Every Career Move Is a Multi-Axis Tradeoff

The five axes of any job offer

Total comp (base + bonus + equity expected value), stress + sustainability, optionality (does this role open or close future doors?), geographic flexibility, and skill compounding. Optimizing comp alone is how high earners end up with great pay and a life they don't want.

• $220K offer in SF can lose to $180K in Austin after taxes + cost of living
• Equity at private companies — discount the paper value heavily
• Roles that build rare skills compound for decades

When the lower-paying job is the right call

Whenever the lower-paying job sustainably preserves more of your life, opens doors the higher-paying one closes, or lets you save the same amount with less stress. Run both through a real model and the answer often surprises people.

How to think about a sabbatical or downshift

Most people overestimate the cost of a 6–12 month sabbatical and underestimate the benefit. In PeakWorth, you model a sabbatical as a scenario — pausing income over the time off — and see its real cost and benefit quantified against your actual plan.

How PeakWorth models a career tradeoff

Each offer, downshift, or sabbatical is scored on your PeakWorth (highest projected lifetime net worth) and FI Age (the year your portfolio reaches ~25× the expenses it must cover after Social Security — roughly 20× your total annual expenses), so a $220K high-stress role and a $180K sustainable one get compared on years of freedom, not just the headline comp.