normal 9-5 job with not much complaints but not much satisfaction either. You are pretty much living the typical life you imagined while going through school preparing you for "life."

One day you go in to work to find out that your job has been terminated effective immediately and you have a decision to make:

Job (A) has a locked in salary of 20k. You will not get any bonus, no increase pay, marginal benefits. However, it is your dream job that you love so much you put in overtime without extra pay. However, each night you get home you have to struggle with bills, making payments and just overall making ends meet.

Job ( has a salary of 80k. It will be stressful and you will absolutely hate every minute you are on the clock. However, you make enough money that when your not in the office, you can go on vacations, buy things you want, not worry about bills, etc.


Would you choose the job that makes you happy and make sacrifices with your life or take the better paying job and suck it up in order to give your family the extra income so they can live an enjoyable, carefree life?

Is this a one time deal like if you take B can you never switch to A or vice versa?

i did same choice not long time ago. ok maybe not exactly the same, but very similar one
i had to choose between finishing my medical education and those dooming my self for work in average 80 hours per week
or step down a little and make nursing education, but having "normal" 8-5 job without any obligations
there is more to it, but important thing i want my free time and salary from nursing job is not that bad here in sweden
so basically i'm not loosing that much
however if we speak about your example, then doing job that you love can not compare with high paid hell job
just think about how long you will be able to hold on physically and psychologically?

Yea, it's strictly an A or B answer...no "I'll find another job option."

stick it out for 4 more years, then im backing your brewery and all is set

This honestly sounds like my career path, since law enforcement of any type is paid shit for the most part. But if I had a family I would chose option B to provide for them.

Still going to ponder before voting tho

ok, but in doing the less stressful job your family has to suffer
in the other job with better pay you are the only one bearing the bourdon

It was meant to hit home for as many people as possible, just on a somewhat exaggerated level

B
You'll earn 4 years worth of pay for 1 year /w your dream job. Save up and retire. If you're living by yourself, job A would work..I'm a pretty inexpensive guy, so by myself I could get away /w A..hell I could live off of 400 a month tbh..but I want my kids to have it a ton better than I had it, and I want my brother to go to college, and 20k won't make that happen

i know its terrible but i would rather have a job i dont like and not worry about money. stressing and not being able to have the peace of mind knowing that you wont be able to provide for kids/family would be terrible. also, things like health care and college education for kids and being able to actually retire before 65 is more important to me than making 20k a year.

i will be making option A in graduate school but this isnt my final career path

I just have one rule. I hope I never have to work a factory or physically hard labor job. I want someone to kill me if that ever happens.

I have seen some members of my family engage in these type of jobs and I can't ever foresee myself able to deal with that.

I would most likely take the high paying job because I don't want to ever have to support for a family. Just to much to handle imo. Kids are parasites.

its all about time and income management
if i and my wife both works and have middle range income plus we have two kids then 20 + 20/25k is not that bad
unless you start to waste your money on god knows what
and please don't tell me that in your example i would work alone in this family?
hell no!
i would never make martyr out of myself

anyone who says job b has never held job b for multiple years
but alas, this is america and money talks

How could anyone live off of 20k a year in this current economy?

You would take the 80k if you were a rational human being. I mean you could work for 4-5 years, save up and invest.

joe, 20k a year is too little pay. for me at least. after taxes it comes out to what, 17,000? and after rent and food, you probably dont have enough for car and gas. with a wife and 2 kids as the only breadmaker, thats rediculous. now if it was 80k vs 50 or even 40k, then i would take the 40k. but 20 k is like holy crap poverty

im just saying that for you all to emphatically say job b is the right answer i know you have never had job b for an extended period of time. the question is not as cut and dry as you think. yes, 20k is shit, and basically not an option. but that does not make job b the right answer.

B - because of family
A - if it was just me

well, i know that i havent had job b, but really, how bad could it be? the worst i can think of is hard manuel labor, but ive done a hard days work so i know how it is, and really it doesnt bother me that much. maybe some desk job like in office space where its all busy work and boring day in and day out, that might kill me, however i still think i could deal

try a job that provides no intellectual stimulation at all, a boss who only notices himself, coworkers who also just pass the days etc. basically death by environment.
all i can say is this shit wears on you more than i would have thought 10 years ago.

more srsly: do what makes you happy. if you dont get paid as much thats fine, but your unhappiness with your 80k job will transcend to other aspects of your life and it will wear on you. sure the same can be said about financial insecurity if youre doing a 20k job, but there are ways to live off of that


there are +'s and -'s to both but it really comes down to which one is less negative in this case

yeah its a position id never wanna be in

i just think 20k is too much for a family. 40k then sure

to little sry

but that's the point...it's suppose to be too little, too little to the point that what makes this decision is the sacrifices thy need to be made with potentially doing what you love
that is what I want to see your vote based off of not a mixture of what one or the other "could be"
it's suppose to be a hard choice to make, both have positives and negatives
Joe pretty much verbalized everything that I was originally thinking when I wanted to describe job B, only I didn't want thi to turn into a tl;dr

only contributing cuz i find it an interesting conversation that affects many people.

