If you were guaranteed 1,200 a month income…

I've done something broadly similar by giving up my full time job and going part time in an easier job after receiving an inheritance that paid off my mortgage. I never regretted it and never went back to full time work. I eventually retrained and was self employed doing as much work as I could comfortably manage. I was younger than you when I made that choice. Good luck whatever you decide.

Aha, Apple has said what I was just trying to work out a way to say! Lower level jobs are far from easier, and particularly if you are used to manging your own time and workload.

What's your pension like? Can you realistically find a less stressful job that will make up the difference?

I say this because I would rather carry on in my current, well paid, high stress, but management so I can work around my kids, job as a single mother, than trade it in for a low wage, less mentally demanding, but also less flexible job in a supermarket/cafe/school

Interesting, I was on this for over 10 years with no man paying for anything.

It doesn't sound as though OP is in a position to keep her job for another 5/10 years. Her mental and physical health is suffering.

Yep, that is my experience too. Worked in a shop, hospitality, call centre... I found most of them more stressful than my current office-based role. Especially the call centre work: dealing with pissed off people, a huge list of weekly targets to meet, senior staff listening in to calls to make sure you were doing your job properly, absolute worst for micromanagement. And that was for a government help line!

Normally this income will be fine if a man pays all your bills including mortgage

This. I'm 49 and I was made redundant last September and am currently living off my redundancy. I'll need to get a job later this year but I want something with less stress, preferably part time. Leaving, albeit forced on me, was the best thing that could have happened to me.

ETA I'm lucky in that we don't have a mortgage but even if we had something was going to give as the stress was making me ill. DH has noticed how much more relaxed I am, I'm not snappy and always on the verge of tears.

Can you live on that? If yes - do it as I can totally understand how you feel. But if you can't live off that, financial stress will be worse than the stress you are currently under (in my experience of taking a pay cut - although my monthly outgoings are huge).

Don’t be ridiculous £1200 is
nothing really as you said it covers your mortgage and that’s it. If your able to work I’d be banking thay £1200, keeping my job and seeing what the situation looks like in 5 / 10 years time.

This would be my answer too

I did exactly this. No regrets.

I think you need to do it for your mental health. Take time to recover, see how you manage on that money, and then you can take time to re evaluate how much you need to earn to be happy, taking into account pension etc. Then, if need be, you can up your hours, retrain or be sufficiently healed to go back to your old industry.

But short term your plan sounds as if it’s needed.

This is less than the living wage if full time so no, go for living wage instead, take home over £1,600. Do you mean you’ll have £1200 left after mortgage? If so, I would but I know how to budget having been on minimum living wage for years in the past.

I think you might need to clarify - £1,200 a month plus approx £700-£800?
So potentially £2,000 coming in each month? Or just
If your other bills aren't too much then it's probably doable.

If you asked me 20 years ago, I would have said you were crazy to do it, but now - no, not at all. Your peace of mind is all that matters.

I work part time in a low paid job and it has done wonders for my mental health to be honest but the money situation is dire. I'm not a single parent and on paper we should be saving something like £500 a month but it never works out that way. There's always unexpected bills, school shoes, birthdays, car maintenance etc. I'm not sure you're budgeting enough money, especially if you're used to earning a lot more

Op I was in a similar situation years ago. My health just got worse and worse and I felt like I was on a constant treadmill. Then my dh needed a serious operation and was unable to go back to his previous full time job. So we now both work part time, our salaries combined are about £1800 a month. That covers all our essential outgoings. We ve had to change our lifestyles and make alot of sacrifices. But we wouldn't have it any other way. Our quality of life is so much better now, our health has improved and life is so much more manageable. I would definitely recommend it, even for a year.

You could go interest only on your mortgage for a while too perhaps. This could cut outgoings

She says she can't go part time.

If I could do this, I 100% would.

What is even the point of life if you're stressed and unhappy all the fucking time?

Hi im guessing you might be in teaching? I feel similar and totally burnt out due to demands of job and being a single parent to a young child. I don’t have any guaranteed income though so feel really stuck. I’m currently saving and then hoping to go part time. If I did have your options I’d be taking them. Good luck!

What about your mortgage though?

I would outsource what I could cooking, cleaning and childcare and look for a job in the middle of the two extremes.

I completely sympathise as I am in the same boat, but I've also done low paid part time work etc and it was also no picnic. So id rather the money.

Could you do it long term? No, probably not.
Could you do it for 6 months to a year? Yes.

Meant to add - you would never be able to renegotiate a new mortgage on a low salary. So I would aim to knock a chunk off and renegotiate THEN earn less.