This is exactly how I feel after leaving Big 4. Anyone else left and are feeling better than ever? Of course now I'm in this bowl trying to figure out how to make more money...but I'm also no longer losing my hair prematurely and barely sleeping. Has leaving a higher paying company for a lesser paying one ever paid off for you?

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Going through this now. In the legal sector. Laid off from a BigLaw law firm after 24 years. Took 10 months to find a job as a solo marketer in a small, niche laelw firm of less than 40 attorneys. I took a hit of 30% net pay (and crappier benefits) but was glad to have a paying job. Thought that their niche area of law would be less stressful. The attorneys are generally nicer than in BigLaw, but there are still a couple of as%!#les there. I have still ended up working 10 hour days and some 12-13 hour days and weekends, plus a 3.5 hour round-trip commute 4 days a week since they are very "in-office" focused except for their partners who obviously get to work where they want/need to because they are owners in the firm. It has been 10 months now. Leaving at 6:30 am and getting home at 8 or 9 pm doesn't leave much time for sleeping, much less job hunting once I have dealt with family and life issues.

But I know I need to find something else because I am busting my ass as much as I was in BigLaw with much less pay and dipping into my savings each month since salary just isn't covering my expenses (driving a used, 12-year old car, almost never eat out, meal prep all my work lunches and evening meals, use all the couponing/point accumulating apps I can whenever I buy anything, get my groceries at discount stores like Aldi, wait for sales to buy basic necessities in bulk, etc., so I have cut and saved everywhere I could and still am not able to make it on that pay given major repairs and expenses, downed trees on fences from derecho storms and a recent hurricane, water leak/repiping, plus supporting an elderly parent with only a small social security check and no retirement savings, etc.).

I didn't like the stress in BigLaw, but I would take a job there in a heartbeat to get the better pay so I could save for emergencies again, maybe afford to eat out once in a while and maybe even consider taking a vacation again someday).

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What is the price for your sanity? : )

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