I no lie went through the exact scenario you laid out and am the exact description...that said I am also a lucky mofo

The day I got let go (had a 2 month advance notice of being laid off) I stepped into a job with another company doing practically the same thing for more money and a less stressful environment.

also your poll is flawed, you should bump the payscales 20k each, you can make 20k+ a year flipping burgers

as it stands i would take the 80k job b/c 20k is not enough to support my family.
if it were more on the 40k/100k side i would choose the 40k and be happy over the 100k and hate myself everyday.

Well, here I'll spill the beans:
Apprentice brewer for microbrewery: ~32k or less depending on brewery
Director of IT working for the commonwealth: 90k

this

IMO there will still be other brewerys that you could ease into in a few years since beer is not going away. Also this could give you more time homebrewing (and $$ from other job) to learn or pick up a few things that if you got paid less while you would be doing it large scale you wouldnt have as much to do at home. And if you went the route now you proalbey would not be able to work on all the plans you have going now

actually I am the opposite thinking..

You just got married, no kids basically just getting a good start
I would take the brewery job, put the wife to work (if she isnt working already) for a few years until you are making enough to support her + a kid or two. I am not sure on the pay advancements in brewing world but, I would assume they rise rapidly once you know wtf you are doing and you become high on the demand list. If you have no qualms over moving I am sure you could make more $$ and find places to live with a higher quality of life. If you don't want to move then disregard what I just said and hope you can find a brewery that will pay what you are worth in say 5-10 yrs


by the way if the old lady already has a bun in the oven or refuses to work then everything I just said is a moot point and you should take the IT job and just dream like everyone else until your kids are out of college THEN go for the brewing

This post has been edited by deadhXc on Thu - Feb 4 2010 - 11:30:35

No bun in the oven but meading the dough so to speak

neither of these jobs are doable right now but if I choose a path right now I could Have either one in like 5 years

the IT job would require my continued dedication to stupidity and frustration. The brewery job would require I take a few classes to brush up on my chemistry

A in a heartbeat honestly

Well my thinking was more along the lines of if you took A you wouldnt be getting dream house or whatnot that the beasts been talking aboot and all that jazz

Well this toilet definitely just took a turn from generic to quite personal...

And yeah you are right. I was hoping to get opinions about the subject without it getting too personal. But the fact of the matter is that if I derail from my current path (more money and unhappiness) than I feel that I am being selffish by not providing the extra money for the "nice things" we both want

my bad

Looking for honesty here, no worries

my stone in the water is this.

if your wife is working, and you have a good shot at the job, i would take the brewery position, if you are sure you would love the job. if the job gives benefits that can be worth a lot. if wife is working you guys definitely bring in enough for a household to do well even with 2 kids. also, the brewery position likely would give you a raise in the future, and if you are truly passionate then you will be good at it and eventually do better than 30k.

30k is much better than 20k btw

If I had a family to care for, I would rather spend my enjoyable time with them than at work. Unfortunately, I could not possibly live in CT getting paid 20k/year, if I worked 35 hours a week at my current job I would make more than that.

right now in my life, easily A.

however if I knock up some whore and have to marry her and provide for someone, than B.

Where's the kill your family option and take job A then

Money rules.

80k >

80k ftw

adam if ya want a serious talk about it aim me later

spoken like someone who has no idea

Hating every minute of a 9-5 day is a lot of time hatin'

Life isnt about hating. If I spend 8 hours sleeping, then 10 hours miserable (9-5 doesnt include journey time right?), that leaves me 6 hours to be happy. 6 hours a day? Which will be filled of needy family stuff and time consuming things anyway. All in all, not much time to enjoy my money.

I would pick 20k salary. Because even if the rest of your life sucks, if your job, that you do everyday, and spend most of you life doing, is where you have the most fun, that is what you should do.

Also, if your doing a hard, stressful, boring, repetitive job, how do you think this is going to affect you? Will you still come home everyday with a smile on your face, or do you think eventually it will break your spirit. (Hypothetically ofc m8)

A

because i don't need shit, and i hate everyone

also all those saying you would want a better life for the kids forget to mention they will lack a father in their life, does not sound better to me

mise well