Anyone else think about how much of a paycut they can take to live a less stressful life?
With all the layoffs the past few months, life has definitely been more stressful and anxious. Just saw an article we have hit the number of tech layoffs from all of 2025, and we're not even half-way through the year. Having said that, my job doesn't seem safe and so I have started planning for the worst. On one hand, it may be a blessing because my work life balance has taken a dive off a cliff. On the other hand, I should be thankful considering my linkedin is full of people who have been looking for over a year. When I say I can't check out from work, I truly cannot check out from work unless I am literally in another country which I had to do earlier in the year for a funeral. Besides that, weekends, days off, weeknights, I am getting messages throughout (and expected to answer). Having a skeleton team behind me is not setting me up for success either, which is adding to the pressure and stress. I spent about 3 hours laying in bed friday night because I just truly couldn't sleep from the anxiety - and work should be the furthest thing from my mind on a friday night.
I spent about 8 hours yesterday just browsing through job applications and hit apply for a few. They are definitely a 'step down' from a title perspective, but that doesn't bother me. I don't think they are THAT much of a step down from a salary perspective though. I did the math and think even with a 20k salary reduction I can make my budget work without sacrificing savings.
We also did grocery shopping yesterday and spent an easy $250 for just the 2 of us. Food is absolutely the biggest expense. Between groceries & dining out, we can go over $1800. (I consider dining out to be more like lunch/quick dinner and not formal like out to a nice restaurant. And while cleaning out the fridge, so much food ends up going to waste because in a way, comfort food helps take some stress off after a full day of work. We do spend a bit on entertainment (video games, movies, shopping, etc) and then spend stuff furnishing the house or keeping up with things like lawn care, etc.
Cutting those down, I feel we can easily not be affected by a change in salary if needed. There are a few things working against us like the car loan (another 2 years), and tuition. My spouse is like 1-1.5 years out from graduating with a higher education which would almost immediately bump her pay by 50% (healthcare). I included a budget for what it would look like if we needed to take a 20k paycut. And honestly, I think I can even go an additional 10k.
I guess this is more of a venting session. It does feel good typing it out honestly lol, especially on a sunday night as I sit here, also in front of my laptop trying to get some work done that I didn't get to last week due to the million other things on my plate...