more money or quality of life?

[Ætheling]

Live to work or work to live, as I have gotten into my 30s I could care less about the corporate rat race. Cost of living in Texas is awesome, you dont need to make that much money to be well off and take care of your family. I would much rather be stress free and enjoy life with my family out in the country than to work my but off and be stressed for a measely 10k a year more. Now dont get me wrong everyone has a price but it doesnt sound like to me 10K is yours.

[OleTomTalker]

I like RTP's advice on negotiate with your current boss on things other than $. More vacation time or better schedule.

Other than that, my only advice is look at that pic in your Avatar, say a little prayer and let that pic tell you where you need to go. I got 3 boys at home. I am looking at a pretty good future financially but I'll be a Walmart welcomer at 75 before I miss out on the life of the lil dude in my Avatar pic.

[OleTomTalker]

Don't get me wrong though, financial stability is important too for your family. Finding the balance is the key. Only you know all details to your life.. Good luck and prayers for ya which ever way you decide to go.

[catslayer]

In my opinion, if you are stable and comfortable the nTime>Money

THAT SAID... I have goals, and meeting them is important to me, so you have to take that into consideration

[BBRU]

$10000 spread over 12 months after taxes is about a extra $650.00 a month, is it worth the headache is what you have to ask yourself. As stated before, if you take the easy less stressful job, your chance for advancement later will likely dimish....

[James]

I just gave up more money for better quality a month ago. Zero regrets so far, it's nice waking up and not dreading having to go to work

[Shane]

There are two questions that we all face at one time or another that involve family time and money. One question is "do I have enough money to support my family and meet my longterm goals and commitments?". If I didn't have enough money to support my family, I'd work whatever job and hours that I had to in order to provide for them. Time off work to be home with hungry kids who need new shoes but can't have them wouldn't be a whole lot of fun. Nor would that be setting a good example for my kids.

The other question is "do I really need more money, or would more time with my family be more valuable to me?".

The key to answering both questions is first to define what "enough" is for you and your family. I get to walk through that process with all my clients (I'm a financial advisor). Talking about their life's priorities and long-term goals, and then helping come up with a plan on how to get there is fun. It's fun because, even though it's a similar process with everybody, each family's situation is unique. There are no "right" answers. Everybody has their own definition of "enough". Arriving at it involves thinking through all the tradeoffs that are involved - and there are ALWAYS tradeoffs.

Everybody has to come up with their own answer.

[x1jett]

The management title, and additional responsibilities are the key reasons for taking the position. The money is a plus, but you can use your new title and experience as leverage to find better opportunities in the future. Take on the new job for two years and then evaluate. Keep moving forward.

[Redneck Archer]

I tend to agree with rtp.

However, Redneck Archer, a few answers from you would be helpful.
What industry are you in?
About how old are you?
How long have you been with this company?
Roughly, how big is the company?

1... Sys admin/IT/opsec/comsec (security plus type stuff)
2... 31
3... 2 years
4... 300 people

[Redneck Archer]

How often do you lose power?

How often are you having to stay late?

Have you ever turned in a week of vacation request?

1 Allot when I started, but knock on wood its been roughly 8 months since we have had a issue at night.

2 I stay late a few times a month. I dont work allot of overtime I am good at saying I am going home after my 40 hours (and I am not mandated to work more, but I can)

3 No

[Redneck Archer]

X2, sounds like they desire to keep you where you are because of your work ethic and reliability. I'd stay where I was at if it was a job I liked.

agreed. both departments want me because of this. The one I am in has more money to throw at me come to find out...

[Balcones_Walker]

My personal advice is that you're too early in your career to make the 'quality of life' trade.

As others have pointed out, you should assume that you're done rising - at a bare minimum with that company - if you make that choice. Over the course of your career the $10k is a rounding error compared to the shift in trajectory.

But I appreciate there is another perspective folks have, the work to live / live to work thing. I wasn't born with it in my DNA, but I see a lot of apparently contented, happy people who have taken that approach. It's all about tradeoffs, I reckon.

[Redneck Archer]

Not knowung the details, If you are as valuable to them as they say, I would make it a point to address your concerns with management about vacations, time off, and family time. Maybe you can work out something that would benefit both of you. Otherwise, you have a hard decision to make. I look at it like some have mentioned, I've never talked to someone who is of retirement age who said they wished they had spent more time at work, but I have talked to many guys who have said they wished they had been there to watch their children grow up!

Agreed, and I did talk about all this with management. when to take vacation with our current team, and needing help. Time off. Family time. etc. Seems they are willing to work with us on stuff and potentially hire help.

It may take time, but they listened and seemed willing to work. Have not had a final meeting yet, but I am strongly leaning one way...

[careybirdwell]

When I started my own business 13 years ago, I took over a 50K a year loss in salary. It is still probably between 30k-40k now. I definitely miss the money sometimes, but I really enjoyed spending valuable time with my wife, daughter, and friends the last 13 years. I missed you such of my daughters life her first 7 years, and I loss contact with all of my friends. If I had to do it all over, I would still choose the time & less stress over the money.

[bphillips]

1 Allot when I started, but knock on wood its been roughly 8 months since we have had a issue at night.

2 I stay late a few times a month. I dont work allot of overtime I am good at saying I am going home after my 40 hours (and I am not mandated to work more, but I can)

3 No

Shoot that's lots of time off already only working 40hrs a week most the time. All I see now is take the 10k and take a vacation every year. You will never get one if you don't put in for one