A friend of mine just rejected a well paying job, accommodation covered for few months, good opportunity to build his career, available resources to learn on the job, she rejected this because the city the job is doesn’t work for her and her family, she is a married woman with 3 kids.
So where do you place your interest in chasing financial goal, for me I balance personal interest and financial goal. There is more to life than finances but it can help making life stable, interesting and easy.
To balance it I will make sure if that’s my only option, if I can get other jobs similar to that or more in a places of my interest but if I can get that, pick my financial targets and set time frame to my goals.
Almost every profession has this assiduous mental process where their best financial opportunities clashes with there personal or family interests.
I think we should not judge your friend’s decisions based on finances alone because there is a lot missing from the equation that we may never fully understand. Your friend’s choices are likely rational from their perspective, and they know what is best for their situation.
Because relocating a married woman with three kids means uprooting three school lives if they move, along with many other changes. The financial calculation is also not simple salary versus salary. It becomes salary versus salary plus childcare costs, plus a spouse’s lost income, plus the mental health cost of isolation in an unfamiliar city with no support network.
The balance point you described makes more sense because we should ask ourselves whether the opportunity is good for the entire situation right now. Maybe after some time, your friend could pursue her job again if she wants.
