I’m 53 years old and have a net worth of $10 million and I took a job that was 30% lower than what I usually make – was that foolish?

A Reddit poster with a net worth of around $10 million recently asked if he had made a mistake by taking a particular job. He had struggled to find work before finally accepting a position paying 30% less than what he’d earned before.

While he is still earning a generous $310K, he’s down from $440,000. More importantly, he doesn’t like his job and is miserable — but he’s afraid to quit because he doesn’t know how the current gig will look on his resume or whether he will be able to find other work. 

The good news is that his wife’s income is $350k and his expenses per year are just $280K — plus, he has a lot of money already, including $7.45 million in investments. However, despite the fact that his job is impacting his health, he is still reluctant to quit because of the potential impact on his future employment prospects.

He’s wondering whether he may have made a foolish mistake — and what to do next.

Did the poster make a mistake taking the job?

First and foremost, it’s worth looking at whether he made a mistake taking a lower-paying job. The answer is clear in this situation. Accepting this position was a bad move since he’s unhappy. However, if he’d taken the pay cut to find work he loved, the answer would be a very different one.

Obviously, there’s something to be said for earning as much as you can. After all, the more income you have, the more you can save and the faster you can grow your wealth. This poster already grew his wealth, though. With a net worth of close to $10 million, he’s far more financially secure than the vast majority of people will ever be. If he wanted to switch to lowering-paying work he was passionate about, doing so would be a no-brainer.

The problem, though, is that the poster took a job that wasn’t a good fit in response to his struggles in the job market. Sadly, it’s rarely a good idea to do that unless you truly, desperately need the income — which isn’t the case for someone with a $10 million net worth. It’s easy to get desperate and scared when searching for work, but accepting a bad gig only makes things worse. If you take a job you don’t really want, you’re left with a choice between sticking it out despite being unhappy or job hunting while employed and looking like a job-hopper, which can turn off future employers. 

While some people genuinely do need to take any work to keep food on the table or the bills paid, those who aren’t in this situation shouldn’t rush into a bad gig to avoid exactly this type of outcome. Instead, it’s worth taking the time to find something that will make them happy over the long run.  Having millions should buy you the freedom to love your job.

What should he do now?

The Redditor should most likely quit his job.  While it’s likely worth a conversation with a financial advisor to discuss the specifics, the numbers the poster presented seem to clearly show that he could easily survive on his wife’s income and distributions from savings accounts without worrying about running out of money. 

It’s not worth compromising his health and happiness just to earn a little extra when he already has so much. After all, at a safe withdrawal rate of 3.7% (which experts now suggest is the right rate to make your money last) $7.5 million in investible assets could produce $277,500 in money to live on each year. While the Redditor may have to make a few sacrifices to stay within that limit, it’s certainly doable even if his wife didn’t also have a big paycheck. 

The reality is that the entire point of becoming a millionaire is to be able to have freedom — including freedom to leave a bad job. The poster has enough invested to provide him with plenty of money and he should stop hurting his health by staying at a stressful job just to grow that pot even larger. He can leave and look for other work that provides him with meaning, or retire and enjoy all he’s spent a lifetime working hard to acquire.