FIRE Girls Pension Diary - Aim High & Dream Big

Storcko14

I agree. About 10 years ago I took a lucrative contract in what turned out to be a highly toxic large multi-year programme with a FS company. Not being particularly close to FI at that stage the 'keep on billing' mantra kicked in and I stuck it out longer than was healthy which took its toll and I became noticeably more stressed and grumpy at home.

As a result of that I vowed never again, to be better at spotting the signs and not hesitate to move on. Life is too short.

michaels

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82007034#Comment_82007034

It is an interesting trade off. Higher pay with less satisfaction but a route to stopping sooner Vs a job you are happier doing but will have to do for a few years longer.

I generally disliked my jobs to the extent of being happy to downgrade lifestyle to be able to retire earlier so think I probably chose wrong.

NormalNorman

Many years ago I was in a job I thoroughly enjoyed but post financial crisis annual pay rises dried up for seven years! To cap it all HR went through this FU process to regrade you downwards. Yes there was pay protection for many years but it was an actual drop of a couple of grand a year on top of seven years of no pay rises. The pension was good though and will form part of the bedrock.

So I changed to a corporate in 2020, money was much better but I hate corporate life. So changed again to a local company that had much more my feel for another pay rise. Then we got taken over by another corporate only one year later, sigh…

The upshot is I'm sitting this one out till the end as I'm getting ~£20k a year more doing the same, only less work with permanent wfh which allows a local PT job. So really £27k more a year for no more time out my life but mostly goes in the pension.

Now it's getting harder every year to maintain very high pension contributions with inflation and uni costs over recent years hence regularly checking outgoings for better deals. Only two and bit years to go.

Anyway, thoroughly enjoy reading everyones posts their progress.