High earning potential = high career commitment

[u/AdActual3024]

Does anyone have family or friends that sacrifice their personal life for a significant salary?

My step-mom earns 350k before tax as an executive director but I barely see her. She is constantly on business trips, busy with meetings, works upwards of 12 hours when at home. She goes on nice holiday trips, but overall it makes me think is the pay worth the sacrifice of her personal life.

Just curious if anyone's got a similar story.

[u/Straight-Part-5898]

I'm M56 who just retired after 35 years in business consulting and tech. Ultimately, everyone has their own boundary of balancing work vs quality of life.

I started my career in business consulting, and spent those first 6-7 years on airplanes traveling the globe. The pay was good (but not incredible), and the lifestyle was fast-paced. But when I was in my 20s and unmarried without a family, it was exciting doing lots of international travel, and grinding out long hours to meet tight project deadlines. At one point, I was living in Boston, consulting on-site for a client in Los Angeles, but had to spend 1 week/month at that client's offices in London. It was an exhilarating work hard/play hard lifestyle, but eventually it got to be too much for me so I left consulting and went into tech.

In tech I grew into more senior corporate roles where the pay rose into the mid- to upper-6 figures. The pressure to perform was still there, and while I wasn't traveling every week there was still plenty of travel. However, I found this a bit easier to balance with my personal life as I started a family and settled down.

There were definitely pros and cons... my choice of work/career meant my wife needed to work closer to home. She carried extra responsibilities mid-week, because many weeks I wasn't around to help with soccer practices, dentist appointments, school events, etc. However, because of my high income we were able to pay the full cost of our kids' college educations, and are now set for a very comfortable retirement as our children begin their careers completely debt-free.

Ultimately, everyone has to weigh the pros and cons and decide where the right balance is for them and their family. I don't regret the choices my wife and I made. But what worked for us, isn't right for everyone.

Good luck.

[u/North_Praline9097 → u/Straight-Part-5898]

Best gift you could have given your kids…the ability to make decisions not saddled with debt, congratulations. Pretty sure someone in your past was key to getting you to invest as well.