Would you change job to earn less?

Not that often, you come across a job post that seems to have your name written all over it. When that happens, you just click the apply button. When an offer comes in, it is time to decide.

It has been a long standing aspiration of mine to start something from scratch. It seems that I lack myself the good idea or final courage to start my own business. With this new job, I will join a start up. Agreed, it will not be my company and my idea. There will be the opportunity to start from a white piece of paper and build something from the ground up. This is an experience that I would like the have. Something I will regret later when I do not do it. As life is about experiences for me, about living now, it was a perfect fit.

After a lot of talking to friends and my wife, I pulled the trigger. It took roughly 3 weeks of thinking and talking. Finally, I decide to give notice at work. This came as a big surprise to most people. I do like my current job, I have a lot of challenges and great colleagues.So, why change? Why did it take that long to decide?

 

 

• Joining a startup as a first employee is a challenge. There is nothing in place and all needs to be build up. The risk is that the company runs out of money before it is profitable. At that time, I have to go back to square one and look for another job. This is to me the biggest risk I take. Will there be a job for me in corporate Belgium (as employee or consultant) and what will it pay?

• A startup pay less than a corporate job. This was a tough one to accept and to detail to my wife. There are a lot of impacts. We can forget our current savings rate and our current 2029 FIRE plan. As compensation, there is the outlook of significant reward when the company does well. That should put us back on track. Only time will tell

• The usual HR support is not there. A lot of items take longer to materialize or to get answers. To me, it is part of the experience. To, my wife, who works in HR, it is different. There were already some minor surprises, nothing we can not overcome

As response to the increased insecurity, we will going forward no longer make monthly investments in our index funds. To sleep well at night, I want to build up our cash buffer bigger than needed. The action in my playmoney will continue as foreseen. Other regular investments like tax pension saving will continue as well.

These are some extra benefits:

• The commute will be bike-train again. I did this for 9 years and the switched to car for  a new job. I became increasingly difficult for me to spend roughly 45 minutes one way in my car. It really became a burden to me, something that tires me. Even listening to FIRE podcasts did not bring joy. The kids will have to adapt to the new situation. We will bike to school and they will go to the morning care in school again.

• Working in a start up and in an accelerator space should give me an insight in this community. It is something I was curious about for a long time. Being part of it sounds wonderful.

Would you change job to get an experience you want? Even when it pays less? I would love to hear from you.