Quote Originally Posted by emily_in_nc View Post
It's really sad that so many jobs that can make a significant difference in people's lives (like therapist, social worker, and the like) are so poorly paid compared to many jobs that don't mean diddly (sports professional, stock broker...) in the larger scheme of things. You should be very proud of what you are doing. You are blessed to not have to sell your soul doing something just for the money...you can afford to do something that is truly important. Brava!
My partner and I are looking in hindsight at the choices we made for occupations and are coming to the realization that while what we did was important (she worked with disabled children and I worked with mentally ill homeless adults), we will have minimal retirement funds. When our friends who went into more lucrative careers were making $40,000 a year we were making $15,000 and $18,000. When their companies were giving them large bonuses for the holidays, we were getting $5 gift cards for Wal Mart (only bonus I've ever gotten).

I don't regret choosing to spend most of my work life helping people. As I mentioned above, we enjoy time off and may consider working part time in the future, it should be okay barring any catastrophe.