O/T Career advice needed!

[DeniseGoldberg]

That's a really hard one! I can see why you're swinging / switching between the options as I could see myself having a hard time with the decision. My tendency would be to go with the career type job with the feeling that getting paid a fair salary would allow me to save for retirement and perhaps retire earlier because of those savings. But the admin job near home is really enticing because of the "now" time to use for riding. And since you don't have a long commute you also won't have commuting costs, which certainly needs to be factored in to the salary difference.

But I really think there is a bigger factor here, and that is your happiness at work. I still feel like I need to be challenged and learning new things at work - another reason why the career-type job would likely win out for me. I could do the admin type of job on a fill-in basis for the cash, but for longer term I think it would not make me happy. But there are others out there who would be much happier with the admin type of job... we're all different, aren't we?

So I guess the things that need to be considered are:
--- pay, ready cash for now and for retirement
--- time to play, bike, etc.
--- your happiness & satisfaction with the job & how that plays in to the rest of your life

But of course that's not a straight answer, is it?