to ask if anyone has left a highly paid job for a low(er) paid one .... any regrets?

[PrincessPheobe]

Has anyone left a high paid / high stress job for something quite a bit lower paid to get a better work/life balance?

Any regrets?

yes- worked abroad and had everything paid for (flat, bills, schooling) but I felt like their slave and had no life.

I earn less than half that now and am far happier.

yes left job as a journalist to work as a TA in school, miss the money but not the stress, long hours and sinking feeling on sunday nights. Love the present job and feel appreciated unlike my old role. Can pick ds up from school and am stress free. No regrets!

Yup. I earn half as much now as I did when I left my old job 5 years ago. So a big reduction - but I get to take the DCs to school and pick them up and actually have a life at the weekends. So yes, I'm much happier and don't regret it for a minute. I'm glad I had the opportunity in my old job though.

I used to dread going to work as yuleheart says - it is a very strange feeling now to really not mind going into the office. I don't live for the weekend or wish my life away. There is no expectation that anyone at my workplace will prioritise work over any other aspect of their life and it's fantastic not to have chargeable hours to faff around with all day. OK, of course it's not perfect - there's tons of bureaucracy, things move very slowly, everything is about budget cuts and you have to supply your own tea & coffee (very weird when I've been used to fairly lavish perks!!!) but overall it's just relaxed and a pleasant place to be. I can't imagine standing outside my office now and taking deep breaths before going in. Thank goodness.

Emsyj I'm also a City lawyer, and we have to provide our own coffee and tea (unless we want to drink the crap drinks out the machine)!

How have you coped on the lower paid salary? What sacrifices have you made?

I have twice. Worked in recruitment and loved it but after many years needed a change so took a job in events that paid less but never ever regretted it. Once the DCs came along I lost the love for the events and it wasn't going to work around the children so re trained to be a TA which pays much less again but so far no regrets at all, I love it. They were all the right moves for me at the time. Who knows? I might go full circle and get back into recruitment when my DCs are older.

Yes, I left a well paid job in the city to become a poor student!

I'd had enough and wanted to do something interesting.

I now have no idea what I spent all that money on! (Well, I do, mainly nights out I think!)

I am officially on a low income now (and a mum) but much, much happier!

No regrets, none at all.

I took a different role in the same company. Previous job running team of 50 people was very stressful and long hours but earned over £150k. Now work 3 days in a technical role with no staff other than a PA. Took a massive pay cut (25% off base salary and then prorated) and earn just over twice what our nanny costs us but am very happy - I get to spend time with our DCs and still have mental stimulation of a career. Hope to go back full time when they're older but never want to have that level of staff managerial responsibility again!

My dh was in the forces, well paid, great career prospects ( he was very well liked by the big wigs and they expected him to go far). He gave it all up to become a youth worker. Taking a hefty pay drop in the process. We have never looked back, we may have to budget a bit more but my kids have their daddy at home most of the time and the flexibility of the job is great. He gets much more satisfaction from working with teenagers then he did fixing helicopters. I would much rather have less money coming in to the house and have my dh home than hardly seeing him at all.

Yes I have and no regrets at all. My life is much more stable and I don't have so much travelling or long hours.

Slightly different as I wasn't particularly well paid, but I left a job that was very hard won in an industry I had been desperate to work in because I was unhappy - stress and long hours for poor renuneration and a clash with a colleague mainly - I was losing sleep, etc. I gave up work and became a sahm - we are no worse off because my salary wouldn't cover childcare for our 3dc. I miss working and am retraining to do something I love that will never make me a lot of money but which I can fit around my family.

Not sure what happened to my punctuation then! I do usually use commas!

Went from medium-paying job to lower-paying one. Not voluntarily: was made redundant (in circumstances that still make me fume) and offered redeployment elsewhere in a large org. At my previous grade, quite specialized skills are needed, so I pretty much had to go down a couple of grades.

I echo another poster in that once you move down, it's hard to make the move back up. My current work is less demanding, which in some ways is nice, but in other ways I miss the challenge. I also miss the money quite a lot. I didn't think I was money-minded at all, but anxiety about bills etc is taking up all the extra mental space freed up by not having to worry about my job.

Sounds a bit different from most other posters because it's not a choice I made voluntarily.

Tarabanana, we live on the same amount of money now as we always have - although now that we're out of London our mortgage is a bit less than our rent was (it started out the same amount but we made a lump sum payment last year to get into the next loan:value ratio which reduced the payments). When I earned lots, we saved lots (around £5k a month) - now we save (a lot) less. We never had a very lavish lifestyle really, although we did enjoy eating out (nothing massively flash though). I can't really think of anything that we did then that we don't do now that is down to money rather than having kids to be honest - we went out for drinks and dinner more often, which we could do now if we called on all willing babysitters more often, but that's pretty much it. DH earns a decent salary (not as much as he earned in London but only about £12k less) so that helps. We don't have any debt other than mortgage and we both have old cars. Our lifestyle is much as it ever was.